Pollinator decline is a grand challenge in the modern world. Of the 200,000 species of pollinators, honeybees are the most well-understood, partly because of our long history with them, dating back 8,000 years ago to our cave drawings in what's now modern-day Spain, and yet, we know that this indicator species is dying off. Last year alone, we lost 40% of all beehives in the United States, and that number is even higher in areas with harsh winters, like here in Massachusetts, where we lost 47% of beehives in one year alone. Can you imagine if we lost half of our people last year? And if those were the food-producing people? And I predict that in 10 years, we will lose our bees. If not for the work of beekeepers replacing these dead beehives, we would be without foods that we rely upon: Fruits, vegetables, crunchy almonds and nuts, tart apples, sour lemons, even the food that our cattle relies upon to eat - hay and alfalfa, gone - causing global hunger, economic collapse, a total moral crisis across Earth. And it's going to take an effort from every single one of you here to become what we call "citizen scientists," to activate all the things that you're probably already doing - Yes, planting flowers, getting beehives, making bee hotels, habitats for those lesser known pollinators, but beyond that, going a step further, and adding a data collection element to it. So, I'm going to show you how to do this here today, and I'm going to show you how when my team shifted our perspective away from bees that were dying and toward maps and looking at hot spots for bee health, and shifting our perspective away from honey as just a sweet, sticky delicious food, but to a source of information that contains a blueprint for healthy habitat suspended in time in the only food that doesn't go bad. That's where we find the hope and that's what we'll do together today. Now, I first started keeping bees here in Cape Cod, right after I finished my doctorate in honeybee immunology. (Laughter) It was - (Applause) So, imagine getting such a degree in a good economy - (Laughter) And it was 2009 - the great recession. And I was onto something - I knew that I could find out how to improve bee health. And that's when word started to spread and I came here to Cape Cod and I realized that this deep connection that people have to the land here is so true and long-standing - probably because there's so little of the land that is here, we're connected to it. And so the community on Cape Cod, here in Provincetown, was right for citizen science, people looking for ways to get involved and to help. And so, we met with people in coffee shops. A wonderful woman named Natalie got eight beehives at her home in Truro, and she introduced us to her friend Valerie, who let us set up 60 beehives at an abandoned tennis court on her property. And so we started testing vaccines for bees. We were starting to look at probiotics. We called it bee yogurt. Ways to make bees healthier. And our citizen science project started to take off. Word started to spread and people started to think, "Wow, I can