Good evening, welcome to New Orleans. I don't know if you knew this, but you are sitting within 15 minutes of one of the largest rivers in the world: the Mississippi river. Old Man River, Big Muddy. And it goes as far north as the state of Minnesota, as far east as the state of New York, as far west as Montana. And 100 miles from here, river miles, it empties its fresh water and sediments into the Gulf of Mexico. That's the end of Geography 101.
晚上好,欢迎来到新奥尔良。 我不知道你们是否了解, 离在座各位15分钟路程之内 是世界上最长的河流之一: 密西西比河。 又称老人河,或大泥泞。 北达明尼苏达州, 东达纽约州, 西达蒙大拿。 在距离这100英里的地方, 它的淡水与沉积物, 全部流入到墨西哥湾。 好了,地理问答到此结束。
(Laughter)
(笑声)
Now we're going to go to what is in that water. Besides the sediment, there are dissolved molecules, nitrogen and phosphorus. And those, through a biological process, lead to the formation of areas called dead zones. Now, dead zone is a quite ominous word if you're a fish or a crab.
现在我们要来讲讲水里有什么。 除了沉积物之外, 一些微粒、氮和磷都溶解在水里。 这些物质经由生物学上的变化, 形成了所谓的“死亡区”。 如果你是鱼或者螃蟹的话, 死亡区就是个很不吉利的词。
(Laughter)
(笑声)
Even a little worm in the sediments. Which means that there's not enough oxygen for those animals to survive.
甚至是沉积物中的一只小虫子。 我的意思是, 水里没有足够的氧气, 供这些动物们生存。
So, how does this happen? The nitrogen and the phosphorus stimulate the growth of microscopic plants called phytoplankton. And small animals called zooplankton eat the phytoplankton, small fish eat the zooplankton, large fish eat the small fish and it goes on up into the food web. The problem is that there's just too much nitrogen and phosphorus right now, too much phytoplankton falling to the bottom and decomposed by bacteria that use up the oxygen. That's the biology.
所以,这个问题是怎么发生的呢? 氮和磷, 促进了一种叫做 浮游植物的微观植物的生长。 叫做浮游动物的小生物吃浮游植物, 小鱼吃浮游动物,大鱼吃小鱼, 由此形成了整个食物网。 问题在于,现在有太多的氮和磷, 太多的浮游植物沉入水底, 被细菌分解的过程中耗尽了氧气。 这是从生物学的角度来说。
Now, you can't see it from the surface of the water, you can't see it in satellite images, so how do we know it's there? Well, a trawler can tell you, when she puts her net over the side and drags for 20 minutes and comes up empty, that she knows she's in the dead zone. And she has to go somewhere else. But where else do you go if this area is 8,000 square miles big? About the size of the state of New Jersey. Well, you either make a decision to go further, without much economic return, or go back to the dock.
现在,你在水面上看不到死亡区, 在卫星图片上也看不到, 所以我们怎么知道它的存在呢? 渔船的捕鱼人就能告诉你, 当她撒网并拖行20分钟 仍然一无所获的时候, 她就明白它在死亡区了。 而她必须去其他地方。 但是,如果这片区域有 8000平方英里大,还能去哪里呢? 大概和新泽西州差不多大。 所以,你要么决定去更远的地方, 而没有太多经济报酬, 要么就回到码头。
As a scientist, I have access to high-tech equipment that we can put over the side of the research vessel, and it measures oxygen and many more things. We start at the Mississippi River, we crisscross the Gulf of Mexico all the way to Texas, and even I sneak into Texas every now and then and test their waters. And you can tell by the bottom oxygen -- you can draw a map of everything that's less than two, which is the magic number for when the fish start to leave the area. I also dive in this dead zone. We have oxygen meters that we have to deploy offshore that tell us continuous measurements of low oxygen or high oxygen. And when you get into the water, there's a lot of fish. Tons of fish, all kinds of fish, including my buddy here, the barracuda that I saw one day. Everybody else swam this way and I went this way with my camera.
作为一名科学家, 我曾经使用高科技设备, 我们把设备放置在考察船的一侧, 它就能测量出氧气含量 和许多其他数据。 我们从密西西比河开始, 穿过墨西哥湾, 一直到德克萨斯州, 我有时甚至溜进德州, 测量一下他们的水体。 通过水底氧气就可以判断出—— 你可以画张地图, 记录所有数量小于2的东西, 这个魔力的数字代表着, 鱼类开始离开这片区域的地方。 我也会潜入这个死亡区。 我们有氧气测量仪, 但必须要离岸才能部署, 氧气测量仪会持续地告诉我们 氧气含量是高是低。 而当你刚进入水中的时候, 会发现很多鱼, 数不清的鱼,各种各样的鱼, 包括我的伙计, 我之前遇到的一条梭鱼。 我带着我的相机 跟它们朝一个方向游。
(Laughter)
(笑声)
And then, down at 30 feet you start to see fewer fish. And then you get to the bottom. And you don't see any fish. There's no life on the platform, there's no life swimming around. And you know you're in the dead zone.
