双语阅读｜如何改善海洋生态？
EARTH is poorly named. The ocean covers almost three-quarters of the planet. It is divided into five basins: the Pacific, the Atlantic, the Indian, the Arctic and the Southern oceans. Were all the planet’s water placed over the United States, it would form a column of liquid 132km tall. The ocean provides 3bn people with almost a fifth of their protein (making fish a bigger source of the stuff than beef). Fishing and aquaculture assure the livelihoods of one in ten of the world’s people. Climate and weather systems depend on the temperature patterns of the ocean and its interactions with the atmosphere. If anything ought to be too big to fail, it is the ocean.
“地球”这个名字起得很糟糕。实际上，这个星球的四分之三面积都由海洋覆盖，主要划分为五大块区域，分别是：太平洋、大西洋、印度洋、大西洋和南半球海域。如果地球上的水按美国国土形状存放，那么会是一个高达132千米高的液体柱。海洋为地球上三十亿的人提供了将近五分之一的蛋白质（鱼也超过牛，成为主要的蛋白质来源）。渔业和水产养殖业保障了世界上十分之一人口的生计。海洋的温度以及它与大气的相互作用决定了气候和天气系统。如果说有什么东西是大而不倒的话，那也只能是海洋了。
Humans have long assumed that the ocean’s size allowed them to put anything they wanted into it and to take anything they wanted out. Changing temperatures and chemistry, overfishing and pollution have stressed its ecosystems for decades. The ocean stores more than nine-tenths of the heat trapped on Earth by greenhouse-gas emissions. Coral reefs are suffering as a result; scientists expect almost all corals to be gone by 2050.
长久以来，人类总是认为海洋是取之不尽，用之不竭的，从海洋中攫取一切能源并向海洋倾倒所有垃圾。不断变化的气候、化学品、过度捕捞以及海洋污染不断破坏着海洋的生态系统。温室气体排放出的热量，有超过十分之九要依靠海洋吸收。海底的珊瑚礁因此面临着巨大的危险，根据科学家预测，到2050年，几乎所有的珊瑚礁都会消失。
By the middle of the century the ocean could contain more plastic than fish by weight. Ground down into tiny pieces, it is eaten by fish and then by people, with uncertain effects on human health. Appetite for fish grows nevertheless: almost 90% of stocks are fished either at or beyond their sustainable limits (see Briefing). The ocean nurtures humanity. Humanity treats it with contempt.
到本世纪中期，海洋中塑料的重量会超过鱼类的重量。分解成一小块一小块的塑料，被鱼吃掉后，最终进入到人体。没有人知道这会给人类的健康带来怎样的影响。然而，人们对吃鱼的喜爱却并没有因此消减。人类捕捞了几近90%的海域，全然不顾可持续发展的限制。海洋养育了人类，人类却报之以卑鄙。
Depths plumbed
深度探究
Such self-destructive behaviour demands explanation. Three reasons for it stand out. One is geography. The bulk of the ocean is beyond the horizon and below the waterline. The damage being done to its health is visible in a few liminal places—the Great Barrier Reef, say, or the oyster farms of Washington state. But for the most part, the sea is out of sight and out of mind. It is telling that there is only a single fleeting reference to the ocean in the Paris agreement on climate change.
人们为什么会做出如此自我毁灭的行为呢？原因有三。第一是地理位置的关系，海洋大部分的主体是低于水平线，在人们视线之外的。只有地球上少数几个地方可以看到对海洋造成的伤害，比如大堡礁或者华盛顿州的牡蛎养殖场。但是，对于世界上大部分地方而言，海洋既看不见，也不会时常想起。很能说明问题的一点是，关于气候变化的巴黎协定中只有一条是关于海洋的。
A second problem is governance. The ocean is subject to a patchwork of laws and agreements. Enforcement is hard and incentives are often misaligned. Waters outside national jurisdictions—the high seas—are a global commons. Without defined property rights or a community invested in their upkeep, the interests of individual actors in exploiting such areas win out over the collective interest in husbanding them. Fish are particularly tricky because they move. Why observe quotas if you think your neighbour can haul in catches with impunity?
第二个问题是治理。海洋受到各种法律和协议的约束。强制执行是困难的，激励又总是错位。国家管辖权之外的水域—-公海，是属于全球的。如果没有明确的产权分配或社区维护投资，个人欲图通过公共领域获益的打算就会超过委托给他们的集体利益。因为鱼的灵活移动，它变得很难抓。如果你认为你的邻居能够自由捕捉而免于惩罚，为什么你还要遵守配额呢?
Third, the ocean is a victim of other, bigger processes. The emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere is changing the marine environment along with the rest of the planet. The ocean has warmed by 0.7°C since the 19th century, damaging corals and encouraging organisms to migrate towards the poles in search of cooler waters. Greater concentrations of carbon dioxide in the water are making it more acidic. That tends to harm creatures such as crabs and oysters, whose calcium carbonate shells suffer as marine chemistry alters.
