What was the most difficult job you ever did? Was it working in the sun? Was it working to provide food for a family or a community? Was it working days and nights trying to protect lives and property? Was it working alone or working on a project that wasn't guaranteed to succeed, but that might improve human health or save a life? Was it working to build something, create something, make a work of art? Was it work for which you were never sure you were fully understood or appreciated? The people in our communities who do these jobs deserve our attention, our love and our deepest support.
你做過的工作當中,哪一個最困難? 是在大太陽底下工作? 還是提供食物給一個家庭或整個社區? 還是不分晝夜的嘗試 保護生命和財產? 還是獨自一人工作? 或是在一個不保證成功的專案中工作, 但卻可以改善人類健康 或者拯救一條生命? 這份工作是不是去建造或創造 某些東西,或是做一個藝術作品? 這份工作是不是讓你從來都不確定 自己是否會被人們所理解和感激? 那些在我們社會裡 從事這些工作的人, 值得受到我們的關注、 關愛和最大的支持。
But people aren't the only ones in our communities who do these difficult jobs. These jobs are also done by the plants, the animals and the ecosystems on our planet, including the ecosystems I study: the tropical coral reefs. Coral reefs are farmers. They provide food, income and food security for hundreds of millions of people around the world. Coral reefs are security guards. The structures that they build protect our shorelines from storm surge and waves, and the biological systems that they house filter the water and make it safer for us to work and play. Coral reefs are chemists. The molecules that we're discovering on coral reefs are increasingly important in the search for new antibiotics and new cancer drugs. And coral reefs are artists. The structures that they build are some of the most beautiful things on planet Earth. And this beauty is the foundation of the tourism industry in many countries with few or little other natural resources.
但是人類並不是我們社會中 唯一從事這些困難工作的群體。 還有很多其他工作是植物、動物和 地球上生態系統所做的, 包括我在研究的生態系統:熱帶珊瑚礁。 珊瑚礁是農夫。 它們提供食物、收入和食物安全性, 給全世界數億的人們。 珊瑚礁是安全衛士。 它們打造的結構, 保護著我們的海岸線 不受暴風雨和海浪的侵襲, 而且這種生態系統 提供的棲息地能過濾海水, 讓我們能更安全地在水中工作和玩耍。 珊瑚礁是化學家。 珊瑚礁上發現的分子 對研究新的抗生素和癌症治療藥物 非常重要。 珊瑚礁也是藝術家。 它們創造的結構 是地球上最漂亮的景緻之一。 這種美麗的景緻是旅遊業的基礎, 特別是對於許多 沒有其他自然資源的國家來說。
So for all of these reasons, all of these ecosystem services, economists estimate the value of the world's coral reefs in the hundreds of billions of dollars per year. And yet despite all that hard work being done for us and all that wealth that we gain, we have done almost everything we possibly could to destroy that. We have taken the fish out of the oceans and we have added in fertilizer, sewage, diseases, oil, pollution, sediments. We have trampled the reefs physically with our boats, our fins, our bulldozers, and we have changed the chemistry of the entire sea, warmed the waters and made storms worse. And these would all be bad on their own, but these threats magnify each other and compound one another and make each other worse.
