This is the ocean as I used to know it. And I find that since I've been in the Gulf a couple of times, I really kind of am traumatized because whenever I look at the ocean now, no matter where I am, even where I know that none of the oil has gone, I sort of see slicks, and I'm finding that I'm very much haunted by it. But what I want to talk to you about today is a lot of things that try to put all of this in context, not just about the oil eruption, but what it means and why it has happened.
這是我過去認識的海洋, 我曾經去過墨西哥灣幾次, 發生這件事情(指漏油), 我的心真的像被劃了一刀, 現在,不論何時看著這片海洋, 不論我在何處, 我知道, 飄在海面上的石油還沒被清除, 我都覺得好像看見浮油在眼前, 這件事情在我心中, 一直揮之不去。 今天我所要告訴各位的, 是這件事情的 來龍去脈。 不只是石油的外漏, 還有這件事情的意義和原因。
First, just a little bit about me. I'm basically just a guy that likes to go fishing ever since I was a little kid, and because I did, I wound up studying sea birds to try to stay in the coastal habitats that I so loved. And now I mainly write books about how the ocean is changing, and the ocean is certainly changing very rapidly. Now we saw this graphic earlier on, that we really live on a hard marble that has just a slight bit of wetness to it. It's like you dipped a marble in water. And the same thing with the atmosphere: If you took all the atmosphere and rolled it up in a ball, you would get that little sphere of gas on the right. So we live on the most fragile little soap bubble you can imagine, a very sacred soap bubble, but one that is very, very easy to affect.
首先,簡單介紹一下我自己。 我只是個喜歡釣魚的傢伙, 我小時候就愛釣魚, 也正因為我愛釣魚, 我開始學習有關海鳥的知識, 我常待在我喜歡的海鳥棲息地。 現在我專職寫書, 寫關於海洋如何改變的事情, 毫無疑問,我們的海洋正在劇烈轉變, 讓我們先看幾張圖片。 我們都生活在地球這塊堅硬的大理石上, 這塊石頭, 有一點點濕潤, 像是把大理石在水裡沾一下一樣。 大氣層也是薄薄一層 若把大氣層的氣體都蒐集起來, 把它揉成一團, 你會得到像右邊那張圖那麼大的氣體小球, 我們是生活在 一層非常薄弱,像肥皂泡泡的大氣層底下, 非常神聖的肥皂泡泡, 但非常容易受到外物影響,
And all the burning of oil and coal and gas, all the fossil fuels, have changed the atmosphere greatly. Carbon dioxide level has gone up and up and up. We're warming the climate. So the blowout in the Gulf is just a little piece of a much larger problem that we have with the energy that we use to run civilization. Beyond warming, we have the problem of the oceans getting more acidified -- and already measurably so, and already affecting animals. Now in the laboratory, if you take a clam and you put it in the pH that is not 8.1, which is the normal pH of seawater, but 7.5, it dissolves in about three days. If you take a sea urchin larva from 8.1, put it in a pH of 7.7 -- not a huge change -- it becomes deformed and dies. Already, commercial oyster larvae are dying at large scales in some places. Coral reefs are growing slower in some places because of this problem. So this really matters.
石油、煤炭、天然氣的燃燒, 還有石化燃料, 都會給大氣層帶來巨大的影響。 二氧化碳的濃度一天比一天高, 我們正在使氣候暖化, 為了維續人類當今文明, 墨西哥灣事件只不過是, 使用這些燃料所帶來眾多問題的 鱗毛一角罷了。 除了地球暖化, 我們有海洋酸化的問題出現, 這件事情, 已經開始影響地球的其他生物。 我做了點實驗, 把蛤蜊放入較酸的海水裏, 也就是說 不是弱鹼值8.1的正常海水, 而是7.5, 這酸度大概只需要三天就能讓它們融化。 把海膽幼蟲也放入酸一點的海水, ph值在 7.7到8.1之間, 離正常值只差那麼一點點, 就足夠讓它們外觀變形甚至死亡。 已經有大量 人類圈養在海邊的牡蠣苗 因而死亡。 有些區域的珊瑚礁,生長速度變慢, 也是這個原因。 這是個嚴重的問題,
Now, let's take a little tour around the Gulf a little bit. One of the things that really impresses me about the people in the Gulf: They are really, really aquatic people. And they can handle water. They can handle a hurricane that comes and goes. When the water goes down, they know what to do. But when it's something other than water, and their water habitat changes, they don't have many options. In fact, those entire communities really don't have many options. They don't have another thing they can do. They can't go and work in the local hotel business because there isn't one in their community.
