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 is now modern-day Spain. And yet we know that this indicator species is dying off.
在現代世界中,傳粉物種的 減少是個很大的挑戰。 在二十萬種傳粉者當中, 蜜蜂是大家最了解的, 有一部分是因為我們與蜜蜂的歷史 可以追溯到八千年前, 位於現在西班牙地區的洞穴壁畫。 但是這種指標性的物種正漸絕跡。
Last year alone, we lost 40 percent of all beehives in the United States. That number is even higher in areas with harsh winters, like here in Massachusetts, where we lost 47 percent 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? It's untenable. 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 rely upon to eat, hay and alfalfa -- gone, causing global hunger, economic collapse, a total moral crisis across earth.
光是去年,在美國, 我們就失去了所有蜂巢的 40%。 在嚴冬地區,比如麻州, 那個比例還更高, 我們單單一年 就失去了 47% 的蜂窩。 你們能否想像如果去年我們 失去了一半人類的情況? 且失去的還是會生產食物的人呢? 真的會走不下去。 我預測,在十年內, 我們就會失去蜜蜂。 如果不是靠養蜂人努力 更換死去的蜂巢, 我們就會失去 我們賴以為生的食物: 水果、蔬菜、 鬆脆的杏仁和堅果、 爽口的蘋果、 酸檸檬。 就連我們的牛賴以為生的食物, 乾草和苜蓿,都沒了, 造成全球饑荒、 經濟崩盤, 全世界都將陷入道德危機。
Now, I first started keeping bees here in Cape Cod right after I finished my doctorate in honeybee immunology.
我最早開始在鱈魚角養蜂 , 是在我拿到蜜蜂免疫學 博士學位之後。
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Imagine getting such a degree in a good economy -- 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 so the community on Cape Cod here in Provincetown was ripe 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.
想像一下,在經濟狀況 很好的時期拿到那種學位, 然而那是 2009 年: 經濟大衰退那年。 但我有所打算。 我知道我能研究出 如何改善蜜蜂的健康。 在普羅威斯頓鱈魚角的社區 都為公眾科學做好準備了, 大家都在想辦法參一腳、提供協助。 所以,我們在咖啡店和大家會面。 娜塔莉慷慨提供 她在特魯羅家中的八個蜂箱, 並介紹我們認識她的朋友瓦萊麗, 讓我們於她的廢棄網球場 設立 60 個蜂箱。 我們便開始測試蜜蜂用的疫苗。 我們開始研究益生菌。 我們稱它為「蜜蜂優格」, 這能讓蜜蜂更健康。 我們的公眾科學計畫開始起飛。
Meanwhile, back in my apartment here, I was a bit nervous about my landlord. I figured I should tell him what we were doing.
這段期間,在我的公寓這裡, 我有點擔心我的房東。 我覺得我應該要告訴他 我們在做什麼。
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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 nonprofit 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 have ever experienced in any beehive we had managed. 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. We started to engage the public, and the more people who got these little data points, the more accurate our maps became.
我很害怕;我真的以為 我會收到驅逐通告, 這是我們最不需要的,對吧? 不過,我大概碰到 他心情很好的日子, 因為當我告訴他我們在做什麼, 及我們如何成立非營利的 都市養蜂實驗室時, 他說:「那真棒! 我們在後巷弄個蜂箱吧。」 我很吃驚。 我完全沒料到。 我不但沒收到驅逐通告, 還多拿到了一個資料點。 在這張圖上的後巷, 各位現在所看見的, 這個隱藏式蜂箱—— 這個蜂箱在第一年所產的蜂蜜量 超越我們曾經管理過的 任何一個蜂箱。 它永遠轉變了我們的研究角度。 它讓我們的研究問題從 「我們要如何拯救 已死和瀕死的蜜蜂?」 轉變為「蜜蜂在哪裡活得最好?」 我們開始能夠把地圖拼湊起來, 研究所有這些公眾科學蜂箱, 這些都是大家放在家中露天平臺、 花園、商店屋頂上的蜂箱。 我們開始接觸大眾, 越多人有這些小小的資料點, 我們的地圖就會更精確。
And so when you're sitting here thinking, "How can I get involved?" you might think about a story of my friend Fred, who's a commercial real estate developer. He was thinking the same thing. 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.
