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SusanShaw_2010X-_原油泄漏的剧毒解药_
I am a marine toxicologist , and I've been very, very concerned about the Gulf , particularly about the massive applications of the toxic dispersants , the Corexits. 我是一名海洋生物毒理学家, 我一直对墨西哥湾原油泄漏事件非常担忧, 尤其是关于大量使用 有毒的分散剂
marine:adj.海的;海产的;海生的;海船的;n.(尤指美国或英国皇家)海军陆战队士兵; toxicologist:n.毒理学家; concerned:adj.有关的;关心的;v.关心;与…有关;(concern的过去时和过去分词) Gulf:n.海湾;深渊;分歧;漩涡;vt.吞没; particularly:adv.特别地,独特地;详细地,具体地;明确地,细致地; massive:adj.大量的;巨大的,厚重的;魁伟的; dispersants:n.[助剂]分散剂(dispersant的复数);
I've been working on ocean pollution for quite a long time -- the impacts on marine life and particularly the impacts on marine mammals . 我在大洋污染方面 已经有多年的研究经验, 关于大洋污染对于海洋生物的影响, 特别是对于海洋哺乳动物的影响.
impacts:n.影响; v.有影响,有作用; mammals:n.哺乳动物;(mammal的复数)
As it turns out, marine mammals are at the top of this food chain that we're pouring millions of tons of toxic substances into every year. 我们知道,海洋中的哺乳动物 在食物链的最顶端。 每年我们都向海洋 排放数以百万吨的 各种有毒物质,
food chain:n.食物链; pouring:v.倾倒;倾泻;连续流出;倒出;喷发;(pour的现在分词) substances:n.[物]物质;基本内容;物品药物(substance的复数);
And they are showing the signs of this. 而哺乳动物显示出了相关的迹象。
I'm sorry to have a sad slide like this, but not everything is all that happy, especially in my work. 我很抱歉向各位展示这张幻灯片, 但事情不可能都如人意, 特别是我工作中遇到的事。
especially:adv.尤其;特别;格外;十分;
They are loaded with toxic chemicals in their body, hundreds of compounds , all kinds of compounds -- it's staggering . 这些哺乳动物的体内 积累了大量的有毒化学物质, 有好几百种, 各种各样的化合物——非常惊人。
chemicals:n.化学制品;化学品;(chemical的复数) compounds:n.混合物,化合物;大院(compound的复数形式); staggering:adj.惊人的; v.蹒跚; (stagger的现在分词)
And they're dying off rather regularly , tens of thousands around the world. 它们正因此成群成群地死去, 全世界范围内,以万为计。
regularly:adv.经常地;有规律地;定期的
It's predicted they may go extinct -- about a third of them -- within about 30 years. 预测显示这些动物很可能会灭绝。 其中的三分之一 将在30年内销声匿迹。
predicted:v.预言;预告;预报;(predict的过去分词和过去式) extinct:adj.灭绝的,绝种的;熄灭的;vt.使熄灭;
So my project is along the Northwest Atlantic . 我的研究项目集中在大西洋的西北沿线,
Northwest:adj.西北的;来自西北的;n.西北;adv.在西北;来自西北; Atlantic:adj.大西洋的;巨人阿特拉斯的;n.大西洋;
It's called Seals as Sentinels . 名为:海豹哨兵。
Sentinels:n.哨兵;vt.守卫,放哨;
We're tracking pollution at the top of the food web, in marine mammals and fish. 我们在食物网的顶层, 比如海生哺乳动物或鱼类体内,追踪有毒物质。
tracking:n.追踪,跟踪;v.跟踪;(track的现在分词)
It's a region-wide, eco-toxicological investigation. 这是一个大范围的 生态-毒物学的调查。
We're looking at a lot of compounds, but recently been quite interested in the flame retardants , the brominated flame retardants that are in many, many things that we use in our everyday life, from the cushions in the chairs we're all sit ting on to the plastic casings of our computers, our televi sion se ts and so on. 我们关注许多种化合物, 但最近我们的兴趣 集中在溴化物阻燃剂上。 这种阻燃剂在大量 日常用品中都有存在, 无论是被我们坐着的 椅子上的垫子, 还是电脑的塑料机箱, 抑或是电视机等等。
recently:adv.最近;新近; retardants:n.抑制剂;缓凝剂(retardant的复数); brominated:adj.溴化的;v.使溴化;用溴化物处理(brominate的过去分词);
So we are tracking how do these things get from the products into the ocean, which is the final sink for them. 因此我们要追踪 这些有毒物质是如何 从日用品中最终流入大海 这个最后的污水槽的。
And there's quite a complicated pathway for that because, as these products age, they get concentrated in dust, and then they also get thrown out, so they go to the landfills . 有毒物质的积累过程相当复杂, 因为当日用品老化时, 有毒物质就集中到了尘埃中。 当日用品最终被丢弃后,它们就被运到了垃圾填埋场,
