英文原文來自TED，圖片截自TED視頻。
It was December 2015, a month since the end of the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone, and I was driving along the Grafton Road on the outskirts of our capital city, Freetown. I'd driven along that road so many times over the past 18 months, but honestly, I'd been so preoccupied, I didn't notice my surroundings. But that afternoon, I wasn't distracted, and I took it all in.
那是2015年12月，在獅子山的伊波拉疫情結束一個月之際，我開車行駛在首都弗裡敦郊區的格拉夫頓路上。在過去的18個月裡，我多次開車經過那裡，但憑良心說，我全神貫注地開車，從沒注意過窗外。但有一個下午，我全神貫注地觀察了周圍的環境。
I was shocked. So much of the once-lush green forest cover had simply disappeared. I felt physically sick as I parked my car and looked at the barren hills around me. I wasn't just witnessing and mourning the loss of beauty, crushing though that was. I was witnessing and mourning the very real impact of climate change, which is felt in ways both large and small in my city, my country and on my continent.
我震驚了，曾經鬱鬱蔥蔥的樹林早已褪去了綠色。我很是不舒服，停了車看著周圍貧瘠的山體。儘管破壞確實嚴重，但我那時看見和感慨的不是丟失的風景，而是氣候變化真實的影響，從小到大，從這個城市到我的國家乃至整個非洲大陸。
Sierra Leone now regularly experiences extreme weather patterns, particularly abnormally heavy rainfall or delayed rains, both of which can lead to crop failures and in turn fuel the migration of people from rural areas to cities. In Freetown, a city of 1.2 million people, the pressure for housing and the absence of development control has led to the establishment of over 70 informal settlements in the past 20 years. This, combined with the sale of forested land to house builders, has resulted in the deforestation which came into such sharp focus for me that afternoon. Less than two years later, in August 2017, a massive landslide near that area led to the loss of about 1,000 lives in less than five minutes. This is not an abstract crisis. The loss of our forests is not just about the loss of some shade. It's about the loss of our ability to live.
在獅子山，極端天氣已經成了常態，尤其是暴雨和降雨延遲，導致農作物欠收，進而引起農村人口向城市轉移。弗裡敦常住人口120萬人，由於城市管理的缺失和住房壓力的存在，過去20年中，城市裡多了不止70處臨時棚屋區。林地不斷被房地產商承包，森林採伐不斷深入，在那個下午成了我的一個心結。不到2年之後，2017年8月，那附近發生了大規模山體滑坡，不到五分鐘的時間裡，奪走了1000條生命。這不再是一個抽象的危機概念。森林的減少不只是少了陰涼地方，我們生存的機率也降低了。
Wanting to do something about this was one of the factors that led to my decision to run for mayor of Freetown, a position I've held since 2018. And one of my favorite initiatives is to make Freetown a tree town once again. Our goal: to increase vegetation cover by 50 percent in Freetown by the end of my term in 2022. That means we will plant a million trees within the next two years. And we start by planting the first 500,000 seedlings this rainy season. For this to work, we need to involve everyone. We need to make our city collectively proud of what we can do together to protect ourselves and our homes.
2018年起，我開始擔任弗裡敦的市長，其中一個動因正是想要對這個現狀做點什麼。我最喜歡的倡議之一，是讓弗裡敦再次成為一個森林城市。我們的目標是：2022年我卸任之際，提升城市森林覆蓋率50%，意味著我們要在未來兩年內種植100萬棵樹。這個雨季，我們先種下了50萬棵種子。為了完成這項工作，我們得團結所有人，得讓城市作為一個集體為這件事而驕傲，因為我們在保護自己和家園。
For nearly a year now, 15 different species of trees have been nursed on 11 sites across the city. And now each tree will be planted in a home, a school, an office, a public space, on a hillside or in a mangrove by a tree steward. Anyone in Freetown can opt to be a tree steward. And the growth of the trees will be tracked by our community-based growing teams using our custom-made Treetracker app. This isn't just about planting trees, it's about growing trees, and it's about ensuring that each one of us is part of the process.
如今，將近一年之後，在城市中的11個地點，我們培育了15個樹種。每戶人家、每個學校、每個辦公場所和公共場所，我們都種了樹，有的在山上，有的在河邊，每一棵都有一位綠色衛士。弗裡敦市民都可以成為綠色衛士，以社區為單位，樹的生長有專人通過Treetracker這個應用記錄。不只是種樹，也是陪著它們生長，更是讓所有人參與的一個過程。
A million trees will not fix climate change. But they will reduce the risk of landslides and flooding, and they will reintroduce biodiversity -- I've already seen the butterflies back in the park. And they will protect our water catchments. A million trees is our city's small contribution to increasing the much-needed global carbon sink. Perhaps you should plant some trees, too.
100萬棵樹無法阻擋氣候變化，但卻能減少山體滑坡和洪澇災害，也能修復生物多樣性——我已經能在公園中看到蝴蝶了，還能保護集水區。100萬棵樹是這座城市對全球碳匯總量的一點貢獻，也許你也該這麼做了。
Sierra Leone 獅子山（西非沿海國家）
outskirt 郊區
Freetown 弗裡敦（獅子山首都）
preoccupied 全神貫注的
lush 鬱鬱蔥蔥的
【搭配】fuel the migration of people 促使人口流動
informal settlement 非正式住宅，臨時棚屋區
deforestation 森林採伐
vegetation cover 森林覆蓋
mangrove 紅樹林
【搭配】introduce biodiversity 引入生態多樣性
water catchment 集水區
carbon sink 碳匯