所以,當你們坐在這裡 想著「我要如何參與?」 你們可以想想我的朋友 佛萊德的故事, 他經營商業不動產開發。 他也在想同樣的事情。 他在一場會議上, 想著他能夠做些什麼, 來大規模的改善 房客關係及永續性。 當他喝下午茶的時候, 他把蜂蜜加到茶裡面時, 注意到在蜂蜜罐上 主辦單位印上一段 有關於企業永續性的訊息。 這段訊息讓他靈機一動。
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.
他回到他的辦公室。 在寫了一封電子郵件, 打了一通電話之後 。砰! 我們就邁向全國了。 我們在他們的摩天樓屋頂上 放了數十個蜂箱, 遍及全國九個城市。
Nine years later --
九年後──
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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.
九年後,我們為蜜蜂研究 募得了一百萬美元。 我們有一千個蜂箱遍布全國, 都是我們的資料點, 遍布十八個州,且持續增加, 我們為當地的養蜂人創造了 共 65 個有薪的工作機會, 他們的工作是管理 自己社區內的蜂箱, 與人連結,日常老百姓, 這些人現在也成為資料點, 一起創造不同。
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 on our maps and we identified areas where bees were thriving. 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 life span than rural and suburban beehives, and bees in the city are more biodiverse; there are more bee species in urban areas.
所以,要解釋什麼拯救了 蜜蜂、牠們在哪裡活得最好, 我就得先告訴各位, 是什麼讓牠們死亡。 殺害蜜蜂的前三名殺手 是農業用化學物質, 如殺蟲劑、除草劑、殺菌劑; 蜜蜂的疾病, 牠們有許多種疾病; 以及失去棲息地。 所以,我們做的就是 去看我們的地圖, 找出蜜蜂在哪些區域活得比較好。 我們發現,大部分是在城市。 現在的資料顯示,都市蜂箱 所產生出來的蜂蜜量高於 鄉村蜂箱以及近郊蜂箱。 比起鄉村蜂箱以及近郊蜂箱, 都市蜂箱的壽命比較長, 城市中的蜜蜂 生物多樣性也較高; 在都市地區的蜜蜂物種比較多。
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Right? Why is this? That was our question. So we started with these three killers of bees, and we flipped it: Which of these is different in the cities?
對嗎? 為什麼會這樣? 我們想了解這個問題。 所以我們從這三種 蜜蜂殺手開始著手, 我們反過來看: 蜜峰殺手在城市中有什麼不同?
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. We looked at pesticide levels. We thought there would be less pesticides in areas where bees are doing better. That's not the case. So what we found here in our study is -- the orange bars are Boston, and we thought those bars would be the lowest, there would be the lowest levels of pesticides. And, in fact, there are the most pesticides in cities. So the pesticide hypothesis for what's saving bees -- less pesticides in cities -- is not it. And this is very typical of my life as a scientist. Anytime I've had a hypothesis, not only is it not supported, but the opposite is true.
第一種,殺蟲劑。 我們和哈佛公共衛生學院合作。 我們跟他們分享資料。 我們的樣本收集自放在民眾家中 和商店屋頂上的公眾科學蜂箱。 我們研究了殺蟲劑的量。 我們以為,在蜜蜂活得 比較好的區域殺蟲劑會少一些。 結果不是如此。 我們的研究發現—— 橘色的長條是波士頓—— 我們以為那些長條會是最低的, 殺蟲劑的量是最低的。 事實上,在城市中, 那些區域的殺蟲劑最多。 所以,殺蟲劑和蜜蜂 生存有關的假設, 即城市中比較少殺蟲劑, 這點不成立。 在我的科學家人生中 這是很常見的狀況。 每當我有一個假設時, 不僅沒有證據支持它, 且和假設相反的情況才是真的。
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Which is still an interesting finding, right?
這仍然是個有趣的發現,對吧?
We moved on. The disease hypothesis. We looked at diseases all over our beehives. And what we found in a similar study to this one with North Carolina State is: there's no difference between disease in 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.
