时代周刊:散落在太平洋深处的黑矿石--解锁气候密码(7)（在线收听）

The final amounts could be even less, especially if the ISA establishes more stringent environmental protections, which would require consistent monitoring, an expensive undertaking when it has to happen thousands of miles from port and three miles deep.

而最终的实际金额可能更少，特别是如果《国际海底管理局》建立了需要持续监测的更严格的环境保护制度，如果必须在离港口数千英里和三英里深的地方这么做，将耗资巨大。

“The more money put into monitoring, the less gets distributed to the developing states,” says Pradeep Singh, a research associate at IASS in Germany who focuses on seabed-mining issues, and who frequently attends ISA meetings as a consultant for member nations.

普拉迪普-辛格（Pradeep Singh）说：“投入监测的钱越多，分配给发展中国家的钱就越少。”他是德国IASS的一名研究人员，专注于海底采矿问题，并经常作为成员国的顾问出席ISA会议。

Apart from a small number of private contractors and supporting states who could potentially receive a windfall, he says, few others would benefit.

他说，除了少数私人承包商和支持国有可能获得意外之财外，其他国家很少会受益。

Any member nation can sponsor a contract application , but developing nations are given preferential access to concessions with proven deposits, a practice meant to level the playing field.

任何成员国都可以赞助合同申请，但发展中国家可以优先获得已探明矿藏的特许权，这种做法是为了创造公平的竞争环境。

Most sponsoring countries work with their own government-run mining contractors.

大多数赞助国与他们自己的政府经营的采矿承包商合作。

Nauru partnered with the Metals Company, giving the Canadabased startup preferential access to a 75,000-sqkm area rich in nodules.

瑙鲁与金属公司合作，让这家位于加拿大的初创公司优先进入一个75000平方公里的富含结核的地区。

The details of the Metals Company’s agreement with the government of Nauru are not public, but according to the company’s regulatory filing with the SEC in advance of its pending public listing, the startup estimates that it will earn $95 billion over 23 years of production, of which it will pay 7.6% in royalties to Nauru and the ISA.

金属公司与瑙鲁政府的协议细节并不公开，但根据该公司在即将上市前向美国证券交易委员会提交的监管文件，这家初创公司估计在23年的生产期间将获得950亿美元的收入，其中它将向瑙鲁支付7.6%的特许权使用费。

The rest, presumably, goes to the investors that Barron is now courting.

其余的，估计是交给巴伦现在正在争取的投资者。

Singh suspects that Nauru’s recent triggering of the two-year countdown to mining activity was directly linked to the Metals Company’s desire to create investor hype ahead of the listing.

辛格怀疑，瑙鲁最近触发了采矿活动的两年倒计时，这与金属公司希望在上市前制造投资者的炒作直接相关。

Either way, Barron has managed to crown what is at its core an expensive, untested and risky underwater-mining operation with a green halo, promising a surefire—and lucrative, at least for investors—shortcut for saving the planet.

不管怎么说，巴伦已经成功地为这个核心是昂贵的、未经测试的和有风险的水下采矿作业戴上了绿色的光环，承诺为拯救地球提供一条万无一失的、有利可图的捷径，至少对投资者来说是如此。

A self-styled mAverick with the requisite long hair, beard and leather jacket, Barron professes to be shocked that conservation groups have not wholeheartedly embraced his plan to mine the ocean for the battery metals that will help replace fossil fuels.

巴伦自诩为拥有必要的长发、胡须和皮夹克的思想独立的人，他声称保护组织没有接受他在海洋中开采有助于替代矿物燃料的电池金属的计划，他为此感到震惊。

The alternative, he says, is to keep plundering terrestrial mines with all their devastating environmental and social consequences: biodiversity loss, habitat destruction, contaminated waterways, displaced Indigenous groups and labor exploitation.

他说，另一种选择是继续掠夺陆地上的矿山，并带来所有破坏性的环境和社会后果：生物多样性的丧失、栖息地的破坏、水路的污染、原住民群体的流离失所和劳动剥削。