纽约时报 气候变化影响着海岛的存亡(3)

 

    We’re going to get more droughts. It’s less rain. It’s going to be coral bleaching¹.

    我们会遭遇更多的干旱。下雨天会变少。 珊瑚将会白化。

    We are coral atolls, and corals are dying.

    我们国家是珊瑚环礁岛屿，而珊瑚正在死去。

    How do we live on an island where all the fish that we eat live off those corals?

    在我们的岛屿上，我们吃的鱼都靠着这些珊瑚生存，那么我们如何在这个岛上生存呢？

    It’s water scarcity², it’s food scarcity, it’s health impacts related to those things.

    这与水资源短缺，食物短缺，与这些相关的健康影响有关。

    In the longer term, you’re looking at engineering solutions.

    从长远来看，你将着眼于工程解决方案。

    Protecting the coastlines: People often refer to sea walls, but sea walls can bring problems like erosion.

    保护海岸线:人们经常提到海堤，但海堤会带来侵蚀等问题。

    So how do you do that in a way that doesn’t negatively impact your environment too much?

    那么，如何在不对环境造成太大负面影响的情况下做到这一点呢？

    It’s raising buildings. It’s looking at where people might need to move within the country to consolidate³ populations on the higher ground that does exist.

    可以提高建筑高度。着眼于人们可能需要在国内的哪些地方流动，以巩固确实存在的高地人口。

    It’s terribly complicated.

    这是非常复杂的。

    We’re looking in the tens of billions of dollars, we’ve been told, to safeguard the entire country, and just plain billions to safeguard parts of the country.

    我们被告知，我们正在寻找数百亿美元来保护整个国家，而仅仅是数十亿美元来保护国家的部分地区。

    What’s the Marshallese sense of the future?

    马绍尔人对未来的理解是什么?

    I work with a lot of people who’ve spent years thinking about how to ensure that we stay in the Marshall Islands and maintain our culture, our identity, our sense of place and who we are as people.

    我与许多人共事，他们多年来一直在思考如何确保我们留在马绍尔群岛，并保持我们的文化、我们的身份、我们的地方感和我们作为人的身份。

    Maintaining your homeland and making sure that you have a future for your kids is the ultimate motivation.

    维护你的家园，确保你的孩子有一个未来，这是最终的动机。

    Also, it takes a lot to live on these islands.

    而且，在这些岛上生活需要付出很多。

    They’re not lush. Our sandy soil doesn’t support a mango tree.

    岛上草木并不繁茂。 我们的沙质土壤不适合芒果树生长。

    It supports the breadfruit tree, the pandanus tree and the banana tree.

    但却适合面包树、露兜树(别称野菠萝)和香蕉树生长。

    And you have fish. It’s a beautiful environment, but it’s a pretty unforgiving [one].

    也适合鱼类生存。 岛上风景宜人，但也相当不宜居。

    So Marshallese have resilience built into our DNA⁴.

    所以马绍尔人的适应能力是与生俱来的。

    We’ve also been through equally challenging times.

    我们也经历了同样具有挑战性的时刻。

    The day we’re talking on is Nuclear Remembrance Day in the Marshall Islands.

    我们谈话的这一天是马绍尔群岛的核纪念日。

    It’s the day that the Bravo hydrogen bomb was detonated in Bikini.

    这是Bravo氢弹在比基尼环礁引爆的日子。

    Nuclear ash fell across the Marshalls, and many people were affected⁵.

    核灰落在马绍尔群岛上，许多人受到了影响。

    We still have people struggling with cancers and health systems that haven’t been able to respond adequately.

    我们仍有许多人在与癌症作斗争，卫生系统也未能做出充分的应对。

    But in the face of those challenges, we’ve had people continue advocating on the world stage for nuclear justice, just like we advocate for climate justice.

    但面对这些挑战，我们让人们继续在世界舞台上倡导核正义，就像我们倡导气候正义一样。

    So when you have those examples, you soldier on because you know so many people have done it before you.

    所以当你有这些例子的时候，你会坚持下去，因为你知道在你之前有很多人这样做过。

    The only way is to keep fighting.

    唯一的办法就是继续战斗。

1 bleaching   

漂白法，漂白

参考例句：

• Moderately weathered rock showed more intense bleaching and fissuring in the feldspars. 中等风化岩石则是指长石有更为强烈的变白现象和裂纹现象。
• Bleaching effects are very strong and show on air photos. 退色效应非常强烈，并且反映在航空象片上。

2 scarcity   

n.缺乏，不足，萧条

参考例句：

• The scarcity of skilled workers is worrying the government.熟练工人的缺乏困扰着政府。
• The scarcity of fruit was caused by the drought.水果供不应求是由于干旱造成的。

3 consolidate   

v.使加固，使加强；(把...)联为一体，合并

参考例句：

• The two banks will consolidate in July next year. 这两家银行明年7月将合并。
• The government hoped to consolidate ten states to form three new ones.政府希望把十个州合并成三个新的州。

4 DNA   

(缩)deoxyribonucleic acid 脱氧核糖核酸

参考例句：

• DNA is stored in the nucleus of a cell.脱氧核糖核酸储存于细胞的细胞核里。
• Gene mutations are alterations in the DNA code.基因突变是指DNA密码的改变。

5 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。