每日英語跟讀 Ep.K438: About Florida - Hotter summers mean Florida’s turtles are mostly born female

Florida’s sea turtles are grappling with a gender imbalance made worse by climate change.

佛羅里達海龜奮力解決因氣候變遷導致惡化的性別失衡。

Recent heat waves have caused the sand on some beaches to get so hot that nearly every turtle born was female.

近期熱浪導致一些沙灘的沙粒變得過熱，以至於幾乎每隻新生海龜都是雌性。

"The frightening thing is the last four summers in Florida have been the hottest summers on record," said Bette Zirkelbach, manager of the Turtle Hospital.

海龜醫院經理貝特．齊克爾巴赫說，可怕的是，佛州過去4年夏天是有紀錄以來最熱的夏天。

"Scientists that are studying sea turtle hatchlings and eggs have found no boy sea turtles, so only female sea turtles for the past four years," Zirkelbach said,.

齊克爾巴赫說，研究海龜孵化和蛋的科學家已經發現過去4年沒有雄性海龜，只有雌性海龜。

Instead of determining sex during fertilization, the sex of sea turtles and alligators depends on the temperature of developing eggs.

海龜和鱷魚的性別取決於蛋孵化的溫度，而非受精。

When a female turtle digs a nest on a beach, the temperature of the sand determines the gender of the hatchlings.

當母海龜在沙灘上挖了一個巢穴，沙子的溫度決定孵化出殼的海龜性別。

If a turtle’s eggs incubate below 27.7 Celsius, the turtle hatchlings will be male, whereas if they incubate above 31C, they will be female.

一旦海龜蛋孵化的溫度低於攝氏27.7度，海龜就會是雄性；反之當溫度高於攝氏31度，就會是雌性。

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A Florida man paid off the past dues for 114 families at risk of having their utilities shut off 佛州男子為有斷水斷電斷瓦斯之虞的114個家庭繳逾期帳單

A Florida business owner who was once down on his luck is giving back by covering the utility bills of 114 families who were facing disconnection.

（美國）佛羅里達州1名曾經時運不濟的老闆，以幫助114個有斷水斷電斷瓦斯之虞的家庭支付水電費，做為回報。

Michael Esmond’s generosity started in 2019 when he paid the utility bills of 36 households in his community of Gulf Breeze. Last year, with both Hurricane Sally and Covid-induced economic turmoil hitting the city, he thought he needed to up the ante.

邁可．艾斯蒙德的慷慨之舉始於2019年，他當時為微風灣社區的36個家戶繳納水電瓦斯費。去年，該市受到「莎莉」颶風與武漢肺炎所導致的經濟動盪之雙重夾擊，他覺得他必須加碼助人。

Esmond donated $7,615.40 to pay for the past-due bills of 114 households, according to Joanne Oliver, the city’s utility billing supervisor.

該市水電瓦斯帳單稽查員瓊安．奧利佛說，艾斯蒙德捐款7615.40美元，為114個家戶繳納逾期帳單。

While Esmond’s donation increased from the $4,600 he paid in 2019, he says he was able to help about three times as many households.

艾斯蒙德的捐款額高於2019年時的4600美元，他說，他能幫助到的家戶數量是（是2019年時）的3倍。Source article: https://features.ltn.com.tw/english/article/paper/1539454 ; https://news.ltn.com.tw/news/world/paper/1459618