So imagine that you're the captain of a boat with a lot of expensive cargo, but you're stuck in L.

所以想象一下，你是一艘船的船長，船上有很多昂貴的貨物，但你被困在L。

A.

A.

And you need to get over to New York.

你需要去紐約。

You currently have two or maybe three options of getting there.

你目前有兩個或許三個選擇去那裡。

You could a take very long and somewhat dangerous route all the way down below South America be Take the also really long but extra zany and cold route up through the Canadian archipelago or C take the shortcut across Panama through the Panama Canal.

你可以一個採取非常長的和有點危險的路線，一路向下南美洲是採取也真的很長，但額外的讚美和寒冷的路線，通過加拿大群島或C採取捷徑通過巴拿馬運河橫跨巴拿馬。

But depending on the size of your ship, this might not be an option for you.

但根據你的船的大小，這可能不是你的選擇。

The Panama Canal is only so wide and so deep, so if your ship is too big, you won't be allowed to cross, which means that you still have to choose between either option A or Option B, as people have done for hundreds of years now.

巴拿馬運河只有這麼寬，這麼深，如果你的船太大，就不允許你過，也就是說，你還是要在A方案或B方案中選擇一個，就像幾百年來人們所做的那樣。

But what if there was another option, a Choice D.

但如果還有另一個選擇呢，選擇D。

The flow of international shipping and trade across the world is, for the most part, determined by Earth's geography and Earth's geography has certain limitations.

國際航運和貿易在世界範圍內的流動，大部分是由地球的地理環境決定的，而地球的地理環境有一定的侷限性。

For example, there's an entire continent that kind of blocks the way between Europe and Asia, and there's two entire continents that separate the Atlantic Ocean from the Pacific Ocean.

比如說，有一整塊大陸，算是擋住了歐洲和亞洲之間的路，還有兩塊整塊大陸，把大西洋和太平洋隔開了。

Boats don't really travel through land, so you normally don't have any other choice but to travel around all of this land in order to get to the other sides.

船並不是真的在陸地上行駛，所以一般情況下，你沒有別的選擇，只能繞著這些陸地行駛，才能到達另一邊。

But there's a few strategic areas around the world where it's theoretically possible to dig canals and create shortcuts between two sides of water.

但世界上有幾個戰略地區，理論上是可以挖運河，在兩岸水面之間開闢捷徑的。

Some of these have already been built, like the Kiel Canal that allows transportation between the Baltic and the North Sea without having to sail around Denmark or the Suez Canal that allows transportation between the Mediterranean and Red seas without having to sail all the way around Africa.

其中一些已經建成，比如基爾運河，可以在波羅的海和北海之間進行運輸，而不必繞過丹麥；蘇伊士運河可以在地中海和紅海之間進行運輸，而不必繞過非洲。

So in the Americas, there are three locations where canal shortcut between the Atlantic and Pacific could theoretically be built that map geeks have been talking about for centuries.

所以在美洲，理論上有三個地方可以修建大西洋和太平洋之間的運河捷徑，這也是地圖極客們幾個世紀以來一直在討論的問題。

They are the isthmus of Tehuantepec in Mexico.

它們是墨西哥特萬特佩克的地峽。

The narrow stretches of land in Nicaragua on either side of the big lake in the middle of the country, and Panama For hundreds of years, all three of these areas were used to transport supplies overland from one ship in the Atlantic to another ship in the Pacific.

尼加拉瓜中部大湖兩邊的狹長陸地，以及巴拿馬 數百年來，這三個地區都被用來從大西洋的一艘船到太平洋的另一艘船，通過陸路運輸物資。

But this was still quite inefficient.

但這樣做的效率還是相當低的。

The land was full of rainforest mosquitoes and dangerous animals like Jaguars that made the logistics of transporting supplies overland from one ship to another.

陸地上到處都是雨林蚊蟲，還有美洲虎這樣的危險動物，這讓陸路運輸物資的物流從一艘船到另一艘船。

Pretty dangerous and hard to do Ah canal would change everything, and the easiest one to build was always going to be in Panama because it's the narrowest piece of land out of all of the three choices.