現在,讓我們稍微 到墨西哥灣去看一看。 在那,讓我留下深刻印象的是 那些生活在水底下的生物。 牠們在水中來去自如, 暴風雨來了牠們也怡然自得, 海平面下降,牠們也知道如何應對。 但是當有其他外力侵襲, 使牠們的棲息地完全改變時, 牠們就完全沒有抵抗力了。 事實上,整個海洋的生物 都沒有辦法抵抗這種外力。 他們完全束手無策, 牠們可沒辦法, 搬到附近的飯店避難, 水底下可沒這種產業。
If you go to the Gulf and you look around, you do see a lot of oil. You see a lot of oil on the ocean. You see a lot of oil on the shoreline. If you go to the site of the blowout, it looks pretty unbelievable. It looks like you just emptied the oil pan in your car, and you just dumped it in the ocean. And one of the really most incredible things, I think, is that there's nobody out there trying to collect it at the site where it is densest. Parts of the ocean there look just absolutely apocalyptic. You go in along the shore, you can find it everywhere. It's really messy. If you go to the places where it's just arriving, like the eastern part of the Gulf, in Alabama, there's still people using the beach while there are people cleaning up the beach. And they have a very strange way of cleaning up the beach. They're not allowed to put more than 10 pounds of sand in a 50-gallon plastic bag. They have thousands and thousands of plastic bags. I don't know what they'll do with all that stuff. Meanwhile, there are still people trying to use the beach. They don't see the sign that says: "Stay out of the water." Their kids are in the water; they're getting tar all over their clothes and their sandals-- It's a mess. If you go to where the oil has been for a while, it's an even bigger mess. And there's basically nobody there anymore, a few people trying to keep using it.
各位到墨西哥灣看看, 映入眼簾的全都是浮油, 海面上全是浮油, 海岸線也全都是, 如果你前往漏油的地方看看, 眼前的事物會讓你不敢相信, 那場景就像你剛剛換車子的機油, 然後把那堆廢油丟到大海一樣。 最令我感到難以置信的是, 在這油汙最密集的地方, 沒有任何人 在清理現場。 這片海域的大部分, 看起來就像世界末日一樣。 你沿著周圍的海岸行走, 油汙在每個角落都看的到, 實在是太可怕了。 如果你到油污剛抵達的海岸, 像是阿拉巴馬州的墨西哥灣東岸, 雖然有人在清理海岸, 但還是有很多民眾在這片海岸上娛樂, 他們用非常奇怪的方法清理海岸, 他們用50加崙的塑膠袋裝(約200公升) 裏面不得裝超過10磅的污泥沙 他們使用了成千上萬這樣的塑膠袋, 我不知道以後他們要怎樣處理這些東西, 同時間,還是有很多人在海邊娛樂, 這些民眾都沒看那小小的指示牌, 上頭寫著:請勿下水 當孩子們在水中嬉戲的時候, 衣服和脫鞋上就已經沾染上了焦油。非常糟糕。 你要是被汙染久一點的地方瞧一瞧, 情況更糟糕。 這片沙灘基本上已經沒有遊客。 只有少數民眾,
You see people who are really shell-shocked.
在這附近走動,
They are very hardworking people. All they know about life is they get up in the morning, and if their engine starts, they go to work. They always felt that they could rely on the assurances that nature brought them through the ecosystem of the Gulf. They're finding that their world is really collapsing. And so you can see, literally, signs of their shock ... signs of their outrage ... signs of their anger ... and signs of their grief. These are the things that you can see.
