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I took this picture in the Tihamah Desert while 25 millimeters -- that's an inch of rain -- was falling.
這張照片是我在提哈邁沙漠拍的——下著25毫米（一英寸）的雨。
Think of it in terms of drums of water, each containing 200 liters.
把它想成是裝在桶里，每桶裝200升。
Over 1,000 drums of water fell on every hectare of that land that day.
那天每公頃的土地上下了1000桶水。
The next day, the land looked like this. Where had that water gone?
第二天，土地是這個樣子。那些水去哪里了？
Some of it ran off as flooding, but most of the water that soaked into the soil simply evaporated out again, exactly as it does in your garden if you leave the soil uncovered.
一部分流走了，大部分水滲進了土壤又蒸發掉了，這跟你的花園里發生的過程一樣，裸露的地方很快就會變干。
Now, because the fate of water and carbon are tied to soil organic matter, when we damage soils, you give off carbon.
現在，因為水和碳元素，都是被保存在土壤有機質中的，當我們破壞了土壤，我們就釋放出了碳元素。（以二氧化碳或甲烷的形式）。
Carbon goes back to the atmosphere.
碳元素回到大氣層。
Now you're told over and over, repeatedly, that desertification is only occurring in arid and semi-arid areas of the world,
這些話你們現在已經聽了很多遍，荒漠化只出現在世界的干旱和半干旱地區，
and that tall grasslands like this one in high rainfall are of no consequence.
像這樣的高原，降雨量再高也沒有結果。
But if you do not look at grasslands but look down into them,
但如果你不是遠遠的看，而是看草地的土壤表面，
you find that most of the soil in that grassland that you've just seen is bare and covered with a crust of algae, leading to increased runoff and evaporation.
你會發現草地里大部分的土壤表面都是光禿禿的，只有很少的藻類覆蓋在上面，這導致了水分的流失和蒸發。
That is the cancer of desertification that we do not recognize till its terminal form.
這是導致荒漠化的致命原因，而我們直到荒漠化的末期才會察覺。
Now we know that desertification is caused by livestock, mostly cattle, sheep and goats, overgrazing the plants, ok? Leaving the soil bare and giving off methane.
現在我們知道沙漠化是由家畜，多數是牛、綿羊和山羊等，過度放牧，吃光了植被，使得土壤表面裸露出來并釋放甲烷。
Almost everybody knows this, from nobel laureates to golf caddies, or was taught it, as I was.
幾乎人人都知道這點，從諾貝爾獎獲得者到高爾夫球童，都和我一樣都這么教育過。
Now, the environments like you see here, dusty environments in Africa where I grew up,
你們看到的這些環境，塵土飛揚的非洲，是我成長的地方，
and I loved wildlife, and so I grew up hating livestock because of the damage they were doing.
我喜歡野生動物，我從小不喜歡牲畜，因為家畜造成了生態破壞。
And then my university education as an ecologist reinforced my beliefs.
我在大學讀生態學的經歷也增強了我的信念。
Well, I have news for you. We were once just as certain that the world was flat.
現在，我要告訴你們一些新的東西。我們曾相信世界是平坦的。
We were wrong then, and we are wrong again.
我們那時錯了，現在又錯了。
And I want to invite you now to come along on my journey of reeducation and discovery.
我想邀請你們來加入我的再教育和探索之旅。