相當危險，也很難做啊運河會改變一切，最容易修建的運河總是會在巴拿馬，因為它是三個選擇中最狹窄的一塊土地。

The Tehuantepec isthmus is 200 kilometers between the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific.

特萬特佩克地峽位於墨西哥灣和太平洋之間200公里處。

The Nicaragua route is 153 kilometers across land between the Caribbean lake, Nicaragua and the Pacific, while the Panama route is only 80 kilometers long.

尼加拉瓜航線在加勒比湖、尼加拉瓜和太平洋之間的陸地上橫跨153公里，而巴拿馬航線只有80公里。

And so the United States finished constructing the Panama Canal in 1914, and it changed the way that trade flowed for ever afterwards, allowing ships to just hop over land instead of traveling all the way around South America.

於是美國在1914年完成了巴拿馬運河的建設，它從此改變了貿易流通的方式，讓船隻只需跳過陸地，而不是繞著南美洲一路走來。

But there was a bit of a problem that I mentioned earlier.

但是有一點問題，我前面提到了。

The Panama Canal wasn't built very wide, so Not all modern ships could get through.

巴拿馬運河建得不寬，所以不是所有的現代船隻都能通過。

Super big modern container ships aren't fitting in a canal that was built over a century ago, and so they all still have to take the long route around South America.

超大的現代化集裝箱船在一個多世紀前修建的運河裡是裝不下的，所以它們都還得走環南美的漫長路線。

If a brand new canal could be built across one of the other two potential canal routes, it could be built up to modern standards with enough capacity for these big cargo ships, toe actually travel through.

如果一條全新的運河能橫跨另外兩條潛在的運河路線中的一條，它就能按照現代標準建造，有足夠的能力讓這些大貨輪實際通過。

This was the idea that came to the Chinese construction company HK N D.

這是中國建築公司香港N D的想法。

In 2013 who entered into negotiations with the Nicaraguan government to construct a canal across the country.

2013年與尼加拉瓜政府談判，準備在全國修建一條運河。

That year, Nicaragua gave H K N D a 50 year concession to build the canal and operated with the potential to be extended for another 50 years afterwards.

當年，尼加拉瓜給了H K N D 50年的特許經營權來修建運河，並在之後有可能再延長50年的時間來營運。

If it was built, this would have effectively given China a century of control over one of the most important strategic locations in the world for international trade.

如果建成，這將有效地使中國百年來控制了世界上最重要的國際貿易戰略地點之一。

Later on in the 20 twenties, growth and international trade is expected to cause significant congestion and delay issues in the Panama Canal.

在20世紀20年代以後，增長和國際貿易將導致巴拿馬運河出現嚴重的擁堵和延誤問題。

So in 2013, the Panama Canal was simply not expected to be large enough to accommodate that increased demand in trade and shipping that would occur later on through the 21st century.

所以，在2013年，巴拿馬運河的規模根本無法滿足以後到21世紀的貿易和航運需求的增加。

So the construction of another canal in the area to handle the higher demand appeared to be logical, and H k N d could just smell the opportunity.

是以，在該地區再修建一條運河以應對更高的需求似乎是順理成章的，H k N d正好嗅到了機會。

The plan was rather straightforward.

計劃相當簡單。

HK N D would begin by constructing opposite ports on the Pacific and Caribbean sides of Nicaragua that could handle large container ships.

香港拓展署將首先在尼加拉瓜的太平洋和加勒比海兩岸建設相對的港口，以處理大型集裝箱船。

Work would then begin on the first short portion of the canal between the Pacific and Lake Nicaragua.

然後，太平洋和尼加拉瓜湖之間的運河第一短段將開始施工。

A channel would be dug into the bottom of the lake to allow larger cargo ships to travel through it.

將在湖底挖出一條通道，讓大型貨船通過。

And then the second portion of the canal would be built from Lake Nicaragua out to the Caribbean, where, after the two ports would be adapted into international shipping ports.

然後，運河的第二部分將從尼加拉瓜湖到加勒比海，在那裡，兩個港口將被改造成國際航運港口。

On either side.

在兩邊。

However, there were so many rich, ridiculous problems associated with the project that it's hard to even talk about all of them in such a short video.

