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TopherWhite_2014X-_如何拯救热带雨林？——你的旧手机_
(Rainforest noises) （热带雨林的声音）
In the summer of 2011, as a tourist, 在2011年的夏天,作为一名旅游者,
I visited the rainforests of Borneo for the very first time, and as you might imagine, it was the overwhelming sounds of the forest that struck me the most. 我第一次参观了婆罗洲的热带雨林, 正如你可能会想象, 森林无法抗拒的声音给我下了最深刻的印象。
rainforests:n.(热带)雨林; overwhelming:adj.势不可挡的; v.压倒; (overwhelm的现在分词)
There's this constant cacophony of noise. 就是这种持续不断的喧闹的声音。
cacophony:n.刺耳的音调;不和谐音;
Some things actually do stick out. 但有些东西的确非常引人注意。
For example, this here is a big bird, a rhinoceros hornbill . 例如,这是一只很大的鸟,名叫犀鸟。
rhinoceros:n.[脊椎]犀牛; hornbill:n.[鸟]犀鸟;犀鸟科;
This buzzing is a cicada . 这嗡嗡的声音是蝉声。
buzzing:v.发出嗡嗡声;发出蜂鸣声;充满兴奋(或活动等);(buzz的现在分词) cicada:n.蝉;
This is a family of gibbons . 这是一个长臂猿家族,
gibbons:吉本斯(Gibbons姓氏);[脊椎]长臂猿(gibbon的名词复数);
It's actually singing to each other over a great distance. 它们其实在对彼此唱歌,隔着很远的距离。
The place where this was recorded was in fact a gibbon reserve , which is why you can hear so many of them, but in fact the most important noise that was coming out of the forest that time was one that I didn't notice, and in fact nobody there had actually noticed it. 这个地方实际上是一个长臂猿保护区, 这就是为什么你能听到这么多的声音, 但实际上那个时候最重要的噪声是来自森林外, 我当时却并没注意到, 事实上,那里也根本没有人注意到这种声音。
reserve:n.储备,储存; vt.储备; vi.预订;
So, as I said , this was a gibbon reserve. 因此,正如我所说,这是一个长臂猿保护区。
as I said:正如我所说的
They spend most of their time rehabilitating gibbons, but they also have to spend a lot of their time protecting their area from illegal logging that takes place on the side. 他们花了大部分的时间,重建长臂猿保护区, 但他们也花了很多时间 保护他们的地区周边不遭受非法砍伐。
rehabilitating:v.使康复;使恢复正常;恢复…的名誉;恢复原状;(rehabilitate的现在分词) illegal:adj.不合法的;非法的;n.非法移民;非法劳工; logging:n.伐木作业;v.把…载入正式记录;记录;采伐;(log的现在分词)
And so if we take the sound of the forest and we actually turn down the gibbons, the insects, and the rest, in the background, the entire time, in recordings you heard, was the sound of a chainsaw at great distance. 如果我们弱化森林的声音, 我们调低长臂猿,昆虫和其它的声音, 在这个背景下,整个时间段内,你听到的这个录音 是电锯的声音,从很远的地方传来。
chainsaw:vt.肢解,用链锯割;
They had three full-time guards who were posted around this sanctuary whose job was in fact to guard against illegal logging, and one day, we went walking, again as tourists, out into the forest, and within five minutes' walk, 他们有三个全职警卫,被派驻在整个保护区周围, 他们的工作实际上是防范非法采伐, 有一天,我们再次作为旅游者走进这个森林, 在五分钟的步行路程里,
full-time:adj.专职的;全日制的;全部时间的; sanctuary:n.避难所;至圣所;耶路撒冷的神殿;
we stumbled upon somebody who was just sawing a tree down, five minutes' walk, a few hundred meters from the ranger station. 我们意外发现有人正把树锯断, 五分钟步行路程,离护林站几百米。
stumbled:v.绊脚;跌跌撞撞地走;蹒跚而行;(stumble的过去分词和过去式) ranger:n.园林管理员;护林人;女童子军;突击队员;
They hadn't been able to hear the chainsaws , because as you heard, the forest is very, very loud. 他们一直没能听到电锯声, 因为你们能听到森林的声音是非常嘈杂的。
chainsaws:链锯(chainsaw的复数);
It struck me as quite unacceptable that in this modern time, just a few hundred meters away from a ranger station in a sanctuary, that in fact nobody could hear it when someone who has a chainsaw gets fired up. 我觉得这是非常难以接受的,在当今这个时代, 距离一个保护区的护林站仅数百米, 竟然没有人能听到有人启动了电锯。
unacceptable:adj.不能接受(或允许、同意)的;
