吃货的噩耗！气候变化正令10种食物变得濒危

吃货的噩耗！气候变化正令10种食物变得濒危

Is climate change consuming your favorite foods?

拜气候变化所赐，我们不但要适应更炎热的天气，而且能吃到的美食也更少了。你最爱的一些美食可能在30年后就吃不到了，来看看哪些食物会因为气候变化而“濒危”？

1 Coffee 咖啡

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Whether or not you try to limit yourself to one cup of coffee a day, the effects of climate change on the world's coffee-growing regions may leave you little choice.

不论你是否试着让自己每天只喝一杯咖啡，气候变化对全世界咖啡种植区的影响恐怕会让你别无选择。

Coffee plantations in South America, Africa, Asia, and Hawaii are all being threatened by rising air temperatures and erratic rainfall patterns, which invite disease and invasive species to infest the coffee plant and ripening beans. The result? Significant cuts in coffee yield (and less coffee in your cup).

气温升高和降雨模式异常给南美、非洲、亚洲和夏威夷的咖啡种植园带来了病害和入侵物种，对咖啡植株和成长中的咖啡豆造成了威胁。结果就是咖啡收成大幅下降（你能喝到的咖啡自然也就少了）。

Organizations like Australia's Climate Institute estimate that, if current climate patterns continue, half of the areas presently suitable for coffee production won't be by the year 2050.

澳洲气候研究所等组织估计，如果当前的气候模式持续，到2050年现在的咖啡种植区有一半将不再适合种植咖啡。

2 Chocolate 巧克力

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Coffee's culinary cousin, cacao (aka chocolate), is also suffering stress from global warming's rising temperatures. But for chocolate, it isn't the warmer climate alone that's the problem. Cacao trees actually prefer warmer climates... as long as that warmth is paired with high humidity and abundant rain (i.e., a rainforest climate). According to the 2014 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the problem is, the higher temperatures projected for the world's leading chocolate-producing countries (Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Indonesia) are not expected to be accompanied by an increase in rainfall. So as higher temperatures sap more moisture from soil and plants through evaporation, it's unlikely that rainfall will increase enough to offset this moisture loss.

咖啡的美味伴侣可可豆（也就是巧克力）也遭受着全球变暖带来的压力。不过对于巧克力而言，气候变暖并不是问题所在。可可树其实更喜欢炎热的天气，前提是伴有较高的湿度和充足的雨水（也就是热带雨林气候）。根据政府间气候变化专门委员会2014年的报告，问题在于世界上主要巧克力生产国（科特迪瓦、加纳和印尼）的高温天气并没有伴随着降雨的增多。高温的蒸发带走了泥土和植株的更多水分，而降雨又不足以抵消水分的流失。

In this same report, the IPCC predicts that these effects could reduce cocoa production, which means 1 million less tons of bars, truffles, and powder per year by 2020.

在这份报告中，政府间气候变化专门委员会预计这些影响会令可可豆减产，这意味着在2020年前，每年生产出的巧克力棒、松露巧克力和巧克力粉会减少100万吨。

3 Tea 茶

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When it comes to tea (the world's 2nd favorite beverage next to water), warmer climates and erratic precipitation aren't only shrinking the world's tea-growing regions, they're also messing with its distinct flavor.

说到茶（世界上受欢迎程度仅次于水的饮料），气候变暖和降水异常不但令全世界的茶叶种植区缩小，而且还在破坏茶的独特风味。

For example, in India, researchers have already discovered that the Indian Monsoon has brought more intense rainfall, which waterlogs plants and dilutes tea flavor.

以印度为例，研究人员已经发现印度季风带来了更强降水，这会给茶园带来涝灾，令茶的味道变淡。

Recent research coming out of the University of Southampton suggests that tea-producing areas in some places, notably East Africa, could decline by as much as 55 percent by 2050 as precipitation and temperatures change.

南安普顿大学最近的研究指出，一些地方（尤其是东非）的产茶区，随着降水和气温的变化，茶叶产量可能会在2050年前减少55%。

Tea pickers are also feeling the impacts of climate change. During harvest season, increased air temperatures are creating an increased risk of heatstroke for field workers.

采茶人也感受到了气候变化的影响。在收获季节，气温的升高会令采茶人更容易中暑。

4 Honey 蜂蜜

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More than one-third of America's honeybees have been lost to Colony Collapse Disorder, but climate change is having its own effects on bee behavior. According to a 2016 US Department of Agriculture study, rising carbon dioxide levels are decreasing the protein levels in pollen — a bee's main food source. As a result, bees aren't getting enough nutrition, which in turn can lead to less reproduction and even eventual die-off. As USDA plant physiologist Lewis Ziska puts it, "Pollen is becoming junk food for bees."