然后,在水深30英尺的地方, 你看到的鱼开始变少了。 而当你到达水底的时候, 一条鱼也看不到。 在海底上没有任何生命, 更没有生物在周围游动。 然后你就知道,你已身在死亡区了。
So, what's the connection between the middle of the United States and the Gulf of Mexico? Well, most of the watershed is farmland. And in particular, corn-soybean rotation. The nitrogen that is put in fertilizers and the phosphorus goes on the land and drains off into the Mississippi River and ends up in the Gulf of Mexico. There's three times more nitrogen in the water in the Mississippi now, than there was in the 1950s. Three times. And phosphorus has doubled. And what that means is more phytoplankton and more sinking sails and lower oxygen. This is not a natural feature of the Gulf; it's been caused by human activities.
所以,美国中部与墨西哥湾之间 有什么联系呢? 大部分流域都布满农田。 尤其是玉米与大豆的轮种田。 肥料中的氮和磷成分进入土地, 然后排出到密西西比河中, 最后进入墨西哥湾。 现在密西西比河水的氮含量, 是以前的3倍, 与上世纪50年代相比。 3倍啊。 而磷含量则是以前的两倍。 这意味着更多的浮游植物、 更多的沉船、更低的含氧量。 这不是墨西哥湾的自然特征; 这是人类活动导致的。
The landscape is not what it used to be. It used to be prairies and forests and prairie potholes and duck areas and all kinds of stuff. But not anymore -- it's row crops. And there are ways that we can address this type of agriculture by using less fertilizer, maybe precision fertilizing. And trying some sustainable agriculture such as perennial wheatgrass, which has much longer roots than the six inches of a corn plant, that can keep the nitrogen on the soil and keep the soil from running off. And how do we convince our neighbors to the north, maybe 1,000 miles away or more, that their activities are causing problems with water quality in the Gulf of Mexico?
风景也与以前大不一样。 这里以前是草原、 森林、草原坑洞、 也是鸭子栖息地等地方。 但现在不再是这些地方了, 这里现在是行栽作物的区域。 我们有许多方式 解决这类农业问题, 比如减少化肥使用, 或许选择精准施肥。 还可以尝试一些可持续农业的方法, 比如种植多年生麦草, 因为它们的根系更加强壮, 比6英寸的玉米根还要长, 这些根能够保存土壤中的氮, 并且防止土壤的流失。 而我们要怎样说服我们北边的邻居, 那些住在1000英里开外的邻居, 让他们相信, 他们的活动 导致墨西哥湾的水质出现问题?
First of all, we can take them to their own backyard. If you want to go swimming in Wisconsin in the summer in your favorite watering hole, you might find something like this which looks like spilled green paint and smells like it, growing on the surface of the water. This is a toxic blue-green algal bloom and it is not good for you. Similarly, in Lake Erie, couple of summers ago there was hundreds of miles of this blue-green algae and the city of Toledo, Ohio, couldn't use it for their drinking water for several days on end. And if you watch the news, you know that lots of communities are having trouble with drinking water.
首先,我们可以把他们 带到他们的后院。 如果你想在威斯康星州的夏天 在你最喜爱的水坑里 游泳的话, 你可能会发现些像这样的东西, 它们看起来就像 溢出来的绿油漆,闻起来也像, 在水面上生长。 这是一种有毒的蓝绿色藻花, 这对身体有害。 与之相似的, 几年前的夏天, 伊利湖有上百英里这样的蓝绿色海藻, 导致俄亥俄州的托莱多市, 连续数日 不能将其作为饮用水饮用。 你如果看新闻的话就会知道, 那时有很多社区 都面临着饮用水无法饮用问题。
I'm a scientist. I don't know if you could tell that.
我是一名科学家。 我不知道你们能不能看得出来。
(Laughter)
(笑声)
And I do solid science, I publish my results, my colleagues read them, I get citations of my work. But I truly believe that, as a scientist, using mostly federal funds to do the research, I owe it to the public, to agency heads and congressional people to share my knowledge with them so they can use it, hopefully to make better decisions about our environmental policy.
我进行了严谨的科学研究, 发表了研究结果, 我的同事们会去研读, 我的成果也会被引用。 但是我坚实地相信,作为一名 主要用联邦资金进行研究的科学家, 这些成就应归功于社会工作, 机构负责人,国会议员们, 我应该将这些知识分享给他们。 希望他们利用这些知识, 制定出更好的 环境政策。
(Applause)
(掌声)
Thank you.
