Do you ever think about how important the oceans are in our daily lives? The oceans cover two-thirds of our planet. They provide half the oxygen we breathe. They moderate our climate. And they provide jobs and medicine and food including 20 percent of protein to feed the entire world population. People used to think that the oceans were so vast that they wouldn't be affected by human activities.
請問你們是否知道, 海洋對我們的生活有多重要嗎? 地球有 2/3 的面積是海洋。 我們呼吸的氧氣, 有一半是它們提供的。 它們調節氣候。 提供人類就業機會和醫藥、食物, 包括 20% 全人類食用的蛋白質。 人們認為海洋這麼的浩瀚, 應該不會受到人類活動的影響。
Well today I'm going to tell you about a serious reality that is changing our oceans called ocean acidification, or the evil twin of climate change. Did you know that the oceans have absorbed 25 percent of all of the carbon dioxide that we have emitted to the atmosphere? Now this is just another great service provided by the oceans since carbon dioxide is one of the greenhouse gases that's causing climate change. But as we keep pumping more and more and more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere more is dissolving into the oceans. And this is what's changing our ocean chemistry. When carbon dioxide dissolves in seawater, it undergoes a number of chemical reactions.
但今天我想告訴各位, 關於「海洋酸化」的嚴重現實, 或稱之為「氣候改變的邪惡雙胞胎」。 你是否知道海洋可以吸收 人類釋放到大氣中二氧化碳的 25%。 這是海水提供的極大貢獻, 因為二氧化碳, 是一種溫室效應氣體, 會造成地球氣候的變遷。 由於我們繼續製造 更多的二氧化碳, 並且釋放到空氣中, 海洋就吸收了更多的二氧化碳。 所以這是海洋化學正在改變的主因。 當二氧化碳溶解在海裡時, 它會產生一連串的化學反應。
Now lucky for you, I don't have time to get into the details of the chemistry for today. But I'll tell you as more carbon dioxide enters the ocean, the seawater pH goes down. And this basically means that there is an increase in ocean acidity. And this whole process is called ocean acidification. And it's happening alongside climate change. Scientists have been monitoring ocean acidification for over two decades. This figure is an important time series in Hawaii, and the top line shows steadily increasing concentrations of carbon dioxide, or CO2 gas, in the atmosphere. And this is directly as a result of human activities. The line underneath shows the increasing concentrations of carbon dioxide that is dissolved in the surface of the ocean which you can see is increasing at the same rate as carbon dioxide in the atmosphere since measurements began. The line on the bottom shows then shows the change in chemistry. As more carbon dioxide has entered the ocean, the seawater pH has gone down, which basically means there has been an increase in ocean acidity. Now in Ireland, scientists are also monitoring ocean acidification -- scientists at the Marine Institute and NUI Galway. And we, too, are seeing acidification at the same rate as these main ocean time-series sites around the world. So it's happening right at our doorstep.
今天你們很幸運, 我不需要在此詳述化學的細節。 但我可以告訴你多一點, 有關二氧化碳溶入海水的事, 它會造成海水酸鹼值 (pH) 的下降。 基本上來說就是海水會愈來愈酸。 整個過程稱之為「海洋酸化」。 同時也造成氣候的改變。 科學家偵測海水酸化的時間, 已經長達 20年。 這是對夏威夷很重要的 一張時間序列圖, 最上面那條棕色曲線, 顯示二氧化碳濃度, 或大氣中的 CO2 氣體含量, 呈現出穩定上升的趨勢。 直接來自人類活動造成的結果。 下面那藍色條線, 顯示 CO2 溶解在海洋表面的濃度, 可看出它也是以同樣速率在增加, 與開始測量大氣 CO2 含量時 具有相同的增加速率。 最底下的綠色曲線, 顯示化學反應的變化。 當更多二氧化碳進入海洋時, 海水酸鹼值也降低, 代表海水的酸度增加了。 愛爾蘭的科學家 現在也在監視海洋酸化, 他們是愛爾蘭高威大學 海洋學院的研究員, 我們也看到 海洋以相同速度在酸化中, 跟全球其他海洋時間序列一樣。 所以它的問題迫在眉睫。
Now I'd like to give you an example of just how we collect our data to monitor a changing ocean. Firstly we collect a lot of our samples in the middle of winter. So as you can imagine, in the North Atlantic we get hit with some seriously stormy conditions -- so not for any of you who get a little motion sickness, but we are collecting some very valuable data. So we lower this instrument over the side of the ship, and there are sensors that are mounted on the bottom that can tell us information about the surrounding water, such as temperature or dissolved oxygen. And then we can collect our seawater samples in these large bottles. So we start at the bottom, which can be over four kilometers deep just off our continental shelf, and we take samples at regular intervals right up to the surface. We take the seawater back on the deck, and then we can either analyze them on the ship or back in the laboratory for the different chemicals parameters.