還是有人會對周圍的現象感到驚慌, 這些人就是在當地辛苦工作的居民。 他們的日常生活就是起個大早, 發動船引擎,然後就上工了。 這些人總認為, 他們可以依賴 那墨西哥灣的生態系統所帶來的天然資源。 而現在他們賴以為生的世界已經倒塌了。 你真的可以看到, 他們臉上的震驚, 他們的憤慨, 他們的憤怒, 和他們的哀痛。 這些是表面上看得到的。
There's a lot you can't see, also, underwater. What's going on underwater? Well, some people say there are oil plumes. Some people say there are not oil plumes. And Congressman Markey asks, you know, "Is it going to take a submarine ride to see if there are really oil plumes?" But I couldn't take a submarine ride -- especially between the time I knew I was coming here and today -- so I had to do a little experiment myself to see if there was oil in the Gulf of Mexico. So this is the Gulf of Mexico ... sparkling place full of fish. And I created a little oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. And I learned, in fact, I confirmed the hypothesis that oil and water don't mix ... until you add a dispersant ... and then ... they start mixing. And you add a little energy from the wind and the waves, and you get a big mess, a big mess that you can't possibly clean, you can't touch, you can't extract and, I think most importantly -- this is what I think -- you can't see it. I think it's being hidden on purpose. Now this is such a catastrophe and such a mess that lots of stuff is leaking out on the edges of the information stream. But as many people have said, there's a large attempt to suppress what's going on. Personally, I think that the dispersants are a major strategy to hide the body, because we put the murderer in charge of the crime scene. But you can see it. You can see where the oil is concentrated at the surface, and then it is attacked, because they don't want the evidence, in my opinion.
但是,各位看不到的是, 在水底下的情形。 水底下發生什麼事了? 嗯,有些人認為, 石油羽状物已經出現了(懸浮在水下的石油) 也有人認為羽狀物並未出現。 國會議員馬凱就質疑: "為什麼不坐潛水艇, 下去看看水底是否真的有浮油?"(註:BP認為水底沒有浮油,因此阻止水底探勘) 在來此演講前 我沒機會坐到潛水艇下去看, 所以我自己, 就做了一點小實驗, 看看墨西哥灣是不是真的有浮油。 假設這杯水就是墨西哥灣, 發亮的部份就是魚, 然後我在這杯墨西哥灣裡, 製造了一點漏油情形, 明顯的我證實了 油不溶於水的原理, 然後我加入擴散劑(註:部分專家認為擴散劑能加速石油揮發、分解) 結果, 油水居然開始混合了, 這時候如果海面上來一點點動力, 像是大風,或是海浪, 你會得到非常混濁的結果, 這混濁的程度, 根本沒辦法清理了。 而你再也摸不到,你也無法萃取浮油, 而我認為最重要的是, 你就再也看不到浮油了。 我想真相是故意被隱藏的。 這是一場大災難,一場非常混亂的災難, 有一大堆媒體管道散播一大堆訊息。 但有人認為, 這背後有一個很大的力量,在壓抑真相的爆發。 就我個人的想法, 擴散劑的使用, 是掩藏事實的主要策略。 因為我們讓兇手 負責清理事故現場。 你是可以看到浮油。 你是可以看到 海上的浮油集中在表面的地方, 但他們已經動了手腳。 我的看法是,他們根本不想要留下任何證據
OK. We heard that bacteria eat oil? So do sea turtles. When it breaks up, it has a long way to go before it gets down to bacteria. Turtles eat it. It gets in the gills of fish. These guys have to swim around through it. I heard the most incredible story today when I was on the train coming here. A writer named Ted Williams called me, and he was asking me a couple of questions about what I saw, because he's writing an article for Audubon magazine. He said that he had been in the Gulf a little while ago; like about a week ago, and a guy who had been a recreational fishing guide took him out to show him what's going on. That guide's entire calendar year is canceled bookings. He has no bookings left. Everybody wanted their deposit back, everybody is fleeing. That's the story of thousands of people. But he told Ted that on the last day he went out, a bottlenose dolphin suddenly appeared next to the boat, and it was splattering oil out its blowhole. And he moved away because it was his last fishing trip, and he knew that the dolphins scare fish. So he moved away from it, turned around a few minutes later, it was right next to the side of the boat again. He said that in 30 years of fishing he had never seen a dolphin do that. And he felt that --
嗯 我們都聽說過細菌可以吞噬石油, 但是海龜也會。 在噬油細菌出現之前, 原油要自行分解 需要很長一段時間, 而這段期間海龜就會誤食浮油,而且浮油也會被魚吸入魚鰓, 這些海洋生物會在這片海域來來去去。 我今天聽到一則非常驚人的故事, 當我在前往這裡的火車上時, 一位叫泰德威廉斯的作家打電話給我, 他問了我幾個問題, 想知道我的看法, 他正在幫奧杜邦雜誌專寫文章(註:某環保團體的出版品) 他說,他有聽到一些關於墨西哥灣的事情-- 就在幾週前, 一位曾是導覽民眾休憩釣魚的嚮導, 來找泰德,並陳述目前墨西哥灣的情形。 這位嚮導整年度的預定導覽行程, 全部都被取消了, 一個都不剩, 遊客要求退還定金,大家都不想來了 這是和數千人息息相關的故事。 他告訴泰德, 在他最後一天的嚮導行程時, 有一隻瓶鼻海豚, 突然從船邊冒了出來, 從牠頭頂的氣孔中, 不斷地冒出黑色的石油, 這位嚮導緩緩的離開, 因為這趟, 是他的最後一次釣魚旅程, 而海豚的出現會把魚群嚇跑, 所以他把船駛離海豚, 過沒幾分鐘, 這海豚又出現在船旁邊了, 他釣了30年的魚, 從沒看過海豚會這麼做,
(Sigh)
他覺得...