谢谢。
(Applause)
(掌声)
One of the ways that I was able to do this is I brought in the media. And Joby Warrick from the "Washington Post" put this picture in an article on the front page, Sunday morning, two inches above the fold. That's a big deal. And Senator John Breaux, from Louisiana, said, "Oh my gosh, that's what they think the Gulf of Mexico looks like?" And I said, "Well, you know, there's the proof." And we've go to do something about it. At the same time, Senator Olympia Snowe from Maine was having trouble with harmful algal blooms in the Gulf of Maine. They joined forces -- it was bipartisan --
为了实现这一目的, 我能做的一件事是借助媒体的力量。 《华盛顿邮报》的乔比·瓦里克, 把这张照片放在一篇文章中, 刊登在了周日早晨的头版, 距离中折线2英寸的地方。 这是一件了不起的事。 来自路易斯安那州的参议员 约翰·布鲁说: “我的天,他们觉得墨西哥湾 看起来是这样的?” 我说:“是的,这就是证据。” 我们必须要为此做些什么。 与此同时,来自缅因州的 奥林匹亚·斯诺威议员, 正在处理缅因湾的 有害藻花问题。 他们二人协力合作——两党都支持——
(Laughter)
(笑声)
(Applause)
(掌声)
And invited me to give congressional testimony, and I said, "Oh, all I've done is chase crabs around south Texas, I don't know how to do that."
并且邀请我去国会作证, 我说:“哦,我一直做的不过是 在德州南部追螃蟹, 我不知道怎么作证。”
(Laughter)
(笑声)
But I did it.
但我还是去了。
(欢呼声)
(Cheers)
最终,法案通过了,
And eventually, the bill passed. And it was called -- yeah, yay! It was called The Harmful Algal Bloom and Hypoxia Research and Control Act of 1998.
它被称作——是的,太好了! 它被称作, 1998年有害藻花及低氧研究控制法案。 (笑声)
(Laughter)
(掌声)
(Applause)
谢谢。
Thank you. Which is why we call it the Snowe-Breaux Bill.
这也是为什么我们把它叫做 “斯诺威-布鲁法案”。 (笑声)
(Laughter)
The other thing is that we had a conference in 2001 that was put on by the National Academy of Sciences that looked at fertilizers, nitrogen and poor water quality. Our plenary speaker was the former governor of the state of New Jersey. And she ... There was no thinking she wasn't serious when she peered at the audience, and I thought, "Surely she's looking at me." "You know, I'm really tired of this thing being called New Jersey. Pick another state, any state, I just don't want to hear it anymore." But she was able to move the action plan across President George H.W. Bush's desk so that we had environmental goals and that we were working to solve them. The Midwest does not feed the world. It feeds a lot of chickens, hogs, cattle and it generates ethanol to put into our gasoline, which is regulated by federal policy. We can do better than this. We need to make decisions that make us less consumptive and reduce our reliance on nitrogen. It's like a carbon footprint.
另一件事是, 我们在2001年开了一次会议, 会议由美国国家科学院举办, 主要探讨了肥料, 氮和水质恶化问题。 我们的发言代表是新泽西州的, 前任州长。 她…… 当她凝视观众的时候, 没人质疑她不是严肃的, 然后我想:“她一定是在看我。” “你知道,我真的讨厌听到 新泽西州的这个名字, 换一个州,任何州都行, 我真的不想再听到新泽西了。” 但是她能够把行动计划 放在布什总统的办公桌上, 使得我们树立起环境保护目标, 并为实现目标努力去解决问题。 中西部地区不能养活全世界。 但它能饲养很多鸡、猪、牛, 并生产出, 加入汽油中的乙醇, 这是按联邦政策进行管理的。 我们可以做得更好。 我们需要做出决定, 为了减少消耗, 降低我们对于氮的依赖。 就像是碳足迹一样。
But you can reduce your nitrogen footprint. I do it by not eating much meat -- I still like a little every now and then -- not using corn oil, driving a car that I can put nonethanol gas in and get better gas mileage. Just things like that that can make a difference. So I'm challenging, not just you, but I challenge a lot of people, especially in the Midwest -- think about how you're treating your land and how you can make a difference.
但你可以减少你的氮足迹。 我的方法是少吃些肉—— 当然我还是喜欢偶尔吃一点; 不使用玉米油; 驾驶支持非乙醇汽油的汽车, 这样还可以节省汽油,走的更远。 像这样的小事, 就能够让情况变得不同。 所以,我要呼吁的, 不仅是在座各位, 还有许许多多的, 尤其是在中西部的人们—— 想想你们是怎样对待你们的土地的, 而你们又该如何做出改变。
So my steps are very small steps. To change the type of agriculture in the US is going to be many big steps. And it's going to take political and social will for that to happen. But we can do it.
我所迈出的,只是小步。 而想要改变美国的农业类型, 还需要走许多大步。 这需要政界与社会多方面的帮助。 虽然难,但我们可以做到。
I strongly believe we can translate the science, bridge it to policy and make a difference in our environment. We all want a clean environment. And we can work together to do this so that we no longer have these dead zones in the Gulf of Mexico.
我坚定地相信, 我们可以将科学转化为 架起它与政策之间的桥梁, 然后改善我们的环境。 我们都渴望洁净的环境。 我们需要齐心协力实现这个目标, 这样,我们的墨西哥湾, 就不会再有死亡区了。
Thank you.
谢谢。
(Applause)
(掌声)