It sounds impossible, but in fact, it was quite true. 这听起来不可能,但实际上却是事实。
So how do we stop illegal logging? 那么我们要如何制止非法采伐呢？
It's really tempting , as an engineer, always to come up with a high-tech , super-crazy high-tech solution, but in fact, you're in the rainfor est. 这真的很让人激动,作为一名工程师,总是想到高科技, 超级疯狂的高科技解决方式。 但实际上,你在热带雨林里。
tempting:adj.吸引人的;诱惑人的;v.引诱;(tempt的现在分词); come up with:提出;想出;赶上; high-tech:adj.高科技的,高技术的;仿真技术的;n.高科技;
It has to be simple, it has to be scalable , and so what we also noticed while were there was that everything we needed was already there. 能够采用的方法必须是简单的,能大范围应用的, 我们也注意到,在这个地方 我们需要的每件东西其实都唾手可得。
scalable:adj.可攀登的;可去鳞的;可称量的;
We could build a system that would allow us to stop this using what's already there. 我们可以建立一个系统,使我们能够阻止非法砍伐, 仅仅利用天然的条件。
Who was there? What was already in the forest? 谁在那里？森林里有哪些现成的条件？
Well, we had people. 那里有人。
We had this group there that was dedicated , three full-time guards, that was dedicated to go and stop it, but they just needed to know what was happening out in the forest. 我们已经有三名敬业的专职警卫, 但他们首先需要知道在森林里发生了什么事。
dedicated:adj.献身的; v.把…奉献给; (dedicate的过去分词和过去式)
The real surprise, this is the big one, was that there was connectivity out in the forest. 有一件重要的事情非常出人意料, 那就是森林与外界之间可以建立连接。
connectivity:n.[数]连通性;
There was cell phone service way out in the middle of nowhere . 有移动电话服务,在这种偏僻的地方很不寻常。
nowhere:v.无处; n.无处; adj.不存在的;
We're talking hundreds of kilometers from the nearest road, there's certainly no electricity , but they had very good cell phone service, these people in the towns were on Facebook all the time, they're surfing the web on their phones, 我们谈论的地方距离最近的公路也有数百公里, 肯定没有电,但他们有很好的手机通讯服务, 小镇里的人们一直挂在Facebook上,
electricity:n.电力;电流;强烈的紧张情绪; surfing:v.冲浪;进行冲浪运动;(互联网上)浏览;(surf的现在分词)
and this sort of got me thinking that in fact it would be possible to use the sounds of the forest, pick up the sounds of chainsaws programmatically, because people can't hear them, and send an alert . 这种情况不禁让我想到,事实上是有可能 利用森林的声音, 按照程序指示提取电锯的声音, 因为人们听不到这种声音, 再发出警报。
alert:n.警报; adj.警觉的; v.向…报警;
But you have to have a device to go up in the trees. 但是,你必须有一个装置能固定在树上。
device:n.装置;策略;图案;
So if we can use some device to listen to the sounds of the forest, connect to the cell phone network that's there, and send an alert to people on the ground, perhaps we could have a solution to this issue for them. 所以,如果我们可以用一些装置采集森林的声音, 并连接到那里的手机网络, 再发送警报给地面上的人, 也许我们就有了一个对付非法砍伐的解决办法。
issue:n.重要议题;争论的问题;v.宣布;公布;发出;发行;
But let's take a moment to talk about saving the rainforest, because it's something that we've definitely all heard about forever. 不过让我们再花点时间谈论一下拯救热带雨林, 我们肯定早就已经有所了解。
definitely:adv.清楚地,当然;明确地,肯定地;
People in my generation have heard about saving the rainforest since we were kids, and it seems that the message has never changed: 我们这一代人在小时候就已经听说过关于拯救 热带雨林的话题, 似乎这种信息从未改变:
We've got to save the rainforest, it's super urgent , this many football fields have been destroyed yesterday. 我们必须拯救热带雨林,情况非常危急, 在过去的时间内,相当于这么多足球场的雨林面积已经遭到破坏,
urgent:adj.紧急的;急迫的;
and yet here we are today, about half of the rainforest remains, and we have potentially more urgent problems like climate change. 到今天为止,热带雨林的面积大约只剩下一半, 我们可能还有更迫切的问题,例如气候变化。
