跟随无人机 深入中国沙漠化重灾区(下)

Jeremy White, a graphics editor at The Times, analyzed satellite data to determine three communities where the desert seemed to be encroaching.

时报的图片编辑杰里米•怀特(Jeremy White)分析了卫星数据，以确定三个似乎正在被腾格里沙漠侵蚀的社区。

Our challenge was to find a story there.

我们的挑战是在那里找到一个故事。

Was desertification impacting people in these locations? If so, how?

沙漠化是否正在影响这些地方的人？如果是，又是怎么影响的？

What Edward, the writer on the piece, and I found was eye-opening: stories of people having to change their livelihoods, of farmers trying to supplement lost incomes by catering more to tourists, of families resettling and sending their children to cities in hopes that they would succeed in a new industry.

撰写文章的黄安伟和我发现的情况令人目瞪口呆：从人们不得不改变生计，到农民试图通过迎合游客来冲抵收入的减少，再到举家搬迁并送孩子进城，希望他们能在新的行业里成功，这些都是我们看到的故事。

One of the ways to capture the extent of the change — and the emotional heft of these stories — was to rise above the desert with a drone.

变化的幅度之大，是这些故事令人心情沉重的地方，要捕捉到这一点，其中一个办法就是利用无人机俯瞰这片沙漠。

Our replacement car eventually arrives,

我们换的车终于来了。

and a new death metal song crackles out of the speakers.

喇叭里传出的是另一首死亡金属歌曲。

Unfortunately, we’ve missed the light for the evening; we’ll have to try again at sunrise — which means sleeping among the dunes.

遗憾的是，我们错过了傍晚的光线，将不得不在日出时再试，这意味着我们要在沙丘过夜。

That light is stunning the next morning as we bounce back across the sand, and I finally have time to film what I need for the story.

第二天早上，当我们在沙漠中重新振作起来时，光线非常好。

我终于有时间拍摄这个故事需要的素材了。

Then, by what seems like a miracle, we notice a 4G cellular signal,

然后，像是奇迹似的，我们注意到了一个4G手机信号。

so I tether our drone to Facebook Live and share the flying experience with our readers (a task made ever more difficult by the fact that Facebook is blocked in China).

于是，我把无人机和Facebook Live绑定，和我们的读者分享这次飞行经历（Facebook在中国遭到屏蔽这个事实，让这件事变得更加困难。

Up next? We’re off to another part of China for the next story in the series — and for many more challenging modes of transportation.

接下来呢？我们出发前往中国另一个地方，寻找这个系列的下一个故事，并体验很多更具挑战性的交通方式。