he felt that it was coming to ask for help. Sorry.
他覺得海豚是要... 尋求幫助。抱歉。
Now, in the Exxon Valdez spill, about 30 percent of the killer whales died in the first few months. Their numbers have never recovered. So the recovery rate of all this stuff is going to be variable. It's going to take longer for some things. And some things, I think, will probably come back a little faster. The other thing about the Gulf that is important is that there are a lot of animals that concentrate in the Gulf at certain parts of the year. So the Gulf is a really important piece of water -- more important than a similar volume of water in the open Atlantic Ocean. These tuna swim the entire ocean. They get in the Gulf Stream, they go all the way to Europe. When it comes time to spawn, they come inside, and these two tuna that were tagged, you can see them on the spawning grounds very much right in the area of the slick. They're probably having, at the very least, a catastrophic spawning season this year. I'm hoping that maybe the adults are avoiding that dirty water. They don't usually like to go into water that is very cloudy anyway. But these are really high-performance athletic animals. I don't know what this kind of stuff will do in their gills. I don't know if it'll affect the adults. If it's not, it's certainly affecting their eggs and larvae, I would certainly think. But if you look at that graph that goes down and down and down, that's what we've done to this species through overfishing over many decades.
Exxon Valdez號油船漏油事件(註:發生於1989年) 短短的幾個月, 就殺死了約30%的鯨魚, 這些失去的數量沒有補回來過, 這種生物數量的回復速率, 是不穩定的上下波動。 有的會耗費比較長的時間, 而我想,有的 回復的速率會比較快。 另一件有關墨西哥灣的是, 有許多的生物, 在每年的特定時刻, 會聚集在墨西哥灣。 所以這海灣是非常重要的海域。 重要性可能比 大西洋中其他的海灣還要大, 金槍魚在大西洋的每個角落都能看到, 牠們會順著墨西哥洋流游走,然後繞行整個歐洲, 到了產卵時期,才會回到墨西哥灣, 我們追蹤2條金槍魚的蹤跡, 你可以發現牠們產卵的地點, 幾乎就是在污油出現的地區, 至少在今年, 這污油事件對牠們的產卵季是個大災難。 我希望這些能繁殖的成魚, 能避開受污染的水域, 一般來說, 牠們不太喜歡接近太過混濁的水域, 但牠們速度很快, 是好動性的魚類, 我無法得知什麼會被吸進魚鰓裡, 我也不知道成年魚會不會被影響, 即使都不會,我想 魚卵跟幼魚一定會被影響的。 但是請看這張圖表,它顯示金槍魚的數量是一直在下降, 這是數十年來, 我們濫捕後的成果。
So while the oil spill, the leak, the eruption, is a catastrophe, I think it's important to keep in mind that we've done a lot to affect what's in the ocean, for a very long time. It's not like we're starting with something that's been OK. We're starting with something that's had a lot of stresses and a lot of problems to begin with. If you look around at the birds, there are a lot of birds in the Gulf that concentrate in the Gulf at certain times of the year, but then leave. And they populate much larger areas. For instance, most of the birds in this picture are migratory birds. They were all on the Gulf in May, while oil was starting to come ashore in certain places. Down on the lower left there are ruddy turnstones and sanderlings. They breed in the High Arctic, and they winter down in southern South America. But they concentrate in the Gulf and then fan out all across the Arctic. I saw birds that breed in Greenland, in the Gulf. So this is a hemispheric issue. The economic effects go at least nationally in many ways. The biological effects are certainly hemispheric.
