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Australia’s Great Barrier Reef: 133,000 square miles! Nearly 400 different types of coral!
澳大利亚的大堡礁：13.3万平方英里！近400种不同类型的珊瑚！
And it’s all dead. Wait, no it’s not. Yea, it is. Well maybe a little.
问题是它们都已经死了。等等，没死，它们没死。死了，死了。嗯，可能死了一点点吧。
Depending on who’s posting on your Facebook feed,
你在Facebook上提这个问题的话，不同的人会给你不同的答案，
the Great Barrier Reef is either doing just fine or it’s teetering on the brink of destruction.
有人会说大堡礁活得好好的，有人则会说它们已经到了毁灭的边缘。
So should you cancel those tickets to Australia?
那，订的去澳大利亚的票，你要不要取消呢？
Is there even anything left to see?
那里还有珊瑚可看吗？
A coral reef is an underwater structure made of, you guessed it, corals.
珊瑚礁是一种水底结构，其成分是，你猜对了，珊瑚。
And while those corals might look like a collection of snazzy-looking rocks,
虽然这些珊瑚看起来像一堆外表华丽的岩石，
they’re actually the exoskeletons of living invertebrates.
实际上它们是活生生的无脊椎动物的外骨骼。
They eat, reproduce, grow, all the stuff anything else living in the water does.
他们会进食，会繁殖，也会生长，总而言之就是生活在水里的生物有的活动它们都有。
They also drop dead if the conditions they’re living in aren’t quite right.
而且，如果生活的环境不是很适宜的话，它们也会死亡。
Conveniently, corals have a pretty clear way of showing their health.
珊瑚显示它们健康状况的方式非常地一目了然。
If everything is A-OK, the corals will all be colored earth-tones, like 1970s living room furniture.
如果一切正常，珊瑚就都会是大地色，70年代客厅家具那种颜色。
When they get sick, they can become fluorescent.
生病的时候，珊瑚就会变成荧光色。
And when the coral turns white or becomes “bleached,”
当珊瑚变白或变成“漂白过”的颜色时，
well, then that means it’s dying and that its recovery is in question.
那就意味着它正在消亡，能不能恢复还是个问题。
So, is The Great Barrier Reef dead or not?
所以，大堡礁真的死了吗？
Well, it suffered a massive bleaching event in each of the past two years
嗯，在过去的两年里，它确实遭受了很大程度的漂白，
as a result of rising ocean temperatures due to global warming.
究其原因，是全球变暖，海洋温度上升引起的。
The extreme nature of 2016’s bleaching led to this:
2016年那次严重的漂白导致有人发了这样的信息：
a slightly satirical obituary for the reef that wound up going viral.
一份带点儿讽刺意味的讣告，内容是珊瑚礁最终变成了病毒。
That caused environmental reporters to try and stop the spread of any misinformation,
环境报告员们连忙阻止错误消息的传播，
clarifying that while the reef was in poor health, it wasn’t actually dead.
他们澄清到，虽然珊瑚礁的健康状况的确不佳，但它们其实并没有死亡。
So, then it’s fine, right? I mean, you also might have seen this in your Facebook feed,
所以意思就是，它们没事喽？对吧？毕竟，大家可能都在Facebook上看到了这条推文，
a report that UNESCO, the United Nation's body that lists the Great Barrier Reef as a World Heritage Site,
这篇报道称，联合国教科文组织，也就是曾经把大堡礁列入世界文化遗产名录的联合国机构，
did not put the reef on its “List of World Heritage Sites in Danger”.
并未将大堡礁列入“濒危世界遗产名录”。
Well, that decision was actually criticised on social media,
然而，这一决定在社交媒体上引发了网友们的批判，
pointing out that the reef is absolutely in great danger,
他们认为大堡礁的珊瑚绝对是危在旦夕了，
something UNESCO itself has even previously suggested.
就连联合国教科文组织自己之前也表达过这个意思。
So who’s right? Scientists? UNESCO? Outside Magazine?
那么，到底谁才是对的呢？是科学家吗？是教科文组织吗？还是局外的杂志呢？
Well, the bleaching events are not normal,
事实上，一次次的漂白时间并非寻常，
before 2016 there were only two bleaching events in the previous 17 years.
2016年之前的17年里仅仅发生过两次漂白事件。
And while a reef can recover from bleaching, that can take up to a decade,
而且，虽然珊瑚漂白之后还能恢复，但这个过程需要长达十年的时间，
making the back to back events that much more concerning.
这就使得接二连三的漂白时间变得更加令人担忧。
Fortunately, Australia is trying to do its part,
幸运的是，澳大利亚正努力发挥自己的作用，
allocating over a billion dollars over the next five years to help repair the reef as part of its Reef 2050 plan.
在未来五年内，将拨出10亿美元的资金用来修复珊瑚礁，作为其“珊瑚 2050计划”的一部分。
And that’s no surprise, given the tourism it attracts and its estimated financial value.
这也不足为奇，毕竟大堡礁给他们带来了那么多的游客和收入。
So, no, the Great Barrier Reef is not dead.
换句话说，没死，大堡礁还没死。
But ⅔ of it is damaged with its recovery in question.
但是，其中有三分之二的地方都已经损坏了，而且能不能恢复还是个问题。
Now if someone just shared this video instead of those other articles, we could maybe all get on the same page.
现在，如果有人只是分享了这个视频而不是分享那些文章，我们或许还能追上他们。
Please share the video.
摆脱大家把这个视频分享出去嘛。
The ocean’s full of cool stuff like coral reefs,
海洋里充满了像珊瑚礁这种酷酷的东西，
find out about its mysterious Twilight Zone in our new series, Science in the Extremes.
我们最近出的“科学之最”中介绍了深海神秘的朦胧地带，大家快去看吧。
Don’t forget to subscribe, and keep coming back to Seeker for more videos.
还有，别忘了订阅我们的频道，回来看更多视频喔。