因為所有這些原因, 對於這些生態系統的服務, 經濟學家估算了全世界珊瑚礁的價值, 每年高達好幾千億美金。 儘管珊瑚礁為我們做了 所有這些艱辛的工作, 儘管我們獲得了所有的財富, 我們仍幾乎極盡所能地破壞它們。 我們從海洋裡獲取魚類, 而且我們還倒入肥料和廢水在裡面、 疾病、石油、污染物,還有沉積物。 我們用船舶、船舵和推土機踐踏珊瑚礁, 我們已經改變了整個海洋的化學結構, 讓海水溫度升高、讓暴風雨變得更加猛烈。 這其中的每一項本身就是有害的, 但它們還會彼此強化, 且相互混合,讓彼此更加劇烈。
I'll give you an example. Where I live and work, in Curaçao, a tropical storm went by a few years ago. And on the eastern end of the island, where the reefs are intact and thriving, you could barely tell a tropical storm had passed. But in town, where corals had died from overfishing, from pollution, the tropical storm picked up the dead corals and used them as bludgeons to kill the corals that were left. This is a coral that I studied during my PhD -- I got to know it quite well. And after this storm took off half of its tissue, it became infested with algae, the algae overgrew the tissue and that coral died. This magnification of threats, this compounding of factors is what Jeremy Jackson describes as the "slippery slope to slime." It's hardly even a metaphor because many of our reefs now are literally bacteria and algae and slime.
我給各位舉個例子。 古拉索是我生活和工作的地方。 它在幾年前,被一個熱帶暴風雨侵襲。 在島的最東端, 珊瑚保存完好,生長得很繁茂, 你很難相信一個 熱帶暴風雨剛剛經過這裡。 但是在城鎮地區,因過度捕撈和污染 已造成珊瑚死亡。 熱帶暴風雨夾帶起死去的珊瑚, 並把它們當成棍棒, 敲打死其它剩下活著的珊瑚。 這是我在研讀博士學位期間 所研究的珊瑚, 我很了解它。 在暴風雨過後,它只剩了半邊組織, 它開始被海藻侵蝕, 當海藻在珊瑚身上過度生長, 珊瑚就死了。 這些巨大威脅、這些綜和因素, 正是傑里米·傑克遜描述的 "滑向爛泥的斜坡。" 這甚至不是個比喻而已, 因為現在很多礁石簡直是由細菌, 海草和爛泥所組成。
Now, this is the part of the talk where you may expect me to launch into my plea for us to all save the coral reefs. But I have a confession to make: that phrase drives me nuts. Whether I see it in a tweet, in a news headline or the glossy pages of a conservation brochure, that phrase bothers me, because we as conservationists have been sounding the alarms about the death of coral reefs for decades. And yet, almost everyone I meet, no matter how educated, is not sure what a coral is or where they come from. How would we get someone to care about the world's coral reefs when it's an abstract thing they can barely understand? If they don't understand what a coral is or where it comes from, or how funny or interesting or beautiful it is, why would we expect them to care about saving them?
接下來的部分,你們也許會以為, 我要開始提出 請大家來保護珊瑚礁的呼籲。 但我要坦白一件事: 這句話讓我很受不了。 無論我在推特、報紙頭條 或是設計精美的環保宣傳冊上看到, 那些辭藻都讓我覺得很反感, 因為身為自然環境保護者的我們, 幾十年來一直在發出 珊瑚礁死亡的警告。 但是,幾乎我所遇到的人, 無論他們受教育程度如何, 居然都不太確定珊瑚是甚麼, 也不知道它們從哪裡來。 當它只是一個人們 幾乎不了解的抽象概念, 我們又要如何要求這些人 來關心世界上的珊瑚礁呢? 如果他們不知道珊瑚是什麼, 或是它們從哪來, 也不知道它們多麼好玩或有意思, 或它們有多美麗, 我們如何期待他們去 關心對珊瑚的拯救呢?
So let's change that. What is a coral and where does it come from? Corals are born in a number of different ways, but most often by mass spawning: all of the individuals of a single species on one night a year, releasing all the eggs they've made that year into the water column, packaged into bundles with sperm cells. And those bundles go to the surface of the ocean and break apart. And hopefully -- hopefully -- at the surface of the ocean, they meet the eggs and sperm from other corals. And that is why you need lots of corals on a coral reef -- so that all of their eggs can meet their match at the surface. When they're fertilized, they do what any other animal egg does: divides in half again and again and again. Taking these photos under the microscope every year is one of my favorite and most magical moments of the year. At the end of all this cell division, they turn into a swimming larva -- a little tiny blob of fat the size of a poppy seed, but with all of the sensory systems that we have. They can sense color and light, textures, chemicals, pH. They can even feel pressure waves; they can hear sound. And they use those talents to search the bottom of the reef for a place to attach and live the rest of their lives.
