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Rice: Half of humanity eats it and climate change is wrecking it.
稻米：世界一半人口的食粮正遭受气候变化的破坏
From the Mississippi to the Mekong, farmers and researchers are finding creative fixes for the dire threats of global warming, extreme rains and sea level rise.
从密西西比河到湄公河，农民和研究人员正在寻找创新的办法来应对全球变暖、极端降雨和海平面上升等严重威胁。
Rice is in trouble as the Earth heats up, threatening the food and livelihood of billions of people. Sometimes there's not enough rain when seedlings need water, or too much when the plants need to keep their heads above water.
随着地球变暖，水稻陷入困境，数十亿人的粮食和生计遭到威胁。有时，当秧苗需要水分时，雨水不足，有时，当稻穗需要露出水面时，雨水又太多。
As the sea intrudes, salt ruins the crop. As nights warm, yields go down. These hazards are forcing the world to find new ways to grow one of its most important crops.
随着海水入侵，盐分毁掉了庄稼。随着夜晚气温升高，水稻产出下降。这些危害正在迫使全世界寻找新的方法来种植这种世界上最重要的作物之一。
Rice farmers are shifting their planting calendars. Plant breeders are working on seeds to withstand high temperatures or salty soils. Hardy heirloom varieties are being resurrected.
稻农正在改变他们的种植时间安排。植物育种者正在研究耐高温、适应盐碱地的种子。耐受力强的老品种正在被重新使用。
And where water is running low, as it is in so many parts of the world, farmers are letting their fields dry out on purpose, a strategy that also reduces methane, a potent greenhouse gas that rises from paddy fields.
在水资源不足的地方（世界上许多地方都是这样），农民们故意让他们的田地干涸，这种策略也减少了甲烷，甲烷是一种从稻田中产生的温室效应很强的气体。
The climate crisis is particularly distressing for small farmers with little land, which is the case for hundreds of millions of farmers in Asia.
对于土地少的小型农户来说，气候危机尤其令人痛苦，而亚洲数亿农民的情况就是如此。
"They have to adapt," said Pham Tan Dao, the irrigation chief for Soc Trang, a coastal province in Vietnam, one of the biggest rice-producing countries in the world. "Otherwise they can't live."
"他们必须适应，"越南（世界最大的稻米生产国之一）沿海省份朔庄的灌溉主管彭丹道（音译）说，"否则他们就活不下去了。"
In China, a study found that extreme rainfall had reduced rice yields over the past 20 years. India limited rice exports out of concern for having enough to feed its own people.
在中国，一项研究发现，在过去的20年里，极端降雨导致水稻减产。印度担心大米不够本国人民食用而限制了大米出口。
In Pakistan, heat and floods destroyed harvests, while in California, a long drought led many farmers to fallow their fields. Worldwide, rice production is projected to shrink this year, largely because of extreme weather.
在巴基斯坦，高温和洪水摧毁了收成，而在加利福尼亚州，长期干旱导致许多农民休耕。在全球范围内，今年的大米产量预计将减少，主要是因为极端天气影响。
Today, Vietnam is preparing to take nearly 250,000 acres of land in the Mekong Delta, its rice bowl, out of production. Climate change is partly to blame, but also dams upstream on the Mekong River that choke the flow of freshwater.
如今，越南正准备让有越南"饭碗"之称的湄公河三角洲的近25万英亩土地停产。气候变化是部分原因，但湄公河上游的大坝也阻遏了淡水的流动。
Some years, when the rains are paltry, rice farmers don't even plant a third rice crop, as they had before, or they switch to shrimp, which is costly and can degrade the land further.
有些年份，当降雨量极少时，稻农甚至不再像以前那样种植第三季水稻，或者他们转而养虾，但养虾的成本很高，而且可能会使土地进一步退化。