get bees of my own and their little data factory, that's great!" Meanwhile, back in my apartment here, I was a bit nervous about my landlord. I figured I should tell him what we were doing. (Laughter) I was terrified. I really thought I was going to get an eviction notice which really was the last thing we needed, right? I must have caught him on a good day, though, because when I told him what we were doing and how we started our non-profit urban beekeeping laboratory, he said, "That's great! Let's get a beehive in the back alley." I was shocked! I was completely surprised. I mean, instead of getting an eviction notice, we got another data point. And in the back alley of this image, what you see here, this hidden beehive, that beehive produced more honey that first year than we had ever experienced in any beehive we had managed. Over a hundred pounds of honey that one year alone. We didn't know what to do with it. I mean, we were filling up pickle jars with the stuff. And since honey is the only food that never goes bad, the residents and tenants in the community are still enjoying that honey today. It shifted our research perspective forever. It changed our research question away from how do we save the dead and dying bees to where are bees doing best. And we started to be able to put maps together, looking at all of these citizen science beehives from people who had beehives at home decks, gardens, business rooftops. And we started to engage the public, and the more people who got these little data points, the more accurate our maps became. And so when you're sitting here thinking, "How can I get involved?", you might think about the story of my friend Fred, who's a commercial real estate developer and he was thinking the same thing. But even if you own a business, you can be a citizen scientist too. He was at a meeting thinking about what he could do for tenant relations and sustainability at scale. And while he was having a tea break, he put honey into his tea and noticed, on the honey jar, a message about corporate sustainability from the host company of that meeting and it sparked an idea. He came back to his office, an email, a phone call later, and boom! We went national together. We put dozens of beehives on the rooftops of their skyscrapers across nine cities nationwide. Nine years later - (Applause) Nine years later we have raised over a million dollars for bee research. We have a thousand beehives as little data points across the country, 18 states and counting, where we have created paying jobs for local beekeepers - 65 of them - to manage beehives in their own communities, to connect with people, everyday people who are now data points, together, making a difference. So, in order to explain what's actually been saving bees, where they're thriving, I need to first tell you what's been killing them. The top three killers of bees are agricultural chemicals, such as pesticides, herbicides, fungicides; diseases of bees, of which there are many; and habitat loss. So, what we did is we looked at our maps and we identified areas where bees were