所以,讓我們改變一下。 什麼是珊瑚以及它們從哪來? 珊瑚可以通過很多種方式誕生, 但通常是通過大量產卵: 所有這些同一類的珊瑚蟲個體 在每年的一個晚上, 會釋放出它們當年產的所有卵到水柱中去, 並與精子細胞打包綁在一起。 那些卵包到了海面並散開來。 希望...希望...在海面上, 它們可以遇到其他珊瑚蟲的卵子和精子。 而這就是為什麼一個珊瑚礁上 需要大量的珊瑚蟲-- 這樣它們所有的卵 才能在海面上找到精子。 當這些卵受精後, 它們就像其他動物的卵一樣: 一遍又一遍地分裂。 每年在顯微鏡下拍這些照片, 是我一年中最喜歡、感到最神奇的時刻。 在所有這些細胞分裂結束後, 它們變成了會游動的幼蟲—— 胖胖的小圓點,大小像個罌粟種子, 但已經具備我們人類 所有的感覺系統了。 它們可以感知顏色和光、 紋理、化學物質和酸鹼值。 它們甚至可以感覺到壓力波; 它們可以聽到聲音。 它們可以用這些天份, 在珊瑚礁的底部 尋找附著的地方, 並度過它們的餘生。
So imagine finding a place where you would live the rest of your life when you were just two days old. They attach in the place they find most suitable, they build a skeleton underneath themselves, they build a mouth and tentacles, and then they begin the difficult work of building the world's coral reefs. One coral polyp will divide itself again and again and again, leaving a limestone skeleton underneath itself and growing up toward the sun. Given hundreds of years and many species, what you get is a massive limestone structure that can be seen from space in many cases, covered by a thin skin of these hardworking animals. Now, there are only a few hundred species of corals on the planet, maybe 1,000. But these systems house millions and millions of other species, and that diversity is what stabilizes the systems, and it's where we're finding our new medicines. It's how we find new sources of food. I'm lucky enough to work on the island of Curaçao, where we still have reefs that look like this. But, indeed, much of the Caribbean and much of our world is much more like this.
想像一下, 當你只有2天大的時候, 你就要去尋找一個 能度過你餘生的地方, 它們會附著在它們覺得最適合的地方, 在自己下面建造骨架, 建造嘴巴和觸手, 然後他們就開始建造珊瑚礁世界 的這份艱辛工作了。 珊瑚蟲將自己分裂一次又一次, 它們會在自己的下面, 留下一個石灰岩的骨架, 然後朝著太陽的方向生長。 數百年之後,許多種類的珊瑚在一起 形成了一個巨大的石灰結構。 許多在太空中都能看到, 這些石灰結構的表面覆蓋著一層薄薄的 這些辛勤工作的珊瑚蟲。 現在,地球上僅有 幾百種珊瑚,也許1000種。 但這些系統棲息著其他好幾百萬種生物, 而其多樣性造就了 這個生態系統的穩定性, 也讓我們找到了新型的藥物。 它讓我們找到新的食物來源。 我很幸運能在古拉索島上工作, 在那裡我們仍能找到像這樣的珊瑚礁。 但是,事實上在加勒比海和 我們世界上大多數地方, 卻是這般光景。
Scientists have studied in increasing detail the loss of the world's coral reefs, and they have documented with increasing certainty the causes. But in my research, I'm not interested in looking backward. My colleagues and I in Curaçao are interested in looking forward at what might be. And we have the tiniest reason to be optimistic. Because even in some of these reefs that we probably could have written off long ago, we sometimes see baby corals arrive and survive anyway. And we're starting to think that baby corals may have the ability to adjust to some of the conditions that the adults couldn't. They may be able to adjust ever so slightly more readily to this human planet. So in the research I do with my colleagues in Curaçao, we try to figure out what a baby coral needs in that critical early stage, what it's looking for and how we can try to help it through that process. I'm going to show you three examples of the work we've done to try to answer those questions.