我給你們一個 關於我們如何收集資料, 監測海洋變化的例子。 首先我們會在冬季中期取樣。 你們知道北大西洋, 常常被暴風雨襲擊…… 這工作不適合會暈船的人, 但我們必須收集一些有價值的數據。 所以我們把偵測儀器 放到船身一側下方, 另外船底也有偵測儀器, 可以告訴我們周遭海裡的資訊, 例如溫度和溶氧量。 這樣就可以用 巨大的瓶子收集海水樣本。 首先由 4 公里深的海水層開始, 作業地點在大陸棚外面一點, 每隔一段深度收集一個樣本, 一路往上直到海水表面。 收集到的海水被帶回甲板上, 然後直接在船上分析, 或是帶回實驗室, 研究相關的化學參數。
But why should we care? How is ocean acidification going to affect all of us? Well, here are the worrying facts. There has already been an increase in ocean acidity of 26 percent since pre-industrial times, which is directly due to human activities. Unless we can start slowing down our carbon dioxide emissions, we're expecting an increase in ocean acidity of 170 percent by the end of this century. I mean this is within our children's lifetime. This rate of acidification is 10 times faster than any acidification in our oceans for over 55 million years. So our marine life have never, ever experienced such a fast rate of change before. So we literally could not know how they're going to cope.
但為什麼我們要關心這些? 海洋酸化如何影響我們的未來? 以下是令人擔心的事實。 海洋酸化已經增加了26%, 相對於革命工業開始前, 可見這是由人類活動導致的。 除非我們能把二氧化碳 排放的速度減緩下來, 否則到本世紀末的時候, 我們預期海洋的酸度 會增加 170%。 我的意思是到了我們下一代, 此種酸化的速度, 比五千五百萬年前, 海水酸化速度還快十倍。 這是海洋生物從未有過的經驗, 那種急遽的變化。 快速到我們無從知道, 牠們要如何去適應。
Now there was a natural acidification event millions of years ago, which was much slower than what we're seeing today. And this coincided with a mass extinction of many marine species. So is that what we're headed for? Well, maybe. Studies are showing some species are actually doing quite well but many are showing a negative response. One of the big concerns is as ocean acidity increases, the concentration of carbonate ions in seawater decrease. Now these ions are basically the building blocks for many marine species to make their shells, for example crabs or mussels, oysters.
數百萬年前, 曾發生過一件天然酸化事件, 比今日看到的速度緩慢了很多。 這事件恰好是 很多海洋物種大滅絕的時間。 所以這是我們正在邁入的現象嗎? 或許是的。 研究顯示有些物種適應得很好, 但有些則顯出負面的反應。 海洋酸化的大問題之一是; 海水中碳酸鹽離子的減少。 這些離子基本上像是一種建築材料, 是很多海洋生物製造外殼的物質, 如螃蟹、孔雀蛤、牡蠣等。
Another example are corals. They also need these carbonate ions in seawater to make their coral structure in order to build coral reefs. As ocean acidity increases and the concentration of carbonate ions decrease, these species first find it more difficult to make their shells. And at even even lower levels, they can actually begin to dissolve.
