时代周刊:力挽狂澜(2)（在线收听）

Human beings owe their life to the sea.

人类的生命都是海洋给的。

Four in 10 humans rely on the ocean for food.

每10个人中间就有4个人依靠海洋获取食物。

Marine life produces 70% of our oxygen; 90% of global goods travel via shipping lanes.

海洋生物为我们提供了70%的氧气；全球90%的货物也都是通过海上航道运输的。

We turn to the sea for solace—ocean-based tourism in the U.S. alone is worth $124 billion a year—and medical advancement.

海洋不仅是我们寻求心灵慰藉的出口——美国一个国家的海上旅游业一年就能创收1240亿美元——也是医疗进步的出口。

An enzyme used for COVID-19 testing was originally sourced from bacteria found in the ocean's hydro-thermal vents.

新冠肺炎检测用到的一种酶最初就是从深海热液喷口发现的微生物中分离出来的。

The ocean also acts as a giant planetary air conditioner.

海洋还是一台巨大的空调，调节着地球的温度。

Over the past century, the ocean has absorbed 93% of the heat trapped in the atmosphere by greenhouse-gas emissions.

过去的一个世纪里，海洋吸收了93%的经温室气体排放后滞留在大气中的热量。

"If all that heat hadn't been taken up by the ocean,

“如果不是这些热量都被海洋吸收了，

we'd all be living in Death Valley conditions by now,"

我们现在恐怕已经生活在死亡谷那样的（高温）环境里了，”

says marine-conservation biologist Callum Roberts at the U.K.‘s University of York.

英国约克大学海洋生物学家卡勒姆·罗伯茨说。

But we humans have also been squeezing life out of the sea.

问题是，我们人类一直在扼杀海洋的生命。

Increased CO2 levels in the atmosphere have made the ocean more acidic, threatening food chains.

大气中的二氧化碳浓度越来越高，导致海洋逐渐酸化，海洋食物链岌岌可危。

Warming waters are not only killing sea life,

变暖的海水不仅危害到了海洋生物的生存，

they are also changing currents and affecting global weather patterns.

还改变了洋流，影响了全球气候模式。

Meanwhile we dump 8 million tons of waste into the ocean a year,

不仅如此，人类一年往海洋里倾倒的垃圾就有800万吨，

in addition to agricultural and industrial runoff that poisons coastal areas.

还有农业和工业径流毒害沿海地区。

At the rate we are harvesting fish, by 2050 there will likely be more plastic than fish in the oceans.

按照我们目前捕鱼的速度，到2050年，海洋中塑料的规模就会超过鱼类。

A 2019 report by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

联合国政府间气候变化专门委员会2019年的一份报告告诫称，

warned that without "profound economic and institutional transformations,"

如果不进行“深刻的经济和体制变革”，

there would be irreversible damage to oceans and sea ice.

海洋和海冰将会面临不可逆转的破坏。

This was supposed to be the year those transformations began.

今年原本就是改革开局之年。

A series of international policy meetings in 2020 was meant to set global targets for managing fish populations,

国际社会原计划年内召开一系列政策会议，制定管理鱼类种群，

restoring biodiversity and controlling pollution.

恢复生物多样性，控制污染等目标。

As it did with so much this year, the coronavirus pandemic put those talks on hold.

新冠疫情汹涌而来，各行各业纷纷搁浅，原定的上述会议也不例外。

Nonetheless, environmentalists, scientists, policymakers and ocean advocates are working desperately to keep the momentum going,

尽管如此，环保人士、科学家、政策制定者和海洋倡导者仍在拼命努力，把握时机，

aware that this might be the last, best chance they have to reverse the tide.

因为他们已经意识到，今年可能是他们力挽狂澜的最后机会。

"What's the phrase?

“那句话怎么说来着？

Never let a good crisis go to waste?

永远不要放过一次充满机遇的危机？

As we restart the economy, this is the chance to reset our goals for a healthy ocean,"

我们重启经济之时就是我们重新设立恢复海洋健康目标的机会，”

says Carlos M. Duarte, a Spanish marine biologist at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia.

沙特阿拉伯阿卜杜拉国王科技大学的西班牙海洋生物学家卡洛斯·M·杜阿尔特说。

"We have a very narrow window of opportunity where we can actually still be effective.

“我们的机会窗口很小，否则我们就会竹篮打水一场空。

Twenty years from now, it will be too late."

如果等到二十年后再行动就太晚了。”