科學家已經深入研究 全球珊瑚礁消失的原因細節。 他們記錄了這些更被確認的原因。 但是在我的研究中,我對過去不感興趣。 我和我同事,對將來在古拉索島上 會發生什麼很感興趣。 我們只能用最小的理由保持樂觀。 因為即使在某些我們早就 不抱希望的珊瑚礁裡, 我們有時仍會看到珊瑚蟲的幼蟲 到達這裡並想辦法生存下來。 隨後,我們開始思考,這些小珊瑚蟲們 可能有某種能力去適應一些 成年珊瑚蟲可能適應不了的地方。 它們也許可以快速調整 來適應人類這個星球。 所以我和同事在古拉索的研究中, 我們嘗試尋找小珊瑚蟲 在初期階段生長的需求, 這些小珊瑚蟲到底在找些什麼, 以及我們怎麼才能 幫助它們渡過這些難關。 我將向你們展示 我們工作中的三個例子, 並以此來解答我剛提出的那些困惑。
A few years ago we took a 3D printer and we made coral choice surveys -- different colors and different textures, and we simply asked the coral where they preferred to settle. And we found that corals, even without the biology involved, still prefer white and pink, the colors of a healthy reef. And they prefer crevices and grooves and holes, where they will be safe from being trampled or eaten by a predator. So we can use this knowledge, we can go back and say we need to restore those factors -- that pink, that white, those crevices, those hard surfaces -- in our conservation projects. We can also use that knowledge if we're going to put something underwater, like a sea wall or a pier. We can choose to use the materials and colors and textures that might bias the system back toward those corals. Now in addition to the surfaces, we also study the chemical and microbial signals that attract corals to reefs. Starting about six years ago, I began culturing bacteria from surfaces where corals had settled. And I tried those one by one by one, looking for the bacteria that would convince corals to settle and attach. And we now have many bacterial strains in our freezer that will reliably cause corals to go through that settlement and attachment process. So as we speak, my colleagues in Curaçao are testing those bacteria to see if they'll help us raise more coral settlers in the lab, and to see if those coral settlers will survive better when we put them back underwater.
在幾年以前,我們用3D打印設備, 進行了「珊瑚選擇調查研究」, 給出不同顏色和材質的環境, 我們只是簡單地詢問珊瑚蟲, 它們喜歡住在哪裡。 然後我們發現,珊瑚蟲即使在 沒有任何生物介入的情況下, 仍然較喜歡白色和 粉紅色的健康礁石。 它們喜歡裂縫,凹槽,還有洞, 在那些地方它們可以 安全地不受外界踐踏, 也不會被捕食者吃掉。 所以我們可以用這些知識, 回到實驗室, 我們需要重構這些因素, 將--粉紅,白色,有裂縫,堅硬的表面-- 列入到我們的保存專案之中。 我們也能把這些知識, 運用到建造海底牆體和碼頭上, 把合適的材料放在水下。 我們可以選擇用這些材料、顏色、紋路, 讓整個生態系統有利於 珊瑚蟲的生存。 除了研究合適的表面, 我們也研究了可以吸引珊瑚蟲 附著在礁石上的化學和微生物訊號。 大約六年前,我就開始培養 棲息在珊瑚礁表面的細菌。 我一個一個試, 尋找那些能誘導珊瑚蟲 定居和吸附的細菌種類。 現在我們有很多細菌株在冷凍櫃裡, 可以信賴地讓珊瑚蟲 願意去附著和生長的菌類。 所以在我們演講的這段時間裡, 我在古拉索的同事們 正在測試那些細菌, 去研究它們是否能幫助我們在實驗室 建造珊瑚的棲息地, 以及觀察這些珊瑚蟲, 是否在我們把它放回海底後 能夠更好地生存。
Now in addition to these tools, we also try to uncover the mysteries of species that are under-studied. This is one of my favorite corals, and always has been: dendrogyra cylindrus, the pillar coral. I love it because it makes this ridiculous shape, because its tentacles are fat and look fuzzy and because it's rare. Finding one of these on a reef is a treat. In fact, it's so rare, that last year it was listed as a threatened species on the endangered species list. And this was in part because in over 30 years of research surveys, scientists had never found a baby pillar coral. We weren't even sure if they could still reproduce, or if they were still reproducing.