然而，與這個項目相關的豐富、可笑的問題太多，甚至很難在這麼短的視頻中全部談完。

First of all, the cost of the project was estimated to be around 40 billion dollars by H K N D and H K nd never put forward a very clear case for how, exactly they plan to come up with that much money.

首先，H K N D估計這個項目的成本約為400億美元，而H Knd從來沒有提出一個非常明確的案例，他們到底打算如何拿出這麼多錢。

And neither did Nicaragua, for that matter.

尼加拉瓜也是如此。

The billionaire owner of H K nd lost 80% of his net worth in the 2015 Chinese stock market crash, just two years after H K nd and Nicaragua came to their agreement to actually build the canal.

這位H K nd的億萬富翁老闆在2015年的中國股災中損失了80%的淨資產，而此時距離H K nd和尼加拉瓜達成協議實際修建運河僅有兩年時間。

Nicaragua claimed that the project would create a quarter of a million jobs inside of the country and that it would lead to Nicaragua becoming a first world country, while H.

尼加拉瓜聲稱，該項目將在國內創造25萬個就業機會，並將使尼加拉瓜成為第一世界國家，而H。

K N.

K N.

D, on the other hand, suggested that it would only create around 50,000 jobs and that at least half of those would just be workers imported from China.

而D則提出，它只能創造約5萬個工作崗位，其中至少有一半隻是從中國引進的工人。

H K nd was further given the authority to expropriate land from Nicaraguan citizens around the canal construction site, which would have led to the expulsion and relocation of around 100 1000 people in the country or, in other words, about 1.5% of all Nicaraguans.

H Knd還被授權徵用運河建設工地周圍尼加拉瓜公民的土地，這將導致該國約10.1萬人被驅逐和搬遷，換言之，約佔所有尼加拉瓜人的1.5%。

Needless to say, that wasn't exactly very popular with the 1.5% of the population that was getting forcibly relocated and then there's all of the potentially catastrophic environmental issues.

不用說，這並不完全是非常受歡迎的1.5％的人口，得到強制搬遷，然後有所有潛在的災難性的環境問題。

Lake Nicaragua is the largest source of fresh water for all of Central America.

尼加拉瓜湖是整個中美洲最大的淡水來源。

And well, introducing the lake to a canal that's connected to the salty ocean would be bad enough.

而好了，把湖泊引入到與鹹海相連的運河，就已經很糟糕了。

But imagine the potential disaster that could happen if a oil tanker moving through the canal happened to have a spill in the middle of the largest source of fresh water.

但試想一下，如果一艘油輪在運河中行駛時，恰好在最大的淡水源頭中間發生洩漏，可能會發生的災難。

For 47 million people, 4/100 1000 hectares of rainforest were going to be destroyed.

對於4700萬人口來說，4/100 1000公頃的雨林將被破壞。

That included the habitats of at least 22 endangered species, not to even mention the disruption caused in the migration routes of countless other species.

這包括至少22個瀕危物種的生境，更不用說對無數其他物種的遷徙路線造成的破壞。

Many people considered the Nicaragua Canal's construction to be an environmental catastrophe, But the ultimate reasons for why it failed were economic ones.

很多人認為尼加拉瓜運河的建設是一場環境災難，但它失敗的最終原因是經濟原因。

Not only did HK MDs billionaire owner, lose 80% of his net worth in a single bad year of financial losses, but the Panama Canal initiated an expansion project of their own that concluded in 2016 that doubled the canal's capacity for ships.

香港MDs億萬富翁的老闆，不僅在一個財務虧損的糟糕年份裡損失了80%的淨資產，而且巴拿馬運河啟動了他們自己的擴建項目，在2016年結束，將運河的船舶運力增加了一倍。

Now all but the absolute biggest of ships in the world can fit through the Panama Canal, which made the prospect of blowing 40 billion bucks on another canal in Nicaragua a much harder pill to swallow.

現在，除了世界上最大的船隻之外，所有的船隻都可以通過巴拿馬運河，這使得在尼加拉瓜花400億美元修建另一條運河的前景變得更加難以接受。

Eventually, H k nd entered into severe financial difficulties themselves, and in 2018 they shut down their home office in China without leaving any address or telephone number for anybody in Nicaragua or anywhere else to contact them at no construction on the canal ever began.

