How to Save Coffee from Global Warming 全球气候变暖，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，咖啡产业具有数千亿美元的市场规模，并对一些热带国家的经济起到支撑作用。然而对这些国家来说，不幸的是，咖啡树最适宜生长的温度范围相当狭窄，所以气候的变化正对咖啡的种植构成威胁。

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，咖啡市场的主导品种是小果咖啡和中果咖啡。小果咖啡更适宜生长在18℃～22℃的环境里。而最近的研究表明，环境温度一旦超过24℃，中果咖啡就无法健康生长了。

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.

不过，英国皇家植物园（邱园）的亚伦·戴维斯的一个偶然发现，也许能提供解决这一问题的思路。戴维斯博士和他的同事们表示，他们已经搜寻到了一种味道又好、又耐高温的野生咖啡。

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.

戴维斯博士偶然读到了苏格兰植物学家乔治·顿写于1834年的一篇论文，这篇论文介绍了来自塞拉利昂的一个（咖啡）品种。顿把该品种称为狭叶咖啡。他还写道，这种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.

这激起了戴维斯博士的兴趣，因为狭叶咖啡至今仍然生长在几内亚、塞拉利昂以及象牙海岸（即西非国家科特迪瓦）的部分地区，这些地区的气温为24℃至26℃。戴维斯博士和同事们还得知，一直到20世紀20年代，人们还在种植狭叶咖啡，但之后这种咖啡就被产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.

这指向了两种潜在的行动方案。其一是直接种植狭叶咖啡，但是这种方案可能会陷入产量不足的困境，当初人们放弃这个品种就是因为产量问题。其二是将狭叶咖啡与现存的栽培品种杂交，从而赋予那些高产品种以耐高温的品质。

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.

不过不论走哪条路，狭叶咖啡（优良）品质的重新发掘既给咖啡的种植者带来了希望，也让这个世界的咖啡迷们看到了曙光。

Word Study

range /reɪndʒ/ n.（变动或浮动的）范围，界限，区间

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

flourish /'flʌrɪʃ/ v. 茁壮成长;繁荣;昌盛;兴旺

These plants flourish in a damp climate.

tolerant /'tɒlərənt/ adj. 能在困难条件下生存的;能耐……的

pique /piːk/ v. 使……兴趣盎然;引起……的好奇

yield /jiːld/ n. 产量;产出;利润

crossbreed /'krɔːsbriːd/ v.（使）杂交繁育;杂交繁育