美国国家公共电台 NPR--Historic drought and climate change push Colorado River to record low levels

Historic drought and climate change push Colorado River to record low levels

Transcript¹

NPR's Steve Inskeep talks to water policy advocate John Berggren of the nonprofit Western Resource Advocates, about the Colorado River water crisis, and what can be done to mitigate² climate impacts.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

John Berggren is a water policy analyst³ with the Western Resource Advocates, and he joins us next. This is a nonprofit that supports policies against climate change.

Welcome to the program.

JOHN BERGGREN: Thanks for having me, Steve.

INSKEEP: How is the Colorado River Basin - which is huge, by the way, covers states - how is that basin visibly changing?

BERGGREN: Yeah. So the Colorado River, which starts up in - high in the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, Wyoming and flows down to the states into California, Arizona and down into Mexico - what we're seeing, as was just reported by Luke, is the reservoirs are declining, and the river is shrinking. And so one example is one of the largest reservoirs, this one that we were just talking about - Lake Powell - as that has declined it has actually exposed what a beautiful canyon⁴ that the river flows through, Glen Canyon. And so you're seeing this new - this canyon emerge from the declining reservoir. And so that's just one example of how we're seeing the river change as reservoirs continue to decline.

INSKEEP: And let me make sure I understand the geography here. You got Lake Powell. But further down the river, you got Lake Mead⁵, right? And that's the one that's getting so low that there might be a problem with getting water through the hydroelectric power plants inside the Hoover Dam.

BERGGREN: Yeah. They're - so both Lake Powell and Lake Mead are getting so low, there's concerns about hydropower. Importantly, between those two reservoirs is the Grand Canyon, one of the most iconic national parks in the country. And what we're talking about is, could the upstream reservoir, Lake Powell, be so low it has trouble releasing water into the Grand Canyon, which would then flow down into Lake Mead? And then there's challenges in the future about Lake Mead being able to deliver water as well.

INSKEEP: It was significant when we heard Luke Runyon say this has been coming for a couple of decades. I am recalling stories about the Colorado River drying up maybe 20 years ago, stories about how so much water was taken along the way that none of it actually reaches the Sea of Cortez at the end. It's a dry river at its own mouth. How long has this moment been coming?

BERGGREN: I really appreciate Luke's answer earlier, where he said this is more than two decades in the making. We've known this problem for many, many decades. This goes back to 1922, when the river was originally divvied up. And they overallocated. They divvied up more water than the Colorado River can actually supply. And so, as you point out, the first impact was it no longer reached the ocean and the Sea of Cortez. That's been happening for decades. And now we're seeing the ripple⁶ effects upstream, where the large reservoirs that were buffers⁷ during the bad years - those are getting so low they can no longer be buffers. And so we're seeing the culmination⁸ of this decadeslong overallocation of the river finally manifesting itself.

INSKEEP: Do you see life permanently⁹ changing in parts of the country and the world, since it's Mexico too, that rely on water from this basin?

BERGGREN: I don't see life fundamentally changing. I do see us coming to live within our water means and recognizing that we do live in an arid¹⁰ and semiarid¹¹ environment out here in the West. And that means living with less water. It doesn't mean not living. It doesn't mean not thriving. It doesn't mean not having beautiful rivers and flowing rivers and amazing ecosystems¹². It just means that the communities that rely on this river are going to have to use less. And we know how to do that.

INSKEEP: I'm recalling a report, a sort of forecast for the Phoenix¹³ metro¹⁴ area, forecasting that by maybe 2035, water would be short enough in supply that there'd be no grass, and therefore there would be a lot more dust. And it'd be like living in Kabul or some city in the desert. Is that part of the future?

BERGGREN: No, I don't think so. So certainly we have to look at how we use the water from this river, and that includes landscapes, outdoor landscapes. But it's not an either-or. It's not turf grass or dust. There are amazing, beautiful landscapes that we can establish out here in the Southwest that, again, allow our communities to thrive, allow us to live and have the quality of life that we enjoy out here with beautiful landscapes that are not dust and dry and apocalyptic¹⁵. It's - we can have the beautiful, verdant¹⁶ communities that we want.

INSKEEP: Oh, that's good. What is one other solution that people could aim for that would be not a real decline in life, but just a little different life?

BERGGREN: Again, if you look - the Southwest, where the Colorado River is - one of the fastest-growing places in the country, and we can look to our growing cities and towns to be leaders when it comes to water conservation. And again, this doesn't mean we can't live here; we can't thrive here. It just means we're going to have to really look at our - how we use water indoors, how we use water outdoors. We look at our land use planning. We look at how we reuse water, recycle water. There's all these tools that we have available to allow us to, again, live here with the quality of life that we have come to expect in the Southwest, just using way less water.