當油輪漏油, 油管外洩、噴發, 就是一場大災難。 我認為應該要牢記在心的, 就是我們已經對海洋造成許多影響, 而且已經有很長、很長的一段時間, 而這些影響 都是不好的。 我們給海洋帶來了很多的壓力, 和很多的問題。 抬頭看看天空的鳥群, 有許多鳥類在每年的特定時刻, 就會聚集在墨西哥灣的上空覓食, 然後就離開, 牠們居住的地點非常分散, 舉例來說, 在畫面中的大多是屬於候鳥類型, 牠們會在每年的5月聚集在墨西哥灣, 而這時候也剛好是浮油漂上岸的時候, 畫面下方的這2種鳥類, 分別是翻石鷸和三趾濱鷸, 牠們的棲息地主要在高緯北極一帶, 冬天的時候牠們會遷徙到南美洲的南方, 牠們會在墨西哥灣做停留, 然後再飛回北極各地, 所以在格陵蘭長大的鳥類, 你在墨西哥灣也看的到。 這是個牽涉到南北半球的議題。 經濟成長或衰退, 可能會影響到國家的許多層面, 但是生態的影響範圍是跨到整個半球,
I think that this is one of the most absolutely mind-boggling examples of total unpreparedness that I can even think of. Even when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, at least they shot back. And we just seem to be unable to figure out what to do. There was nothing ready, and, you know, as we can see by what they're doing. Mainly what they're doing is booms and dispersants. The booms are absolutely not made for open water. They don't even attempt to corral the oil where it is most concentrated. They get near shore -- Look at these two boats. That one on the right is called Fishing Fool. And I think, you know, that's a great name for boats that think that they're going to do anything to make a dent in this, by dragging a boom between them when there are literally hundreds of thousands of square miles in the Gulf right now with oil at the surface.
我想這是我能想象的, 最讓人心驚的 完全沒有一點預防措施的 大災難之一。 就算日本人偷襲珍珠港時, 至少還有一點反擊。 但是我們現在看起來, 是完全的束手無策。 對這種情形完全沒有任何準備。 你可以從他們的措施裏 看得出來。 石油公司目前正使用漂浮柵欄和擴散劑來處理漏油, 漂浮柵欄在這麼開放性的海域上幾乎沒用。 石油公司的清潔隊, 也沒有試著去集中海面上的油汙。 就這樣讓油汙漸漸往海岸靠近。看畫面中的這二艘船。 右邊這艘是"魚痴號"。 現在仍有 數十萬平方英哩的油汙 漂浮在海灣上。 這二艘名字讓人啼笑皆非的船, 拖曳著它們之間的漂浮柵欄,
The dispersants make the oil go right under the booms.
來阻斷油汙往海岸的路線,
The booms are only about 13 inches in diameter. So it's just absolutely crazy. Here are shrimp boats employed. There are hundreds of shrimp boats employed to drag booms instead of nets. Here they are working. You can see easily that all the oily water just goes over the back of the boom. All they're doing is stirring it. It's just ridiculous. Also, for all the shoreline that has booms -- hundreds and hundreds of miles of shoreline -- all of the shoreline that has booms, there's adjacent shoreline that doesn't have any booms. There is ample opportunity for oil and dirty water to get in behind them.
然後再倒入分散劑分解浮油, 一個漂浮柵欄的長度, 大概只有13英吋, 用這個東西去包圍海岸這種方法一定是瘋了。 他們雇用補蝦的漁船, 上百艘的補蝦船不去補蝦反而是去放置柵欄。 這是他們在作業的情形, 各位可以看得出來, 油膩膩的海水會被這些柵欄推來推去, 柵欄反而像是攪拌棒把油水拌勻, 這真的很荒謬。 就這樣,所有的海岸線上都撲滿了漂浮柵欄, 數百英哩長的海岸線, 全都佈滿了柵欄。 應該要被放柵欄的地方沒放, 這些又油又髒的海水,
And that lower photo, that's a bird colony that has been boomed.
