TED演讲:我在太平洋底为珊瑚之死哭泣(2)（在线收听）

They're spitting out the colored algae that lives in their skin,

它们吐出位于它们皮肤表面的有色藻类，

and the clear bleached tissue that's left usually starves to death and then rots away.

留下来的白化后的组织往往会饥饿而死然后被海水冲走。

Then the skeletons are overgrown by algae.

然后珊瑚骨架会被藻类占据。

This is happening over an unbelievable scale.

这一切正在以令人无法相信的速度发生着。

The Northern Great Barrier Reef lost two-thirds of its corals last year over a distance of hundreds of miles,

北方的大堡礁去年有三分之二的珊瑚死去，蔓延数百英里，

then bleached again this year, and the bleaching stretched further south.

今年又一次出现了白化，并且白化现象向更南方延续。

Reefs in the Pacific are in a nosedive right now, and no one knows how bad it's going to get,

太平洋的珊瑚礁的死亡速度正在加快，现在没有人知道到底会发展到多坏的程度，

except ... over in the Caribbean where I work, we've already been through the nosedive.

除了……在我工作的加勒比海区域，我们已经经历了这种加速。

Reefs there have suffered through centuries of intense human abuse.

珊瑚礁已经忍受了数百年人类的各种蹂躏。

We kind of already know how the story goes.

我们差不多已经知道事态会如何发展。

And we might be able to help predict what happens next.

并且我们大概能够预测下一步会发生什么。

Let's consult a graph.

让我们画一张图。

Since the invention of scuba, scientists have measured the amount of coral on the seafloor, and how it's changed through time.

自从潜水器发明，科学家就已经成功的描绘了海床上的珊瑚礁分布，以及它们随时间的变化趋势。

And after centuries of ratcheting human pressure, Caribbean reefs met one of three fates.

在经历了几个世纪人类破坏的棘轮效应后，加勒比珊瑚礁面临了三种命运。

Some reefs lost their corals very quickly.

有的珊瑚礁上的珊瑚很快就没了。

Some reefs lost their corals more slowly, but kind of ended up in the same place.

有些珊瑚礁上珊瑚的死亡速度慢一点，但是基本上也消失殆尽。

OK, so far this is not going very well.

好吧，目前为止事情都不算好。

But some reefs in the Caribbean -- the ones best protected and the ones a little further from humans --

但是加勒比的有些珊瑚礁——受到良好保护的和远离人类活动的——

they managed to hold onto their corals. Give us a challenge.

它们成功的留住了珊瑚。给了我们一个挑战。

And, we almost never saw a reef hit zero.

而且，我们很少看到珊瑚礁上珊瑚一点不剩。