Essay Troubling news By John Gathright	フレームで見る  英文をプリントする  脚注をプリントする
心配な知らせ ギャスライト家が暮らすみそだる製ツリーハウスにも春が訪れ、一家は毎日鳥のさえずりの大合奏を楽しんでいます。 そんなある日、カナダの森林で暮らす友人が電話をしてきて、「春の到来が年々早まっているのが悩みの種だ」とこぼしました。 友人の仕事はカナダ名産であるメープルシロップの製造。 彼によると、地球温暖化の影響でサトウカエデの樹液が減少しているのだそうです。

Spring has come and our Miso Barrel Tree House has front-row seats to a birdsong symphony of colossal proportions. From dawn to dusk, the birds sing, led by the wind and conducted by the trees. But as we basked in these delights, I received a distressing call from another forest-dwelling friend, who lives in Canada.

"Spring has come early again," my friend said, "and we are really worried about the future of our forest and our business." I was a little surprised that something so wonderful as an early spring could cause such stress and anxiety, but I soon realized what was at stake here: maple syrup.

The Gathrights are crazy about maple syrup. We love the stuff. Not only is it sweet and tasty, but it's completely natural and comes from trees. Being Canadian, I can't imagine life without maple syrup. For Canadians, maple syrup is not just a topping for pancakes, it's a way of life.

Maple syrup at the Miso Barrel Tree House is on the table from morning to night. It's great on pancakes, eggs, grapefruit and in yogurt. Diluted and mixed with lemon it makes a nice chilled drink at lunch. Maple syrup butter goes great in sandwiches and on crackers. For main meals, we love it in sauces, salad dressing, and for basting our meats

But global warming and acid rain are having a serious effect on the maple syrup industry, and this was why my friend was so worried. It will take hundreds of years for the maple trees to be destroyed but syrup producers are already seeing a change in the timing of sap production and less sap produced by the trees.

Maple syrup is made by boiling and refining this sap. Maple syrup is only grown in a very few places on Earth because maple trees need precise climatic conditions to produce sap, and there have to be freezing nights and warmer days for the sap to flow out of the taps in the trees. Maple sap flows in the spring because of the differences in temperatures at night and during the day. It must be around minus 6 degrees Celsius at night and around 7 degrees Celsius during the day.

Another major concern is the Asian long-horned beetle. These bugs bore holes into the trunks of trees, killing them in a few years. They like the warmer climates and as temperatures rise around the world because of global warming, these bugs start moving north into maple territory.

The Miso Barrel Tree House was built to help people become more aware of the need to live more harmoniously with nature. When I was a little boy and someone called me a name or did something unkind, I would often say, "What goes around, comes around."

Well, this is particularly true about the Earth. The pollutants from our homes, factories and cars have a long-term boomerang effect. Once thrown into nature, they will eventually come back, affecting almost every aspect of our lives - from the health of our children to maple syrup. Global warming and pollution affect all of us in every corner of the Earth. We can't just sweep it under the rug, we can't just continue dumping pollutants, without it affecting our lives and our children for the worst.

Shukan ST: May 13, 2005

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