Ted英语演讲：发送卫星来追踪威胁地球的甲烷气体
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全球变暖是我们目前面临的一个大问题，不过全世界都过分关注二氧化碳，却忽略了另外一个重要的气体——甲烷。
Fred Krupp: Let’s launch a satellite to track a threatening greenhouse gas
我们能否发射一颗卫星来追踪威胁地球的温室气体？
We’ve got a big problem on our hands with global warming. A lot of you, a lot of people have been watching the floods, the droughts, the storms, the fires. When I leave this stage today, I don’t want you to have hope. I want you to have certainty, real certainty that we can make a dent in this problem and live to see it. I want to give you a vision of what that would look like. This is the first time we’ve shared this publicly. You’re the first audience to hear it.
全球变暖是我们目前面临的一个大问题。包括在座的各位，我们很多人都目睹了洪水，干旱，风暴和山火如何在我们的土地上肆虐。在我的演讲结束后，我并不想让大家抱有希望。我希望你们能够十分确信，我们找到了解决问题的可靠途径。我想给你们一个关于这个途径的愿景。这是我们第一次公开分享这一信息。你们是第一批听到它的观众。
We are going to launch a rocket. And on that rocket will be a satellite. And that satellite will collect data about pollution that is warming the planet. We will put that data in the hands of people who can make simple fixes that will change the course of global warming in our lifetime.
我们会发射一枚火箭。火箭上会携带一颗卫星。这颗卫星能够搜集导致全球变暖的污染数据。这些数据会被送到能够以简便的方式，在我们的有生之年改变全球变暖进程的人们手中。
That’s a lot to take in, maybe I should back up. First, let me introduce myself, I’m Fred, I’ve been an environmentalist since I was a kid, when I watched the fish and the frogs in my neighborhood pond die from a chemical spill. That bothered me. Later, a professor inspired me to think about environmentalism differently. How the best solutions come from answering people’s aspirations for prosperity, things like being safe and healthy and thriving in this world. So I joined the Environmental Defense Fund to build those kind of solutions. And I’ve worked my whole career for a moment like this — the moment, when we can stop fighting headwinds and start to have the wind at our backs. Because of the power of information, information from technology that is coming down in price and going up in precision.
上面这段话包含了太多信息，我们还是从头开始吧。首先，我想做个自我介绍，我叫弗雷德，我从童年时期就已经是个环保主义者了，我曾经目睹了社区池塘里的鱼和青蛙因为化学物质倾泻而死亡。这让我十分忧虑。后来，一位教授启发了我以不同的方式思考环境保护论。如何通过应对人们对繁荣的渴望得到最佳解决方案，比如安全，健康，生机勃勃的生活在这个世界上。于是我加入了环境保卫基金，试图打造出这样的解决方案。我的整个职业生涯都致力于实现这样的时刻——我们能够停止顶风对抗，开始乘风向前，让难题迎刃而解。因为我们有了信息的力量，先进技术提供的信息成本日益降低，精确度也在不断提高。
You see, there’s something about climate change that we didn’t grasp just a decade ago. The world was so focused on carbon dioxide that we overlooked another important gas. We didn’t appreciate methane. Methane pollution causes one quarter of the global warming that we’re experiencing right now. Pound for pound, its immediate impact is far greater than carbon dioxide. Eighty four times greater over a 20-year period. One of the largest sources of methane pollution is the oil and gas industry. But that’s not obvious, because methane is invisible.
很明显，有些关于气候变化的问题我们在十年前还没有注意到。全世界都过分关注二氧化碳，却忽略了另外一个重要的气体。我们没有重视甲烷。甲烷污染占据了我们目前面临的全球变暖问题的四分之一。甲烷泄露，其立竿见影的影响远超二氧化碳，并在过去的20年期间增加了84倍。甲烷污染的最大的源头之一就是油气工业。但是这很难被察觉，因为甲烷是透明的。
Let’s take a look at this natural gas storage facility outside of Los Angeles. Can you see the methane? Neither can I. How about now? We shot this using an infrared camera, at the same spot, exposing one of the worst methane leaks in the history of the United States. That’s a very different picture. It turns out that natural gas is displacing our dependence on coal, which emits far more carbon dioxide. But natural gas is mostly methane. So, as it’s produced and processed and transported to homes and businesses across America, it escapes from wells and pipes and other equipment. It gets up into the sky and contributes to the disasters that we’re now experiencing. That does not have to happen.
我们来看看洛杉矶城外这个天然气储存设施，能看到甲烷泄露吗？我也看不到。现在呢？我们在同一地点用红外摄像机拍摄，揭露了美国历史上最严重的甲烷泄露之一。与之前看到的不同，这个画面触目惊心。天然气正在取代我们对煤炭的依赖，后者在燃烧过程中会释放更多二氧化碳。但是天然气的主要成分就是甲烷。在全美国境内，甲烷被生产，处理和运输至若干家庭和企业，同时不断从井口，管道以及其他设施中泄露出来，在空气中扩散，导致了我们正在面临的很多灾害。而这一切都是可以避免的。
But nobody had paid much attention to it until we launched a nationwide study to understand the problem. We used drones, planes, helicopters, even Google Street View cars. It turns out there’s far more of this methane pollution than what the government is reporting. It also turns out that when we find where the gas is being vented and leaked, most of those sources can be fixed easily and inexpensively, saving the gas that would have otherwise been wasted. And finally, we learn that when you put information like that into people’s hands, they act. Leading companies replaced valves and tightened loose-fitting pipes. Colorado became the first state in the nation to limit methane pollution; California followed suit, and the public joined in. Tweets started flying — #cutmethane. And everybody’s paying more attention now.
