澳大利亚遭受火灾破坏的森林正在恢复

澳大利亚遭受火灾破坏的森林正在恢复

In the back corner of a burned lot in Australia's fire-ravaged South Coast stands a torched tree. It's uppermost branches reach into a cloudless sky, brittle and bare.

在澳大利亚南海岸一片被大火烧毁的土地的后角，矗立着一棵被火烧过的树。它最上面的树枝伸向无云的天空，脆弱而光秃秃的。

But that's not where local resident Claire Polach is pointing. She gestures to the middle part of the tree, where lime green leaves sprout from blackened bark, as if the tree is wearing a shaggy sweater.

但这并不是当地居民克莱尔·波拉奇所指的地方。她指着树的中间部分，那里石灰绿色的叶子从烧焦的树皮中发芽，就好像树穿着一件蓬松的毛衣。

To Polach, the burst of regrowth is a sign that despite a months' long assault of flame and smoke, the second-hottest summer on record and a multi-year drought, Australia's nature "is doing it's thing."

对波拉奇来说，尽管经历了一个月的火焰和烟雾的困扰，经历了有记录以来第二热的夏天，经历了多年的干旱，但澳大利亚的自然“正在做它该做的事”。

As for people like her, recovering from the same? "We'll follow the nature," she says.

至于像她这样的人，从同样的困境中恢复过来了吗?”我们将遵循自然，”她说。

This cycle of fire, rain and recovery has played out in Australia for millennia. The majority of the country's forests are uniquely adapted to fire. "Australia is, more than any other, a fire continent," writes ecologist and historian Stephen Pyne in his book "World Fire."

这种火、雨和复苏的循环在澳大利亚已经持续了几千年。这个国家的大部分森林都特别适合(引发)火灾。”生态学家和历史学家斯蒂芬·派恩在他的《世界之火》一书中写道：“澳大利亚比任何其他国家都更像是一个火大陆。”

But scientists have long warned that a warming climate could mean more severe fires, more often. Now there are concerns that even a fire continent will struggle to recover from the scale and severity of recent events.

但科学家一直警告说，气候变暖可能意味着更严重的火灾，而且更频繁。现在有人担心，即使是一个火灾大陆也很难从最近事件的规模和严重性中恢复过来。

New research published in the journal Nature Climate Change found that a staggering 21 percent of Australia's forested area burned in the 2019-2020 fire season, a figure the authors say is "globally unprecedented".

发表在《自然-气候变化》杂志上的最新研究发现，澳大利亚有21%的森林面积在2019-2020年的火灾季节被烧毁，这一数字“在全球范围内是前所未有的”。

Recovering for now

暂时恢复

His eyes on a narrow dirt road in front of him, Colin Brown gestures his head at the walls of burned trees passing on either side of his rumbling fire tanker.

科林·布朗的目光落在前方一条狭窄的土路上，他的头朝着燃烧的树墙，这些树从他隆隆作响的消防车两边经过。

"Good way to assess how bad the fire was is the scorch marks on the trees," he says. Two trucks ahead of him is a team of ecologists from the Australian National University, here in Tallaganda National Park to survey the damage caused by a recent fire.

他说：“评估火灾严重程度的好方法是树上的焦痕。”。他前面的两辆卡车是澳大利亚国立大学的生态学家组成的一个小组，他们在塔拉甘达国家公园调查最近一场火灾造成的损失。

Brown, a deputy captain with the Rural Fire Service in New South Wales, already has a pretty good idea of it. He, like tens of thousands of other volunteer firefighters, has spent the last few months doing what he could to protect homes, ranches and other people tucked between.

布朗是新南威尔士州农村消防队的副队长，他已经对此有了很好的认识。他和其他数万名志愿消防队员一样，在过去的几个月里，尽他所能保护居住地、牧场和其他被大火吞噬的人们。

A recent study by a group of international scientists confirmed what Brown and many others suspected: human-caused climate change contributed to the conditions they saw over the last few months, making them 30 percent more likely. "The weather's just different," Brown says.

一组国际科学家最近的一项研究证实了布朗和其他许多人的猜测:过去几个月里，他们所看到的情况是由人类引起的气候变化造成的，这种情况发生的可能性增加了30%。“天气都不一样了，”布朗说。

Outside, the scorch marks now reach the tops of the trees. The ground below is littered with fallen logs and dead leaves. Brown stops the engine and puts on a helmet, a caution against any weakened trees that have yet to fall.

外面，烧焦的痕迹已经蔓延到树顶。下面的地面上散落着倒下的圆木和枯叶。布朗关掉引擎，戴上头盔，警告人们小心那些还没有倒下的树。