美国国家公共电台 NPR Drought Threatens Crops, Wildlife Along Spain's Guadalquivir River Delta

 

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:

This summer, we'll be bringing you stories on the effects of climate change on people around the world. We begin in Spain and Portugal, where an early summer heat wave has ignited devastating¹ forest fires. More than 60 people died in one fire there. Reporter Lauren Frayer takes us now to Europe's southwest tip, where people are struggling to keep their farms in business and also protect wildlife amid severe water shortages.

LAUREN FRAYER, BYLINE²: Wild horses and cattle graze on the marshy³ banks of southern Spain's mighty⁴ Guadalquivir River. From the mouth of this river, Christopher Columbus set off for the New World. But since then, the river has gotten more salty. As freshwater is extracted for agriculture, drought - made more frequent by climate change - means less rainfall replaces it. Tides send saltwater farther up river.

JOSE GODOY: (Speaking Spanish).

FRAYER: This pumping station sucks 800 gallons out of the river per second, diverting it to irrigation canals. Jose Godoy tests the salt content every hour.

GODOY: (Speaking Spanish).

FRAYER: Sodium⁵ Chloride.

GODOY: (Speaking Spanish).

FRAYER: When the water gets too salty, it poisons crops, he explains. So Godoy cuts the water supply to the canals. Crops can die of drought.

MANOLO CANO LOPEZ: (Speaking Spanish).

FRAYER: Three times in the past two decades, Rice farmer Manolo Cano Lopez hasn't been able to grow anything at all - not enough freshwater.

CANO LOPEZ: (Through interpreter) When I was a kid, people lived here without running water or electricity. I want a certain standard of living for my children without damaging the environment.

FRAYER: But making a living without damaging the environment is getting harder here. Weather patterns have changed, Cano says.

CANO LOPEZ: (Through interpreter) The rain comes less often, but when it does, there are violent storms.

FRAYER: This is what scientists say we can expect from a changing climate and a warming planet.

CANO LOPEZ: (Through interpreter) It's damaging my crops. They're like my babies - these delicate rice plants.

FRAYER: This is Spain's biggest rice growing area. Yep, you heard that right. They grow rice submerged in water in this hot dry climate. But that's not the worst of it because rice farmers draw water from the river. The bigger problem here is berries. This region supplies about a third of all of Europe's strawberries. And strawberry farmers drill wells into the aquifer⁶.

FELIPE FUENTELSAZ: And the problem with the aquifer is something that you don't see because it's like an underground pool, and you don't know exactly what happen.

FRAYER: But Felipe Fuentelsaz does have some idea. He measures groundwater levels for the World Wildlife Fund. And he says 80 percent of this region's aquifer has dried up. Some farmers without permits hauled drilling rigs out into the forest in the middle of the night. Fuentelsaz says there are about 10,000 illegal wells around here. And local officials aren't doing enough to stop them. He pulls up Google Earth on his laptop.

FUENTELSAZ: (Speaking Spanish).

FRAYER: So we're looking at Google Earth - the satellite image of these dirt roads that cut through a forest. And then we've zoomed⁷ in on what looks like a little lake. And you say there are 14 illegal wells?

FUENTELSAZ: Yeah. This is an illegal reservoir in the middle of the forest - 14, 15 pipes from boreholes in the area that go to a farm.

FRAYER: He gave me GPS coordinates⁸ to find one such reservoir, where farmers store the water they've sucked out of the aquifer illegally.

It's beautiful crystal clear water. And it's like a swimming pool, perfectly⁹ dug out, like, deep also. It's about half a football field in size with maybe a dozen pipes pouring water from auxiliary¹⁰ wells all around the countryside here.

This isn't only about farmers stealing water. It's about farmers stealing water that won't be replenished¹¹ as quickly by rainfall because of increasing drought. Scientist Fuentelsaz says climate change is already driving up temperatures here.

FUENTELSAZ: At the moment, they are increasing 0.07 degrees every year. So it's something that's really high. The normal seasons have been moved. So this is really a complete change for biodiversity - for the flora¹², for fauna¹³.

