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Fires Increase on Pacific Islands
太平洋岛屿火灾增加
Experts say Pacific island fires are increasing, creating environmental damage that affects important and limited resources for millions of residents.
专家表示，太平洋岛屿的火灾正在增加，造成环境破坏，影响到数百万居民重要而有限的资源。
From Micronesia to Hawaii, wildfires have been a growing problem for many years. With little financing to prevent and deal with these fires, island communities have struggled to control the problem.
从密克罗尼西亚到夏威夷，森林大火多年来一直是一个日益严重的问题。由于几乎没有资金来预防和处理这些火灾，岛屿社区一直难以控制这一问题。
Clay Trauernicht of the University of Hawaii said that on tropical islands, fires have strong effects. These fires can, in his words, wreak havoc — meaning to cause much destruction or confusion - because the native environment evolved without regular fires.
夏威夷大学的克雷·特劳尔尼希特表示，热带岛屿上的火灾有很强的影响。用他的话来说，这些火灾可以造成严重破坏——意味着造成很大的破坏或混乱——因为当地环境是在没有规律火灾的情况下进化而来。
"Fires were very rare prior to human arrival on any Pacific island... And so when you do get these fires, they tend to kind of wreak havoc," Trauernicht said.
特劳尔尼希特说，“在人类到达任何太平洋岛屿之前，火灾都非常罕见。因此，火灾发生时往往会造成严重破坏。”
But it's not just burnt land that is affected. Island fires harm areas from the top of mountains to below the ocean's surface.
但受影响的不仅仅是被烧毁的土地。岛屿火灾损害了从山顶到海洋表面以下的地区。
Trauernicht said that soil gets carried away during heavy rainstorms after the fires have removed all the plant life, which has an effect even on ocean life and coral reefs.
特劳尔尼希特说，大火摧毁所有植物后，土壤会在暴雨期间被冲走，这甚至会对海洋生物和珊瑚礁产生影响。
Pacific island reefs support local food production, create barriers to large storms, and are an important part of tourism that keeps many islands running.
太平洋岛礁支持当地的粮食生产，为大型风暴提供屏障，也是维持许多岛屿运转的旅游业的重要组成部分。
The wet season on tropical islands also causes some grasses to grow tall and thick, building fuel for the next summer's wildfires.
热带岛屿的雨季也导致一些草长得又高又厚，这为来年夏天的野火提供了燃料。
Michael Walker is Hawaii's state fire protection forester. Walker noted that Guinea grass, a kind of grass that can grow very fast, creates "really fast-moving, very hot, very dangerous fires."
迈克尔·沃克是夏威夷州的消防护林员。沃克指出，几内亚草是一种生长速度非常快的草，它会引发“移动非常快、非常热、非常危险的火灾”。
A recent wildfire on Hawaii's Big Island burned about 1 percent of the state's total land, and other islands in the Pacific such as Palau, Saipan and Guam burn even more — up to 10 percent in some years.
夏威夷大岛最近发生的一场森林大火烧毁了该州约1%的土地，帕劳、塞班岛和关岛等太平洋上其他岛屿的烧毁面积甚至更大——某些年份高达10%。
On average, Guam has nearly 700 wildfires a year, Palau about 175 and Saipan about 20, reports data from 2018.
2018年的数据显示，关岛平均每年发生近700起森林大火，帕劳约175起，塞班岛约20起。
Guam, like many other places, has long used fire as a tool. Farmers sometimes use it to clear fields, and hunters have been known to burn areas while hunting illegally.
关岛和其他许多地方一样，长期以来一直将火作为工具。农民有时会用火来清理田地，而狩猎者在非法狩猎时也会焚烧土地。
The U.S. territory's forestry chief Christine Camacho Fejeran said fires on the island are mostly caused by arson, or illegal burning. "So, all of Guam's wildfires are human-caused issues, whether it's an intentional or an escaped backyard fire or another (cause)," she said.
关岛是美国领土，关岛林业负责人克里斯蒂娜·卡马乔·费杰伦表示，岛上的火灾主要由纵火或非法焚烧引起。她说，“因此，关岛所有森林大火都是人为造成的问题，无论是蓄意还是逃离后院的火灾或其他原因。”
On average, Fejeran said, 2,430 to 2,830 hectares of the island burn each year, amounting to about 5 percent of its land.
费杰伦表示，该岛平均每年有2430至2830公顷土地被烧毁，约占其土地面积的5%。
Back in Hawaii, Kumu Micah Kamohoalii said of a recent fire, "I've never seen a fire this big,"
回到夏威夷，库姆·米卡·卡莫瓦利谈到最近的一场火灾时表示，“我从未见过这么严重的火灾。”
Kamohoalii's family has lived in the area for many generations.
卡莫瓦利一家已在该地区生活了好几代。
He suggested that the environment has changed during his lifetime.
他表示，在他的一生中，环境发生了变化。
"When I was young, all of this was always green," Kamohoalii said. "In the last 10 to 15 years, it has been really, really dry."
卡莫瓦利说，“我年轻的时候，这里的一切都是绿色的。过去10到15年，这里一直非常非常干燥。”
Trauernicht, the University of Hawaii wildfire expert, suggested that climate change is one of the reasons for the fires in Hawaii.
夏威夷大学的森林大火专家特劳尔尼希特认为，气候变化是夏威夷火灾的原因之一。
In addition to education and arson prevention, he said, changes in land use — such as reforestation that reduces some grasses — could help.
他表示，除了教育和防止纵火之外，土地利用的变化——比如重新造林以减少一些草——也会有所帮助。
"It's within our control, potentially, to reduce the impacts that we're seeing with fires," Trauernicht said. "Both in terms of forest loss as well as the impacts on coral reefs."
特劳尔尼希特说，“减少火灾带来的影响可能是我们可以控制的。无论是在森林损失方面，还是在对珊瑚礁的影响方面，都是如此。”
I'm John Russell.
约翰·拉塞尔报道。
译文为可可英语翻译，未经授权请勿转载！