complicated:adj.复杂的;难懂的;v.使复杂化;(complicate的过去分词和过去式) pathway:n.路,道;途径,路径; concentrated:adj.决心要做的; v.集中(注意力); (concentrate的过去式和过去分词) landfills:n.废物填埋地(或场);废物填埋;填埋的废物;(landfill的复数)
They wind up in waste water treatment plants. 最终集中到了污水处理厂。
treatment:n.治疗;疗法;对待;处理;讨论;
As you all know, we throw out billions of computers and TVs every year. 众所周知,我们每年要报废 数十亿的电脑和电视机,
throw out:v.扔掉;伸出;说出;否决;突出;
And those go to e-waste dumps . 它们最终成为了电子垃圾。
e-waste:n.电子垃圾; dumps:n.废物,垃圾场(dump的复数);忧郁;v.倾倒(dump的单三形式);
And all that gets into surface waters, eventually reaching the ocean, the final sink. 而所有进入地表水系统的物质, 最终都会流向海洋。
eventually:adv.最后,终于;
So, in our study, we did find quite high levels, as we expected, of these flame retardants in the harbor seals' bodies. 因此,在我们的研究中, 我们意料之中地在斑海豹体内 发现了很高浓度的阻燃剂残留。
harbor:n.港口;港湾;(比喻)避难所;[军]坦克掩蔽场;v.停泊;包含;隐匿;怀抱(恶意);
And we reported this. 我们报告了这一结果,
It led to a ban of this neuro-toxic flame retardant called Deca in Maine , where I am based, and also then a phase-out , 最终使得这种叫做Deca的有神经毒性的阻燃剂 在缅因州被禁止使用,缅因州正是我的工作基地所在地。 随后到去年年底,这种物质在全美境内
ban:v.下令禁止;查禁;n.禁令; Maine:n.缅因州(美国州名); phase-out:逐步淘汰;停止;
U.S.-wide, at the end of last year. 也被逐渐禁止使用。
But we said, well, on the bright side , our harbor seals at least will not be bursting into flame anytime soon. 于是我们想至少从好的方面来看 这些斑海豹不会在短期内 烧起来。
on the bright side:从好方面想; bursting:adj.充满的;渴望的;v.爆炸;猛然打开;突然开始(burst的现在分词);
So then I got really curious , myself, as a toxicologist, and I donated some blood to my lab and said, "Okay, let's do it." 于是我作为一个毒物学家 就(对我自己体内的化学物质)非常好奇, 所以我捐献了一点自己的血给实验室 然后说“好吧,让我们看看”。
curious:adj.好奇的,有求知欲的;古怪的;爱挑剔的; donated:v.捐赠,赠送;献(血);捐献(器官);(donate的过去分词和过去式)
Well, we detected 113 different compounds in my blood. 结果我们在我的血液中监测到了 113种不同的化合物
detected:v.发现;查明;侦察出;(detect的过去分词和过去式)
And I must say, if any of you would have this done, you'd probably find a similar profile , or cocktail , as they call it. 而且我肯定,如果你们中间的一个也做同样的测试的话, 得到的一定是类似的结果, 我们称之为“鸡尾酒”。
profile:n.轮廓;简介;形象;外形;v.扼要介绍;概述;写简介; cocktail:n.鸡尾酒;开味食品;n.混合物;adj.鸡尾酒的;
But I was the recipient of a lot of flame retardant material for some reason. 但是,我被迫成为无辜的阻燃剂接受者 并非偶然。
recipient:n.容器,接受者;容纳者;adj.容易接受的,感受性强的;
And just to point out the levels -- 现在来看看这个浓度——
Americans have 10 to 40 times higher levels of these compounds in our bodies than the Europeans . 与欧洲人相比, 美国人体内这些化合物的含量 高出了10-40倍。
Europeans:n.欧洲人(European的复数);
Why? Because we are flame-retarding everything, and we have weak regulations for toxic chemicals. 为什么呢？因为我们对各种东西都在阻燃, 而我们对于有毒物质的控制 还显得很薄弱。
regulations:n.章程;规则;法规;管理,控制;(regulation的复数)
But lo and behold , I'm one of the high-end individuals . 但是你看,我还算是所谓的高端人才。
behold:v.看;注视;把...视为;int.瞧;看呀; high-end:adj.高端的;高档的; individuals:n.[经]个人;[生物]个体(individual的复数);
Lucky me. 真是有幸。
But then I thought, well, in case of a fire, I might be the last one to ignite . 然后我就想, 嗯,大概在火灾的时候,我会最后一个烧起来。
ignite:vt.点燃;使燃烧;使激动;vi.点火;燃烧;
(Laughter) (笑)
So anyway, here's the problem -- and it is a problem that we're looking at in the Gulf today -- we're not regulating chemicals in this country properly. 总之,现在有这样一个问题, 这也是我们在墨西哥湾关注的问题: 美国对于化学物质的管理还很不完善。
