美国国家公共电台 NPR--New England has been suffering from frequent droughts all summer

New England has been suffering from frequent droughts all summer

Transcript¹

New England is experiencing more frequent droughts, which threaten farmers, deplete² water supplies, and increase the risk of wildfires. This summer's been a tough one.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

In addition to droughts in the West, there has been a drought in New England this summer - very little rain, wildfires have been more frequent and farmers have been forced to make tough choices. From member station WBUR in Boston, Miriam Wasser reports.

MIRIAM WASSER, BYLINE³: To put it bluntly, it kind of just stopped raining this summer. Parts of the Northeast that typically get 9 inches of rain over June, July and August have gotten a fraction of that.

(SOUNDBITE OF FOOTSTEPS)

WASSER: On Dave Dumaresq's vegetable farm in Dracut, Mass., things are pretty bad. The cornstalks are brown, and the ears are smaller than usual. Instead of a carpet of green leaves, the potato field is patchy.

DAVE DUMARESQ: So we're basically at the point now where we're selecting which crops to continue to grow and which crops to basically allow to suffer.

WASSER: Take the corn. He staggers the planting and harvesting and has gotten two OK pickings so far. But the next two, he says, are a crapshoot.

DUMARESQ: So basically, I'm not watering those last two plantings. I'm hoping for rain.

WASSER: Dumaresq is the founder⁴ and owner of Farmer Dave's. The 100-acre mostly organic farm is in the epicenter of the drought this summer. Dumaresq relies on small manmade ponds like this one for irrigation water. He peers over the rocky edge. Twelve feet down, a gasoline-powered pump grumbles⁵ as it sucks up the liquid dregs.

(SOUNDBITE OF MACHINE WHIRRING)

WASSER: The water that's left is only a couple inches deep. Normally, there would be several feet of water at this time of year.

Farming in much of New England right now is a series of tough decisions. Does he completely neglect the corn to give the potatoes the water they need? And what about the asparagus? It won't be ready to harvest until next spring.

DUMARESQ: Basically, I'm letting the asparagus go. But I know that I'm reducing next spring's harvest to try to get more potatoes for this winter.

WASSER: Dumaresq is not alone. Farmers in much of New England are struggling, and many have reported significant crop losses. It's in sharp contrast to last summer, when New England got a ton of rain.

DAVID BOUTT: This kind of year-to-year variability that we see in precipitation seems to be becoming more pronounced.

WASSER: David Boutt is a hydrology professor at UMass Amherst. He says if you look back in history, it's typical for the Northeast to have wet periods and dry periods.

BOUTT: Generally speaking, you know, we would have a dry period, let's say, once in every 10 years.

WASSER: But in the last decade or so, things have changed. He says we're seeing more frequent, rapid-onset and acute droughts. Scientists say it's hard to attribute any of this directly to climate change. But as humans warm the planet, we're changing the atmospheric⁶ patterns that shape our weather systems. And our weather extremes are getting more extreme.

Lesley-Ann Dupigny-Giroux is the Vermont state climatologist.

LESLEY-ANN DUPIGNY-GIROUX: Nowadays, when we think about drought conditions, it's not just the water, but it's also how hot the temperatures are. And so flash droughts and high temperatures and dry air kind of go together.

WASSER: Dupigny-Giroux says drought is a systems-level phenomenon. Soil moisture, the rate at which surface water evaporates, even how much water plants suck in through their roots and exhale⁸ as vapor⁷ - it all matters, too. What this all means for farmers like Dumaresq is uncertainty⁹ and added costs. A drought year like this summer can cost him an extra 60 to $100,000. He has to hire extra people to run the irrigation equipment constantly.

DUMARESQ: And you always hope that the rains are going to start to fall eventually.

WASSER: Until then, he says he'll just keep pumping whatever water he can get.

For NPR News, I'm Miriam Wasser.

(SOUNDBITE OF TRENT REZNOR, ATTICUS ROSS AND GUSTAVO SANTAOLALLA'S "BEFORE THE FLOOD")

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 deplete   

v.弄空，排除，减轻，减少...体液，放去...的血

参考例句：

• Most native mammal species have been severely depleted.大多数本地哺乳动物的数量都已经大大减少了。
• Elastic collisions deplete very little of the electron's energy.弹性碰撞中电子减少的能量非常少。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

5 grumbles   

抱怨( grumble的第三人称单数 )； 发牢骚； 咕哝； 发哼声

参考例句：

• He grumbles at his lot instead of resolutely facing his difficulties. 他不是果敢地去面对困难，而是抱怨自己运气不佳。
• I'm sick of your unending grumbles. 我对你的不断埋怨感到厌烦。

6 atmospheric   

adj.大气的，空气的；大气层的；大气所引起的

参考例句：

• Sea surface temperatures and atmospheric circulation are strongly coupled.海洋表面温度与大气环流是密切相关的。
• Clouds return radiant energy to the surface primarily via the atmospheric window.云主要通过大气窗区向地表辐射能量。

7 vapor   

n.蒸汽，雾气

参考例句：

• The cold wind condenses vapor into rain.冷风使水蒸气凝结成雨。
• This new machine sometimes transpires a lot of hot vapor.这部机器有时排出大量的热气。

8 exhale   

v.呼气，散出，吐出，蒸发

参考例句：

• Sweet odours exhale from flowers.花儿散发出花香。
• Wade exhaled a cloud of smoke and coughed.韦德吐出一口烟，然后咳嗽起来。

9 uncertainty   

n.易变，靠不住，不确知，不确定的事物

参考例句：

• Her comments will add to the uncertainty of the situation.她的批评将会使局势更加不稳定。
• After six weeks of uncertainty,the strain was beginning to take its toll.6个星期的忐忑不安后，压力开始产生影响了。