thriving, and this was mostly in cities, we found. Data are now showing that urban beehives produce more honey than rural beehives and suburban beehives. Urban beehives have a longer lifespan than rural and suburban beehives. And bees in the city are more biodiverse; there are more bee species in urban areas. (Laughter) Right? "Why is this?" That was our question. So, we started with these 3 killers of bees and we flipped it. Which of these is different in the cities? So, the first one: Pesticides. We partnered up with the Harvard School of Public Health. We shared our data with them, we collected samples from our citizen science beehives at people's homes and business rooftops. And we looked at pesticides levels and we thought there'd be less pesticides in areas where bees are doing better. That's not the case. What we found here in our study is that the orange bars are Boston, and we thought those bars would be the lowest, there would be the lowest level of pesticides and, in fact, there are the most pesticides in the cities. So, the pesticide hypothesis for what saving bees,
授粉者數量減少是 目前世界的一大挑戰。 在 20 萬種授粉者當中, 我們對蜜蜂的了解最透徹, 部分是因為我們和蜜蜂之間 有很長的歷史, 時間可以追溯到 8 千年前, 在現在的西班牙的洞穴圖畫, 但我們知道這指標性的授粉者 正在逐漸滅絕。 光是去年一年內, 美國境內的蜂巢就少了 40%, 在冬季嚴寒的地區,這個比例更高。 像是我們所在的麻州, 光是去年一年內就少了 47% 的蜂巢。 你能想像去年一年人口少了一半嗎? 如果這些人又是生產食物的人呢? 我預測在未來十年內, 如果養蜂人沒有去把死掉的蜂巢換新, 所有蜜蜂都會消失。 我們也會失去我們所仰賴的食物。 水果、蔬菜、酥脆的杏仁和核果、 蘋果、檸檬, 還有畜牧所仰賴的食物: 乾草和紫花苜蓿等等,都會消失, 最後造成全球性的飢荒和經濟崩潰, 以及全盤人類道德文明的危機。 這需要在座每一位的努力, 成為我們所謂的「人民科學家」, 來啟動很多人已經在做的事情: 就是種花、養蜜蜂、 蓋蜂旅館,也讓其他 授粉者有棲息的地方。 除此之外,更進一步的, 還要蒐集資料。 我今天在這裡要告訴各位怎麼做。 我也要分享我的團隊 如何將我們的研究方向, 從專注於滅絕中的蜂類, 轉移到地理位置 和蜂類健康問題的關係。 並且改變我們看待蜂蜜的方式: 蜂蜜不只是一種香甜美味的食物, 蜂蜜中隱含著訊息,提供一份藍圖, 指引我們到蜂類健康的棲息地, 這些訊息存在於永不腐敗的蜂蜜中。 這就是我們發現希望的地方, 也是今天我們要共同努力做的事情。 我在科德角這裡開始養蜂之前, 才剛取得蜜蜂免疫學的博士學位。 (笑聲) 是真的... (掌聲) 而且是在那樣的經濟環境下 拿到這種學位, (笑聲) 那是 2009 年經濟蕭條的時候。 但是我都想好了, 我知道我可以找到 改善蜜蜂的健康的方法。 消息開始傳開, 我也來到了科德角。 我發覺到這裡的人 對他們的土地有很真切、 長遠的深刻連結, 這可能是因為這裡的土地很有限, 我們和它緊密相連。 所以我們在科德角的 普羅威斯頓這裡的人, 很適合做「人民科學」。 他們想辦法參與和協助。 所以,我們聚集在咖啡館。 一個很棒的女士娜塔莉 在她 Truro 的家有 8 個蜂箱, 她把我們介紹給他的朋友維拉莉。 維拉莉讓我們在她土地上的 廢棄網球場放了 60 個蜂箱, 我們就開始在那裏測試蜜蜂的疫苗, 一開始測試的是益生菌, 我們叫它做蜜蜂優格, 也就是讓蜜蜂更健康的方法。 我們的人民科學計畫 就如火如荼的開始進行。 消息傳開來,很多人想: 「哇!我可以給已有自己的蜜蜂, 還可以幫忙蒐集資料,」 「真棒!」 那個時候,我住的公寓是租來的, 我有點擔心我的房東, 我覺得應該要告訴他我們在做甚麼。 (笑聲) 我很害怕。 我真的以為房東會趕我走, 那事情就很不好辦了,對吧? 那天他可能心情不錯, 我告訴他我們在做的事情和原由, 以及我們非營利的都市養蜂實驗室, 他說:「太棒了! 我們在後巷子弄個蜂箱吧。」 我嚇了一跳! 我完全沒有想到, 我不但沒有被趕走, 還多了一組數據。 這張圖裡的這個後巷裡, 你們看到這裡,這個隱藏的蜂箱, 在第一年生產了很多蜂蜜, 是我們管理過的蜂箱中, 生產最多蜂蜜的一個。 單是那一年就有 100 磅的蜂蜜。 多到我們都不知道要怎麼處理。 我們也就只好都裝罐, 蜂蜜又是唯一不會腐敗的食物, 分給住戶和當地的人, 到現在都還沒有吃完。 這徹底改變了我們研究的方向, 應該說我們改變了想要解答的問題。 原本的問題是: 要怎麼救這些垂死的蜂類。 現在改問:蜂在哪裡生長得最好? 我們已經著手將地圖畫出來。 我們觀察所有人民科學的蜂箱, 其中有放在戶外平台、 花園、辦公大樓屋頂的。 然後我們接觸更多人群, 越多人養蜂提供數據, 我們的蜜蜂地圖就更精確。 你現在可能在想: 「那我要怎麼參加這個計畫呢?」 我講一個朋友 Fred 的例子, 他是商業不動產的開發商, 他也想參與。 就算你自己有經營事業, 還是可以當人民科學家。 他在一個會議中 思考怎樣在這麼大的規模下, 協調承租戶來促成永續發展。 就在中場茶點休息時間時, 他在他的茶裡加了蜂蜜, 注意到裝蜂蜜的罐子上頭, 有關於企業永續的宣傳文字, 他突然靈機一動。 他回到辦公室, 發了封 email,打了通電話, 就這樣,我們把範圍推展到全國。 我們在全國 9 個城市的 很多大樓屋頂 各放了數十個蜂箱。 9 年後, (掌聲) 9 年後,我們籌措到一百多萬美元 來從事蜜蜂的研究。 我們在全國共有 一千個蜂箱在蒐集數據。 分布在 18 個州,並在增加中。 我們為當地養蜂人提供工作機會, 共有 65 個人, 請他們在自己的地區管理蜂箱, 與人們互動,讓更多人參與, 而且共同做出貢獻。 為了解釋蜜蜂在某些地方特別興旺, 讓他們能夠存活的原因。 我必須先解釋牠們消失的原因。 蜂類的三大殺手,第一個是農藥, 像是殺蟲劑、殺草劑、殺菌劑; 第二個是蜂類的疾病,種類很多。 第三個是棲息地的消失。 所以根據我們畫的蜜蜂地圖, 找出蜜蜂興旺的地區, 我們發現,這些地區大多位在城市裡。 數據顯示,都會區的蜂箱 比起鄉村和都市近郊, 都會區能夠生產更多蜂蜜。 都會區的蜂箱比鄉村和都市近郊 能夠維持得更久。 而且都市裡的蜂類更具生物多樣性; 也就是說,城市裡蜂的種類比較多。 (笑聲) 有趣吧! 「為什麼?」 這就是我們提出的問題。 我們從三大蜂類殺手開始著手, 哪一個在城市和鄉村裡差別最大? 先看第一大殺手:農藥。 我們和哈佛的公共衛生學院合作, 和他們分享我們的數據, 從我的人民科學家蜂箱 蒐集樣本,這些蜂箱有的在 庭院裡,有的在大樓屋頂, 我們檢驗農藥殘留的濃度, 本來以為蜂類興旺的地方 農藥殘留會比較少, 但事實非然。 看我們研究的結果, 橘色條是波士頓。 我們以為那些會是最少的... 會是農藥殘留最少的地方,但事實上, 最多農藥的地方都在城市裡。 所以農藥少使蜂類更興旺的假設,
