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Human beings owe their life to the sea.
人類的生命都是海洋給的。
Four in 10 humans rely on the ocean for food.
每10個人中間就有4個人依靠海洋獲取食物。
Marine life produces 70% of our oxygen; 90% of global goods travel via shipping lanes.
海洋生物為我們提供了70%的氧氣；全球90%的貨物也都是通過海上航道運輸的。
We turn to the sea for solace—ocean-based tourism in the U.S. alone is worth $124 billion a year—and medical advancement.
海洋不僅是我們尋求心靈慰藉的出口——美國一個國家的海上旅游業一年就能創收1240億美元——也是醫療進步的出口。
An enzyme used for COVID-19 testing was originally sourced from bacteria found in the ocean's hydro-thermal vents.
新冠肺炎檢測用到的一種酶最初就是從深海熱液噴口發現的微生物中分離出來的。
The ocean also acts as a giant planetary air conditioner.
海洋還是一臺巨大的空調，調節著地球的溫度。
Over the past century, the ocean has absorbed 93% of the heat trapped in the atmosphere by greenhouse-gas emissions.
過去的一個世紀里，海洋吸收了93%的經溫室氣體排放后滯留在大氣中的熱量。
"If all that heat hadn't been taken up by the ocean,
“如果不是這些熱量都被海洋吸收了，
we'd all be living in Death Valley conditions by now,"
我們現在恐怕已經生活在死亡谷那樣的（高溫）環境里了，”
says marine-conservation biologist Callum Roberts at the U.K.‘s University of York.
英國約克大學海洋生物學家卡勒姆·羅伯茨說。
But we humans have also been squeezing life out of the sea.
問題是，我們人類一直在扼殺海洋的生命。
Increased CO2 levels in the atmosphere have made the ocean more acidic, threatening food chains.
大氣中的二氧化碳濃度越來越高，導致海洋逐漸酸化，海洋食物鏈岌岌可危。
Warming waters are not only killing sea life,
變暖的海水不僅危害到了海洋生物的生存，
they are also changing currents and affecting global weather patterns.
還改變了洋流，影響了全球氣候模式。
Meanwhile we dump 8 million tons of waste into the ocean a year,
不僅如此，人類一年往海洋里傾倒的垃圾就有800萬噸，
in addition to agricultural and industrial runoff that poisons coastal areas.
還有農業和工業徑流毒害沿海地區。
At the rate we are harvesting fish, by 2050 there will likely be more plastic than fish in the oceans.
按照我們目前捕魚的速度，到2050年，海洋中塑料的規模就會超過魚類。
A 2019 report by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
聯合國政府間氣候變化專門委員會2019年的一份報告告誡稱，
warned that without "profound economic and institutional transformations,"
如果不進行“深刻的經濟和體制變革”，
there would be irreversible damage to oceans and sea ice.
海洋和海冰將會面臨不可逆轉的破壞。
This was supposed to be the year those transformations began.
今年原本就是改革開局之年。
A series of international policy meetings in 2020 was meant to set global targets for managing fish populations,
國際社會原計劃年內召開一系列政策會議，制定管理魚類種群，
restoring biodiversity and controlling pollution.
恢復生物多樣性，控制污染等目標。
As it did with so much this year, the coronavirus pandemic put those talks on hold.
新冠疫情洶涌而來，各行各業紛紛擱淺，原定的上述會議也不例外。
Nonetheless, environmentalists, scientists, policymakers and ocean advocates are working desperately to keep the momentum going,
盡管如此，環保人士、科學家、政策制定者和海洋倡導者仍在拼命努力，把握時機，
aware that this might be the last, best chance they have to reverse the tide.
因為他們已經意識到，今年可能是他們力挽狂瀾的最后機會。
"What's the phrase?
“那句話怎么說來著？
Never let a good crisis go to waste?
永遠不要放過一次充滿機遇的危機？
As we restart the economy, this is the chance to reset our goals for a healthy ocean,"
我們重啟經濟之時就是我們重新設立恢復海洋健康目標的機會，”
says Carlos M. Duarte, a Spanish marine biologist at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia.
沙特阿拉伯阿卜杜拉國王科技大學的西班牙海洋生物學家卡洛斯·M·杜阿爾特說。
"We have a very narrow window of opportunity where we can actually still be effective.
“我們的機會窗口很小，否則我們就會竹籃打水一場空。
Twenty years from now, it will be too late."
如果等到二十年后再行動就太晚了。”
譯文由可可原創，僅供學習交流使用，未經許可請勿轉載。
