飓风“伊恩”致美国佛州蜂农损失惨重

When hurricane Ian pummeled Florida in late September, it brought over $50 billion in damage to the state and tragically took lives of 148 people.

9月下旬，飓风“伊恩”连续重击佛罗里达州，给该州带来了超过500亿美元的损失，并不幸夺去了148人的生命。

It also had an unexpected consequence. It destroyed Florida's bee colonies. The colonies are used to pollinate the nation's agriculture.

这也产生了意想不到的后果。飓风摧毁了佛罗里达州的蜂群。而这些蜂群的用途是为美国农业授粉。

cnn chief climate correspondent Bill Weir spoke to Florida beekeepers about what this could mean.

cnn首席气候记者比尔·威尔采访了佛罗里达州的养蜂人，探讨这可能意味着什么。

Now you going to get a handful of bees.

现在你会得到一小撮蜜蜂。

Really?

真的吗?

Yes.

是的。

OK.

好吧。

I'm not usually in the habit of accepting a handful of stinging insects.

我还没有习惯接受一小撮带刺昆虫(蜜蜂)。

But Keith Councell has a 40-year professional relationship with honeybees.

但凯斯·康塞尔已和蜜蜂打了40年的交道。

And you never really wear a veil or gloves or anything?

你从来没有戴过面罩或手套什么的吗?

Don't really need to.

真的不需要这些。

And these days, they need all the love they can get.

这些日子，他们需要所有能得到的关爱。

Hurricane Ian arrived at the worst possible time for this business,

“伊恩”飓风抵达的时候，对这行来说可能是最糟糕的时候,

Just as beekeepers from around the country were set up to catch the autumn bloom of the Brazilian peppertree.

此时正值全国各地的养蜂人都准备好迎接秋天巴西胡椒树开花。

The storm drowned and crushed hundreds of thousands of hives, killing countless millions of bees.

这场风暴淹没并摧毁了成千上万的蜂箱，使无数的蜜蜂丧命。

It's gone. You have to come back, right, nothing left.

都消失了。你必须恢复原状，什么都不剩了。

And because Ian blew away so much vegetation, those that survived are starving.

因为飓风“伊恩”吹走了太多的植被，那些幸存下来的蜜蜂都在挨饿。

Some of these bees have gotten three shots of feed and that's a gallon.

有些蜜蜂已经吃了三次饲料了，也就是一加仑的食物。

So you're talking about 36 pounds of feed already and you can still go back after they suck the feed down and it looks like they never were fed at all.

你谈到只剩36磅饲料了，蜜蜂吸食完这些饲料后仍会恢复原状，它们看起来根本没有被喂过。

They're just starving.

它们正在挨饿。

They're just starving. Yes, it's nonstop.

它们只是在挨饿。是的，没有停歇。

So it's just an added cost and you're just trying to do the best. You have to make that tough decision of really, is it worth the money, the financial costs to try to save it?

所以这只是额外的成本，你只是试图尽最大努力。你必须做出艰难的决定，为了挽救蜂群而付出的金钱和财务成本值得吗？

Or do you just have to walk away and take your medicine.

还是你就这么一走了之，忍受这些不愉快？

This is all bee food.

这些都是蜜蜂的食物。

This will be used for liquid bee food. Yeah.

这是蜜蜂的流食。是的。

At Mann Lake Bee and Egg Supply, they're mixing sugar water as fast as they can.

曼湖蜜蜂和鸡蛋供应公司正在以最快的速度混合糖水。

And while some bee farmers filed for federal relief, the Greater Good Charity is giving away a quarter ton of pollen substitute.

当一些蜂农申请联邦救济时，大善慈善机构正在赠送0.25吨的花粉替代品。

We have donated meals to food pantries for humans.

我们向人类食品分发处捐赠了食物。

We've donated animal supplies to animal shelters. And now, we're donating this bee pollen substitute to these farmers here.

我们也向动物收容所捐赠了动物用品。现在，我们把花粉替代品捐赠给这里的农民。

Can't forget the bottom of the food chain, right?

不能忘记食物链的底层，对吧?

Yes, can't forget what helps get all the other food to the table as well.

是的，同样不能忘记把食物送上餐桌的人。

But even if their bees recover, the whole business depends on the health of the almond crop in California now shrinking under mega drought.

不过，即使他们的蜜蜂恢复过来，整个生意也是由加利福尼亚州的杏树健康状况决定，现在这些杏树因严重干旱而减产。

If the drought takes out the almond crop in California that --

如果这场干旱毁掉了加州的杏树--

The whole beekeeping industry is going to be in trouble. And there's no feral bees. There's no -- wild bees can't survive on their own.

那么，整个养蜂业将陷入困境。野生蜜蜂将会消失。野生蜜蜂无法独自生存。