How to Save Coffee from Global Warming 全球氣候變暖，如何“拯救”咖啡？

Coffee is a multibillion dollar industry that supports the economies of several tropical countries. Unfortunately for them， coffee bushes grow best in a rather narrow range of temperatures， so their cultivation is threatened by a changing climate.

如今，咖啡產業具有數千億美元的市場規模，并對一些熱帶國家的經濟起到支撐作用。然而對這些國家來說，不幸的是，咖啡樹最適宜生長的溫度范圍相當狹窄，所以氣候的變化正對咖啡的種植構成威脅。

The existing coffee market is dominated by Coffea arabica and Coffea canephora. Arabica prefers temperatures of 18℃—22℃. Recent work suggests that Coffea canephora does not flourish above 24℃ .

目前，咖啡市場的主導品種是小果咖啡和中果咖啡。小果咖啡更適宜生長在18℃～22℃的環境里。而最近的研究表明，環境溫度一旦超過24℃，中果咖啡就無法健康生長了。

But a chance discovery by Aaron Davis of the Royal Botanic Gardens， Kew， in Britain， may offer a way out. Dr Davis and his colleagues report that they have tracked down a type of wild coffee which is both pleasant to taste and tolerant of higher temperatures.

不過，英國皇家植物園（邱園）的亞倫·戴維斯的一個偶然發現，也許能提供解決這一問題的思路。戴維斯博士和他的同事們表示，他們已經搜尋到了一種味道又好、又耐高溫的野生咖啡。

Dr Davis came across a paper written in 1834 by George Don， a Scottish botanist， which described a species from Sierra Leone. Don dubbed it Coffea stenophylla， and wrote that it had a flavor superior to arabica’s.

戴維斯博士偶然讀到了蘇格蘭植物學家喬治·頓寫于1834年的一篇論文，這篇論文介紹了來自塞拉利昂的一個（咖啡）品種。頓把該品種稱為狹葉咖啡。他還寫道，這種咖啡的味道比小果咖啡好。

This piqued Dr Davis’s interest， for stenophylla still grows in parts of Guinea， Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast that have temperature ranges between 24℃ and 26℃. He and his colleagues also learned that stenophylla was farmed up until the 1920s， after which canephora， which had higher yields， took over.

這激起了戴維斯博士的興趣，因為狹葉咖啡至今仍然生長在幾內亞、塞拉利昂以及象牙海岸（即西非國家科特迪瓦）的部分地區，這些地區的氣溫為24℃至26℃。戴維斯博士和同事們還得知，一直到20世紀20年代，人們還在種植狹葉咖啡，但之后這種咖啡就被產量更高的中果咖啡取而代之。

That opens two possible courses of action. One is to cultivate stenophylla directly， though this might run into the yield problem which led to its abandonment in the first place. The other is to crossbreed it with existing cultivars， to endow those high-yielding varieties with its heat tolerance.

這指向了兩種潛在的行動方案。其一是直接種植狹葉咖啡，但是這種方案可能會陷入產量不足的困境，當初人們放棄這個品種就是因為產量問題。其二是將狹葉咖啡與現存的栽培品種雜交，從而賦予那些高產品種以耐高溫的品質。

Whichever path is pursued， though， the rediscovery of stenophylla’s qualities offers hope not only to coffee growers， but also to the world’s caffeine addicts.

不過不論走哪條路，狹葉咖啡（優良）品質的重新發掘既給咖啡的種植者帶來了希望，也讓這個世界的咖啡迷們看到了曙光。

Word Study

range /re?nd?/ n.（變動或浮動的）范圍，界限，區間

Most of the students are in the 17-20 age range.

flourish /'fl?r??/ v. 茁壯成長;繁榮;昌盛;興旺

These plants flourish in a damp climate.

tolerant /'t?l?r?nt/ adj. 能在困難條件下生存的;能耐……的

pique /pi?k/ v. 使……興趣盎然;引起……的好奇

yield /ji?ld/ n. 產量;產出;利潤

crossbreed /'kr??sbri?d/ v.（使）雜交繁育;雜交繁育