Carl Hodges is growing salicornia, a crop nourished by ocean water that holds the potential to provide food and fuel to millions.

卡爾．何吉斯正致力種植鹽角草屬，一種由海水供應養分的作物，有潛力提供數百萬人糧食和燃料。

A few miles inland from the Sea of Cortez in Mexico, amid cracked earth and mesquite and sun-bleached cac-tus, neat rows of emerald plants are sprouting from the desert floor. The crop is salicornia. It is nourished by seawater flowing from a man-made canal. And if you believe the Ameri-can who is farming it, this incongru-ous swath of green has the potential to feed the world, fuel our vehicles and slow global warming.

從墨西哥科提茲海往內陸走幾哩，在乾燥龜裂的土地及豆科灌木和經陽光曝曬褪色的仙人掌當中，一排排整整齊齊的翠綠色植物從沙漠荒地中發芽生長。這種作物就叫做鹽角草屬，由一條人工開鑿的運河引海水灌溉滋養成長。如果你相信負責耕種這種作物的美國人，這一長條突兀的綠色作物，有潛力可以供應全世界糧食，提供汽車燃料，並減緩全球暖化。

Carl Hodges, a Tucson-based at-mospheric physicist has spent most of his 71 years figuring out how humans can feed themselves in places where good soil and fresh water are in short supply. The founding director of the University of Arizona's highly re-garded Environmental Research Lab, his work has attracted an eclectic band of admirers. They include heads of state, corporate chieftains and Holly-wood stars, among them Martin Sheen and the late Marlon Brando.

卡爾．何吉斯是土桑大氣物理學家，他已投入近71年，想找出人類如何在既沒有肥沃的土壤又缺乏灌溉水源的地方餵飽自己。何吉斯創辦了亞利桑納大學備受推崇的環境研究所，他的研究工作已吸引各方人士興趣，包括國家領袖、企業老闆乃至於好萊塢明星，包括馬丁辛及已故老牌演員馬龍白蘭度。

Here in the northern Mexican state of Sonora, he's thinking much bigger.The Earth's ice sheets are melting fast. Scientists predict that rising seas could swallow some low-lying areas, dis-placing millions of people. Hodges sees opportunity. Why not divert the flow inland to create wealth and jobs instead of catastrophe

在墨西哥北部索諾拉省，他想得更深遠。地球上的大冰原正快速消融，科學家預測，海平面上升，可能吞沒一些地窪地帶，使千百萬人流離失所。何吉斯認為這是千載難逢的良機。何不把這些泛濫的海水導入內陸地區，來創造財富和工作，同時避免一場劫難？

He wants to channel the ocean into man-made "rivers" to nourish com-mercial aquaculture operations, man-grove forests and crops that produce food and fuel. This greening of desert coastlines, he said, could add millions of acres of productive farmland and sequester vast quantities of carbon dioxide, the primary culprit in global warming. Hodges contends that it could also neutralize sea-level rise, in part by using exhausted freshwater aquifers as gigantic natural storage tanks for ocean water.

他想把海水導向人工開鑿的「河川」，以灌溉滋養商業水栽法作業、紅樹林及可以生產糧食和燃料的作物。他指出，這種沙漠海岸線綠化，可以增加數百萬英畝多產肥沃的農地，同時排除大量二氧化碳，這也是造成全球暖化的元凶。何吉斯並指稱，它可以使海平面不再升高，部分靠使用已經乾枯的地下淡水蓄水層，充當巨大的天然海水儲存槽。

Analyzing recent projections of ice melt occurring in the Antarctic and Greenland, Hodges calculates that di-verting the equivalent of three Mis-sissippi Rivers inland would do the trick. He figures that would require 50 good-sized seawater farms that could be built within a decade if the world gets cracking.

分析最近南極和格林蘭冰原將融化的預測，何吉斯估計，必須將相當於三條密西西比河的海水導入內陸才能克竟全功。他估算，如果世界開始龜裂，可能需要在10年內建50個大型海水農場。

Hodges has already built such a farm in Africa. Political upheaval there shut much of it down in 2003. That's why he's determined to con-struct a showcase project in North America to demonstrate what's possi-ble. All he needs now is $35 million. That's where salicornia comes in. A so-called halophyte, the briny succu-lent thrives in hellish heat and pitiful soil on little more than a regular dousing of ocean water. Several countries are experimenting with sal-icornia and other saltwater-tolerant species as sources of food. Known in some restaurants as sea asparagus, sal-icornia can be eaten fresh or steamed, squeezed into cooking oil or ground into high-protein meal.

何吉斯已經在非洲建立這麼一個海水農場，但當地政治動盪不安，被迫在2003年關閉。因此他下決心在北美建一個示範農場計畫，以證明什麼是可能的。他現在只需要3500萬美元。鹽角草屬就是這種情況下的產物。它是所謂鹽土植物，或海水的多汁植物，只要定期灌溉海水，即使天氣酷熱，土壤貧瘠，鹽角草屬植物仍可茁壯成長。已有幾個國家正在試驗鹽角草屬及其他可以在海水中成長的作物，要拿來當食物。有些餐廳以海中蘆筍知名，鹽角草屬可以生吃或清蒸，擠碎到食用油中或磨碎成高蛋白餐點。

Then oil prices exploded. Hodges saw his shot to lift his fleshy, leafless shrub from obscurity. That's because salicornia has another nifty quality: It can be converted into biofuel. And, unlike grain-based ethanol, it doesn't need rain or prime farmland, and it doesn't distort global food markets. NASA has estimated that halophytes planted over an area the size of the Sahara Desert could supply more than 90% of the world's energy needs.

接著油價暴漲。何吉斯總算可以放手一搏，打響他那默默無聞多肉無葉的灌木，因為鹽角草屬有另一個極好的特質：它可以轉化為生質燃料。而且不像穀物提煉的酒精，鹽角草屬不需要雨水或最好的農地，也不至於扭曲全球食物市場。太空總署估計，鹽土植物種植面積如果有撒哈拉沙漠那麼大，就可以供應全世界90%的能源需求。

Last year, Hodges formed a for-profit company called Global Seawater Inc. to produce salicornia biofuel in liquid and solid versions. He lugs samples of it around in a suitcase like some environmental traveling salesman. The enterprise re-cently planted 1,000 acres of salicornia in rural Sonora, where Hodges has been doing research for decades. That crop will provide seed for a major venture planned 50 miles north in the coastal city of Bahia de Kino. Global Seawater is attempting to lease or buy 12,000 acres there for what it envi-sions will be the world's largest sea-water farm. Global Seawater already has a small refinery to process salicor-nia oil into biodiesel fuel, which Hodges believes can be produced for at least one-third less than the current market price of crude oil.

去年，何吉斯成立一家營利公司叫「全球海水公司」，主要生產液態和固態鹽角草屬生質燃料。他用手提箱攜帶樣本，有如環保旅行推銷員。這家企業最近在墨西哥索諾拉省郊區種了一千英畝鹽角草屬作物，何吉斯就是在索諾拉進行了數十年的研究工作。這個作物將提供種子給北方50哩的沿岸城市德奇諾灣計畫中的主要冒險計畫。全球海水公司試圖租賃或買下12,000英畝土地，並可以預見它將是世上最大的海水農場。全球海水公司已經有一個小的煉油廠，可以把鹽角草屬的油加工成為生質柴油，何吉斯相信，生產成本比目前市場上提煉原油的成本至少便宜三分之一。

（取材自洛杉磯時報）