第三，海洋往往成为其他更大进步的牺牲者。排进大气的温室气体改变了地球包括海洋在内的环境。自从十九世纪以来，海洋增温0.7摄氏度，危害了珊瑚礁的生存，也使得许多生物为了寻找更合适的海水更被迫迁往极地。海洋中高浓度的二氧化碳含量使海水变酸，这往往会伤害像螃蟹和牡蛎这样的海洋生物，它们的碳酸钙外壳会受到海洋化学变化的影响。
Some of these problems are easier to deal with than others. “Ocean blindness” can be cured by access to information. And indeed, improvements in computing power, satellite imaging and drones are bringing the ocean into better view than ever before. Work is under way to map the sea floor in detail using sonar technology. On the surface, aquatic drones can get to remote, stormy places at a far smaller cost than manned vessels. From above, ocean-colour radiometry is improving understanding of how phytoplankton, simple organisms that support marine food chains, move and thrive. Tiny satellites, weighing 1-10kg, are enhancing scrutiny of fishing vessels.
这些问题中有些是相对容易解决的。了解更多的信息，就会改变对“海洋的无视”情况。实际上，计算机运算能力的提高、卫星成像和无人驾驶机给海洋的改善带来了史无前例的光明前景。目前，人们正在利用声纳技术绘制详细的海底地图。表面上，相比载人船而言，水中无人机能够到达更深远的地方。更深远地来看，通过对海洋颜色辐射的测量，能够增加了解浮游生物以及简单生物体是如何构成海洋食物链、生存并繁衍的。重1到10公斤的小卫星正在加强对渔船的检查。
Transparency can also mitigate the second difficulty, of ocean governance. More scientific data ought to improve the oversight of nascent industries. As sea-floor soundings proliferate, the supervision of deep-sea mining, which is overseen by the International Seabed Authority in areas beyond national jurisdiction, should get better. More data and analysis also make it easier to police existing agreements. Satellite monitoring can provide clues to illegal fishing activity: craft that switch off their tracking devices when they approach a marine protected area excite suspicion, for example. Such data make it easier to enforce codes like the Port State Measures Agreement, which requires foreign vessels to submit to inspections at any port of call and requires port states to share information on any suspected wrongdoing they find.
透明度也可以减轻治理海洋的困难。更多的科学数据会提高对新兴产业的监管。随着海底探测的不断深入，在国家管辖范围之外的国际海底管理局监督下的深海采矿，应该得到更好的管理。更多的数据和分析也能更好地监督现有的协议。卫星监测可以为非法捕鱼活动提供线索：例如，当渔船接近海洋保护区引起怀疑时，探测器会将他们的追踪装置关闭。这些数据有助于法令例如《港口国家措施协定》的施行。该协议要求外国船只在任何港口都要接受检查，并要求港口国家无条件分享他们发现的可疑信息。
Clearer information may also help align incentives and allow private capital to reward good behaviour. Insurance firms, for instance, have an incentive to ask for more data on fishing vessels; if ships switch off their tracking systems, the chances of collisions rise, and so do premiums. Greater traceability gives consumers who are concerned about fish a way to press seafood firms into behaving responsibly.
更清晰的信息也有助于调整激励机制，允许私人资本回馈更好的经营行为。例如，保险公司有权要求获得更多与渔船有关的数据；如果船只关闭他们的追踪系统，船只碰撞的几率会上升，保险费也会上升。高可追溯性使关心鱼的消费者也有机会敦促海鲜捕捞企业担负更多的责任。
Sunk costs
沉没成本
Thanks to technology, the ocean’s expanse and remoteness are becoming less formidable—and less of an excuse for inaction. A UN meeting on the ocean next month in New York is a sign that policymakers are paying more attention to the state of the marine realm. But superior information does not solve the fundamental problem of allocating and enforcing property rights and responsibilities for the high seas. And the effectiveness of incentives to take care of the ocean varies. Commercial pay-offs from giving fish stocks time to recover, for example, are large and well-documented; but the rewards that accrue from removing plastic from the high seas are unclear.
由于科学技术的发展，海洋的宽广和深远似乎也不再那么让人畏惧了，也再也不能阻止人类开发海洋了。在美国纽约召开的联合国海洋会议会显示，政策制定者越来越关注国家的海洋领土。但是，高级别的信息并不能解决分配和执行公海产权和责任的根本问题。保护海洋的激励性措施所带来的作用也各不相同。例如，给渔业休养生息的时间所带来的商业回报是巨大的，但是，从公海移除塑料所带来的回报尚不清楚。
Above all, better measurement of global warming’s effect on the ocean does not make a solution any easier. The Paris agreement is the single best hope for protecting the ocean and its resources. But America is not strongly committed to the deal; it may even pull out. And the limits agreed on in Paris will not prevent sea levels from rising and corals from bleaching. Indeed, unless they are drastically strengthened, both problems risk getting much worse. Mankind is increasingly able to see the damage it is doing to the ocean. Whether it can stop it is another question.
总之，针对全球变暖给海洋带来的影响所施行的措施并没有带来符合预期的效果。对于保护海洋以及海洋资源，巴黎协定只是人们一个过于乐观的希望。美国似乎也并不是十分乐意遵守这个协定，甚至有可能会退出。该协定中通过的方法也不能阻止海平面上升，保护珊瑚礁。实际上，除非这些方法能够得到最大程度上的强化，海洋问题只会越来越突出。虽然人类也逐渐意识到了他们给海洋所带来的危害，不过，他们是否会停止自己的行为又是另一个问题了。
编译：AuroraZhu
编辑：翻吧君
来源：经济学人