potentially:adv.可能地,潜在地;
But in fact, this is the little-known fact that I didn't realize at the time: 但事实上,有一件鲜为人知的事实,我当时并不知道:
little-known:鲜为人知的;
Deforestation accounts for more greenhouse gas than all of the world's planes, trains, cars, trucks and ships combined. 砍伐森林导致了更多温室气体的排放, 超过世界上所有的飞机,火车,汽车,卡车和船只的排放总和。
Deforestation:n.采伐森林;森林开伐; greenhouse gas:n.温室气体(尤指二氧化碳);
It's the second highest contributor to climate change. 这是导致气候变化第二大的诱因。
contributor:n.贡献者;投稿者;捐助者;
Also, according to Interpol , as much as 90 percent of the logging that takes place in the rainforest is illegal logging, like the illegal logging that we saw. 还有,根据国际刑警组织提供的信息, 高达90％的发生在热带雨林的伐木 都是非法伐木,就像我们之前看到的那种情况。
according to:根据,据说; Interpol:n.国际刑警组织;
So if we can help people in the forest enforce the rules that are there, then in fact we could eat heavily into this 17 percent and potentially have a major impact in the short term. 因此,如果我们能帮助护林员加强警戒和监督, 实际上,我们可以大量削减这17％的数字, 并有可能在短时间内产生重大影响。
enforce:v.强制执行;强迫;迫使; impact:n.影响;效果;碰撞;冲击力;v.挤入,压紧;撞击;对…产生影响;
It might just be the cheapest, fastest way to fight climate change. 这可能是最廉价快速应对气候变化的方法。
And so here's the system that we imagine. 这就是我们想象中的系统。
It looks super high tech. 它看起来超高科技。
The moment a sound of a chainsaw is heard in the forest, the device picks up the sound of the chainsaw, it sends an alert through the standard GSM network that's already there to a ranger in the field who can in fact show up in real time and stop the logging. 此刻电锯的声音在森林中被采集, 该装置接收了电锯声, 并通过现成的标准GSM网络发送警报, 通知现场的护林员, 让他们可以及时赶到制止非法伐木行为。
standard:n.标准;水准;旗;度量衡标准;adj.标准的;合规格的;公认为优秀的; real time:adj.实时的;接到指示立即执行的;
It's no more about going out and finding a tree that's been cut. 不再需要四处寻找已经被砍掉的树。
It's not about seeing a tree from a satellite in an area that's been clear cut, it's about real-time intervention . 也不需要通过卫星观察 某个区域有一颗树被砍下了, 而是要实现实时干预。
real-time:adj.实时的;接到指示立即执行的; intervention:n.介入;调停;妨碍;
So I said it was the cheapest and fastest way to do it, but in fact, actually, as you saw, they weren't able to do it, so it may not be so cheap and fast. 所以我刚才说了,这是能实现这个目的最廉价快捷的方式, 但事实上,正如你们看到的,它们还做不到这一点, 所以这种方法可能不会这么便宜和快速。
But if the devices in the trees were actually cell phones, it could be pretty cheap. 但是,如果在树上的这些装置实际上是手机, 它就可能相当便宜。
devices:n.[机][计]设备;[机]装置;[电子]器件(device的复数);
Cell phones are thrown away by the hundreds of millions every year, hundreds of millions in the U.S. alone, not counting the rest of the world, which of course we should do, but in fact, cell phones are great. 每年有数以亿计的手机被扔掉, 仅在美国就有上亿, 更不要说世界上的其它地方,当然,这么做没什么问题, 不过事实上,手机可是个好东西。
They're full of sensors . 它们内置了很多传感器。
sensors:n.[自]传感器,感应器;感测器(sensor的复数);
They can listen to the sounds of the forest. 它们可以听到森林里的声音。
We do have to protect them. 我们还需要保护它们。
We have to put them in this box that you see here, and we do have to power them. 我们必须把它们放在现在看到的这种盒子里, 还要给他们充电。
Powering them is one of the greater engineering challenges that we had to deal with, because powering a cell phone under a tree canopy , any sort of solar power under a tree canopy , was an as-yet-unsolved problem, 充电是我们必须应对的较大的 工程学挑战之一, 因为在树冠下给手机充电, 任何一种树冠以下的太阳能发电 都是一个尚未解决的难题。
