imagine a house a normal house with the usual  appliances dishwashers refrigerators vacuum  

想象一下一個房子，一個普通的房子，有通常的電器，洗碗機，冰箱，吸塵器。

cleaners and of course an electricity bill  which comes every month now we're going to  

清潔工，當然還有每個月都有的電費，現在我們要去

make this a kentucky home because in kentucky  they get almost all their energy from coal  

使之成為肯塔基州的家，因為在肯塔基州，他們幾乎所有的能源都來自於煤。

and since we all know that coal is a fossil fuel  

既然我們都知道，煤是一種化石燃料

here's an idea let's go back and meet the  fossils who died to light up this house  

我有個想法，讓我們回去見見那些為了照亮這所房子而死去的化石。

well we're gonna have to go way way back to  the carboniferous period that's about 300  

我們必須追溯到石炭紀，也就是大約300年前。

million years ago and this here is a typical  forest from that time and this is a typical  

這就是那個時代的典型森林，這就是典型的

tree called a lepidodendron long skinny little  tree they sprouted up as plants do soaking in  

稱為鱗葉樹的瘦長小樹，它們像植物一樣，浸泡在水中發芽。

sunshine absorbing carbon from the air so they  could grow and grow and grow and then of course  

吸收空氣中的碳的陽光，以便它們可以生長，生長，生長，然後當然是

they died to be replaced by another set of  lepidodendrons that also grew and died another  

他們死了，被另一組同樣生長和死亡的蜘蛛花所取代。

that grew and died and another that grew and  died so after millions and millions of years  

增長和死亡，另一個增長和死亡，所以在數百萬和數百萬年之後

the layers of all these dead plants press down  one on top of the other concentrating all that  

所有這些死去的植物層層疊疊地壓在一起，把所有的東西都集中起來。

ancient carbon and ancient sunshine  into a hard black rock that we call  

古代的碳和古代的陽光變成了堅硬的黑色岩石，我們稱之為

coal so just for the fun of it let's say our  house here in kentucky uses roughly a thousand  

煤炭，所以只是為了好玩，讓我們說我們在肯塔基州的房子大約用了一千塊錢

kilowatt hours of coal powered electricity in  a month that's about average can we figure out  

一個月內煤電的千瓦時數約為平均數，我們能不能算出

how many of those ancient trees are in effect  being harvested to power this home for one month  

為了給這個家提供一個月的電力，這些古樹實際上被砍伐了多少？

well it turns out that a thousand kilowatt hours  that's the electricity bill comes from burning  

事實證明，一千千瓦時的電費是由燃燒產生的。

about a half ton of coal which is the energy  equivalent of two ancient trees each one about  

約半噸的煤，相當於兩棵古樹的能量，每棵樹約為1噸。

60 feet high so that is what this home is  burning every month to old trees worth of carbon  

60英尺高，所以這就是這個家每個月燃燒的老樹的碳價值

now if we go for a year of electricity that would  be 24 of these trees and then over a decade over  

現在，如果我們用一年的電，那將是24棵這樣的樹，然後超過十年的時間。

10 years we're up to 240 trees and now you kind  of used up a mini forest of ancient energy just  

10年後，我們就有了240棵樹，現在你已經用完了一個小型的古代能源森林。

to power your home and that does not include by  the way the family car now cars we all know also  

為你的家庭供電，這還不包括家庭汽車，現在我們都知道汽車也是如此。

use fossil fuels gasoline does come from oil and  oil comes from once again ancient plants but not  

使用化石燃料的汽油確實來自於石油，而石油又來自於古老的植物，但並不是

trees this time no no oil comes from much much  teenier plant-like creatures so small you can't  

這一次，沒有油來自更多更小的植物類生物，小到你無法想象。

see them with your eyes but you do find them  in the ocean drifting about and rolling around  

你可以用眼睛看到它們，但你會發現它們在海洋中漂移和滾動。

using sunshine to absorb carbon and grow and  multiply there are trillions actually a thousand  

利用陽光吸收碳並生長和繁殖，有數萬億個，實際上有一千個。

trillion trillion of these teeny plants in the  sea they're called phytoplankton the basic food  

海中有數以萬億計的這些微小的植物，它們被稱為浮游植物，是基本的食物。

of the ocean eaten by little guys and the  big guys and a hundred million years ago  