很有機會往那邊流,
Everybody's trying to protect the bird colonies there. Well, as an ornithologist, I can tell you that birds fly, and that --
畫面下方的圖片,這個鳥類棲息地已經被柵欄所包圍。 很多人試著 去保護這些鳥類棲息地。 嗯,身為一個鳥類學家,我可以告訴你:
(Laughter)
鳥是會飛的。 (笑)
and that booming a bird colony doesn't do it; it doesn't do it. These birds make a living by diving into the water. In fact ... really what I think they should do, if anything -- they're trying so hard to protect those nests -- actually, if they destroyed every single nest, some of the birds would leave, and that would be better for them this year. As far as cleaning them ... I don't mean to cast any aspersion on people cleaning birds. It's really, really important that we express our compassion. I think that's the most important thing that people have, is compassion. It's really important to get those images and to show it. But really, where are those birds going to get released to? It's like taking somebody out of a burning building, treating them for smoke inhalation and sending them back into the building, because the oil is still gushing.
把這些鳥類棲息地用柵欄圍起來, 這一點幫助都沒有, 因為這些鳥類為了生存,必須潛到水下覓食, 事實上, 我認為正在清理油汙的這些人, 他們可能以為這樣做是保護鳥巢, 事實上他們應該破壞鳥巢, 這樣鳥類就會離開棲息地, 這對今年要生活在墨西哥灣的鳥類來說比較好。 至於在清理油汙這件事情上, 我並不是要中傷 這些辛苦清理的人。 重點是, 我們表現出了同情心, 還有許多人 願意關心、同情其他生物。 有這種心態並願意付諸行動, 我覺得是很重要的。 回到剛剛的問題上,那我們應該要把這些鳥放到哪裡去呢? 這就好像剛把一個困在火災現場的人救出來後, 治療好他的嗆傷後, 然後再把他丟回火場。
I refuse to acknowledge this as anything like an accident. I think that this is the result of gross negligence.
我拒絕承認漏油這件事情 只是個意外, 我認為這是人為的嚴重疏忽。
(Applause)
(掌聲)
Not just BP. BP operated very sloppily and very recklessly because they could. And they were allowed to do so because of the absolute failure of oversight of the government that is supposed to be our government, protecting us. It turns out that -- you see this sign on every commercial vessel in the United States -- you know, if you spilled a couple of gallons of oil, you would be in big trouble. And you have to really wonder who are the laws made for, and who has gotten above the laws. And there are things that we can do in the future. We could have the kinds of equipment that we would really need. It would not take an awful lot to anticipate that after making 30,000 holes in the sea floor of the Gulf of Mexico looking for oil, oil might start coming out of one of them. And you'd have some idea of what to do. That's certainly one of the things we need to do.
不只是BP這間公司的疏忽而已。 BP對漏油事件的處理, 非常魯莽和草率, 因為他們有本事這麼做 甚至被允許這麼做 因為那個我們所支持政府、應該保護我們的政府, 並沒有負起 確實監督的責任。 結果變成-- 你可以在美國任何一艘商船上看到這塊牌子。 這牌子主要是說,只要在美國的海域上灑1加崙的石油, 就會受到嚴厲的民事與刑事懲罰。 而各位應該要想一想, 這法條是為誰而定? 還有誰視法律如無物? 未來我們還可以做很多事情, 我們應該好好想想真的需要哪些東西, 其實這並不難預見, 為了尋找石油 在墨西哥灣底部的海床 打了30000個洞, 石油總有一天會外漏的。 這必須要想想辦法解決, 而我們最起碼能做到的。
But I think we have to understand where this leak really started from. It really started from the destruction of the idea that the government is there because it's our government, meant to protect the larger public interest. So I think that the oil blowout, the bank bailout, the mortgage crisis and all these things are absolutely symptoms of the same cause. We still seem to understand that at least, we need the police to protect us from a few bad people. And even though the police can be a little annoying at times -- giving us tickets and stuff like that -- nobody says that we should just get rid of them. But in the entire rest of government right now and for the last at least 30 years, there has been a culture of deregulation that is caused directly by the people who we need to be protected from, buying the government out from under us.