超三分之一的美国蜜蜂都死于蜂群衰竭失调症，但气候变化对蜜蜂行为也产生了影响。根据美国农业部2016年的一项研究，二氧化碳水平上升令花粉中的蛋白质水平下降，而花粉是蜜蜂的主要食物来源。结果蜜蜂不能获得足够的营养，从而影响繁衍甚至导致灭绝。正如美国农业部的植物生理学家路易斯·切斯卡所说，“花粉对蜜蜂而言正变成垃圾食品。”

But that's not the only way climate is messing with bees. Warmer temperatures and earlier snow melt can trigger earlier spring flowering of plants and trees; so early, in fact, that bees may still be in the larva stage and not yet mature enough to pollinate them.

不过这不是气候让蜜蜂遭殃的唯一方式。气温升高和融雪提早会让植物和树更早开花，事实上，正因为花开得太早了，蜜蜂可能还在幼虫期，没有成熟到可以授粉。

The fewer worker bees to pollinate, the less honey they're able to make. And that means fewer crops too, since our fruits and vegetables exist thanks to the tireless flight and pollination by our native bees.

授粉的蜜蜂少了，酿出的蜂蜜也就少了。这也意味着农作物的收成会减少，因为水果和蔬菜的长成都要仰仗蜜蜂飞来飞去地辛勤授粉。

5 Seafood 海鲜

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Climate change is affecting the world's aquaculture as much as its agriculture.

气候变化既影响着世界上的农业，也影响着世界上的水产业。

As air temperatures rise, oceans and waterways absorb some of the heat and undergo warming of their own. The result is a decline in fish population, including in lobsters (who are cold-blooded creatures), and salmon (whose eggs find it hard to survive in higher water temps). Warmer waters also encourage toxic marine bacteria, like Vibrio, to grow and cause illness in humans whenever ingested with raw seafood, like oysters or sashimi.

随着气温上升，海洋和水道吸收了一部分热量，造成水体升温。结果造成鱼类数量减少，包括龙虾（冷血动物）和三文鱼（鱼卵难以在较高水温中存活）。温度更高的海水会催生弧菌等有毒的海洋细菌，致使摄入生牡蛎或生鱼片等生海鲜的人生病。

And that satisfying "crack" you get when eating crab and lobster? It could be silenced as shellfish struggle to build their calcium carbonate shells, a result of ocean acidification (absorb carbon dioxide from the air).

而你在咬碎螃蟹或龙虾的壳时将不再听到令人满足的噼啪声，因为甲壳类水生动物由于海洋酸化（吸收空气中的二氧化碳的结果）将难以长出坚硬的碳酸钙壳。

Even worse is the possibility of no longer eating seafood at all, which according to a 2006 Dalhousie University study, is a possibility. In this study, scientists predicted that if over-fishing and rising temperature trends continued at their present rate, the world's seafood stocks would run out by the year 2050.

更糟的结果是再也吃不到海鲜。根据2006年达尔豪斯大学的一项研究，这是有可能的。在这项研究中，科学家预言，如果过度捕捞鱼类和气温升高的趋势以目前的速度持续下去，世界上的海鲜存货将会在2050年前耗光。

6 Rice 米饭

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When it comes to rice, our changing climate is more of a threat to the growing method than to the grains themselves.

相对于大米本身，气候变化对于大米耕种方法的威胁更大。

Rice farming is done in flooded fields (called paddies), but as increased global temperatures bring more frequent and more intense droughts, the world's rice-growing regions may not have enough water to flood fields to the proper level (usually 5 inches deep). This could make the cultivating this nutritious staple crop more difficult.

大米种植是在水田中进行的，但随着全球气温的升高，干旱天气更频繁也更严重，世界上的大米种植区可能没有足够的水让田中的水保持合适的高度（大约5英寸）。这会让种植大米变得更难。

7 Wheat 小麦

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A recent study involving Kansas State University researchers finds that in the coming decades, at least one-quarter of the world's wheat production will be lost to extreme weather and water stress if no adaptive measures are taken.

堪萨斯州立大学的研究人员近日的一项研究发现，如果不采取对策，未来几十年将因为极端天气和水资源缺乏而令全球小麦减产四分之一。

Researchers found that the effects from climate change and its increasing temperatures on wheat will be more severe than once projected and are happening sooner than expected. While increases in the average temperature are problematic, a bigger challenge is the extreme temperatures that are resulting from climate change. Researchers also found that increasing temperatures are shortening the time frame that wheat plants have to mature and produce full heads for harvest, resulting in less grain produced from each plant.

研究人员发现，气候变化和气温升高对小麦的影响比原先预计的更严重，比预期的来得更早。平均气温升高固然很成问题，但更大的挑战是气候变化引起的极端气温。研究人员还发现，气温升高缩短了小麦植株成熟的时间，令穗子个头增大，从而导致每株小麦所收获的粮食减少。

According to a study released by the Postdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, corn and soybean plants can lose 5% of their harvest for every day temperatures climb above 86 °F (30 °C). (Corn plants are especially sensitive to heat waves and drought). At this rate, future harvests of wheat, soybeans, and corn could drop by up to 50 percent.