另一例是珊瑚。 牠們也需要這些碳酸鹽離子, 來組成珊瑚的結構和製造珊瑚礁。 當海洋酸性升高時, 碳酸鹽離子的濃度降低了, 這些生物會更難製造外殼。 當酸性降低至更低的時後, 它們甚至會溶解掉。
This here is a pteropod, it's called a sea butterfly. And it's an important food source in the ocean for many species, from krill to salmon right up to whales. The shell of the pteropod was placed into seawater at a pH that we're expecting by the end of this century. After only 45 days at this very realistic pH, you can see the shell has almost completely dissolved. So ocean acidification could affect right up through the food chain -- and right onto our dinner plates. I mean who here likes shellfish? Or salmon? Or many other fish species whose food source in the ocean could be affected?
這是被喻為「海蝶」的 翼足類軟體動物。 牠是很多海洋生物的重要食物來源, 從磷蝦、鮭魚到鯨魚都靠它生存。 將翼足軟體動物的外殼, 放進我們預估本世紀末的 酸性海水樣本中, 在此種 pH 值非常酸的 海水裡只需 45 天, 就可以看到貝殼幾乎完全被溶解。 所以海洋酸化可以影響食物鏈, 一路影響到你和我的餐盤。 我是說誰願意像貝類?鮭魚? 或很多其他魚種, 牠們海洋中的食物來源受到影響?
These are cold-water corals. And did you know we actually have cold-water corals in Irish waters, just off our continental shelf? And they support rich biodiversity, including some very important fisheries. It's projected that by the end of this century, 70 percent of all known cold-water corals in the entire ocean will be surrounded by seawater that is dissolving their coral structure. The last example I have are these healthy tropical corals. They were placed in seawater at a pH we're expecting by the year 2100. After six months, the coral has almost completely dissolved. Now coral reefs support 25 percent of all marine life in the entire ocean. All marine life.
這些是冷水珊瑚礁。 你知道愛爾蘭的外海, 也有冷水珊瑚礁嗎? 就在大陸棚外面一點的地方。 它們支撐豐富多樣生態的存活, 包括非常重要的漁業。 預估到了本世紀末, 全球 70% 已知的所有冷水珊瑚礁, 在整個海洋裡, 將會通通被海水溶解掉。 我最近發現的例子 是這些熱帶海洋珊瑚, 把牠放入預估的 2100 年 酸性海水樣本中時, 經過六個月後,牠們幾乎完全溶解。 現在全球珊瑚礁支撐了 整個海洋 25% 的生態。 所有的海洋生物。
So you can see: ocean acidification is a global threat. I have an eight-month-old baby boy. Unless we start now to slow this down, I dread to think what our oceans will look like when he's a grown man. We will see acidification. We have already put too much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. But we can slow this down. We can prevent the worst-case scenario. The only way of doing that is by reducing our carbon dioxide emissions. This is important for both you and I, for industry, for governments.
所以可想而知, 海洋酸化是全球性的威脅。 我有個八個月大的嬰兒。 除非我們現在開始減緩酸化速度, 我不敢想像未來他長大後, 海洋會變成怎樣。 我們將會繼續看到海水的酸化。 因為釋放到空氣中的 二氧化碳已經太多了。 但我們可以放慢酸化速度。 可以預防此種最壞的結局。 要作到此點,唯一之道, 就是減少二氧化碳的排放量。 這對你我、工業界, 和政府都是非常重要的。
We need to work together, slow down global warming slow down ocean acidification and help to maintain a healthy ocean and a healthy planet for our generation and for generations to come.
我們必須同心協力減緩全球暖化, 減緩海洋酸化, 一起努力維持海洋和地球的健康, 為了這一代和未來的世代。
(Applause)
(掌聲)