FRAYER: I've just pulled over on the side of this small farm track. And it's so blistering¹⁴ hot here that I have to schedule interviews very early in the morning. So I'm up early watching the sunrise here. On one side of me, there's a row of little signs that say Dow seeds. This is big industrial commercial farming near a tractor going past behind me. And on the other side, there are miles and miles of marshland. And I can see a row of pink flamingos¹⁵ in the distance. Every impact humans make here has a consequence. And that's because this is the edge of one of Europe's most important wetlands, Donana National Park.

JUAN PEDRO CASTELLANO: (Speaking Spanish).

FRAYER: Park Director Juan Pedro Castellano takes me on a four-by-four tour. Last year, UNESCO cited all of these illegal wells when it threatened to put Donana on its danger list of World Heritage Sites just like the Florida Everglades. Donana would be the first national park in the European Union to make the list. As farmers drain Donana's aquifer, lagoons¹⁷ shrink in the National Park, which is home to wild horses and about 6 million migratory¹⁸ birds.

CASTELLANO: (Through interpreter) Look at all the ducks, flamingos. So many species of birds in this one lagoon¹⁶ alone. It's just like climate change. We don't know exactly what will happen and how fast, but where we'll see things is in these lagoons and wetlands right here.

FRAYER: Manmade water shortages, the park director says, are essentially¹⁹ giving us a preview of how this whole region will experience climate change. Scientists predict rising temperatures will dry out this area.

CASTELLANO: (Through interpreter) If the aquifers²⁰ drain, this area gets dominated more and more by desert plants like that one there. It reduces the biodiversity in this sandy part of the park.

CANO LOPEZ: (Speaking Spanish).

FRAYER: The seasons have already changed for rice farmer Manolo Cano. Spring comes earlier. None of his children has taken up the family business. He wonders what it must have been like 500 years ago when Christopher Columbus sailed through here.

CANO LOPEZ: (Speaking Spanish).

FRAYER: "They must have been able to water their crops as much as they wanted," he says, "and never worry."

CANO LOPEZ: (Speaking Spanish).

FRAYER: "It's the price we pay for modernity," he says. "We have to grow food, but to do it, we've changed this landscape forever." For NPR News, I'm Lauren Frayer on the Guadalquivir Delta²¹ in southern Spain.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

1 devastating   

adj.毁灭性的，令人震惊的，强有力的

参考例句：

• It is the most devastating storm in 20 years.这是20年来破坏性最大的风暴。
• Affairs do have a devastating effect on marriages.婚外情确实会对婚姻造成毁灭性的影响。

2 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。

3 marshy   

adj.沼泽的

参考例句：

• In August 1935,we began our march across the marshy grassland. 1935年8月，我们开始过草地。
• The surrounding land is low and marshy. 周围的地低洼而多沼泽。

4 mighty   

adj.强有力的；巨大的

参考例句：

• A mighty force was about to break loose.一股巨大的力量即将迸发而出。
• The mighty iceberg came into view.巨大的冰山出现在眼前。

5 sodium   

n.（化）钠

参考例句：

• Out over the town the sodium lights were lit.在外面，全城的钠光灯都亮了。
• Common salt is a compound of sodium and chlorine.食盐是钠和氯的复合物。

6 aquifer   

n.含水土层

参考例句：

• An aquifer is a water-bearing rock stratum such as sandstone and chalk.地下蓄水层是一些有水的岩石层，如沙岩和白垩岩。
• The wine region's first water came from an ancient aquifer.用来灌溉这个地区葡萄园的第一批水来自古老的地下蓄水层。

7 zoomed   

v.（飞机、汽车等）急速移动( zoom的过去式 )；（价格、费用等）急升，猛涨

参考例句：

• Traffic zoomed past us. 车辆从我们身边疾驰而过。
• Cars zoomed helter-skelter, honking belligerently. 大街上来往车辆穿梭不停，喇叭声刺耳。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 coordinates   

n.相配之衣物；坐标( coordinate的名词复数 )；（颜色协调的）配套服装；[复数]女套服；同等重要的人（或物）v.使协调，使调和( coordinate的第三人称单数 )；协调；协同；成为同等