除了這些工具, 我們也在嘗試解開 研究中的物種秘密。 這是其中我最喜歡的 珊瑚中的一種,一直都是: 系統樹柱狀的柱狀珊瑚。 我喜歡它,因為它有著無與倫比的形狀, 因為它的觸鬚胖嘟嘟,看起來毛茸茸, 而且它很稀有。 能找到這樣一種珊瑚 絕對是一種慰藉。 實際上,它是真的太稀有了, 以至於它去年在瀕危物種列表上 被認定是瀕危物種, 這不難理解,因為在 過去30年的研究中, 科學家從未發現過一隻 幼年柱形珊瑚蟲。 我們之前都無法確信 它是否還可以繼續繁衍, 或者當時是否還在繁殖。
So four years ago, we started following these at night and watching to see if we could figure out when they spawn in Curaçao. We got some good tips from our colleagues in Florida, who had seen one in 2007, one in 2008, and eventually we figured out when they spawn in Curaçao and we caught it. Here's a female on the left with some eggs in her tissue, about to release them into the seawater. And here's a male on the right, releasing sperm. We collected this, we got it back to the lab, we got it to fertilize and we got baby pillar corals swimming in our lab. Thanks to the work of our scientific aunts and uncles, and thanks to the 10 years of practice we've had in Curaçao at raising other coral species, we got some of those larvae to go through the rest of the process and settle and attach, and turn into metamorphosed corals. So this is the first pillar coral baby that anyone ever saw.
所以四年前,我們開始在夜間跟蹤它們, 並觀察它們什麼時候會在古拉索產卵。 我們從佛羅里達的同事那裡 得到了一些好的建議, 他們在2007年和2008年分別 看到了一隻柱狀珊瑚, 最後,我們找到了 它們在古拉索產卵的時間, 我們捕捉到了這個時刻。 左邊是一隻母珊瑚蟲和 一些在她組織中的卵, 她正要把這些卵釋放到海水中。 而右邊是一隻公的珊瑚蟲在釋放精子。 我們收集了這些卵子和精子, 帶回實驗室進行培育, 於是就有了柱狀珊瑚蟲 在我們實驗室里里游來游去。 感謝我們科學界的叔叔阿姨們, 也要感謝我們在古拉索島上 十年培育其他珊瑚蟲種類的經驗, 我們有了這些珊瑚幼蟲, 就可以完成剰下的步驟, 讓它們在礁石上附著和生存下來, 並成為變質珊瑚礁。 這是任何人都未曾見過的 第一隻年幼柱狀珊瑚蟲。
(Applause)
(掌聲)
And I have to say -- if you think baby pandas are cute, this is cuter.
我不得不說—— 如果你們認為熊貓寶寶很可愛, 那這些小珊瑚蟲更可愛。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
So we're starting to figure out the secrets to this process, the secrets of coral reproduction and how we might help them. And this is true all around the world; scientists are figuring out new ways to handle their embryos, to get them to settle, maybe even figuring out the methods to preserve them at low temperatures, so that we can preserve their genetic diversity and work with them more often. But this is still so low-tech. We are limited by the space on our bench, the number of hands in the lab and the number of coffees we can drink in any given hour.
