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1、Southwests Conifers Face Trial by Climate Change 气候变化危害多 As you sit round the Christmas tree, consider the TLC you give O Tannenbaum: plenty of water and a relatively comfortable climate. Wouldnt want to dry out the tree, after all. Now consider that in the house we all live in—the planet—we’re hardly giving the same courtesy to your Christmas trees wild cousins. (Who, I might add, are actually still alive.) 当你围着圣诞树而坐，想着自己对它的体贴照料：足量的水、舒适的环境。你从不会想到它会干枯而死。现在想想我们居住的房子——地球——我们从未向对待圣诞树的野生堂兄妹(补充一下，如果它们实际上还活着)那样礼待它。 As the planet warms, droughts are getting even drier—and theyre getting hotter too. In fact its getting so bad that researchers are now forecasting that conifers in the arid southwestern United States could be completely wiped out by the end of the century. No more pinyon pines, ponderosas or junipers. No more forests. 随着地球变暖，干旱变得越来越严峻——天气也愈加炎热。实际上，情况变得非常糟糕，研究人员预测，美国西南部的针叶树可能会在本世纪末彻底灭绝。那时候没有矮松树、黄松树、还有刺柏。也没有森林。 Its definitely a distressing result for all of us. None of us want to see this happen. Its a bummer, honestly. Sara Rauscher, a climate scientist and geographer at the University of Delaware. She and her colleagues gathered data on how real-world evergreens in the southwest respond to drought and heat—they basically starve, unable to carry on photosynthesis or transport water. “那对我们来说，是一个令人心痛的结果，我们都不想要看到这种情况发生。真的。”Sara Rauscher是特拉华大学气候学家和地理学家。她和同事们搜集美国西南部常青树如何应对干旱和高温的数据——树木在饥饿时，不能够进行光合作用和运输水分。 The researchers then combined those physiological data with a half dozen projections of how climate change might proceed. But no matter what model we used, we always saw tree death. Specifically, 72 percent of the trees dead by 2050, and a near-complete annihilation by the year 2100. The results are in the journalNature Climate Change. 研究人员将这些树木的生理数据和未来气候变化的预测相结合。“无论我们使用何种模型，得到的结果都是树木会死亡。确切地说，截止到2050年”72%的树木会死亡，2100年，所有的树木都会消失。该研究结果发表在《气候变化》杂志上。 But well always have Paris, right? Even if we used a scenario similar to what the Paris accords have agreed upon—so limi