regulating:vt.调节;校正(regulate的现在分词);
We're hardly regulating them at all. 其实我们压根就没什么管理措施,
And we're letting industry run the show. 而是让市场决定了一切。
And Jackie Savitz spoke this morning about Big Oil and the propaganda and how we're all brainwashed with their, you know, lies and so forth. 杰克 萨维茨(Jackie Cavitz)今天早上 作了一场关于大石油公司(Big Oil) 及其品牌宣传的演讲, 他谈到我们是如何被 种种谎言洗脑。
propaganda:n.宣传;传道总会; brainwashed:v.给(某人)洗脑;强制说服;(brainwash的过去分词和过去式)
Well, Big Chemical is what we're dealing with here. 而我们今天要关注的
And they're allowed to keep trade secrets, so they don't even give the ingredients out. 他们被允许保留商业机密, 因此他们甚至无需公开原材料。
ingredients:n.成分;(尤指烹饪)原料;(成功的)要素;(ingredient的复数)
Plus they don't give health and safety data, so, consequently , they cannot be regulated before they go to market. 而且他们还不提供有关健康与安全的数据, 因此在这些产品真正上市之前, 它们根本无法被监控。
consequently:adv.因此;结果;所以; regulated:v.约束,控制,管理;(regulate的过去式和过去分词)
So it's a case of innocent until proven guilty . 所以这就是“无证据即无罪”的情形,
innocent:adj.无辜的;无罪的;无知的;n.天真的人;笨蛋; guilty:adj.有罪的;内疚的;
The burden of proof is not on the producer. 而制造商根本没有提供证据的压力。
burden of proof:n.举证责任;
So I then was invited to go to the Gulf in May. 今年五月份, 我受邀去墨西哥湾。
I went down there on a preliminary investigation to look into dispersants and how they're going into the water column and so forth. 我到那里去做一个 初步调查, 研究分散剂, 及它们如何流入水系。
preliminary:n.准备;预赛;初步措施;adj.初步的;开始的;预备的; column:n.栏目,纵队;
And I was told that I was the only toxicologist to date who was dumb enough to get into the water, but I did. 人们说我是迄今为止 唯一一个笨到 去直接下水的毒物学家, 但我就这么做了。
dumb:adj.哑的,无说话能力的;不说话的,无声音的;
And we dove in the slick without even HazMat gear . 我们在没有任何防护措施的情况下 潜入原油层下方。
dove:n.鸽子;鸽派人士;v.潜水(dive的过去式); slick:adj.光滑的; n.[机]平滑器; v.灵活地; v.使光滑; gear:n.齿轮; v.适合;
And I did get sick. 我果然生病了。
I got a ferocious sore throat two days later. 两天以后我的喉咙就疼得厉害,
ferocious:adj.残忍的;惊人的; sore:n.疮;痛处;伤处;adj.(发炎)疼痛的;酸痛的;气恼;愤慨;
I felt like my throat was on fire. 就好像它着火了一样,
But it did pass. 好在最后还是恢复了。
And what I did see in the water as we went down, what really shocked me -- and it's haunted me ever since -- because I could see the droplets of oil dispersing . 而我在下潜过程中所见到的景象 着实把我惊呆了,而且始终挥之不去。 我看见原油分散成小滴,
droplets:n.[流]液滴(droplet的复数);飞沫; dispersing:n.分配,分散;adj.分散的;v.使散开;散布;驱散(disperse的现在分词);
And as you go down, they're catching all kinds of plankton , bumping into, you know, little wisps of life that are the food for the planktivores, the herring kind of fish. 在下降过程中黏附上各种浮游生物, 和那些千丝万缕的、漂浮的生命体, 碰撞在一起, 成为以浮游生物为生的其它动物的食物, 比如鲱鱼类。
plankton:n.浮游生物(总称); bumping:v.碰上,撞上;颠簸行进(bump的现在分词) wisps:n.小捆; v.捆成小束(wisp的三单形式); herring:n.鲱(又称青鱼);
And you could just see the web of death as you go down in the water column. 随着你逐渐下潜, 你可以直接看到整个死亡网络。
Well, you know, we got into this in the beginning as a trade-off , they say, between the wetlands versus the ocean depth. 当然,那些专家说, 我们之所以会在海中看到这些景象, 是因为我们不得不在湿地 和深海之间权衡取舍。
trade-off:n.交换,交易;权衡;协定; wetlands:n.湿地(wetland的复数形式);沼泽地;塘地; versus:prep.对;与...相对;对抗;
And I didn't agree with that decision at the time; I still don't. 我当时并不同意这个决定, 今天我依然这么认为。
The decision was to protect the marshes . 这个决定的本意是要保护海边的湿地,
marshes:n.[地理]沼泽(marsh的复数);
When the oil gets into the marshes, you can't get it out. 因为一旦原油进入湿地,就没法再弄出来了。