less pesticides in cities, is not it. And this is very typical of my life as a scientist. Any time I've had a hypothesis, not only is it not supported, but the opposite is true. (Laughter) Which is still an interesting finding, right? We moved on. The disease hypothesis. We looked at diseases all over our beehives and what we found in similar study to this one with the North Carolina State: There's no difference between disease and bees in urban, suburban and rural areas, diseases are everywhere; bees are sick and dying. In fact, there were more diseases of bees in cities. This was from Raleigh, North Carolina. So again, my hypothesis was not supported, the opposite was true. We're moving on. (Laughter) The habitat hypothesis. This said that areas where bees are thriving have a better habitat. More flowers, right? But we didn't know how to test this. So, I had a really interesting meeting and an idea sparked with my friend and colleague, Anne Madden, fellow TED speaker, and we thought about genomics, kind of like AncestryDNA or 23andMe - Have you done these? You know, you spit in the tube and you find out, "I'm German," right? (Laughter) We developed this for honey, right? And so we have a sample of honey and we look at all the plant DNA and we find out, "I'm Sumac." (Laughter) And that's what we found here in Provincetown, and so, for the first time ever I'm able to report to you what type of honey is from right here in our own community. Honey DNA, a genomics test. Spring honey in Provincetown is from Privet. What's Privet? Hedges. What's the message? Don't trim your hedges to save the bees. (Laughter) Right? I know we're getting crunchy here, and it's controversial, so before you throw your tomatoes, let's move to the summer honey, which is water-lily honey. If you have honey from Provincetown, right here in the summer, you're eating water-lily juice. In the fall, sumac honey. We're learning about our food for the first time ever and now we are able to report, if you need to do any city planning, what are good things to plant, what do we know the bees are going to that's good for your garden. What's more interesting for us is deeper in the data. So, if you are from the Caribbean and you want to explore your heritage - Bahamian honey is from the Laurel family; cinnamon and avocado flavors.