一億年前，海洋中的小傢伙和大傢伙都在吃，而一億年前

there were phytoplankton living in the oceans  and when they died and their babies died and  

有浮游植物生活在海洋中，當它們死了，它們的孩子也死了，並且

the babies of those babies died the ocean bottoms  were gradually littered with sunshine rich remains  

那些嬰兒的嬰兒死了，海底漸漸地充滿了陽光下的豐富遺蹟

creating a layer of stored carbon that under  pressure from the mud above and the heat below  

在上面的泥漿和下面的熱量的壓力下，形成一個儲存碳的層。

compressed first into rock and then under even  greater pressure turned into a black liquid that  

首先被壓縮成岩石，然後在更大的壓力下變成了黑色的液體。

we now call oil so today when you pump a gallon  of gasoline into your car you are mostly pumping  

我們現在稱之為石油，所以今天當你把一加侖的汽油泵入你的汽車時，你主要是在泵入

these squeezed remains of countless ancient  micro plants into your car engine well actually  

這些由無數古老的微型植物擠出來的殘骸進入你的汽車發動機，實際上是

they're not really countless because we can  count them based on their carbon content so  

它們並不是真的無數，因為我們可以根據它們的碳含量來計算它們，所以

we calculate that when you turn on the engine and  step on the gas and go for every inch of highway  

我們計算過，當你打開發動機，踩下油門，在高速公路上每走一英寸都要進行計算。

you are crunching 20 billion ancient plants  through your car engine that is 20 billion  

你正在通過你的汽車引擎壓縮200億個古老的植物，這是200億個

for every highway inch so if your grandma lives  a mile down the road that works out to 1 trillion  

每一英寸的高速公路，所以如果你的祖母住在一英里外的路上，那就有1萬億的收入。

plants given up their energy to move you to  grandma's who when she turns on the lights to  

植物放棄了它們的能量，把你搬到了奶奶家，當她打開燈時，你就會發現她的能量。

say hi she's using energy from ancient trees so we  are constantly using carbon that's been locked in  

打個招呼，她在使用來自古樹的能源，所以我們不斷地使用被鎖住的碳。

the ground for millions of years digging it up  and putting it back to work for you and for me

數百萬年來，我們一直在地下挖掘它，並將它重新用於你和我的工作。

we today are ravenous for old sunshine so  much so that if you add up all the coal  

我們今天對古老的陽光非常渴望，以至於如果你把所有的煤加起來

and all the oil and all the natural gas that we  humans use to power our lives in just one recent  

以及我們人類用來為我們的生活提供動力的所有石油和天然氣，僅僅是在最近的一次會議上

year we'll choose the year 2018 and then think  just for a second of all the ancient organisms  

年，我們將選擇2018年，然後想一想所有的古代生物體

that had to get squished down to make those fossil  fuels so that would be the old carboniferous trees  

為了製造這些化石燃料，必須把它們壓扁，所以這將是古老的石炭紀樹木。

and the carboniferous plants and the phytoplankton  and ancient plant eaters the little buns  

和石炭紀的植物和浮游植物和古代植物的食客的小包子

and the big ones in the sea on the land all those  old organisms that got crunched into fossil fuels  

而海里的大魚在陸地上，所有這些古老的生物體都被壓縮成了化石燃料。

if you drop all that old life into the container  that we call earth and burn them it turns out  

如果你把所有的舊生活扔進我們稱之為地球的容器裡，然後把它們燒掉，就會發現

that what we burn in one year weighs a hundred  times more than everything alive today everything  

我們在一年中燃燒的東西比今天所有活著的東西都要重一百倍。

all the living whales and the elephants and  the forests and insects and grass and crops  

所有活著的鯨魚、大象、森林、昆蟲、草和農作物

and birds and fish and people dogs and cats add  up all the carbon in everything alive now and  

和鳥、魚、人、狗、貓，把現在所有活著的東西中的碳加起來，就會有很多。

still in one year we burned a hundred times more  or to put it another way we humans gobbled up 100  

在一年中，我們仍然燒掉了一百倍的東西，或者換一種說法，我們人類吞噬了100

earth's worth of ancient life that's 55  trillion tons of ancient carbon in a single year  

地球上的古生物，一年就有55萬億噸古碳的價值

that's a lot of fossil fuel and  we are using it up very very fast

那是大量的化石燃料，我們正在非常非常快地使用它。

you

你