And as you know, there's been a very weak response , up until recently, to actually collect the oil. 而我们也知道,直到最近, 残油的收集工作 依然进行得很少。
response:n.响应;反应;回答;
It's gotten much more aggressive . 现在这个情况越来越严重了。
aggressive:adj.侵略性的;好斗的;有进取心的;有闯劲的;
This is an Exxon slide showing what happens, the scenario and the trade-off. 这张幻灯片显示了瓦迪兹号事件的 情形以及得失。
scenario:n.方案;情节;剧本;
So this shows oil on the surface. 这里显示的是海面上的油污。
You can see it getting up into the mangrove , but it is not harming the corals or the sea grass, right. 你可以看到油污进入了红树林, 但是还没有侵害到珊瑚礁, 或者是海草。
mangrove:n.红树林; corals:n.[无脊椎]珊瑚(coral的复数);
So here we have the other scenario. 现在我们看另一种情况。
If you disperse , the sea grass and the corals are getting hit pretty hard, but you're saving the mangrove. 如果你分散油污,海草和珊瑚礁 会受到很大的侵害, 但是你却保住了红树林。
disperse:v.分散;驱散;疏散;散布;adj.分散的;弥散的
So this, to me, is like going to the eye doctor, okay? 对我来说这就像是去看眼科医生。
Is it better with one or two? 是一只眼睛好还是两只好？
(Laughter) (笑)
The problem is that we have released so darn much of this stuff , we're climbing up to two million gallons very quickly. 现在的问题是 我们在很短的时间内, 排放了太多的这类物质, 将近200加仑。
released:v.释放;使免除;已发布;(release的过去分词和过去式) darn:v.织补,缝补;n.织补; stuff:n.东西:物品:基本特征:v.填满:装满:标本: gallons:n.加仑;大量(gallon的复数);一加仑的容器;
And then there's the problem of the plumes . 然后我们还有分散油柱的问题。
plumes:羽状物;
What plumes? 起先他们试图否认:什么羽毛？（“分散油柱”plume也有羽毛的意思）
It turns out there are plumes. 事实上分散油柱确实存在。
Independent researchers found that. 是一些独立研究者们发现的。
Independent:adj.独立的; n.无党派议员(或候选人等);
And then there's the looming , messy problem of human health, reported human health effects. 另外还有不断迫近的 各种棘手的有关人类健康的问题, 各种关于人类健康影响的报道。
looming:v.人惊恐地隐现;显得突出;逼近(loom的现在分词) messy:adj.肮脏的;凌乱的;不整洁的;
And actually, one of our federal officials said that it was probably heat stress. So ... 事实上,我们的一个联邦政府官员解释说 这很可能是热应力。我很无奈。
federal:adj.联邦的;同盟的;联邦政府的;联邦制的;adv.联邦政府地;
Having been in that water just for the short time I was there, 作为到过那片水域的人, 尽管时间相对很短,
short time:adj.短暂的;快速的(shorttime的变形);
I can tell you, it is not heat stress. 我可以告诉各位,这绝非单纯热应力的缘故。
There are volumes of volatile petroleum fumes coming off that water, plus the Corexit, which has solvent in it. 那里有大量的易挥发的 石油烟气从水面上蒸腾而出, 在加上 含有有机溶剂的Corexit
volumes:n.卷;体积;容积;大量;(volumes是volume的复数) volatile:adj.[化学]挥发性的;不稳定的;爆炸性的;反覆无常的;n.挥发物;有翅的动物; petroleum:n.石油; fumes:n.烟气;激动;空想的事物(fume的复数);v.蒸发;冒烟;发怒(fume的三单形式); solvent:adj.有偿付能力的;有溶解力的;n.溶剂;解决方法;
So it is not at all rational . 这个情况非常糟糕。
not at all:毫无;一点也不;不用谢; rational:n.理性;人类;合理的事物;[数]有理数;adj.合理的;理性的;明智的;理智的;
So what do we have? The BP show is going on. 所以我们现在怎么办？BP仍然在演戏。
Our officials complained about Corexit, which is the most toxic line of dispersants. 我们的官员一边指责Corexit 这种在所有的分散剂中 毒性最强烈的物质。
complained:v.抱怨;埋怨;发牢骚;(complain的过去分词和过去式)
But heck , they're still using it, and they used the most toxic one, the 9527, until they ran out of supplies. 一边却继续使用Corexit, 而且还是毒性最大的9527号, 直到9527号断货。
heck:n.(英口)同"hell",表示略微烦恼或吃惊;
Now they're on 9500. 现在他们使用9500号。
9527 had 2-butoxyethanol in it that causes internal bleeding . 9527号含有乙二醇单丁醚, 它会导致内出血。
internal:n.内脏;本质;adj.内部的;里面的;体内的;(机构)内部的; bleeding:n.出血;渗色;adj.流血的;同情的;v.出血;渗出;(bleed的现在分词)