也就是城市裡農藥少的假設, 就不能成立。 我的科學家生涯中常發生這種事。 我在做了一項假設之後, 研究結果不但無法證實, 反而得到相反的結果。 (笑聲) 但是這也是一個有趣的發現,對吧? 我們就進一步, 假設是第二大殺手, 我們觀察各地蜂箱 蜜蜂發生疾病的情況, 在北卡羅來納州的一項類似的研究 顯示都會區和鄉村、 都市近郊的蜂類疾病並沒有差異, 蜂類疾病各地都在發生, 造成牠們生病和死亡。 事實上,都市裡的 蜂類疾病反而更多, 這是北卡羅來納州的 Raleigh 這個城市提供的資料。 所以這個假設又不成立, 還是得到相反的結果。 只好再走下一步。 (笑聲) 看看第三個殺手:棲息地。 這項假設就是說, 蜂類興旺的地方有更好的棲息地。 有更多花可以採蜜,不是嗎? 但是我們不知道怎們測試這項假設。 所以我和朋友兼同事的 Anne Madden 開了個很有趣的會, 她也曾在 TED 演說過, 我們激發出一個點子:基因組學。 有點像 AncestryDNA 或 23andMe (血統、疾病基因測試公司), 你們有做過嗎? 你把口水吐在試管裡, 然後你發現:「我是德國人!」 (笑聲) 我們用蜂蜜做同樣的事情。 我們取得蜂蜜的樣本, 我們測試裡面的植物基因, 然後發現:「我是漆樹。」 (笑聲) 這是我們在普羅威斯頓這裡的發現。 所以我能夠首度向各位報告, 哪一種蜂蜜是從我們這個地方來的。 用的就是蜂蜜 DNA 的基因組試驗。 普羅威斯頓的春蜜是從水蠟樹來的。 甚麼是水蠟樹? 就是樹籬。 這裡隱含的訊息是甚麼? 為救蜜蜂不要修剪你的樹籬。 (笑聲) 是嗎? 我們好像有點環境主義的味道, 這樣會有爭議, 先不要向我丟番茄, 我們再來看夏蜜, 夏蜜是荷花蜜。 如果你夏天在我們的城市裡吃蜂蜜, 你吃到的是荷花汁。 秋天的蜜是漆樹的蜜。 這是我們首度這麼深入探討食物。 我們可以告訴你, 如果你要做都市計畫, 應該要種那些植物。 我們知道蜜蜂會去哪裡, 對你的花園會有幫助。 在數據中我們發現更有趣的是。 如果你是在加勒比海地區, 想要探討你們蜂蜜的來源: 巴哈馬蜂蜜是從樟科植物來的, 像是肉桂和酪梨。
But what's more interesting is 85 different plant species in one teaspoon of honey. That's the measure that we want. The big data. Indian honey. That is oak. Every sample we tested from India is oak and that's a 172 different flavours in one taste of Indian honey. Provincetown honey goes from a 116 plants in the spring to over 200 plants in the summer. These are the numbers that we need to test the habitat hypothesis in another citizen science approach. You find out about your food and we get some interesting data. So, we're finding out now that in rural areas there are a 150 plants on average in a sample of honey. That's a measure for rural. Suburban areas, what might you think? Do they have less or more plants in suburban areas with lawns - that look nice for people but they're terrible for pollinators? Suburbs have very low plant diversity, so if you have a beautiful lawn, well, good for you, but you can do more. You can have a patch of your lawn that's a wildflower medow to diversify your habitat to improve pollinator health. Anybody can do this. Urban areas have the most habitat. The best habitat they have - As you can see here, over 200 different plants. We have, for the first time ever, support for the habitat hypothesis. We also now know how we can work with cities. The city of Boston has eight times better habitat than its nearby suburbs. And so when we work with governments, we can scale this. You might think on my tombstone it'll say, "Here lies Noah, plant a flower," right? (Laughter) It's exhausting after all of this, right? But when we scale together, when we go to governments and city planners - Like, in Boston, the honey is mostly Linden trees, and we say, "If a dead tree needs to be replaced, consider Linden." So, when we take this information to governments, we can do amazing things. This is a rooftop from Fred's company. We can plant those things on top of rooftops worldwide to start restoring habitat and securing food systems. We've worked with the World Bank, and the presidential delegation from the country of Haiti. We've worked with wonderful graduate students at Yale University in Ethiopia, and in these countries we can add value to their honey by identifying what it is, but informing the people of what to plant to restore their habitats and secure their food systems. But what I think is even more important is when we think about natural disasters. For the first time, we now know how we can have a baseline measure of any habitat before it