為什么成群的蝗蟲在東非肆虐?

為什么成群的蝗蟲在東非肆虐?

The Horn of Africa, one of the world's most impoverished regions, is being ransacked by billions of tiny invaders.

非洲之角，世界上最貧窮的地區(qū)之一，正遭到數(shù)十億小型入侵者的洗劫。

Farmers look on in horror as desert locusts moving in vast cloud-like swarms darken the sky. The insects blast through fields of crops at an astonishing pace, decimating livelihoods in the process.

農(nóng)民們驚恐地看著沙漠蝗蟲成群結(jié)隊地移動，像云一樣籠罩著天空。這些昆蟲以驚人的速度席卷了莊稼田，在此過程中摧毀了人們的生計。

The pests crossed the Gulf of Aden and arrived in Somalia and Ethiopia last year. They were spotted in Kenya about two months ago in what has become the worst infestation there in 70 years. The U.N. says the region is already vulnerable to food shortages, and it warns that the international community only has a small window to prevent "looming catastrophe."

這些害蟲去年越過亞丁灣，抵達索馬里和埃塞俄比亞。大約兩個月前，他們在肯尼亞被發(fā)現(xiàn)，這已經(jīng)成為那里70年來最嚴重的蟲害。聯(lián)合國說，該地區(qū)已經(jīng)容易受到糧食短缺的影響，并警告說，國際社會只有一個小窗口來防止“迫在眉睫的災難”。

"These things are voracious," says Keith Cressman, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization's senior locust forecasting officer. A swarm the size of Manhattan can, in a single day, eat the same amount of food as everyone in New York and California combined, he says.

聯(lián)合國糧農(nóng)組織高級蝗蟲預測官員基思·克雷斯曼說：“這些東西非常貪婪。”他說，一個曼哈頓大小的蜂群在一天內(nèi)可以吃掉相當于紐約和加利福尼亞州每個人加起來的食物量。

Swarms of desert locusts more than three times the size of New York City — an estimated 192 billion insects — have been spotted in northeast Kenya, according to Save The Children.

根據(jù)拯救兒童組織的數(shù)據(jù)，在肯尼亞東北部發(fā)現(xiàn)了成群的沙漠蝗蟲，面積是紐約市的三倍多-估計有1920億只昆蟲。

Experts know how to stop the locusts' spread, but say efforts have been stymied by a lack of resources and because its difficult to spray in conflict-racked places such as Somalia and Yemen.

專家們知道如何阻止蝗蟲的蔓延，但他們表示，由于缺乏資源，而且很難在索馬里和也門等沖突頻發(fā)的地方噴灑殺蟲劑，這一努力受到了阻礙。

"We do have a chance to nip this problem in the bud, but that's not what we're doing at the moment," Mark Lowcock, the U.N.'s top humanitarian official, said earlier this month. "We're running out of time."

“我們確實有機會將這個問題扼殺在萌芽狀態(tài)，但這不是我們目前正在做的事情，”聯(lián)合國的馬克·洛考克說聯(lián)合國負責人道主義事務(wù)的最高官員本月早些時候說。“我們沒時間了。”

How it started and why it got so bad

它是如何開始的，為什么會變得如此糟糕

Desert locusts, or Schistocerca gregaria, are known for their rapid reproduction and ability to migrate long distances with the wind. In "quiet periods" they typically stay within deserts in Africa, the Near East and Asia, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization.

沙漠蝗蟲以其快速繁殖和隨風長距離遷徙的能力而聞名。據(jù)聯(lián)合國糧農(nóng)組織稱，在“平靜期”，它們通常停留在非洲、近東和亞洲的沙漠里。

"It's a pest that has been around for eons and eons of time," Cressman says. "It has so many different survival mechanisms ... to just survive in some of the harshest areas and most remote parts of this planet. But it has this fabulous capacity to take advantage of good conditions."

“這是一種存在了上億萬年的害蟲，”克雷斯曼說。“它有很多不同的生存機制……在地球上最惡劣的地區(qū)和最偏遠的地方生存但它擁有利用良好條件的驚人能力。”

In mid-2018. a group of these pests found themselves in excellent conditions when a cyclone from the Indian Ocean hit an extremely remote area of the Arabian Peninsula known as the "Empty Quarter."

2018年年中，當一股來自印度洋的龍卷風襲擊了阿拉伯半島一片極其偏遠的地區(qū)(被稱為“空蕩區(qū)”)時，一群這樣的害蟲發(fā)現(xiàn)自己處于極好的狀態(tài)。

"That was just a huge sandy area that got wet by these extraordinary rains. And this is exactly what desert locusts need in order to lay their eggs and to breed," Cressman says.

克雷斯曼說：“那只是一個巨大的沙區(qū)，被這些非同尋常的降雨弄濕了。這正是沙漠蝗蟲產(chǎn)卵和繁殖所需要的。”

The animals reproduce rapidly – every three months. And they reproduce exponentially, he says, so in favorable conditions like these, the population could multiply by 400 times every six months.

這些動物繁殖迅速，每三個月一次。它們以指數(shù)方式繁殖，他說，所以在這樣的有利條件下，種群每六個月可以繁殖400倍。

What's being done to stop the infestations

我們正在做什么來阻止蟲害

The "only effective response," he says, is aerially spraying pesticide directly on the locusts to kill them. Countries such as Kenya and Ethiopia are actively spraying.

他說，“唯一有效的反應”是直接向蝗蟲噴灑殺蟲劑來殺死它們。肯尼亞和埃塞俄比亞等國正在積極噴灑。

"It's really important that these control operations are undertaken, but also that they're upscaled — because it's not enough," Cressman says. "The strategy is just to reduce these huge numbers and try to break this continuation of the breeding."

克雷斯曼說:“這些控制措施的實施非常重要，但同時也要擴大(控制)規(guī)模，因為當前是不夠的。”“我們的策略就是減少這些龐大的數(shù)量，試圖阻止這種繼續(xù)繁殖。”

Security issues complicate efforts to stave off the infestations, particularly in parts of Somalia. "You can't work in places that aren't safe. You don't want to endanger people's lives," he says.

安全問題使防止蟲害的努力復雜化，特別是在索馬里部分地區(qū)。“你不能在不安全的地方工作。你不想危及人們的生命，”他說。

If control efforts fail, swarms of desert locusts are likely to re-invade Ethiopia and Somalia. And the timing of yet another generation of locusts could coincide with the harvest in Kenya.

如果控制努力失敗，成群的沙漠蝗蟲可能會再次入侵埃塞俄比亞和索馬里。而新一代蝗蟲的出現(xiàn)時間可能正好與肯尼亞的收獲季節(jié)相吻合。