engineering:n.工程;工程学;v.密谋策划;设计制造;改变…的基因;(engineer的现在分词) canopy:n.天篷;华盖;遮篷;苍穹;vt.用天蓬遮盖;遮盖;
and that's this unique solar panel design that you see here, which in fact is built also from recycled byproducts of an industrial process . 这种独特的太阳能电池板设计,你们现在看到的, 实际上也是通过回收一个工业过程中的副产品建立起来的。
unique:adj.独特的,稀罕的;[数]唯一的;n.独一无二的人或物; solar panel:n.太阳能电池板; recycled:n.再生纸;回收站;adj.[环境]回收利用的;可循环再造的; byproducts:n.副产品; industrial:adj.工业的,产业的; n.工业股票; process:v.处理;加工;列队行进;n.过程,进行;方法,adj.经过特殊加工(或处理)的;
These are strips that are cut down. 这些是被切割成条之后的样子。
strips:n.条(strip的复数); v.剥夺(stirp的三单形式);
So this is me putting it all together in my parents' garage , actually. 我就像这样把它们拼装在一起, 其实是在父母的车库里。
garage:n.车库;汽车修理厂;飞机库;v.把…送入车库;把(汽车)开进车库;
Thanks very much to them for allowing me to do that. 非常感谢他们的支持和理解。
As you can see , this is a device up in a tree. 你们现在看到的是固定在一棵树上的装置。
As you can see:正如你所看到的;你是知道的;
What you can see from here, perhaps, is that they are pretty well obscured up in the tree canopy at a distance . 从这个角度可能看得到,其实它们被遮挡得很好, 就在距离很远的树冠上。
obscured:adj.遮蔽的;湮没的;v.掩盖;使含混;变得模糊(obscure的过去分词); at a distance:在远处;有相当距离;
That's important, because although they are able to hear chainsaw noises up to a kilometer in the distance , allowing them to cover about three square kilometers, if someone were to take them, it would make the area unprotected . （挂在树冠上）这点很重要,因为虽然它们能接收电锯的声音, 最远可以达到1公里, 这样它们就可以覆盖约3平方公里的区域, 但如果有人把它们取走,就会导致该区域不在保护范围之内。
in the distance:在远处; unprotected:adj.无保护的;未设防的;v.无保护;(unprotect的过去式和过去分词);
So does it actually work? 那么它真的能起作用吗？
Well, to test it, we took it back to Indonesia , not the same place, but another place, to another gibbon reserve that was threatened daily by illegal logging. 为了进行测试,我们把它带回了印尼, 不在同一个的地方,而在另外一处, 另一个长臂猿保护区, 每天都会受到非法采伐的威胁。
Indonesia:n.印尼,印度尼西亚(东南亚岛国);
On the very second day, it picked up illegal chainsaw noises. 第二天,它就接收到了非法电锯伐木的声音。
We were able to get a real-time alert. 我们能够收到实时警报,
I got an email on my phone. 我在手机上收到一个电子邮件。
Actually, we had just climbed the tree. Everyone had just gotten back down. 事实上,我们刚爬上了树,每个人又返回下来。
All these guys are smoking cigarettes, and then I get an email, and they all quiet down, and in fact you can hear the chainsaw really, really faint in the background, but no one had noticed it until that moment. 所有这些人都在吸烟, 然后我收到一封邮件,他们都安静下来, 事实上,你可以听到背景音中 真的有微弱的电锯声, 但没有人注意到它,直到接到警报的那一刻。
faint:n.昏厥;v.昏厥;adj.昏眩;(光,声,味)微弱的;微小的;可能性不大的;
And so then we took off to actually stop these loggers . 于是我们立刻起身去直接阻止这些伐木工,
loggers:n.伐木工人(logger的复数形式);
I was pretty nervous. 我当时很紧张。
This is the moment where we've actually arrived close to where the loggers are. 这会儿我们其实已经抵达了伐木工所在地的附近。
This is the moment where you can see where I'm actually regretting perhaps the entire endeavor . 此时此刻你们可以看出来,在那里我已经开始后悔 之前的所有努力,
endeavor:n.v.努力;尽力;试图;
I'm not really sure what's on the other side of this hill. 我真的不知道这座山的另一边是什么状况。
on the other side:另一面;在另一边;
That guy's much braver than I am. 那家伙比我勇敢得多。
But he went, so I had to go, walking up, and in fact, he made it over the hill , and interrupted the loggers in the act. 但他去了,我不得不跟着,往山上爬, 事实上,他翻过去了, 直接制止了伐木工的行动。