We know that from the Exxon Valdez spill , by the way . 顺便提一句,这一点我们也是从瓦迪兹号事件中了解到的。
spill:v.溢出;涌出;蜂拥而出;n.跌落;洒出(量);泼出(量);溢出(量); by the way:顺便说一下;
So what we're doing, we're putting compounds with petroleum solvents onto a petroleum spill. 因此我们所做的就是把溶解于石油成分溶剂的 化合物投放到石油泄漏物中去。
solvents:n.[化学]溶剂;解决方法(solvent的复数形式);
Does this make sense ? 这一切有道理吗？
make sense:有意义;讲得通;言之有理;
So this is the way it works. 但这就是事实。
And I want to show you this cute little thing that happens here. 我想给你们看一下这里发生的一个有趣的小现象。
It's a micelle. 这是一个胶束,
Micelles form around the oil. 通常在油滴外围形成。
Micelles:n.[化学]胶团;微粒;[分子生物]微胶粒(micelle的复数形式);
And what happens first is the solvents break into the oil, the lipid membrane , they let the surfactants in there. 首先发生的是 溶剂进入了油滴的 脂质膜层, 然后留下了表面活性剂。
lipid:n.[生化]脂质;油脂; membrane:n.膜;薄膜;羊皮纸;
The surfactants -- which are like things we use on fast food wrappers -- they grab around the droplets of oil, and they make little, tiny droplets with nice, little surfactant edges to them. 表面活性剂 - 就是我们 涂在食物包装纸上的东西 - 能够抓住油滴, 从而在细小的油滴外 形成薄薄的 表面活性剂层。
fast food:adj.供应快餐的;n.快餐食品; wrappers:n.封装器;面皮(wrapper的复数形式); grab:v.攫取;霸占;将…深深吸引;n.攫取;霸占;夺取之物; surfactant:n.表面活性剂;adj.表面活性剂的;
The thing to remember about the micelles -- these little floating globules of toxin -- is they are there to deliver. 关于胶束我们要注意的是 - 这些小小的漂浮的 含有毒物的小液滴, 就是这些胶束在运送的东西。
globules:n.水珠;药丸;血球;小球体; toxin:n.毒素;毒质;
They're like the FedEx guys. 它们就像联邦快递。
FedEx:n.联邦快递(等于theFederalExpress);
And if you're a fish, and you haven't gotten your glob in the morning, you're going to get it in the afternoon, because they've got your number. 如果你是一条鱼, 就算你早上有幸没撞上这团东西, 那你晚上就该撞上了。你在劫难逃。 它们盯上你了。
So from a toxicology perspective , this is really awful because Corexit and the dispersed oil are much more toxic together than either alone. 所以从毒物学的角度来看, 这是非常可怕的情形, 因为当Corexit遇上分散的原油, 它们的毒性 有增无减。
toxicology:n.[毒物]毒物学,[毒物]毒理学; perspective:n.观点;远景;透视图;adj.透视的; dispersed:adj.散布的;被分散的;被驱散的;v.分散;传播(disperse的过去分词);
And usually the exposure is a combined exposure. 而生物一般都是 同时暴露在这两种物质之下。
exposure:n.暴露;显露;揭露;面临;
The dispersants -- as I was saying -- their job is to break down the lipid membrane. 我前面提到过,分散剂的作用 就是分解破坏 脂质的外膜。
The solvents in them do that very efficiently . 分散剂中含有的溶剂很容易就能做到这一点。
efficiently:adv.有效地;效率高地(efficient的副词形式);
So they break down lipid membranes in our body, starting with cells of the skin, the cells of organs . 于是它们也分解了 我们体内的脂质薄膜, 从我们的皮肤细胞开始, 一直到其它器官的细胞。
membranes:n.细胞膜(membrane的复数);薄膜;膜皮; organs:n.[生物]器官;机构;风琴(organ的复数);
So it actually hastens oil getting into the body easily and readily . 因此它事实上是加快了 原油进入我们体内的速度, 使之变得更快更易。
hastens:v.加速;催促;赶快(hasten的三单形式); readily:adv.容易地;乐意地;无困难地;
Oil contains hundreds of hydrocarbon compounds and other compounds that are toxic to every organ in the body. 原油含有数百种碳氢化合物 以及其它对我们体内 任何器官都有害的化学成分。
hydrocarbon:n.[有化]碳氢化合物;
And so with the dispersants combined, you have this very synergistic combined toxicity . 因此当它们与分散剂结合后, 就形成了一种强大的 协同作战的有毒物质。
synergistic:adj.协同的;协作的,协同作用的; toxicity:n.[毒物]毒性;
Corexit also contains petroleum solvents and many other toxic compounds. Corexit也含有石油溶剂 以及许多其它的有毒化合物。
