美国国家公共电台 NPR Flooding And Rising Seas Threaten America's Oldest Farmland

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Farming is a big part of the economy on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. But the land there is sinking, and as the climate warms, sea levels are rising. NPR's Jennifer Ludden spoke¹ with farmers determined² to hold on.

JENNIFER LUDDEN, BYLINE³: Bob Fitzgerald lives on the edge of a flat field that's just a few feet above sea level. It's the same spot his ancestors settled before the U.S. became a country.

BOB FITZGERALD: The land grant came into the family 1666.

LUDDEN: When he was a child, they grew tomatoes, cucumbers, string beans. Now, nearing 80, Fitzgerald plants corn and soybean to supply local chicken farms. But he says a tidal creek⁴ that runs alongside his fields is flooding more. Just the other day, in one corner...

FITZGERALD: It looked like a lake. That whole thing was covered. I'd never seen it covered. And this back here, you could not see a piece of grass sticking up. The tide was that high.

(SOUNDBITE OF FOOTSTEPS)

LUDDEN: Fitzgerald takes me to see a small berm he built to keep water out. But the floods spill over it probably once a month now. He says, so far, the saltwater has killed 15 acres of crops.

FITZGERALD: I mean, I have actually thought about having dirt hauled in just to build this up another six inches or something, just to hold it off.

LUDDEN: A few miles away, Kevin Anderson says encroaching saltwater is costing him money.

KEVIN ANDERSON: There's 20 acres of farmland that I mortgaged and paid for 20 years ago that's not producing any income now.

LUDDEN: Anderson's a fifth-generation farmer, but says it's hard to plan now. And he has a young daughter who's thinking about farming. He says everyone wants to know, what land is worth fighting to keep and what land should they just let go?

ANDERSON: You know, if you're going to draw a line in the sand, let's make an educated guess where we're going to draw the line. Give me an idea of what this farm will look like in 25 years.

LUDDEN: That's exactly what Kate Tully hopes to do. She's an agroecologist with the University of Maryland, and she's tracking how this impact of climate change is hurting farmers here. We meet in a patch of land that's so degraded, the owner turned it over for Tully's research.

KATE TULLY: That's where the corn was just two years ago.

LUDDEN: Now the soil is sandy with dried salt. Tully points out bluish-gray patches of microbial crust. She says as the Atlantic Ocean heats up, it's expanding. That means higher tides and more flooding, but that may not be all. She bends over a pipe in the ground.

TULLY: So here - let me pull these up.

LUDDEN: A black tube registers salinity⁵. It's three times what corn can handle. Inside the pipe...

TULLY: And you can see the water is right there. It's really close to the surface.

LUDDEN: Oh.

TULLY: Yeah.

LUDDEN: Oh, it's right there.

TULLY: It's right there.

LUDDEN: Just a couple feet down. Tully thinks the sea is pushing underneath⁶ the land into the groundwater. She worries this briny⁷ mix is then rising the sea levels, killing⁸ from below. It's a threat that stretches all the way down the Eastern Seaboard to the Florida Everglades. Tully wants to help farmers here hold on as long as they can. She's testing out crops that are more salt tolerant.

TULLY: We have barley⁹ and wheat, and we tried to plant switchgrass as well.

LUDDEN: She thinks another solution might be to set land aside for conservation and pay farmers to do that.

TULLY: You know, everyone says, when it comes down to it, you know, Mother Nature is going to win this war. And so, it's kind of a matter of figuring out how we can deal with it, you know, right now. And then what are the long-term, either solutions or ways that they're going to need to adapt?

LUDDEN: Because the bottom line is clear, she says. As the Earth continues to warm, some land that's been farmed for centuries will be lost to rising seas. Jennifer Ludden, NPR News, Princess Anne, Md..

1 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

2 determined   

adj.坚定的；有决心的

参考例句：

• I have determined on going to Tibet after graduation.我已决定毕业后去西藏。
• He determined to view the rooms behind the office.他决定查看一下办公室后面的房间。

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 creek   

n.小溪，小河，小湾

参考例句：

• He sprang through the creek.他跳过小河。
• People sunbathe in the nude on the rocks above the creek.人们在露出小溪的岩石上裸体晒日光浴。

5 salinity   

n.盐分；咸度；盐浓度；咸性

参考例句：

• In the sea water sampled the salinity is two parts per thousand.在取样的海水中，盐度为千分之二。
• In many sedimentary basins the salinity of the formation water increases with depth or compaction.在许多沉积盆地中，地层水的含盐量随深度或压实作用而增高。

6 underneath   

adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面

参考例句：

• Working underneath the car is always a messy job.在汽车底下工作是件脏活。
• She wore a coat with a dress underneath.她穿着一件大衣，里面套着一条连衣裙。

7 briny   

adj.盐水的；很咸的；n.海洋

参考例句：

• The briny water is not good for the growth of the trees.海水不利于这种树木的生长。
• The briny air gave a foretaste of the nearby sea.咸空气是快近海的前兆。

8 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

9 barley   

n.大麦，大麦粒

参考例句：

• They looked out across the fields of waving barley.他们朝田里望去,只见大麦随风摇摆。
• He cropped several acres with barley.他种了几英亩大麦。