Name: 澳洲考拉要滅絕了嗎？我們問了一位生態學家。 (Are Australian koalas going extinct? We asked an ecologist.)
Uploaded: 2021-01-14T08:37:20.000Z
Duration: 4 min 5 s

情態副詞

You know when people think about climate change a wildlife, they probably think about polar bears and maybe the Great Barrier Reef.

一提到氣候變遷對野生動植物的影響，大家大多想到北極熊或是大堡礁，

進階形容詞比較級句型

"As many as 3 percent of the country's New South Wales region may have been killed as fires continue to ravage and destroy their habitat."

在新南威爾士地區可能已有有多達百分之三十的無尾熊死亡，因為森林大火持續延燒、摧毀牠們的棲息地，

The reality is that these flies are not normal.

事實上這不是正常的森林大火，

我們彷彿處在戰爭時期，有人傷亡、財物損失，

So I know that there's there's been you know loss of human life definitely loss of property here but what impact has this fire had, this fire season had, on wildlife in Australia?

但這場火季與大火對澳洲野生動植物有什麼影響？

Well over 1 billion animals are thought to have died or will soon die in the weeks, the months ahead, because of the current fires.

超過十億的動物可能已經死於這場延燒中的大火，就算沒有，之後幾周和幾個月也會，

不是一千或一萬隻、是十億隻！

And we've never had a toll like that on our wildlife but it seems that every few days, the statistics get worse.

澳洲的野生動物過去從未有這麼慘重的傷亡，但這個數字似乎每隔幾天就持續增加，

I don't know where it will end by the end of this fire season.

我無法得知這場乾季大火結束前會燒到什麼地方，

Are there specific species that are particularly being hard hit by this?

那麼有特定物種的生存受到衝擊嗎？

Many many animals cannot flee these big fires.

很多動物都無法逃過這場大火，

Either they can't fly, they can't move quickly, they can't burrow — they burn to death.

如果他們不能飛、移動速度慢、或不會打地洞，就會被活活燒死，

Particularly because Australia has bulldozed half of our forests, it's hard for wildlife to flee somewhere else and that's why you find a lot of animals — including koalas — are wandering into people's backyards into the streets looking for some habitat to survive in.

而澳洲又已經將一半森林夷為平地，讓動物們很難逃到其他地方，因此你會看到許多動物在住宅後院或街上徘徊，包括無尾熊，想找個能繼續生存的棲息地，

When they panic, they climb up a tree. That works when the fires low down.

他們慌張時會爬上樹，這在大火減退時會很有效，

But it's almost a death sentence when the fire consumes its crown fire, the canopy fire.

但如果大火繼續在樹頂延燒─稱為樹冠火或林冠火─爬上樹就變得像死刑，

People have talked about flames up to 200 feet in the air.  That's 70 meters.

有人說過大火能在空氣竄升兩百英尺，也就是大約七十公尺，

I mean that is — our trees generally don't grow that big.

但澳洲的樹通常不會長這麼高，

So any wildlife, birds, or lizards that go to the top of the trees to escape a normal fire, they're sitting ducks really.

因此平常跑到樹上躲避大火的任何野生生物、鳥、與蜥蜴都只能等死，

So I've seen a lot of particularly hard to watch videos of koalas, you know, basically charred from the fire.

所以我看過很多無尾熊幾乎被燒得全身焦黑的影片，讓人不忍，

What's the status of the koala now, and what's gonna happen to them?

現在無尾熊的情況如何，未來還會有什麼變化？

Our estimation is that koala numbers over the last 230 years have fallen by about 95%, and these fires will be inching that up towards ninety eight ninety nine percent over time.

我們估計無尾熊的數量在過去 230 年已經減少百分之 95，而這場大火會逐漸讓這數字慢慢增加到百分之 98 或 99，

It's important to remember that this bushfire and the climate crisis — it has come after a couple hundred years of decimating koalas and their habitat.

人類必須記得的是：幾百年來，大量無尾熊被獵殺與棲地大幅減少，之後又發生了這場野地大火與氣候變遷危機，

So for 100 years, koalas were shot for their pelts and there's records of 8 million koala pelts being sold in the United States, the UK, and I think Europe up until the 1930s, when there was a moratorium put on shooting koalas.

過去一百年，許多人殺害無尾熊以獲得牠們的毛皮，有紀錄顯示直至 1930 年代，八百萬張無尾熊皮在美國、英國、與歐洲售出，後來射殺無尾熊的行為就中止了，

The term "functionally extinct" has been thrown around in the media during these fires in reference to the koalas.

現在媒體提到無尾熊時，都大肆使用「功能性滅絕」這個詞，

What does "functionally extinct" mean, and is that true?

「功能性滅絕」是什麼呢？拿來講無尾熊是對的嗎？

The term "functional extinction" is used for animals where there are only tens or hundreds not even thousands of animals left.

「功能性滅絕」是指某個物種數量只剩下幾十或幾百隻，不足一千隻，

So rhinos, or animals where there's ten or twenty left.

例如犀牛，或其他數量只剩十幾二十隻的動物，

In eastern Australia koalas are listed as a threatened species but at the lowest level they're called vulnerable.

在澳洲東部，無尾熊被列為受到威脅的物種，數量最低時被稱為易危物種，

We think they're now eligible to be uplisted to being an endangered species.

我們認為牠們現在有資格上升為瀕危物種，

There are solutions to these problems, koalas and polar bears don't need to go extinct.

目前有解決方法，希望無尾熊和北極熊永遠不會絕種，

And the term "functional extinction" doesn't help that.

所以「功能性絕種」這個詞對無尾熊的處境幫助不大，

For people like me at home like watching this heart-wrenching footage, is there anything we can do to help the situation?

若有人跟我一樣在家看這令人心痛的影片，他們能給予什麼幫助嗎？

I think the first thing people can do around the world is to read up about what's happening in Australia, because if it's happening in our country.

我認為大家首先可以先去了解澳洲的這場森林大火，

If it's not already happening in your country, it will be in the future, of some type, as the climate gets worse and worse.

因為森林大火也可能正在你們國家發生，若現在沒有以後也會有類似的，因為氣候變遷越來越嚴重，

We need to convince people who don't care about nature or the climate — particularly decision makers, governments, presidents, prime ministers — you have a role in helping keep these species alive.

此外我們必須說服那些不在乎大自然與氣候變遷的人，特別是政策制定者、政府官員、總統、首相，讓他們知道他們有責任保護這些動物們。