And I'm part of a chat group, which is a national group of toxicologists and chemists that are, you know, basically turning cartwheels trying to figure out what's in this stuff, and what is it doing and what are the interactions of these chemicals, most of which we don't know, and what are their byproducts , which are usually more toxic than the parent compound. 我个人是一个全国性的 由毒物学家和化学家组成的 讨论团体的一员, 而我们主要做的就是 想方设法去找出这些化合物里究竟有些什么, 它们有什么作用,它们互相之间 有什么反应——我们对此知之甚少—— 还有就是它们有哪些副产品, 而这些副产品往往比原来的化合物更有毒性。
toxicologists:n.毒理学家; chemists:n.化学家(chemist的复数);药剂师; basically:adv.主要地,基本上; cartwheels:n.侧手翻;侧身筋斗;(大车)车轮;(cartwheel的复数) interactions:n.[计]交互,相互作用;相互交流;干扰;(interaction复数) byproducts:n.副产品;
So we did find that Corexit 9500 contains heavy metals, arsenic and chromium -- arsenic at high enough levels to have cancer-causing effects. 我们确实在Corexit 9500中 发现了重金属、砷、还有铬, 其中砷的含量高到 足以诱发癌症。
arsenic:n.砷;砒霜;三氧化二砷;adj.砷的;含砷的; chromium:n.[化学]铬(24号元素,符号Cr);
So this is what we have to look at, these, you know, ridiculous safety data sheets , which have nothing on them much. 这就是我们所看到的 这些荒谬可笑的产品安全列表。 它们对我之前讲的那部分内容只字未提。
ridiculous:adj.可笑的;荒谬的; sheets:n.床单;被单;薄片,薄板;(sheet的复数)
And now they were forced to release the ultimate list of everything that's in Corexit. 现在最终的产品安全报告被迫公布, 列出了Corexit所含有的全部成分。
ultimate:adj.最终的;极限的;根本的;n.终极;根本;基本原则;
And guess what, tons of stuff is missing. 你猜怎么样, 很多东西都被略去了。
Derivatives , derivatives, these are whole big groups of many, many compounds, these sorbitans. 衍生物、衍生物……这些都是许多许多化合物 构成的大类,比如山梨醇。
Derivatives:派生物;
And then you get down to the petroleum distillates, which are the solvents, hundreds of them. 然后你看到石油的蒸馏成分, 也就是溶剂, 有好几百种。
get down to:开始认真考虑;着手处理;
They are not identified . And why? 它们都没有在报告中被“检测”出。为什么？
identified:v.确认;认出;找到;发现;说明身份;(identify的过去式和过去分词)
Trade secrets again. 又是所谓的贸易机密。
BP's running the show, and the Nalco company, this is all they have to do. BP正在上演一场戏, 还有Nalco公司。它们只要演演戏就好了 。
So far these ingredients have not been released, and toxicologists are actually going nuts because we cannot predict with certainty what the interactions and toxic results are going to be. 到目前为止有关这些成分的信息还没有被公布, 而我们这些毒物学家简直要发疯了, 因为这样我们就不能准确地判断出 有哪些反应在进行, 以及它们的危害有多大。
certainty:n.必然;确实;确实的事情;
But we do have quite a lot at risk down there, as we all know, the 33 wildlife refuges , so much wildlife and fish and diversity . 但我们手上有那么多岌岌可危的问题, 我们都很清楚, 33个野生动物避难所。 那么多野生动物、鱼类、 以及生物多样性。
refuges:n.收容所;避难所(refuge的复数);v.避难(refuge的单三形式);提供庇护; diversity:n.差异(性):多样性:多样化:
So we know from previous spills . 我们从之前的原油泄漏事件中已经有了经验。
previous:adj.以前的;早先的;过早的;adv.在先;在…以前; spills:v.(使)洒出; n.洒出(量); (spill的第三人称单数和复数)
And then part of this is just part of my bad dreams. 这一切都是我晚上 噩梦的根源。
And I appreciate being able to vent some of my anguish upon you. 我觉得很欣慰 我能在这里和你们说说 我的各种担忧。
appreciate:v.欣赏;感激;感谢;理解; anguish:n.痛苦;苦恼;v.使极度痛苦;感到极度的痛苦;
What we do know is that the corals are going to get hit hard. 我们目前能够确定的是珊瑚礁会遭到重创。
And this is a study that was done on the Australian coast, the coast of Tasmania. 这是在澳大利亚的 塔斯马尼亚海岸 所做的研究调查。
Corals are, you know, the home to about a quarter of all marine species . 众所周知 ,珊瑚礁是 大约四分之一海洋生物的家。
species:n.[生物]物种;种类;
And with the Corexit and the oil, there's zero percent fertilization . 现在因为Corexit, 因为泄露的原油, 它们的繁殖率,归零。
fertilization:n.[农]施肥;[胚]受精;肥沃;
