本集內容

Using cow waste to fight climate change 利用牛糞對抗氣候變化

學習要點

有關 “soil quality 土壤質量” 的詞匯

邊看邊答

How much of the world's population is affected by soil degradation?

文字稿

Soil erosion - a double problem. Here in the east of England, this isn't smog in the air, it's soil on a hot, windy day. Losing soil like this lowers our ability to grow crops. It also releases carbon trapped in the earth and that contributes to climate change.

土壤侵蝕，一個雙重問題。在英格蘭東部，這不是空氣中的煙霧，而是在炎熱多風的日子里土壤被風刮起來的景象。土壤這樣流失降低了我們種植農作物的能力。它還釋放出困在泥土中的碳，加劇氣候變化。

Soil degradation is a problem, said to affect almost half the world's people. Look at this tsunami of dust last year in Phoenix, Arizona. It’s the result of a spectacular storm. For most farmers, soil loss is a creeping problem that's only noticed too late.

土壤退化是一個問題，據說影響全球近一半的人口。看看去年亞利桑那州鳳凰城的沙塵暴。這是一場壯觀風暴的結果。對于大多數農民來說，土壤流失是一個緩慢蔓延的問題，只是人們發現得太晚了。

Joanna Clark, Reading University
Soils are really important for climate change as well because they store a lot of carbon. There's three times more carbon stored in soil than there actually is in the atmosphere. So you imagine if all that carbon was released from the soil into the atmosphere, we'd have… This is the runaway climate change that people are concerned about.

喬安娜·克拉克     英國雷丁大學
“土壤對氣候變化也非常重要，因為它們儲存了大量的碳。土壤中儲存的碳是大氣中的三倍。所以你可以想象，如果所有的碳都從土壤中釋放到大氣中，我們就會面臨人們所擔心的氣候變化失控。”

So what to do? Well, we know cows' burps are a problem for climate change, but their dung also helps put carbon back into the soil. So, this mobile dairy in the south of England may prove part of a solution. It means cows spread their dung across the fields, not leave it in the farmyard. That way nutrients and carbon from the pasture return to the soil.

那該怎么辦呢？我們知道奶牛打嗝是造成氣候變化的一個問題，但它們的糞便卻有助于將碳放回土壤中去。因此，英格蘭南部的這個流動奶牛場可能是解決方案的一部分。奶牛把它們的糞便撒在田野上，而不是留在農家院子里。這樣，牧草中的養分和碳就會回到土壤中。

Here's the evidence. This field with its light stony soil is depleted from crops grown with chemical fertilisers: see the much darker carbon-rich soil in the far ploughed field previously fertilised by cows.

證據在這里。這片有著淺色石質土壤的土地，由于使用化肥種植的作物而變得貧瘠：看看這片以前由奶牛施肥的、深耕過的土地，其碳含量要高得多。

詞匯

erosion 侵蝕，流失

degradation 惡化，退化

dung （牛、馬等動物的）糞便

pasture 草地，牧場

depleted 減少的，貧瘠的

問題答案

Soil degradation is said to affect almost half the world's people.