最終，H k nd自己也進入了嚴重的財務困境，2018年，他們關閉了在中國的總部辦公室，沒有留下任何地址和電話，讓尼加拉瓜或其他任何地方的人與他們聯繫，在運河上的建設從未開始。

And it's looking like at this rate, it's probably never actually gonna happen unless some other crazy company comes around with $40 billion to blow on something that might not even work out that well.

照這樣的速度發展下去，可能永遠都不會發生，除非有其他瘋狂的公司拿出400億美元來吹噓，但可能根本就不會有那麼好的效果。

None of this was even considering the fact that actually digging and filling hundreds of miles of canals through the rainforest with tropical diseases like yellow fever and malaria would be a massively difficult project to complete, even with the money.

這一切都沒有考慮到，真正在熱帶雨林中挖出並填平數百里長的運河，黃熱病和瘧疾等熱帶疾病，即使有錢，也是一個巨大的困難工程。

It's unbelievable to think about this today, but around 43 1000 workers actually died over the course of the construction of the Panama Canal due to tropical diseases in the area.

今天想想真是不可思議，但實際上在巴拿馬運河的建設過程中，約有43 1000名工人因該地區的熱帶疾病而死亡。

Can you imagine even 10% of those deaths being acceptable to a modern construction company?

你能想象，哪怕是10%的死亡，對於現代建築公司來說，也是可以接受的嗎？

It's absolutely wild, so insane costs would have to be put into developing the area in Nicaragua, around the canal with modern hospitals and trained medical staff.

這絕對是野生的，所以必須投入瘋狂的成本來開發尼加拉瓜的地區，在運河周圍建立現代化的醫院和訓練有素的醫務人員。

In addition to all the other necessary construction in labor costs, the project is ultimately one of the most insane construction projects ever proposed.

除了所有其他必要的建設在人工成本，該項目最終是有史以來最瘋狂的建設項目之一提出。

During the 21st century, it would have changed the shape of the world forever.

在21世紀，它將永遠改變世界的形態。

But in the end, at least for now, it seems like we just don't really need it.

但最後，至少在目前看來，我們似乎真的不需要它。

Something that everybody needs, though, is a better understanding of math and science and how they relate to our everyday lives.

不過，每個人都需要的是更好地理解數學和科學，以及它們與我們日常生活的關係。

If you're poured, stuck indoors all the time right now, like me, it's a perfect opportunity to do something productive and keep yourself entertained next by heading over to Brilliant.

如果你現在和我一樣，被澆了個透心涼，一直困在室內，那麼接下來就可以去輝煌公司做一些有意義的事情，讓自己保持娛樂狀態。

Brilliant is a math and science learning platform that gives you new daily challenges every day that are not only fun but that also help teach you new concepts by applying them.

Brilliant是一個數學和科學學習平臺，每天給你提供新的日常挑戰，不僅有趣，而且還能通過應用這些挑戰來幫助教授你新的概念。

And if you like that challenge and you want to learn mawr, you can check out the course quizzes that go into more detail.

而如果你喜歡這種挑戰，想要學習毛毛雨，可以看看課程測驗，會更詳細。

It's the perfect way to learn a little something new every day without it ever feeling stressful or overwhelming so to start trying out the daily challenges and to learn more about brilliant, go ahead and click the link down in the description or go to brilliant dot org's slash real life floor.

這是一個完美的方式，每天學習一點新的東西，而從來沒有感覺到壓力或壓倒性的，所以要開始嘗試每天的挑戰，並瞭解更多關於輝煌，繼續點擊描述中的鏈接，或進入輝煌點網站的斜線現實生活地板。

You can sign up for free.

你可以免費註冊。

Plus, if you're one of the 1st 200 to sign up at that link, you'll also get 20% off of a premium subscription and you'll be supporting riel Life floor at the same time.

另外，如果你是前200名通過該鏈接註冊的人之一，你還將獲得高級訂閱的8折優惠，同時你還將支持瑞爾生命地板。

And it's always thank you for watching.

而且總是感謝你的觀看。