但是在我们针对这个问题开展了一个全国范围的研究之前，人们却几乎没怎么关注过它。我们动用了无人机，飞机，直升机，甚至谷歌街景车。结果发现甲烷污染的现象比政府报告的要远远普遍得多。我们还发现，我们找到的气体泄露的源头，大部分都能够通过简单廉价的方式处理，防止气体被白白浪费掉。最终，我们发现把这些信息交到人们手中，他们都会采取行动。行业领导者们替换了阀门，并加固了衔接处不够牢固的管道。科罗拉多是第一个限制甲烷污染的州；加州紧随其后，接着大家都参与了进来。推特上也开始关注这一话题——#控制甲烷。人们也开始更关注这个问题。
We’re doing this because we can’t wait for Washington, especially not now. In fact, we have to take what we’ve done so far and go higher, to the sky. The United Stated represents about 10 percent of this pollution. To find the rest, we have to go global. Remember that rocket I mentioned? It will launch a compact satellite, called MethaneSAT, to do what no one has been able to do until now: measure methane pollution from oil and gas facilities worldwide, with exacting precision. Its data stream will allow us to map that pollution, so that everyone can see it. Then it’s all about turning data into action, just as we did in the United States.
我们自发开始行动，因为等不及华盛顿方面的回应，尤其在现在这个时期。事实上，我们不得不将现有的技术运用在高空中。美国本土代表了10%的甲烷污染规模。要处理余下的部分，我们需要放眼全球。还记得我提到的火箭吗？它会发射一个精巧的卫星，叫做甲烷SAT，这个卫星要去完成一个史上从未执行过的任务：高精度测量全球油气开采设施的甲烷污染。它提供的数据流能够让我们测绘出污染的情况，这样所有人都能看到。下一步就要把数据转换成行动，正如我们在美国实践过的那样。
We’ve seen that when we present companies with data, many of them will cut the pollution. Citizens will be empowered to take action; governments will tighten the regulations. And because all of our data will be free and public, there will be transparency — we’ll all be able to see how much progress is being made and where. Which brings me to our goal: to cut this methane pollution by 45 percent by 2025.
我们已经见证了把数据展示给企业时，他们当中大部分都会配合减少污染。市民们会被激励而采取行动；政府部门会制定更严格的规定。并且由于我们的所有数据都是免费和公开的，这就提供了足够的透明度——我们都可以看到在哪里，取得了多大的进展。这一切都能帮助实现我们的目标：到2025年，降低45%的甲烷污染。
(Applause)
（掌声）
That will have the same near-term impact as shutting down 1,300 coal-fired power plants. That’s one third of all the coal-fired power plants in the world. Nothing else can have this sort of near-term impact at such a low cost. The fact that a single satellite can help us put the brakes on global warming is truly remarkable. This is our chance to create change in our lifetimes, and we can do it now.
这就相当于短期内在全世界关闭1300个火力发电厂产生的效果。差不多是全球火力发电厂数量的三分之一。没有任何一种措施能够以如此低成本，在短期内产生这样的影响。一个卫星就能帮助我们减缓全球变暖进程，这太不可思议了。我们有能力在有生之年做出改变，现在就可以。
Thanks to the generous giving of the Audacious Project, we are on a path toward liftoff. But my time is running short, and I promised you a vision of what a critical piece of the solution would look like. Can you see it? Can you see how this satellite leverages the best of science and data and technology? Can you see we’re entering a whole new era of innovation that is supercharging progress? Can you see that it’s in our hands?
感谢“大胆项目”的慷慨支持，我们正朝着发射的目标迈进。不过我的演讲快结束了，我刚才承诺给各位了一个愿景，关于解决途径的一个重要部分是什么。你们看到了吗？你们看到这个卫星如何综合利用科学，数据和技术最精彩的地方了吗？你们看到我们正在步入一个全新的，超快推进人类进步的时代了吗？你们看到这一切都在由我们掌控吗？
We’ve set an aggressive goal of three years till liftoff, and when that satellite is ready, we’ll have a launch party. A literal launch party. So imagine a blue-sky day, crowds of people, television cameras, kids staring up toward the sky at a thing that will change their future. What an amazing day that will be. What a big opportunity we have. I can’t wait.
我们已经制定了一个三年的野心勃勃的发射目标，当卫星一切就绪，我们会开一个庆祝大会。一个名副其实的发射狂欢节。想象晴空万里的一天，人山人海，到处都是电视直播设备，孩子们仰头望着天空，盯着一个会改变他们未来的东西。这将是多么激动人心的一天啊。我们有了多么大的一个机会。我已经等不及了。
Thank you.
谢谢大家。
(Applause)
（掌声）