With oil alone, there's 98 percent fertilization. 如果只有原油,倒还有98%的繁殖率。
So they're a very sensitive species to this combo . 它们根本无法承受 这个“Corexit石油大礼包”。
sensitive:adj.敏感的;感觉的;易受影响的;n.敏感的人;有灵异能力的人; combo:n.联合体;结合物;小型爵士乐团;
Here's another group. 还有一个例子。
I could see myself easily in the water column. 我能够在水柱中清晰地看到我自己。
The plankton and the plankton eaters , you know, these are the little herring fish that go through the water column with their mouths open, feeding indiscriminately and just lapping up this brown pudding of toxic stuff. 浮游生物和食用浮游生物的动物, ——比如这些张着嘴巴 在水柱中游动的小鲱鱼—— 它们无力分辨, 照单全收,包括 这些剧毒的棕色“布丁”。
eaters:n.食者; indiscriminately:adv.不加选择地;任意地; pudding:n.甜点;热布丁糕
And we do know from other studies that this is a highly toxic mixture . 而我们从其它调查中得知, 这是一种剧毒的混合物。
highly:adv.高度地;非常;非常赞许地; mixture:n.混合;结合体;混合物;集合体;
See the oil and Corexit is causing death at a much, much lower dose than oil alone. 原油和Corexit加在一起, 只需要比单纯原油泄漏少太多的量 就能导致大量生物死亡。
dose:n.剂量;一剂,一服;v.服药;给药;给…服药;
That's probably as far as what we do know about toxic effects. 这大概就是我们所确定的 全部关于这些毒物的信息。
as far as:至于…;
But my bad dreams go like this. 但是我的噩梦还在继续。
The piscivorous fish, the cobia, grouper , amberjacks, those big fish, also the tuna and sharks, are going to hit by this. 那些食用鱼类的鱼, 比如军曹鱼、石斑鱼、琥珀鱼, 还有大型鱼类,比如金枪鱼和鲨鱼, 都会被影响到。
grouper:n.石斑鱼;鲶科鱼;鲈科之鱼;
And the gills are quite sensitive. 鱼的鳃是很敏感的器官。
gills:n.鱼鳃(gill的复数); v.除去鱼的鳃和内脏;
The respiratory system is very sensitive. 整个呼吸系统都很敏感。
respiratory:adj.呼吸的;
Think about it with the Corexit hitting the membranes, and it will clog up the gills, and then these animals are going to be getting something like what you call chemical pneumonia , trying to aspirate the compounds. 让我们想象一下 Corexit遇到粘膜以后的情况。 它会阻塞鱼的鳃, 然后这些动物就会 得一种类似于被你们叫做 化学性肺炎的病, 因为它们在尝试吸出这些东西。
clog:v.阻塞;障碍;n.障碍;木底鞋; pneumonia:n.肺炎; aspirate:vt.送气发音;吸入;adj.送气音的;n.送气音;抽出物;
It also will cause internal bleeding upon ingestion . 它还会造成消化系统的 内出血。
ingestion:n.摄取;吸收;咽下;
I'm very worried about the air-breathing mammals because I study them, but also, the way their going to be exposed is every time they come to the surface to take a breath, they're going to inhale these volatile fumes. 我对于直接呼吸空气的动物很是担忧,因为它们是我的研究对象。 每当它们浮到海面 试图呼吸的时候, 它们就会被暴露在这些易挥发的烟气里。
air-breathing:adj.吸气式的; exposed:adj.无遮蔽的; v.暴露; (expose的过去分词和过去式) inhale:vt.吸入;猛吃猛喝;vi.吸气;
And what does happen with that eventually is pneumonia sets in and liver , kidney , brain damage . 而这些最终导致的 就是肺炎, 还有肝、肾、以及脑部的损伤。
liver:n.肝;(动物供食用的)肝; kidney:n.[解剖]肾脏;腰子;个性; brain damage:n.(疾病、事故导致的)脑损伤;
The Corexit is transporting the oil into every membrane and every system of the body. Corexit这种物质 会把原油传输到 身体中的每一层隔膜 和每一个系统。
transporting:v.运输,运送,输送;传播;(transport的现在分词)
And you're having a lot of different unpleasant effects, but burns to the eyes and mouth, skin ulcers , lesions . 然后你就会出现 许多不适症状, 比如眼睛和嘴部的灼烧感 皮肤溃疡等病变。
unpleasant:adj.令人不快的;不舒服的;不客气的 ulcers:n.[病理]溃疡,疡(ulcer的复数); lesions:[生物]损伤;
And I think, personally , that we have not begun to see the impacts of this spill on the wildlife of the Gulf. 而且我个人认为 我们还没有看到 这次原油泄漏对于墨西哥湾的 野生动物们的影响
personally:adv.个人;亲自;本人;就本人而言;
We started hypothesizing : what do we know? 我们不禁开始猜测: 我们究竟对事实知道多少？