INSKEEP: Well, Mr. Berggren, thanks for your insights. I really appreciate it.

BERGGREN: Yeah. Thanks, Steve.

INSKEEP: John Berggren of Western Resource Advocates.

Thanks so much.

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 mitigate   

vt.（使）减轻，（使）缓和

参考例句：

• The government is trying to mitigate the effects of inflation.政府正试图缓和通货膨胀的影响。
• Governments should endeavour to mitigate distress.政府应努力缓解贫困问题。

3 analyst   

n.分析家，化验员；心理分析学家

参考例句：

• What can you contribute to the position of a market analyst?你有什么技能可有助于市场分析员的职务？
• The analyst is required to interpolate values between standards.分析人员需要在这些标准中插入一些值。

4 canyon   

n.峡谷，溪谷

参考例句：

• The Grand Canyon in the USA is 1900 metres deep.美国的大峡谷1900米深。
• The canyon is famous for producing echoes.这个峡谷以回声而闻名。

5 mead   

n.蜂蜜酒

参考例句：

• He gave me a cup of mead.他给我倒了杯蜂蜜酒。
• He drank some mead at supper.晚饭时他喝了一些蜂蜜酒。

6 ripple   

n.涟波，涟漪，波纹，粗钢梳；vt.使...起涟漪，使起波纹； vi.呈波浪状，起伏前进

参考例句：

• The pebble made a ripple on the surface of the lake.石子在湖面上激起一个涟漪。
• The small ripple split upon the beach.小小的涟漪卷来，碎在沙滩上。

7 buffers   

起缓冲作用的人（或物）( buffer的名词复数 )； 缓冲器； 减震器； 愚蠢老头

参考例句：

• To allocate and schedule the use of buffers. 分配和计划缓冲器的使用。
• Number of times the stream has paused due to insufficient stream buffers. 由于流缓冲区不足导致流程暂停的次数。

8 culmination   

n.顶点；最高潮

参考例句：

• The space race reached its culmination in the first moon walk.太空竞争以第一次在月球行走而达到顶峰。
• It may truly be regarded as the culmination of classical Greek geometry.这确实可以看成是古典希腊几何的登峰造级之作。

9 permanently   

adv.永恒地，永久地，固定不变地

参考例句：

• The accident left him permanently scarred.那次事故给他留下了永久的伤疤。
• The ship is now permanently moored on the Thames in London.该船现在永久地停泊在伦敦泰晤士河边。

10 arid   

adj.干旱的；(土地)贫瘠的

参考例句：

• These trees will shield off arid winds and protect the fields.这些树能挡住旱风,保护农田。
• There are serious problems of land degradation in some arid zones.在一些干旱地带存在严重的土地退化问题。

11 semiarid   

adj.雨量非常少的，半干旱的

参考例句：

• The region is semiarid to arid in overall climate.这个地区总体上是半干旱至干旱气候。
• In many semiarid areas there is also a lower timberline where the forest passes into steppe or desert at its lower edge,usually because of a lack of moisture.在很多半干旱地带也有下层的树带界限，在这种环境中，由于缺乏水分，森林下缘逐渐变成干草原或者是沙漠。

12 ecosystems   

n.生态系统( ecosystem的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• There are highly sensitive and delicately balanced ecosystems in the forest. 森林里有高度敏感、灵敏平衡的各种生态系统。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Madagascar's ecosystems range from rainforest to semi-desert. 马达加斯加生态系统类型多样，从雨林到半荒漠等不一而足。 来自辞典例句

13 phoenix   

n.凤凰，长生(不死)鸟；引申为重生

参考例句：

• The airline rose like a phoenix from the ashes.这家航空公司又起死回生了。
• The phoenix worship of China is fetish worship not totem adoration.中国凤崇拜是灵物崇拜而非图腾崇拜。

14 metro   

n.地铁；adj.大都市的；(METRO)麦德隆(财富500强公司之一总部所在地德国，主要经营零售)

参考例句：

• Can you reach the park by metro?你可以乘地铁到达那个公园吗？
• The metro flood gate system is a disaster prevention equipment.地铁防淹门系统是一种防灾设备。

15 apocalyptic   

adj.预示灾祸的，启示的

参考例句：

• The air is chill and stagnant,the language apocalyptic.空气寒冷而污浊，语言则是《启示录》式的。
• Parts of the ocean there look just absolutely apocalyptic.海洋的很多区域看上去完全像是世界末日。

16 verdant   

adj.翠绿的，青翠的，生疏的，不老练的

参考例句：

• Children are playing on the verdant lawn.孩子们在绿茵茵的草坪上嬉戏玩耍。
• The verdant mountain forest turns red gradually in the autumn wind.苍翠的山林在秋风中渐渐变红了。