was in 2008,

我第一次在水底哭

the island of Curaçao,

是 2008 年的時候，

way down in the southern Caribbean.

我在古拉索島，

It's beautiful there.

在遙遠的加勒比海南端。

I was studying these corals for my PhD,

那邊很美。

and after days and days of diving on the same reef,

當時我在攻讀博士研究珊瑚，

I had gotten to know them as individuals.

日復一日潛水到同一塊礁上，

I had made friends with coral colonies --

讓我對它們都瞭若指掌。

totally a normal thing to do.

我和珊瑚群交朋友──

Then, Hurricane Omar smashed them apart and ripped off their skin,

這可一點也不奇怪。

leaving little bits of wounded tissue that would have a hard time healing,

後來奧馬爾颶風讓牠們 四分五裂、體無完膚，

and big patches of dead skeleton that would get overgrown by algae.

留下一丁點受了傷的組織， 得花時間辛苦療養，

When I saw this damage for the first time,

大片死亡的骨架上會長滿水藻。

stretching all the way down the reef,

第一次看到災情

I sunk onto the sand in my scuba gear

遍及珊瑚礁深處的時候，

and I cried.

穿著潛水肺裝站在沙上的我

If a coral could die that fast,

哭了。

how could a reef ever survive?

如果珊瑚死的速度這麼快，

And why was I making it my job to try to fight for them?

礁怎麼能撐得過來？

I never heard another scientist tell that kind of story

而我又為什麼要試圖為它們奮戰？

until last year.

直到去年我才聽到其他科學家說

A scientist in Guam wrote,

這類的故事。

"I cried right into my mask,"

一位在關島的科學家寫信給我：

seeing the damage on the reefs.

「我在面罩裡哭了，」

Then a scientist in Australia wrote,

因為我看到了那些珊瑚礁的傷痕。

"I showed my students the results of our coral surveys,

另一位澳洲科學家寫：

and we wept."

「我讓學生看我們研究珊瑚的結果，

Crying about corals is having a moment, guys.

大家都落淚了。」

(Laughter)

各位，為珊瑚哭泣現在正是時候。

And that's because reefs in the Pacific

（笑聲）

are losing corals faster than we've ever seen before.

那是因為太平洋的礁

Because of climate change,

以前所未有的速度流失珊瑚。

the water is so hot for so long in the summers,

因為氣候變遷，

that these animals can't function normally.

海水在夏天太熱太久，

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

以致於這些動物無法正常運作。

and the clear bleached tissue that's left usually starves to death

牠們吐出住在牠們身上的有色海藻，

and then rots away.

而留下的白化組織通常會餓死，

Then the skeletons are overgrown by algae.

然後腐爛。

This is happening over an unbelievable scale.

接著骨架上就會長滿海藻。

The Northern Great Barrier Reef lost two-thirds of its corals last year

這種情況以不可思議的程度 一直在發生。

over a distance of hundreds of miles,

北大堡礁去年失去三分之二的珊瑚，

then bleached again this year,

總長好幾百哩，

and the bleaching stretched further south.

今年又再度發生白化，

Reefs in the Pacific are in a nosedive right now,

而且蔓延到南部了。

and no one knows how bad it's going to get,

太平洋珊瑚礁的情況一落千丈，

except ...

沒人知道之後會多慘，

over in the Caribbean where I work,

除了……

we've already been through the nosedive.

我工作的地方加勒比海，

Reefs there have suffered through centuries of intense human abuse.

我們已經撐過谷底。

We kind of already know how the story goes.

那裡的珊瑚礁百年來 飽受人類摧殘。

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

我們大概知道 故事會怎麼發展下去。

Let's consult a graph.

我們也許可以協助預測 下一步會發生什麼事。

Since the invention of scuba,

我們來看個圖表。

scientists have measured the amount of coral on the seafloor,

自從潛水肺發明之後，

and how it's changed through time.

科學家測量海底珊瑚數量，

And after centuries of ratcheting human pressure,

以及日後的變化。

Caribbean reefs met one of three fates.

經過幾個世紀 日益加遽的人類壓力，

Some reefs lost their corals very quickly.

加勒比海珊瑚礁面臨了三種命運：

Some reefs lost their corals more slowly,

有些礁快速失去珊瑚；

but kind of ended up in the same place.

有些礁失去珊瑚的速度慢一點，

OK, so far this is not going very well.

但結局差不多一樣。

But some reefs in the Caribbean --

到目前為止不太樂觀。

the ones best protected

但有些加勒比海珊瑚礁──

and the ones a little further from humans --

被保護得最好的那一些，

they managed to hold onto their corals.

還有離人類比較遠的那一些，

Give us a challenge.

它們順利保住珊瑚。

And, we almost never saw a reef hit zero.

這帶給了我們挑戰。

The second time I cried underwater

而且我們幾乎沒見過 一塊珊瑚礁片甲不留。

was on the north shore of Curaçao, 2011.

第二次我在水底哭，

It was the calmest day of the year,

是 2011 年在古拉索島北岸。

but it's always pretty sketchy diving there.

那是一年之中最平靜的一天，

My boyfriend and I swam against the waves.

但在那邊潛水總是很危險。

I watched my compass so we could find our way back out,

我男友和我游向海浪。

and he watched for sharks,

我確認指南針， 之後才能找得到回頭路，

and after 20 minutes of swimming that felt like an hour,

他在觀察看有沒有鯊魚，

we finally dropped down to the reef,

游了二十分鐘之後， 感覺就像游了一小時，

and I was so shocked,

我們終於落在珊瑚礁上，

and I was so happy

我超驚訝，

that my eyes filled with tears.