根据德国波茨坦气候影响研究所的一项研究，如果日常气温攀升到30摄氏度以上，玉米和大豆庄稼将减产5%。玉米植株对热浪和干旱尤其敏感。如果气温以这一速度持续升高，小麦、大豆和玉米未来的收成会减少50%。

8 Orchard Fruits 果园的水果

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Peaches and cherries, two favorite stone fruits of the summer season, may in fact suffer at the hands of too much heat.

过热的天气可能会让夏季最受喜爱的两种核果——桃子和樱桃减产。

According to David Lobell, deputy director of the Center on Food Security and the Environment at Stanford University, fruit trees (including cherry, plum, pear, and apricot) require "chilling hours"— a period of time when they're exposed to temperatures below 45° F (7° C) each winter. Skip the required cold, and fruit and nut trees struggle to break dormancy and flower in the spring. Ultimately, this means a drop in the amount and quality of fruit that's produced.

斯坦福大学食品安全和环境中心副主任戴维·罗贝尔称，水果树（包括樱桃、李子、梨和杏）需要“冷冻期”——每年冬天气温低于7摄氏度的一段时间。如果没有这段冷冻期，核果树将无力打破冬眠期，在春天绽放花朵，最终将会导致果实减产，品质下降。

By the year 2030, scientists estimate the number of 45°F or colder days during winter will have lessened significantly.

到2030年，科学家估计冬天气温低于7摄氏度的日子将会明显减少。

9 Maple Syrup 枫糖浆

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Rising temperatures in the Northeast US and Canada have negatively impacted sugar maple trees, including dulling the trees' fall foliage and stressing the tree to the point of decline. But while the total retreat of sugar maples out of the US may still be several decades away, climate is already wreaking havoc on its most prized products — maple syrup — today.

美国东北部和加拿大上升的气温已经对枫树造成了负面影响，包括让枫叶颜色变浅，让枫树在压力下凋零。虽然距离糖枫从美国完全消失也许还有数十年时间，但如今气候变化已经让宝贵的枫糖浆严重受损。

For one, warmer winters and yo-yo winters (periods of cold sprinkled with periods of unseasonable warmth) in the Northeast have shortened the "sugaring season" — the period when temperatures are mild enough to coax trees to turn stored-up starches into sugar sap, but not warm enough to trigger budding. (When trees bud, sap is said to become less palatable).

首先，美国东北部的暖冬和乍暖乍寒的天气缩短了枫树的“化糖期”——在天气不冷不热而气温又不会暖到催动枫树萌芽时，枫树会将储存的淀粉转化为糖浆。据说当枫树萌芽时，枫糖浆就不会那么美味了。

Too-hot temperatures have also lessened the maple sap's sweetness. "What we found was that after years when trees produced a lot of seeds, there was less sugar in the sap," says Tufts University ecologist Elizabeth Crone. Crone explains that when trees are more stressed out, they drop more seeds. "They'll invest more of their resources in producing seeds that can hopefully go somewhere else where the environmental conditions are better." This means it takes more gallons of sap to make a pure gallon of maple syrup with the required 70% sugar content. Twice as many gallons, to be exact.

天气太热还会降低枫糖浆的甜度。塔夫茨大学的生态学家伊丽莎白·克龙说：“我们发现，在枫树大量产籽数年后，汁液中的糖分会减少。”克龙解释说，当枫树感受到气候变化的压力后，它们会产生更多的籽。“枫树会将更多资源用于产籽，希望这些籽能够到环境条件更有利的地方去生长。”这意味着要制出一加仑含糖量达70%的纯枫糖浆，将需要更多的枫树汁液。准确来说，需要原来的两倍的枫树汁液才能制出来。

10 Peanuts 花生

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Peanuts (and peanut butter) may be one of the simplest of snacks, but the peanut plant is considered to be fairly fussy, even among farmers.

花生或花生酱也许是最简单的一种小吃，但花生植株却是比较难伺候的，即使在农民看来也是如此。

Peanut plants grow best when they get five months of consistently warm weather and 20-40 inches of rain. Anything less and plants won't survive, much less produce pods. That isn't good news when you consider most climate models agree the climate of the future will be one of extremes, including droughts and heatwaves.

当温暖天气持续五个月并且降雨量达20到40英寸（51厘米到102厘米）时，花生植株长得最好。如果天气达不到要求，花生植株将难以存活，能结出果实的更是少之又少。考虑到多数气候模型一致得出的结论是未来的气候条件会变得极端，要么干旱要么热浪，对花生而言还真不是好消息。

In 2011, the world caught a glimpse of the peanut's future fate when drought conditions across the peanut-growing Southeastern US led many plants to wither and die from heat stress. According to CNN Money, the dry spell caused peanut prices to rise by as much as 40 percent!

2011年世界瞥见了花生未来的命运，当时干旱席卷了美国东南部的花生种植区，许多花生植株都枯萎并死于热浪。根据CNN财经频道的报道，这次干旱导致花生的价格上涨了40%之多！