参考例句：

• The town coordinates on this map are 695037. 该镇在这幅地图上的坐标是695037。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, headed by the Emergency Relief Coordinator, coordinates all UN emergency relief. 联合国人道主义事务协调厅在紧急救济协调员领导下，负责协调联合国的所有紧急救济工作。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

10 auxiliary   

adj.辅助的，备用的

参考例句：

• I work in an auxiliary unit.我在一家附属单位工作。
• The hospital has an auxiliary power system in case of blackout.这家医院装有备用发电系统以防灯火管制。

11 replenished   

补充( replenish的过去式和过去分词 )； 重新装满

参考例句：

• She replenished her wardrobe. 她添置了衣服。
• She has replenished a leather [fur] coat recently. 她最近添置了一件皮袄。

12 flora   

n.(某一地区的)植物群

参考例句：

• The subtropical island has a remarkably rich native flora.这个亚热带岛屿有相当丰富的乡土植物种类。
• All flora need water and light.一切草木都需要水和阳光。

13 fauna   

n.(一个地区或时代的)所有动物，动物区系

参考例句：

• This National Park is an area with unique fauna and flora.该国家公园区域内具有独特的动物种群和植物种群。
• Fauna is a biological notion means all the animal life in a particular region or period. 动物群是一个生物学的概念，指的是一个特定时期或者地区的所有动物。

14 blistering   

adj.酷热的；猛烈的；使起疱的；可恶的v.起水疱；起气泡；使受暴晒n.[涂料] 起泡

参考例句：

• The runners set off at a blistering pace. 赛跑运动员如脱缰野马般起跑了。
• This failure is known as preferential wetting and is responsible for blistering. 这种故障称为优先吸湿，是产生气泡的原因。 来自辞典例句

15 flamingos   

n.红鹳，火烈鸟（羽毛粉红、长颈的大涉禽）( flamingo的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Flamingos stand in a salt lake in Larnaca, Cyprus. 塞浦路斯的拉纳卡市一个盐湖中的火烈鸟。 来自互联网
• The research started researchers studied greater flamingos and in a bird sanctuary in southern Spain. 研究人员在西班牙南部的一个鸟类保护区对大型火烈鸟进行研究。 来自互联网

16 lagoon   

n.泻湖，咸水湖

参考例句：

• The lagoon was pullulated with tropical fish.那个咸水湖聚满了热带鱼。
• This area isolates a restricted lagoon environment.将这一地区隔离起来使形成一个封闭的泻湖环境。

17 lagoons   

n.污水池( lagoon的名词复数 )；潟湖；（大湖或江河附近的）小而浅的淡水湖；温泉形成的池塘

参考例句：

• The Islands are by shallow crystal clear lagoons enclosed by coral reefs. 该群岛包围由珊瑚礁封闭的浅水清澈泻湖。 来自互联网
• It is deposited in low-energy environments in lakes, estuaries and lagoons. 它沉淀于湖泊、河口和礁湖的低能量环境中，也可于沉淀于深海环境。 来自互联网

18 migratory   

n.候鸟，迁移

参考例句：

• Many migratory birds visit this lake annually.许多候鸟每年到这个湖上作短期逗留。
• This does not negate the idea of migratory aptitude.这并没有否定迁移能力这一概念。

19 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

20 aquifers   

n.地下蓄水层，砂石含水层( aquifer的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• And in Africa, the aquifers barely recharge at all. 非洲的地下水开采以后几乎得不到补充。 来自时文部分
• Aquifers have water contents over 30%. 含水层的水含过30％。 来自辞典例句

21 delta   

n.（流的）角洲

参考例句：

• He has been to the delta of the Nile.他曾去过尼罗河三角洲。
• The Nile divides at its mouth and forms a delta.尼罗河在河口分岔，形成了一个三角洲。