hypothesizing:vt.假设,假定;vi.假设,假定;
what do with think would be a trophic cascade ? 什么又会造成食物链崩溃？
trophic:adj.营养的;有关营养的; cascade:n.小瀑布,瀑布状物;串联;vi.像瀑布般大量倾泻下来;vi.像瀑布般悬挂着;
which means that somebody gets wiped out, and then everything above that's eating those guys will crash. 即当一个生物消失之后, 它食物链中的所有上级生物 都会一起消亡的现象。
So our thought was -- this is a simple thinking process , but ... 我们的想法 是一个很简单的构想 但至少
process:v.处理;加工;列队行进;n.过程,进行;方法,adj.经过特殊加工(或处理)的;
obviously the plankton, the planktivores, and that's about as far as we got. 会包括浮游生物和吃浮游生物的其它生物 目前我们就到这一步
And then it turns out we're not very good at figuring this stuff out. 并且我们发现我们对这些内容搞得不是很清楚。
This is what the Exxon Valdez scientists thought would happen, this trophic cascade where you lose the kelp and the herring and other fishes and going up. 这是关于瓦迪兹号事件的科学家的假想。 食物链崩溃会从 海草和青鱼开始, 然后不断向食物链上级发展。
kelp:n.[植]巨藻,海藻;海草灰;vi.烧制海草灰;
They thought that eventually the killer whale would be at the top of this cascade. 他们认为虎鲸 会是这场崩溃的最终受害者。
killer whale:n.虎鲸;逆戟鲸;恶鲸;杀人鲸;
And then here's what really happened, much more complicated, much more specific . 然后事实是怎么样的呢？ 真实的情况更加复杂,更加具体。
specific:adj.特殊的,特定的;明确的;详细的;[药]具有特效的;n.特性;细节;特效药;
Actually the kelp and the barnacles that attach to the rock were decimated by the combination of Corexit and the oil. 那些依附于石头上的 海草以及藤壶首当其冲, 大批牺牲于 Corexit和原油的混合物。
barnacles:n.[无脊椎]藤壶(barnacle的复数);刑具; attach:v.贴上;重视;把…固定,把…附(在…上);参加;与…有联系; decimated:v.摧毁;大幅度下降(decimate的过去式及过去分词); combination:n.结合;组合;联合;[化学]化合;
They were replaced by invasive species, which had less holding power to the rock. 然后他们被入侵生物所取代 而这些新物种对于岩石的附着力比较弱
invasive:adj.侵略性的;攻击性的;
Storms came along. 一旦风暴袭来
They ripped out of the rock. 它们就会从岩石上脱落
And this was the entire food web for the sea ducks. 而它们恰恰是海鸭所赖以生存的食物
And as you know, we lost about 300,000 sea ducks from the Exxon Valdez spill, and they haven't come back. 大约三十万只海鸭 在瓦迪兹事件中丧生, 而它们的数量至今还没有恢复。
So we are launching an independent study. 因此我们开始了 一项独立研究。
launching:n.发射;开办;起飞;v.开始从事,发起,发动;(launch的现在分词)
And by independent, I do not mean alone; 独立并不意味着独自完成
I mean independent in the sense of not tied to the kind of crime-scene secrecy that's going on in the Gulf now. 我所说的独立是指 我们和墨西哥湾 那群试图掩盖罪行的人 没有任何利害关系。
secrecy:n.保密;秘密;隐蔽;
But we are actually going to be assessing toxic impacts, but we need lots and lots of partners to do this intelligently . 我们会评估毒物所造成的影响, 但是我们需要非常多的合作伙伴 来交出一份有说服力的报告。
assessing:v.评估,评定(性质、质量);估算,估定;(assess的现在分词) intelligently:adv.聪明地,明智地;
We have some of the partners lined up. 已经有一些人表明了合作的意向。
And Dave Gallo signed on. 戴夫 加罗也是其中一员
Sylvia's in here. 还有塞维娅。
And we hope that some of you will help us. 我们也希望你们中间会有人来帮助我们
My question to you is: why shouldn't we know? 我们的问题是:为什么我们不能知道？
Don't we have the right to know? 是我们没有知道的权利吗？
Surely we have the right to learn what loss we are going through in the Gulf. 显然不是。我们有权利知道 墨西哥湾究竟遭受了怎样的损失
And my wish would be -- for the gulf prize -- would be that we have the truth. 我的希望是 对于墨西哥湾事件的希望是: 我们能够了解真相。
Whatever it is, please let us have the truth. 无论真相是什么,至少,请让我们了解它。
And to get there, we need to do the assessment . 为了达到这一目标, 我们需要做更详尽的评估。
assessment:n.评定;估价;
So I appreciate being here. Thank you. 很荣幸能在这里发言。谢谢！
(Applause) (鼓掌)