而且超開心，

There were corals 1,000 years old lined up one after another.

讓我熱淚盈眶。

They had survived the entire history of European colonialism in the Caribbean,

上千年的珊瑚在那裡 一個挨著一個。

and for centuries before that.

牠們從加勒比海

I never knew what a coral could do when it was given a chance to thrive.

整個歐洲殖民主義的 歷史中倖存下來，

The truth is that even as we lose so many corals,

而且在那之前也活了幾個世紀。

even as we go through this massive coral die-off,

我從來不知道珊瑚有機會 成長茁壯時，牠能做什麼。

some reefs will survive.

事實是即使我們失去這麼多珊瑚，

Some will be ragged on the edge,

即使我們經歷了大量珊瑚相繼死去，

some will be beautiful.

有些珊瑚還是會活下來。

And by protecting shorelines and giving us food to eat

有些邊緣會不平整，

and supporting tourism,

有些會很美。

they will still be worth billions and billions of dollars a year.

珊瑚透過保護海岸線、 供給我們食物

The best time to protect a reef was 50 years ago,

和協助觀光業，

but the second-best time is right now.

未來每年都還是會 提供千百億的價值。

Even as we go through bleaching events,

保護珊瑚礁最好的時機點 是在五十年前，

more frequent and in more places,

第二次則是現在。

some corals will be able to recover.

即使我們經歷的白化事件

We had a bleaching event in 2010 in the Caribbean

越來越頻繁也出現在更多地方，

that took off big patches of skin on boulder corals like these.

有些珊瑚還是能復原。

This coral lost half of its skin.

加勒比海在 2010 年 發生過白化事件，

But if you look at the side of this coral a few years later,

造成巨礫珊瑚的表層 像這樣大面積剝落。

this coral is actually healthy again.

這個珊瑚的表面掉了一半。

It's doing what a healthy coral does.

但幾年後，如果你看牠的側邊，

It's making copies of its polyps,

牠又變健康了。

it's fighting back the algae

牠會跟健康珊瑚做一樣的事。

and it's reclaiming its territory.

牠會複製珊瑚蟲、

If a few polyps survive,

擊退海藻、

a coral can regrow;

收復牠的領土。

it just needs time and protection and a reasonable temperature.

如果有些珊瑚蟲活下來，

Some corals can regrow in 10 years --

珊瑚可以重生；

others take a lot longer.

牠要的只是時間、 保護和合理的溫度。

But the more stresses we take off them locally --

有些珊瑚可以在十年內復活，

things like overfishing, sewage pollution, fertilizer pollution,

有些要很久。

dredging, coastal construction --

只要我們在當地減輕牠們越多壓力，

the better they can hang on as we stabilize the climate,

像是過度捕撈、 污水污染、肥料污染、

and the faster they can regrow.

拖撈網、海岸工程等，

And as we go through the long, tough and necessary process

牠們就能在我們穩定氣候時撐下來，

of stabilizing the climate of planet Earth,

也就能更快重生。

some new corals will still be born.

我們在採取漫長、艱辛和必要的程序

This is what I study in my research.

來穩定地球氣候的同時，

We try to understand how corals make babies,

部分新珊瑚還會繼續誕生。

and how those babies find their way to the reef,

這是我的研究。

and we invent new methods to help them survive

我們試著了解珊瑚怎麼生小孩，

those early, fragile life stages.

還有這些小孩怎麼找到珊瑚礁，

One of my favorite coral babies of all time

我們發明了一種方法，

showed up right after Hurricane Omar.

協助牠們在生命 早期脆弱的階段中存活下來。

It's the same species I was studying before the storm,

我一直以來最愛的珊瑚寶寶

but you almost never see babies of this species --

在奧馬爾颶風來襲後出現。

it's really rare.

那和我在風暴前研究的是同一種，

This is actually an endangered species.

但一般幾乎看不到這一種的寶寶，

In this photo, this little baby coral, this little circle of polyps,

因為牠們真的非常稀有。

is a few years old.

牠們真的是瀕危物種。

Like its cousins that bleach,

在這張照片裡，這個小珊瑚寶寶，

it's fighting back the algae.

這一小團珊瑚蟲，

And like its cousins on the north shore,

有幾歲大。

it's aiming to live for 1,000 years.

牠們像白化的表親一樣

What's happening in the world and in the ocean

擊退海藻。

has changed our time horizon.

像牠們的在北岸的表親，

We can be incredibly pessimistic on the short term,

打算要活一千年。

and mourn what we lost

世界上和海裡發生的事，

and what we really took for granted.

會改變我們時程。

But we can still be optimistic on the long term,

短期內我們可能會非常悲觀，

and we can still be ambitious about what we fight for

哀悼我們失去的

and what we expect from our governments,

和我們過去視為理所當然的一切。

from our planet.

但長期來看我們還是能保持樂觀，

Corals have been living on planet Earth for hundreds of millions of years.

我們還是可以對我們要爭取的，

They survived the extinction of the dinosaurs.

以及對政府和地球的期望

They're badasses.

懷有雄心壯志。

(Laughter)

珊瑚已經在地球上生存數十億年。

An individual coral can go through tremendous trauma and fully recover

牠們在恐龍絕跡的時候活了下來。

if it's given a chance and it's given protection.

牠們是壞蛋。

Corals have always been playing the long game,

（笑聲）

and now so are we.

一個珊瑚能在經歷 重大創傷後完全復原，

Thanks very much.

只要牠有機會並且得到保護。

(Applause)

珊瑚一直都打長久戰，