我認為,我們都應該去了解這次漏油事件的 起始爲何。 這件事情起始於 政府功能的瓦解。 因為我們的政府, 必須要保護大眾利益。 所以我認為石油危機, 銀行紓困方案, 房貸危機等這類事件, 都是起始於同一原因的 的表面徵兆。 我們似乎仍同意這種觀念: 警察是在保護我們, 不受少數的壞蛋的傷害。 雖然我們有時候會很討厭警察, 尤其是在開罰單的時候, 但是沒有人認為應該把警察制度廢除。 但是在許多的政府部門, 至少在過去的30年裡, 已經出現了一種放寬管制的文化, 這種文化起因於 那些少數的壞蛋 該與我們隔離的壞蛋 把政府收買了。
(Applause)
(掌聲)
Now this has been a problem for a very, very long time. You can see that corporations were illegal at the founding of America, and even Thomas Jefferson complained that they were already bidding defiance to the laws of our country. OK, people who say they're conservative, if they really wanted to be really conservative and patriotic, they would tell these corporations to go to hell. That's what it would really mean to be conservative. So what we really need to do is regain the idea that it's our government safeguarding our interests, and regain a sense of unity and common cause in our country that really has been lost. I think there are signs of hope.
這問題已經出現了一段很久的時間 各位都知道, 企業結構在美國剛建立時是違法的, 湯瑪斯-傑弗遜當時就抱怨過(註:美國第三任總統) "這些企業試著要 鑽我國法律的漏洞。" 或許有人會自認為, 自己是保守派的。 如果他們真的想做到 如此保守也夠愛國, 他們會對企業講: "下地獄去吧" 這樣才稱得上是保守派的人 我們現在需要作的, 是重新讓政府意識到, 他們必須要 保護人民的利益, 還有重新喚起國内團結的意識, 共同攜手合作, 這是已經失去很久的事物。 我想希望還是有的。
We seem to be waking up a little bit. The Glass-Steagall Act -- which was really to protect us from the kind of thing that caused the recession to happen, and the bank meltdown and all that stuff that required the bailouts -- that was put in effect in 1933, was systematically destroyed. Now there's a mood to put some of that stuff back in place, but the lobbyists are already there trying to weaken the regulations after the legislation has just passed. So it's a continued fight. It's a historic moment right now. We're either going to have an absolutely unmitigated catastrophe of this oil leak in the Gulf, or we will make the moment we need out of this, as many people have noted today. There's certainly a common theme about needing to make the moment out of this.
我們似乎已經漸漸看清事實。 格拉斯-史蒂格法條(註:美國的金融機構管制法) 這法條的目的是保護我們, 不被引起大蕭條時期的原因所影響: 像是銀行的崩潰等等, 這類需要政府救濟的事件, 這法條在1933年實施, 然後有系統性地被廢止。(1999年底廢止) 現在開始漸漸有共識 要把這條法規再回復。 但是在新環保法規剛通過之後, 又有許多政治說客出現, 想要試圖削弱這些法條的規定。 這是一場持續不斷的戰爭。 現在是歷史性的一刻, 我們要嘛會一再遭遇 像這次墨西哥灣漏油的 重大悲劇;或是- 像這次的很多人一樣, 人們會記取這次的教訓。 我們需要一個共識, 來創造這樣的一刻。
We've been through this before with other ways of offshore drilling. The first offshore wells were called whales. The first offshore drills were called harpoons. We emptied the ocean of the whales at that time. Now are we stuck with this? Ever since we lived in caves, every time we wanted any energy, we lit something on fire, and that is still what we're doing. We're still lighting something on fire every time we want energy.
在過去其他的'海上鑽井平台'出現之前, 我們也經歷過同樣類似的經驗 人類的第一個海上油井,叫作鯨魚; 而人類的第一個海上鑽井工具叫魚叉; 在那個時期,我們把鯨魚幾乎殺光了, 那現在我們也陷入同樣的困境了嗎? 從我們住洞穴的原始生活開始, 我們需要能源的時候 我們便燃燒物體來取得火,到了現代我們還是這麼做, 當我們需要能源的時候, 我們還是燃燒某些物體。
And people say we can't have clean energy because it's too expensive. Who says it's too expensive? People who sell us fossil fuels. We've been here before with energy, and people saying the economy cannot withstand a switch, because the cheapest energy was slavery. Energy is always a moral issue. It's an issue that is moral right now. It's a matter of right and wrong.
有人會說, 我們沒辦法使用潔淨的能源, 因為它們實在太貴了。 是誰說太貴的? 就是那些賣石油燃料給我們的人。 在沒有石油燃料以前,人類就已經存在了 這些人認為, 人類經濟將沒辦法承受這種轉變, 因為最便宜的能源來源就是奴隸制度。(若不用石油,只能用人力) 能源一直都是道德問題的一環, 這個問題現在也使我們得到了教訓: 這是一個涉及大對與大錯的問題,
Thank you very much.
謝謝各位。
(Applause)