所以,我們開始研究珊瑚繁殖過程的秘密, 我們要找出如何幫助它們繁殖。 全世界都面臨著同樣的情況; 科學家們正在找出新的方法 去處理珊瑚蟲的胚胎, 讓它們棲息生長, 甚至在想辦法 把它們保存在低溫底下, 這樣我們就可以保存 它們的基因多樣性, 並且有更多機會對它們進行研究。 但是這個過程的技術含量很低。 我們實驗室的空間有限,人手也不夠, 連喝個咖啡的時間都少的可憐。
Now, compare that to our other crises and our other areas of concern as a society. We have advanced medical technology, we have defense technology, we have scientific technology, we even have advanced technology for art. But our technology for conservation is behind. Think back to the most difficult job you ever did. Many of you would say it was being a parent. My mother described being a parent as something that makes your life far more amazing and far more difficult than you could've ever possibly imagined. I've been trying to help corals become parents for over 10 years now. And watching the wonder of life has certainly filled me with amazement to the core of my soul. But I've also seen how difficult it is for them to become parents. The pillar corals spawned again two weeks ago, and we collected their eggs and brought them back to the lab. And here you see one embryo dividing, alongside 14 eggs that didn't fertilize and will blow up. They'll be infected with bacteria, they will explode and those bacteria will threaten the life of this one embryo that has a chance. We don't know if it was our handling methods that went wrong and we don't know if it was just this coral on this reef, always suffering from low fertility. Whatever the cause, we have much more work to do before we can use baby corals to grow or fix or, yes, maybe save coral reefs.
現在,比對一下我們人類 遇到的其它危機及社會問題。 我們有先進的醫療技術, 我們有先進的防禦技術, 我們也有科學手段, 甚至還有先進的藝術科技。 但是我們的保育技術卻遠遠落後。 回想你們做過的最艱辛工作。 你們很多人肯定會說是為人父母。 我的母親形容,為人父母就是, 要讓自己的生命比你想像的 更加精彩、更加艱辛。 我從事讓珊瑚蟲當父母 的這項工作已超過十年了。 而見證這些生命的奇蹟, 確實讓我的靈魂核心充滿了驚艷。 但我也了解成為父母 對珊瑚蟲而言有多麼的困難。 那些柱狀珊瑚蟲兩週前在此產卵, 我們取了它們的卵,並帶回了實驗室。 這裡你們可以看到一個胚胎在分裂, 馬上就會炸裂開, 而旁邊其他的14個卵 還沒有任何分裂跡象。 這些珊瑚蟲卵 會被細菌感染,爆裂開來, 而這些細菌也會侵害那隻能夠分裂的胚胎。 我們不知道是否 我們的處理過程有問題, 還是這種珊瑚蟲在礁石上 的繁育率一直都很低。 無論這種低產率的原因是什麼, 在我們能用這些珊瑚蟲去培育、修復、 或者保護珊瑚礁之前, 我們還有更多的工作要做。
So never mind that they're worth hundreds of billions of dollars. Coral reefs are hardworking animals and plants and microbes and fungi. They're providing us with art and food and medicine. And we almost took out an entire generation of corals. But a few made it anyway, despite our best efforts, and now it's time for us to thank them for the work they did and give them every chance they have to raise the coral reefs of the future, their coral babies.
不要在意它們是否價值連城。 珊瑚礁是由辛勤工作的 動、植物和細菌組成的。 它們提供我們 藝術、食物和藥物。 我們幾乎毀掉了整整一代的珊瑚。 儘管我們一直不斷地破壞, 但仍有一些倖存了下來, 而現在,是時候,換我們去 感謝這些物種所帶來的貢獻, 並且給予它們所有在未來 成長為珊瑚礁的機會, 及撫育珊瑚幼蟲的機會。
Thank you so much.
非常謝謝你們。
(Applause)
(掌聲)