might be destroyed. Think about your hometown. What risks does the environment pose to it? This is how we're going to save Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria. We now have a baseline measure of honey, honey DNA from before and after the storm. We started in Humacao. This is right where Hurricane Maria made landfall. And we know what plants to replace, and in what quantity and where, by triangulating honey DNA samples. You might even think about right here, the beautiful land that connected us, that primed all the citizen science to begin with. The erosion, the winter storms that are getting more violent every year. What are we going to do about this, our precious land? While looking at honey DNA, we can see what plants are good for pollinators that have deep roots that can secure the land. And together, everybody can participate and the solution fits in a teaspoon. If your hometown might get swept away or destroyed by a natural disaster, we now have a blueprint suspended in time for how to restore that on Earth, or perhaps even in a greenhouse on Mars. I know it sounds crazy, but think about this, a new Provincetown, a new hometown, a place that might be familiar that's also good for pollinators for a stable food system, when we're thinking about the future. Now, together we know what's saving bees: By planting diverse habitats. We know how bees are going to save us: By being barometers for environmental health, by being blueprints, sources of information, little data factories, suspended in time. And now you all know exactly what you can do as citizen scientists to get beehives. Thank you. (Applause)
但更有趣的是,你舀了一茶匙蜂蜜, 裡面就有 85 種不同植物。 這就是我們要得到的量測結果: 大數據 (或稱:巨量資料)。 印度蜂蜜, 是橡木。 印度的每個樣品都含橡木。 嚐一口印度蜂蜜, 就有 172 種不同口味。 普羅威斯頓蜂蜜中, 春天有 116 種植物, 到了夏天就超過 200 種。 我們要測試棲息地的假設, 就需要使用另一種人民科學的方法, 來取得這樣的數據。 你能更了解你的食物, 我們則得到一些有趣的數據。 我們發現,在鄉村地區, 在每個蜂蜜樣本中, 平均就有 150 種植物。 那是鄉村的測試結果。 至於城市近郊,你覺得呢 ? 在大多是草皮的地方, 會有比較多或比較少種植物? 草皮很漂亮,但對授粉者不利。 都市近郊有很低的植物多樣性, 如果你有片很漂亮的草皮, 是不錯,但你可以做更多。 你可以把草皮分出一塊來種野花, 讓棲息地更多樣化, 來改善授粉者的健康。 大家都能做到。 都市地區有最多棲息地, 最好的棲息地。 如螢幕上看到的, 有超過 200 種植物。 這是我們首度找到 支持棲息地假設的證據。 我們也知道城市裡要做些甚麼。 波士頓比其近郊的棲息地好上 8 倍。 所以在和政府合作時, 我們可以把規模擴大。 我的墓誌銘會寫甚麼? 「諾亞長眠於此,種一棵花吧。」 (笑聲) 做這些事真讓人筋疲力竭。 但如果我們共同擴大規模, 去找政府和規劃城市的人, 譬如說,波士頓蜂蜜都是菩提蜜, 就可以建議他們: 有樹死了要重新種,考慮種菩提樹。 如果把這些訊息提供給政府, 我們可以做很大的貢獻。 這是 Fred 的公司屋頂。 我可以在全世界的屋頂種那些植物, 來恢復棲息地,保障食物供應系統。 我們已經和世界銀行, 以及海地的總統代表合作。 我們也和耶魯大學傑出的研究生 在衣索比亞以及其他國家, 幫他們辨別他們的蜂蜜的種類, 告訴他們應該種甚麼植物, 來恢復棲息地,增加蜂蜜產量, 並且保障食物供應的系統。 但我認為,更重要的 是要考慮天然災害。 有史以來我們首度知道, 如何在任何棲息地可能被摧毀前, 先做好基線量測。 想想你的家鄉, 那裡面臨了甚麼環境風險? 這就是在颶風瑪莉亞過後, 我們拯救波多黎各的方式。 現在,我們有蜂蜜的基線測量值, 暴風發生前和發生後的蜂蜜 DNA。 我們從烏馬考這個地方開始著手, 這正是颶風瑪利亞的登陸地。 我們知道要種甚麼植物、 要種多少、種在何處, 用蜂蜜 DNA 樣本 來做三角定位就能辦到。 你們可能會想到連結我們的 這片美麗的土地, 這個我們進行人民科學的起源地。 水土流失、冬季風暴 每年越來越劇烈。 對我們珍貴的土地面臨的危機, 我們要怎麼辦? 透過研究蜂蜜 DNA, 我們可以找出那些著根很深的植物, 對於授粉者有益, 同時能做到水土保持。 而且所有人能夠共能參與, 解決的方法就在一匙蜂蜜中。 如果你的家鄉 可能被天然災害侵襲或摧毀, 我們在地球上有一份永久的藍圖, 告訴我們如何重建。 甚或是移到火星上的溫室中。 聽起來很瘋狂,但請各為試想: 一個新的普羅威斯頓, 一個新的家鄉, 一個熟悉的地方, 有益於授粉者和食物供應系統的地方。 這是我們想見的未來。 現在,我們知道是甚麼救了蜜蜂: 種植多樣性的棲息地。 我們也知道蜜蜂會如何拯救我們: 牠們是我們環境健康程度的指標。 牠們是我們的藍圖、資料的來源。 一個個在時間中凍結的小小數據工廠 (因為蜂蜜永不腐壞), 現在大家都知道身為人民科學家, 弄了峰箱要做甚麼了。 謝謝。 (掌聲)