over the hill:已过壮年的;走下坡路; interrupted:v.插嘴; adj.被阻止的,中断的; (interrupt的过去分词和过去式)
For them, it was such a surprise -- they had never, ever been interrupted before -- that it was such an impressive event for them, that we've heard from our partners they have not been back since. 这完全出乎了他们的意料—— 之前他们从来不曾被中途制止过—— 这让他们印象十分深刻, 我们已经从合作伙伴里听说,他们没有再回来过。
impressive:adj.感人的;令人钦佩的;给人以深刻印象的;
They were, in fact, great guys. 事实上,他们（伐木工）人都不错。
They showed us how the entire operation works, and what they really convinced us on the spot was that if you can show up in real time and stop people, it's enough of a deterrent they won't come back. 他们给我们展示了整个操作过程, 他们在现场就让我们真正确信了, 如果你能当场现身阻止人们伐木, 这就是一个足够的威慑,他们不会再回来。
convinced:adj.坚信; v.使确信; (convince的过去分词和过去式) on the spot:adj.现场的; deterrent:adj.遏制的,威慑的;制止的;n.威慑;妨碍物;挽留的事物;
So -- 所以 ——
Thank you. (Applause) 谢谢。（掌声）
Word of this spread, possibly because we told a lot of people, and in fact, then some really amazing stuff started to happen. 这件事传播开了,可能因为我们告诉了很多人, 事实上,有些令人惊讶的事开始发生了。
stuff:n.东西:物品:基本特征:v.填满:装满:标本:
People from around the world started to send us emails, phone calls. 来自世界各地的人们开始给我们发邮件和打电话。
What we saw was that people throughout Asia, people throughout Africa, people throughout South America , they told us that they could use it too, and what's most important, 我们看到的是,整个亚洲, 整个非洲,整个南美洲的人们, 他们告诉我们他们也可以使用这种装置, 最重要的是,
throughout:adv.自始至终,到处;全部;prep.贯穿,遍及; South America:n.南美洲;
what we'd found that we thought might be exceptional , in the forest there was pretty good cell phone service. 我们发现,当初我们认为可能极不寻常的是, 在森林里有相当不错的手机服务。
exceptional:adj.异常的,例外的;n.超常的学生;
That was not exceptional, we were told, and that particularly is on the periphery of the forests that are most under threat. 不过我们被告知这一点也不稀奇, 特别是在森林的周边地区,那里受到的威胁最大。
particularly:adv.特别地,独特地;详细地,具体地;明确地,细致地; periphery:n.外围,边缘;圆周;圆柱体表面;
And then something really amazing happened, which was that people started sending us their own old cell phones. 有些神奇的事情真的发生了, 人们开始寄来自己的旧手机。
So in fact what we have now is a system where we can use people on the ground, people who are already there, who can both improve and use the existing connectivity, 所以,事实上我们现在有一个系统, 我们可以利用地面上的人,已经在那里的人, 他们能够同时改进和使用现有的连接,
improve:v.改进;改善;
and we're using old cell phones that are being sent to us by people from around the world that want their phones to be doing something else in their afterlife , so to speak . 我们也同时在使用来自世界各地的人们 贡献的旧手机, 他们希望自己的手机能够发挥余热, 可以这么说。
afterlife:n.来世;死后的生活; so to speak:可以说;打个譬喻说;
And if the rest of the device can be completely recycled, then we believe it's an entirely upcycled device. 如果其余部分的装置可以完全回收利用, 我们相信,这就是一个完全升级了的回收装置。
So again, this didn't come because of any sort of high-tech solution. 那么,这并不是什么高科技的解决方案,
It just came from using what's already there, and I'm thoroughly convinced that if it's not phones, that there's always going to be enough there that you can build similar solutions that can be very effective in new contexts . 它只是利用现有的材料, 而且我完全相信,即便不用手机, 也总会有足够的材料 让你可以建立类似的解决方案, 在新的环境中同样会十分有效。
thoroughly:adv.彻底地,完全地; effective:adj.有效的,起作用的;实际的,实在的;给人深刻印象; contexts:n.环境,[计]上下文(context复数);
Thank you very much. 非常感谢。
(Applause) （鼓掌）