Name: 乾淨的水資源要完全消失了嗎？ (Are we running out of clean water? - Balsher Singh Sidhu)
Uploaded: 2018-12-09T06:10:32.000Z
Duration: 5 min 19 s

From space, our planet appears to be more ocean than earth.

從太空中，可以看到我們的地球是海洋面積大過於陸地

轉承詞

But despite the water covering 71% of the planet's surface, more than half the world's population endures extreme water scarcity for at least one month a year.

但即使水覆蓋了星球表面的 71%，全世界有一半以上的人口仍需忍受一年中至少有一個月的極端水資源缺乏

And current estimates predict that by 2040, up to 20 more countries could be experiencing water shortages.

近期有個預測則估計在 2040 年之前，最多會有 20 的國家面臨水資源短缺

Taken together, these bleak statistics raise a startling question: are we running out of clean water?

這些冷酷的數據也一併揭露了令人震驚的問題：我們要沒有乾淨的水可以用了嗎？

At a planetary scale, Earth can't run out of freshwater thanks to the water cycle, a system that continuously produces and recycles water, morphing it from vapour, to liquid, to ice as it circulates around the globe.

以行星的角度來看，地球不會耗盡淡水，因為有水循環不斷地產生與回收水資源，將水在全球循環時，在蒸氣、液體、冰塊間轉換

So this isn't really a question of how much water there is, but of how much of it  is accessible to us.

所以有多少水在地球上並不是個問題，而是有多少水是我們可用的

97% of earth's liquid is saltwater, too loaded with minerals for humans to drink or use in agriculture.

地球上 97% 的液體是鹹水，含有太多礦物質以至於無法讓人拿來喝或是用在農業上

Of the remaining 3% of potentially usable freshwater, more than two-thirds is frozen in ice caps and glaciers.

在剩下 3% 潛在可用淡水中，有二分之三以上被凍在冰帽與冰河中

That leaves less than 1% available for sustaining all life on Earth, spread across our planet in rivers, lakes, underground aquifers, ground ice and permafrost.

最後剩下少於 1% 可以用來維持地球上生命的水，在我們的星球上分散於河流、湖泊、地下水、陸地上的冰與永久凍土中

It's these sources of water that are being rapidly depleted by humans, but slowly replenished by rain and snowfall.

就是這些水源不斷被人類耗盡，卻緩慢地由降雨和降雪來補充

And this limited supply isn't distributed evenly around the globe.

而這些有限的供應也不是在地球上平均分布

Diverse climates and geography provide some regions with more rainfall and natural water sources, while other areas have geographic features that make transporting water much more difficult.

多元的氣候和地形讓某些地區有較多的降雨和自然水源，其他區域卻有讓水難以運送的地形

And supplying the infrastructure and energy it would take to move water across these regions is extremely expensive.

要將水運送到這些地區所需的基礎建設和能量也非常昂貴

In many of these water-poor areas, as well as some with greater access to water, humanity is guzzling up the local water supply faster than it can be replenished.

在很多缺水的區域，以及有較多水的地區，人類濫用當地水資源的速度比補充速度來得快

And when more quickly renewed sources can't meet the demand, we start pumping it out of our  finite underground reserves.

當較快補充的水源無法達到需求量，我們開始抽取有限的地下水存量

Of Earth's 37 major underground reservoirs, 21 are on track to be irreversibly emptied.

地球上 37 個主要的地下水庫中，有 21 個被追蹤的水庫已不可逆地乾涸

So while it's true that our planet  isn't actually losing water, we are depleting the water sources we rely on at an unsustainable pace.

因此即使地球並不是真的失去水，我們正以不永續的方式耗盡賴以為生的水源

This might seem surprising – after all, on average, people only drink  about two liters of water a day.

這也許令人吃驚，結論是，每個人平均每天只喝兩公升的水

But water plays a hidden role in our daily lives, and in that same 24 hours, most people will actually consume an estimated 3000 liters of water.

但水卻在我們的日常生活中扮演了隱藏的角色，同樣 24 小時內，大部分的人實際上使用了約 3000 公升的水

In fact, household water – which we use to drink, cook, and clean – accounts for only 3.6% of humanity's water consumption.

事實上，居家用水，我們用來喝、煮飯、打掃用的，只占了 3.6% 的人類用水量

Another 4.4% goes to the wide range of factories which make the products we buy each day.

另外的 4.4% 進入範圍廣泛的工業，來製造我們每天購買的產品

But the remaining 92% of our water consumption is all spent on a single industry: agriculture.

最後佔我們用量 92% 的水全都用在了一個產業上：農業

Our farms drain the equivalent of 3.3 billion Olympic-sized swimming pools every year, all of it swallowed up by crops and livestock to feed Earth's growing population.

我們的農場每年消耗了近 33 億個奧林匹克規模游泳池的水，全被農作物和家畜所吸收，以養活地球上成長的人口

Agriculture currently covers 37%  of Earth's land area, posing the biggest threat to our regional water supplies.

近期的農業覆蓋了地球 37% 的土地面積，為我們的區域水源供給帶來了最大的威脅

So how do we limit agriculture's thirst while still feeding those who rely on it?

所以我們該如何限制農業的用水，但還可以養活賴以為生的人呢？

Farmers are already finding ingenious ways to reduce their impact, like using special irrigation techniques to grow "more crop per drop", and breeding new crops that are less thirsty.

農夫們已經想到了一些巧妙的辦法來減少他們的衝擊，例如使用特殊的技巧讓每滴水可以灌溉更多的作物，以及耕作需水量較低的新作物

Other industries are following suit, adopting production processes that reuse and recycle water.

其他產業也仿效這種方法，採用可以再利用並循環水資源的生產流程

On a personal level, reducing food waste is the first step to reducing water use, since one-third of the food that leaves farms is currently wasted or thrown away.

在個人方面，減少食物浪費是減少用水的第一步，因為有三分之一的食物在離開農場後被浪費或是丟棄

You might also want to consider eating less water-intensive foods like shelled nuts and red meat.

你或許也會想試試少吃些耗水食物，像是堅果或紅肉

Adopting a vegetarian lifestyle could reduce up to one third of your water footprint.

採用素食者的生活型態可以減少到你三分之一的水足跡

Our planet may never run out of water, but it doesn't have to for individuals to go thirsty.

我們的地球永遠不會用光水，但也不應該為了個人導致缺水

Solving this local problem requires a global solution, and small day-to-day decisions can affect reservoirs around the world.

要解決地區性的問題需要一個全球性的解法，而每天一個小決定也可以影響世界各地的水庫

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乾淨的水資源要完全消失了嗎？ (Are we running out of clean water? - Balsher Singh Sidhu)

equivalent

experience

potentially

infrastructure