我們繼續下一項,疾病假設。 我們探究了我們所有蜂箱的疾病。 我們在一篇於北卡羅萊納州的 類似研究中發現: 蜜蜂的疾病狀況,在都市、近郊, 以及鄉村地區都沒有差異。 疾病無所不在; 蜜蜂都會生病死亡。 事實上,在城市中 還有更多種蜜蜂疾病。 以上資料來自 北卡羅萊納州的羅里。 所以,又一次,沒有證據支持 我的假設。相反的狀況才是真的。 我們繼續下一項。
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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. An idea sparked with my friend and colleague Anne Madden, fellow TED speaker. We thought about genomics, kind of like AncestryDNA or 23andMe. Have you done these? You spit in a tube and you find out, "I'm German!"
棲息地假設。 這個假設是說,蜜蜂數量繁多的 地區,有比較好的棲息地, 即花朵比較多,對吧? 但我們不知該如何檢測這個假設。 所以,我開了一場 很有意思的會議。 這個想法鼓舞了我的朋友兼同事 安麥登,也是 TED 的講者。 我們考慮了基因組學,有點像 AncestryDNA 或 23andMe。 你們做過這些基因檢測嗎? 對試管吐口水之後發現 「我是德國人」!
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Well, we developed this for honey. So we have a sample of honey and we look at all the plant DNA, and we find out, "I'm sumac!"
我們為蜂蜜開發出了這類檢測。 我們取得蜂蜜樣本, 去比對所有的植物 DNA, 我們就會發現「我是漆樹」!
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And that's what we found here in Provincetown. 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. HoneyDNA, 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.
那就是我們在 普羅威斯頓這裡的發現。 這是史上第一次, 我能向各位報告, 在我們自己的社區中, 蜂蜜是自哪來的。 HoneyDNA 是一種基因組學檢測。 普羅威斯頓的 春季蜂蜜來自水蠟樹。 什麼是水蠟樹?樹籬。 結論是什麼? 不要修剪你的樹籬, 就能拯救蜜蜂。
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I know we're getting crunchy and it's controversial, so before you throw your tomatoes, we'll 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're 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? For the first time ever for any community, we now know this answer.
我知道我們越來越環境主義了, 且這會有爭議性。 所以,在你們拿蕃茄丟我之前, 我們來看夏日蜂蜜, 也就是睡蓮蜂蜜。 如果夏天時你喝到來自 普羅威斯頓的蜂蜜, 那你就是在喝睡蓮汁; 在秋季是漆樹蜂蜜。 這是我們史上第一次 去了解我們的食物。 現在,我們可以向各位報告, 如果你們需要做任何都市規劃: 種植什麼會比較好? 有什麼植物會吸引蜜蜂去, 且對你的花園有好處? 我們終於知道 對任何社區而言答案是什麼。
What's more interesting for us is deeper in the data. So, if you're from the Caribbean and you want to explore your heritage, Bahamian honey is from the laurel family, cinnamon and avocado flavors. But what's more interesting is 85 different plant species in one teaspoon of honey. That's the measure we want, the big data. Indian honey: that is oak. Every sample we've tested from India is oak, and that's 172 different flavors in one taste of Indian honey. Provincetown honey goes from 116 plants in the spring to over 200 plants in the summer. These are the numbers that we need to test the habitat hypothesis.
更深入資料後,還能找到 對我們來說更有趣的資訊。 如果你來自加勒比海, 想要探究你的文化資產, 巴哈馬蜂蜜是來自月桂樹家族, 肉桂和酪梨口味。 但,更有趣的是, 85 種不同的植物 能同時存在於一匙蜂蜜中。 那就是我們想要的 測量量,大數據。 印度蜂蜜:橡樹。 我們檢測過的所有 印度樣本都有橡樹, 嚐一口印度蜂蜜, 就有 172 種不同的口味。 普羅威斯頓蜂蜜則是 從春季的 116 種植物, 到夏季超過 200 種植物。 若要檢定棲息地假設, 我們就需要這樣的數據。
In another citizen science approach, you find out about your food and we get some interesting data. We're finding out now that in rural areas, there are 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, good for you, but you can do more. You can have a patch of your lawn that's a wildflower meadow to diversify your habitat, to improve pollinator health. Anybody can do this. Urban areas have the most habitat, best habitat, as you can see here: over 200 different plants. We have, for the first time ever, support for the habitat hypothesis.
