美国大盐湖干涸加剧

Climate change and rapid population growth are drying up the Great Salt Lake in Utah.

气候变化与人口激增正在使犹他州的大盐湖干涸。

As the name implies, this lake is huge but getting smaller.

顾名思义，这个湖泊面积很大，但现在湖泊面积正变得越来越小。

And scientists at Utah universities warn it will disappear in five years if no action is taken.

犹他大学的科学家警告称，如果不采取行动，该湖泊将在五年内消失。

Here's Utah Governor Spencer Cox talking about that study in his recent State of the State Address.

犹他州州长斯宾塞·考克斯在他最近的州情咨文中谈到了这项研究。

Let me be absolutely clear - we are not going to let that happen.

让我说明这一点——我们不会让这种情况发生。

So what are the consequences of the Great Salt Lake completely drying up?

那么，大盐湖完全干涸会带来什么后果呢?

To understand that, let's bring in NPR correspondent Kirk Siegler for more. Hi, Kirk.

为了对其进行理解，让我们请NPR新闻记者柯克·西格勒带来详细报道。嗨,柯克。

Hi, Leila.

嗨, 莱拉。

OK. So how close are we from an environmental breaking point here, and what can be done so we don't get there?

好。我们离环境崩溃有多远，我们可以做些什么来阻止走向这一崩溃边缘呢?

Well, we are very close, so I'm told, if we're not there already.

据我所知，即使我们还没有到达那一边缘，但我们已经非常接近了。

For some context, the Great Salt Lake is anywhere from about eight to nine feet below what it should be.

在某些背景下，大盐湖比其应有的水位低了大约八到九英尺。

Utah's having a snowy winter right now. That's helped a little bit.

犹他州现在正在经历一个多雪的冬天。这起到了一点作用。

But we would need several of these in a row.

但我们需要连续几个这样的多雪天气。

You know, this crisis is the result of the 20-plus-year megadrought here in the West and also water diversions from rivers upstream from the lake for farming, mostly going to animal feed crops, as well as cities.

这场危机是西部地区二十多年来极端干旱的结果，也是从该湖泊上游调水用于农业的结果，水源主要流向动物饲料作物，也流向了城市。

You know, Utah is one of the fastest-growing states in the West.

犹他州是西部发展最快的州。

And scientists say we're at this breaking point.

数位科学家称我们正处于这个崩溃边缘。

I went out on the lake with one of them on a recent cold, gray morning.

在最近一个阴冷灰暗的早晨，我和其中的一位科学家一起前往湖边。

Carly Biedul of the Great Salt Lake Institute - we're walking across the dried-up shore of the lake bed.

这位科学家是大盐湖研究所的卡莉·比杜尔——我们正跨过湖床边。

It's this otherworldly experience. And she's trying to find brine fly larva, Leila, to take back to her lab.

这次体验超凡脱俗。莱拉，她正在寻找盐水蝇幼虫，将其带回她的实验室。

Now, it's getting harder and harder to find this. They're at the bottom of the food chain.

现在，越来越难找到盐水蝇幼虫了。它们处于食物链的最底层。

As the lake dries up, it's getting too salty to sustain life.

随着湖水干涸，湖水盐度会越来越高，盐水蝇幼虫无法生存。

And, you know, if they go away, then the brine shrimp go away, and then the thousands of migrating birds that rely on the brine shrimp may go away. So it's disastrous.

如果盐水蝇幼虫消失了，盐水虾也就会消失，那么依赖盐水虾生存的成千上万只的迁徙鸟类也会消失。所以这是灾难性的。

The threshold is - we're kind of at the threshold. So if things get any saltier, we're super, super worried.

我们处在临界点上。如果湖水盐度越来越高，我们会极度担忧。

OK. Well, this doesn't sound good.

好。这听起来不太妙。

No.

不太妙。

Kirk, Salt Lake City sits in the valley where, in the wintertime, cold air and pollution from cars and industry gets trapped.

柯克，盐湖城(犹他州首府)坐落在山谷中，到了冬天，冷空气以及汽车污染、工业污染都被困在山谷中。

It already has some of the dirtiest air in the nation.

这里的空气已经是全国最脏的了。

So if the Great Salt Lake dries up, does that also then make this worse?

如果大盐湖干涸了，会不会雪上加霜呢?

Yeah, this is probably the biggest, most pressing concern with the lake drying up.

是的，随着湖水干涸，这可能是最重大、最紧迫的担忧问题。

The dust from the dried lakebed would be toxic.

干涸的湖底尘土有毒。

You've got high concentrations of mercury and arsenic out there, so if dust storms were to blow, they'd probably go east, right to Salt Lake City,

湖底土地中的汞和砷浓度很高，如果沙尘暴来袭，这些尘土可能会向东吹，直接吹到盐湖城，

particularly immediately into neighborhoods that are close to the lake, that are also close to Salt Lake City International Airport, a lot of busy freeways and an oil refinery.

尤其是那些靠近湖边的居民区，那些靠近盐湖城国际机场的居民区，那里有很多杂乱的高速公路和炼油厂。

So neighborhood activists, as you can imagine, are very concerned about this.

所以你可以想象，居民区的活动人士非常关心这个问题。