My wife grew up in Santa Rosa, California, and her best friend was a woman named Joy Durand who lived on the northeast outskirts of town.
我的妻子在加利福尼亚州圣罗莎长大,她最好的朋友是一位名叫乔伊·杜兰德的女人,她住在城镇的东北郊。
At midnight on the evening of October 8, 2017, Joy's telephone rang.
2017年10月8日的半夜,乔伊的电话响了。
The voice said simply, "You must evacuate now.
那声音简单地说:“你现在必须撤离。
You don't have time to pack.
你没有时间收拾行李。
Fire is coming."
野火来了。”
Joy gathered her parents and her six-year-old son, and they hurried outside.
乔伊把她的父母和六岁的儿子集合起来,他们急忙跑出去。
The wildfire, which at that point was just over the ridge from Joy's house, sounded like a jet engine going at full throttle.
野火当时就在乔伊家附近的山脊上,听起来就像喷气发动机全速运转。
The family got in their car, drove away, and within minutes, their home had burned to the ground, incinerated by the blowtorch flames of the Tubbs Fire.
一家人上了车,开走了,几分钟之内,他们的家就被烧毁了,被塔布斯大火的喷灯火焰焚烧。
All night long, my wife got texts and messages from friends and family, and while we didn’t know the whole situation, it was clear that a disaster was unfolding in her hometown.
整个晚上,我的妻子都在接受朋友和家人发来的短信和消息,虽然我们不知道整个情况,但是很明显,她的家乡正在发生一场灾难。
No one thought that fire could penetrate so deeply into the city.
谁也没想到,大火能够深入城市如此之深。
But on that evening, 22 people lost their lives and over five thousand homes and structures were destroyed.
但就在那天晚上,22人丧生,五千多座房屋和建筑被毁。
Wildfire is a large and growing challenge to the West and to the world.
野火对西方和世界来说是一个巨大且日益严峻的挑战。
What happened in Santa Rosa is becoming all too common.
圣罗莎发生的事情变得司空见惯。
Paradise in 2018, Australia in 2020, Europe in 2022.
2018 年的天堂镇,2020 年的澳大利亚,2022 年的欧洲。
And fire experts say that we should get ready for more Santa Rosas because it's likely to get worse before it gets better.
消防专家表示我们应该为更多类似圣罗莎的事件做好准备,因为情况在好转之前可能会变得更糟。
Now beyond the major costs in lives and property and the economy, there's also a big carbon impact to wildfire.
现在除了生命财产和经济损失之外,野火也会产生很大的碳影响。
In fact, the additional carbon from California's 2020 wildfires was greater than the carbon that Californians had worked so hard to save over the previous two decades.
事实上,2020 年加州山火产生的额外碳大于加州人在过去的二十年里付出如此多努力来节约的碳。
The largest fires are called megafires.
最大的火灾称为特大火灾。
These are the ones that burn over 100,000 acres with the intensity that can threaten aquifers and biodiversity, and even cause forest conversion, in which trees are so damaged that they just don't grow back.
这些是烧毁面积超过 100,000 英亩的火灾,其强度可能威胁到含水层和生物多样性,甚至导致森林转变,树木受到严重破坏,无法再生长。
These fires are getting worse as well.
这些火灾也变得越来越严重。
In fact, eight of the ten largest megafires in California history have happened over just the last five years.
事实上,加州历史上十大特大火灾中的八场就是过去五年里发生的。
Many people feel overwhelmed by this situation.
许多人对这种情况感到不知所措。
I know I did.
我知道我该做什么。
So two years ago, working with great people, I closed a chapter of my life in aerospace and I started a new journey to see if I could understand the wildfire crisis better and what could be done about it.
所以两年前,我和伟大的人一起工作,在航空航天领域结束了人生的篇章,我开始了新的旅程,看看我是否能更好地理解野火危机以及对此可以采取什么措施。
I started working with leaders from firefighting and philanthropy, entrepreneurship, science, tribal communities, and together we cofounded an organization called Megafire Action, whose sole purpose is to solve the megafire crisis.
我开始与消防、慈善界、企业家、科学、部落社区的领导者们合作,我们共同创立了一个名为“特大火灾行动组”的组织,其唯一目的是解决特大火灾危机。
And I've come to believe that if we take a holistic approach, we have an opportunity to establish a new relationship with fire, to work safely with fire and potentially to solve this wicked problem.
我开始相信,如果我们采取整体方法,我们有机会与火灾建立新的关系,开展防火安全作业,并有可能解决这个棘手的问题。