使用另一種公眾科學方法, 你能更了解你的食物, 我們則得到一些有趣的資料。 我們發現,在鄉村地區, 在一個蜂蜜樣本中, 平均就有 150 種植物。 那是鄉村的數據。 至於近郊地區,你們認為呢? 在有草皮的近郊地區, 植物種類會比較多或比較少? 那些人們覺得看起來很棒, 其實對傳粉昆蟲很不好的草皮? 近郊的植物多樣性非常低, 所以,若你有一塊很漂亮的草坪, 很好,但你還可以做更多。 你可以把草坪的其中 一小塊留給野花, 讓你的棲息地更多樣化, 來改善傳粉昆蟲的健康。 大家都能做得到。 都市地區有最多棲息地, 最好的棲息地, 如畫面上所示: 200 種以上的植物。 這是史上第一次,我們找到了 支持棲息地假設的證據。
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? I mean -- it's exhausting after all of this. 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." 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 and Ethiopia. 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 habitat and secure their food systems.
現在我們也知道 該要如何和城市合作。 波士頓市的棲息地 比它的鄰近近郊要好八倍。 若我們能和政府合作, 就能把這規模擴大。 你們可能在想,我的墓碑上會寫: 「諾亞長眠於此。 請種一朵花。」對吧? 我是說,做所有這些事, 真的是讓人筋疲力竭。 但若我們能一起把規模做大, 若我們能去找政府 和城市規劃者—— 以波士頓為例, 蜂蜜大部分是菩提樹, 我們可以說:「若有樹木死亡 需要更換,請考慮換菩提樹。」 當我們把這些資訊提供給政府, 我們就能做很了不起的事。 這是佛萊德的公司的屋頂。 我們可以在全世界的 屋頂上種植那些植物, 開始恢復棲息地,保護食物系統。 我們已經在和世界銀行 以及海地的總統委任代表合作。 我們已和耶魯大學及衣索比亞 很棒的研究生合作。 在這些國家,我們能辨識出 它們的蜂蜜是什麼,並為它加值, 還能告知大眾該種植什麼, 以恢復他們的棲息地, 保護他們的食物系統。
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.
但我認為,更重要的 是去思考自然災害。 有史以來第一次,我們知道 我們可以在任何棲息地被摧毀前, 就先對它做基線測量。 想想你的家鄉。 那裡的環境要面臨什麼風險? 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, 在暴風發生前 和發生後的蜂蜜 DNA。 我們從烏馬考開始著手。 這正是颶風瑪莉亞的登陸地。 我們知道要種什麼植物、 數量要多少、種在何處, 用蜂蜜 DNA 樣本 來做三角定位就能辦到。
You might even think about right here, the beautiful land that connected us, that primed us, 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? Well, 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.
各位也可以想想這裡, 連結我們、讓我們 進行公眾科學準備的 美麗土地, 水土流失、冬季暴風, 每年越來越劇烈。 我們要怎麼處理我們珍貴的 土地所面臨的危機? 透過研究蜂蜜 DNA, 我們可以找出哪些深根的植物 對於傳粉昆蟲是有益的, 它們能保護土質, 且大家可以一同參與。 解決方案就在一匙的蜂蜜中。 如果你的家鄉 被天然災害侵襲或摧毀, 現在,我們就能即時掛起藍圖, 規劃如何在地球上重建那個地區, 或也許甚至移至火星上的溫室裡。
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 habitat. Now, together, 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.
我知道這聽起來很瘋狂, 但,試想看看: 一個新的普羅威斯頓, 一個新的家鄉, 一個熟悉的地方, 對傳粉昆蟲有益, 對穩定的食物系統有益, 這是值得想想的未來。 把所有資訊整合之後, 我們知道是什麼拯救了蜜蜂—— 種植多樣化的棲息地。 把所有資訊整合之後, 我們知道蜜蜂要如何拯救我們—— 牠們可以扮演環境健康的氣壓計, 扮演藍圖、資訊來源, 即時的小小資料工廠。
Thank you.
謝謝。
(Applause)
(掌聲)