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"You know when people think about climate change and wildlife,
“话说，当人们想到气候变化和野生动物时，
they probably think about polar bears and maybe the Great Barrier Reef.
他们想到的可能是北极熊，或许还有大堡礁。
Well, we can add koalas to them now."
现在，考拉也可以上榜了。”
"As many as 30% koalas...of the country's New South Wales region may have been killed...as fires continue to ravage and destroy their habitat."
“随着大火继续肆虐，考拉的栖息地遭到破坏，该国新南威尔士地区或已有3成考拉死亡。”
"The reality is that these fires are not normal. We're in a war zone."
“事实上，这些大火并不是寻常的大火，而是战争级别的大火。”
"So I know that there's, there's been, you know, loss of human life, definitely loss of property here,
“我知道，你们那边已经有人员伤亡了，财产损失肯定也是有的，
but what impact has this fire had, this fire season had, on wildlife in Australia?"
但我想知道的是，这场大火，或者说这次的火灾季对澳大利亚的野生动物产生了怎样的影响？”
"Well over 1 billion animals are thought to have died or will soon die in the weeks, the months ahead, because of the current fires.
“我们认为，因为这场火灾，已经死亡或在接下来几周或几个月内即将死亡的动物数量将会达到10亿只以上。
That's 1 billion.
十亿只啊。
And we've never had a toll like that on our wildlife,
我们的野生动物从未遭受过如此沉重的打击，
but it seems that every few days, the statistics get worse.
但貌似每隔几天，这方面的数据都在进一步恶化。
I don't know where it will end by the end of this fire season."
到这次火灾季结束，这一数据最终会恶化到何种程度，我也没底。”
"Are there specific species that are particularly being hard hit by this?"
“有没有哪些动物这次受到的影响格外严重的？”
"Many many animals cannot flee these big fires.
“有很多很多动物都没办法从这次的大火中逃出来。
Either they can't fly, they can't move quickly, they can't burrow — they burn to death.
要么是因为不会飞，要么是跑得不够快，或者不会挖洞——就只能被活活烧死。
Particularly because Australia has bulldozed half of our forests,
特别是因为澳大利亚已经铲平了一半的森林，
it's hard for wildlife to flee somewhere else and that's why you find a lot of animals — including koalas —
那些野生动物就很难逃到其他栖息地，所以，你会发现很多动物——包括考拉——
are wandering into people's backyards, into the streets looking for some habitat to survive in.
为了找个地方活命流落到了很多人家的后院或是大街上。
When they panic, they climb up a tree.
受到惊吓的时候它们会往树上爬。
That works when the fires low down.
火势不大的时候这个办法还算管用。
But it's almost a death sentence when the fire consumes its crown fire, the canopy fire.
但如果火势特别大，是那种树冠火灾的话，几乎就等于判死刑了。
People have talked about flames up to 200 feet in the air.
据说这次火灾火苗的高度达到了200英尺，
That's 70 meters.
也就是足足70米高。
I mean, that is — our trees generally don't grow that big.
普通的树长都长不到那么高。
So any wildlife, birds, or lizards that go to the top of the trees to escape a normal fire, they're sitting ducks really."
所以，任何到树上躲避普通火灾的野生动物、鸟类，蜥蜴之类的动物都成了坐以待毙的对象。”
"So I've seen a lot of particularly hard-to-watch videos of koalas, you know, basically charred from the fire.
“我看到很多让人特别不忍心看的考拉，差不多都是它们被活活烧焦在树上的视频。
Are they gonna go extinct after this?
这次火灾过后，它们会灭绝吗？
What's the status of the koala now, and what's gonna happen to them?"
考拉这个种群现在处境如何？结局会怎么样？”
"Our estimation is that koala numbers over the last 230 years have fallen by about 95%,
“据我们估计，过去230年里，考拉的数量已经减少了将近95%了，
and these fires will be inching that up towards ninety eight, ninety nine percent over time.
随着时间的推移，这次的火灾会将这一比例推升至98%，99%。
It's important to remember that this bushfire and the climate crisis —
重要的是，要记住这场森林大火，还有气候危机发生之时，
it has come after a couple hundred years of decimating koalas and their habitat.
考拉的数量和它们的栖息地已经遭到数百年的灭绝性破坏了。
So for 100 years, koalas were shot for their pelts
近100年来，人们一直在射杀考拉，掠夺它们的毛皮，
and there's records of 8 million koala pelts being sold in the United States, the UK, and I think Europe up until the 1930s,
据记录，美国，英国，我记得还有欧洲，一共有800万张考拉毛皮被交易，
when there was a moratorium put on shooting koalas."
这一买卖一直到1930年代政府出台暂停射杀考拉的政策才结束。”
"The term 'functionally extinct' has been thrown around in the media during these fires in reference to the koalas.
“这次火灾期间，媒体在提到考拉的时候反复用到了‘功能性灭绝’这个词。
What does 'functionally extinct' mean, and is that true?"
这个词到底是什么意思呢？他们说的是真的吗？”
"The term 'functional extinction' is used for animals where there are only tens or hundreds not even thousands of animals left.
“‘功能性灭绝’这个术语是用来形容那些只剩下几十或几百只，不足上千只的动物的。
So rhinos, or animals where there's ten or twenty left.
也就是说是用来形容犀牛，或者整个种群已经只剩10到20头的那些动物的。
We're not there yet for koalas.
考拉目前来没有到这个地步。
In eastern Australia, koalas are listed as a threatened species but at the lowest level they're called vulnerable.
在这之前，澳大利亚东部地区就已经将考拉列为濒危物种了，不过是最轻微的濒危等级，也即“易危”等级。
We think they're now eligible to be uplisted to being an endangered species.
我们认为，现在它们已经具备升级到“濒危”级别的资格了。
There are solutions to these problems, koalas and polar bears don't need to go extinct.
这些问题都是有解决办法的，考拉和北极熊并非只有灭绝这一条路可走。
And the term 'functional extinction' doesn't help that."
‘功能性灭绝’这个帽子其实也帮不上什么忙。
"For people like me at home, like watching this heart-wrenching footage, is there anything we can do to help the situation?"
“对于和我一样，在家眼看着这些令人心碎的镜头的人，我们能帮忙做点儿什么吗？”
"I think the first thing people can do around the world is to read up about what's happening in Australia,
“无论身在何地，你首先能做的就是认真了解澳大利亚的动态，
because if it's happening in our country, if it's not already happening in your country,
因为如果这种事已经发生在我们国家了，那将来也会以这样或那样的方式发生在你的国家，
it will be in the future, of some type, as the climate gets worse and worse.
因为气候问题已经越来越严重了。
We need to convince people who don't care about nature or the climate —
我们要说服那些不关心大自然或不关心气候的人——
particularly decision makers, governments, presidents, prime ministers —
尤其是不关心大自然和气候的决策者，政府，总统，总理之类的人——
you have a role in helping keep these species alive."
挽救这些物种的生命，你们都是重要的一员。”
