The Bounty of the Sea

The Bounty of the Sea

During the past thirty years, I have observed and studied the oceans closely, and with my own two eyes I have seen them sicken. Certain reefs that teemed with fish only ten years ago are now almost lifeless. The ocean bottom has been raped by trawlers. Priceless wetlands have been destroyed by landfill. And everywhere are sticky globs of oil, plastic refuse, and unseen clouds of poisonous effluents. Often, when I describe the symptom of the oceans' sickness, I hear remarks like \"they're only fish\" or \"they're only whales\" or \"they're only birds\". But I assure you that our destinies are linked with theirs in the most profound and fundamental manner. For if the oceans should die—by which I mean that all life in the sea would finally cease—this would signal the end not only for marine life but for all other animals and plants of this earth, including man.

过去的三十年间，我近距离的观察和学习海洋，用我自己的双眼看到了它们的恶化。有些暗礁十年前有很多鱼，而现在几乎没有生命。海洋底部已经被拖网渔船破坏。无价的湿地已经被填埋的垃圾破坏。到处都是粘稠的油污，废弃的塑料和看不见的有毒污水。很多时候，当我描述海洋恶化的征兆时会听到像“他们只是鱼”，“它们只是鲸”或者“它们只是鸟”的评论。但是，我确信我们的命运和海洋生物的命运有深远、重要的联系。因为，如果海洋灭亡，我的意思是海洋中所有的生命将最终消失，这将不仅是海生生命的灭亡的标志，更是包括人类在内，地球上的所有动物和植物的灭绝。

With life departed, the ocean would become, in effect, one enormous cesspool. Billions of decaying bodies, large and small, would create such an insupportable stench that man would be forced to leave all the coastal regions. But

far worse would follow.

生命离开了，海洋实际上将会变成一个巨大的污水坑。数十亿腐烂的或大或小的尸体，将产生恶臭，这迫使所有人类离开沿海地区。但是，更糟糕的还在后面。

The ocean acts as the earth's buffer. It maintains a fine balance between the many salts and gases which make life possible. But dead seas would have no buffering effect. The carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere would start on a steady and remorseless climb, and when it reached a certain level a \"greenhouse effect\" would be created. The heat that normally radiate outward from the earth to space would be blocked by the CO2, and sea level temperatures would dramatically increase.

海洋作为地区的缓冲，保持生命所需的盐和水的良好平衡。但是，死海不再有缓冲作用。大气中的二氧化碳将稳定无情的上涨，当达到特定的水平时，“温室效应”就会产生。通常，地球向外太空放射的热量将被二氧化碳封锁，海平面会急剧上升。

One catastrophic effect of this heat would be melting of the icecap at both the North and South Poles. As a result, the ocean would rise by 100 feet or more, enough to flood almost all the world's major cities. These rising waters would drive one-third of the earth's billions inland, creating famine, fighting, chaos, and disease on a scale almost impossible to imagine.

热量产生的一个灾难将是南极和北极冰盖的融化。结果就是海洋上升100英尺甚至更多，这足以淹没全世界大部分城市。上升的水将把地球三分之一几十亿人口赶到内陆，造

成饥荒、战争、混乱和疾病，几乎想象不到的程度。

Meanwhile, the surface of the ocean would have scummed over with a thick film of decayed matter, and would no longer be able to give water freely to the skies through evaporation. Rain would become a rarity, creating global drought and even more famine.

同时，海洋表面将会被厚厚的腐烂物覆盖，将不能通过蒸发让水到达天空。雨将变为稀有物，造成全球干旱甚至更大的饥荒。

But the final act is yet to come. The wretched remnant of the human race would now be packed cheek by jowl on the remaining highlands, bewildered, starving, struggling to survive from hour to hour. Then would be visited upon them the final plague, anoxia (lack of oxygen). This would be caused by the extinction of plankton algae and the reduction of land vegetation, the two sources that supply the oxygen you are now breathing.

但是最后一幕还没有到来。在仅有的高地上，可怜的剩余的人将面颊挨着颚骨，不知所措，饱受饥饿之苦，以小时计算努力使自己生存下来。然后，瘟疫，缺氧将光顾他们。这是浮游生物水藻的灭绝和植被减少造成的，这两种资源提供呼吸所需的氧气。

And so man would finally die, slowly gasping out his life on some barren hill. He would have survived the oceans by perhaps thirty years. And his heirs would be bacteria and a few scavenger insects.

人类最终将死亡，在某个荒芜的山上慢慢喘息。他本可以比海洋多活大概三十年，他的继承人将是细菌和少量食腐昆虫。