and why this is an incredibly important,

我想和大家談談漏油事件的政治化學性質

long, oily, hot summer,

以及這件事非常重要的原因

and why we need to keep ourselves from getting distracted.

冗長，油膩，炎熱的夏天

But before I talk about the political chemistry,

以及我們必須持續聚焦在這件事情上的原因

I actually need to talk about the chemistry of oil.

在我開始談政治化學之前

This is a photograph from when I visited

我必須先談談石油的化學性質

Prudhoe Bay in Alaska in 2002

這是一張我在2002年

to watch the Minerals Management Service

造訪阿拉斯加的普拉德霍灣時的照片

testing their ability

我去巡視礦產管理服務

to burn oil spills in ice.

並測試他們的能力

And what you see here is, you see a little bit of crude oil,

在寒冰上燃燒漏油

you see some ice cubes,

在這裡你可以看到一點原油

and you see two sandwich baggies of napalm.

一些冰塊

The napalm is burning there quite nicely.

看到兩個三明治大小的凝固汽油彈

And the thing is, is that

凝固汽油彈正在燃燒

oil is really an abstraction for us as the American consumer.

對於我們這些美國消費者來說

We're four percent of the world's population;

石油是一種抽象過程

we use 25 percent of the world's oil production.

我們的人口佔全世界的4％

And we don't really understand what oil is,

我們卻使用了全世界油產的25％

until you check out its molecules,

然而我們卻不了解石油是什麼

And you don't really understand that until you see this stuff burn.

除非我們來檢視一下它的分子

So this is what happens as that burn gets going.

在看到這東西燃燒之前，我們也無法徹底了解

It takes off. It's a big woosh.

這就是石油燃燒的景象

I highly recommend that you get a chance to see crude oil burn someday,

它賤起火花，轟的一聲

because you will never need to hear another poli sci lecture

我強烈推薦大家有機會的話去看一下原油燃燒的景象

on the geopolitics of oil again.

如此一來你便不需要再去聽別的波利科技講座

It'll just bake your retinas.

是有關石油地緣政治學的演講了

So there it is; the retinas are baking.

它將烘烤你的視網膜

Let me tell you a little bit about this chemistry of oil.

就像這樣, 烘烤視網膜

Oil is a stew of hydrocarbon molecules.

讓我來講一下石油的化學性質

It starts of with the very small ones,

石油是碳氫化合物分子的混合物

which are one carbon, four hydrogen --

剛開始的時候非常小

that's methane -- it just floats off.

1個碳原子,4個氫原子

Then there's all sorts of intermediate ones with middle amounts of carbon.

這就是漂浮在上面的甲烷

You've probably heard of benzene rings; they're very carcinogenic.

然後還有各種的介質混合中等數量的碳

And it goes all the way over

你們可能聽說過苯環，它的致癌性很高

to these big, thick, galumphy ones that have hundreds of carbons,

苯環在散佈整個過程中

and they have thousands of hydrogens,

變成這些大型高厚度的東西

and they have vanadium and heavy metals and sulfur

它們包含數百個碳原子以及數百個氫原子

and all kinds of craziness hanging off the sides of them.

還有釩、重金屬和硫

Those are called the asphaltenes; they're an ingredient in asphalt.

以及各種瘋狂的東西緊貼在兩側

They're very important in oil spills.

它們被稱為瀝青質，瀝青的元素

Let me tell you a little bit about

它們在漏油事件裡扮演重要的角色

the chemistry of oil in water.

讓我再來講一下

It is this chemistry that makes oil so disastrous.

在水裡的石油化學成分

Oil doesn't sink, it floats.

也是讓石油變成災難的化學成分

If it sank, it would be a whole different story as far as an oil spill.

石油在水裡不會下沈，而是漂浮在水面

And the other thing it does is it spreads out the moment it hits the water.

如果它真的下沈了，漏油事件就會變的完全不一樣

It spreads out to be really thin,

而它的另外一個性質是在它碰到水後會散撥出去。

so you have a hard time corralling it.

它散播開來，變成薄薄的一層

The next thing that happens

所以你很難將它網起。

is the light ends evaporate,

接下來發生的事是

and some of the toxic things float into the water column

輕烴蒸發

and kill fish eggs

和一些有毒的東西飄進水柱

and smaller fish and things like that, and shrimp.

並殺死魚卵

And then the asphaltenes -- and this is the crucial thing --

和較小的魚類等，以及蝦子。

the asphaltenes get whipped by the waves

然後還有瀝青質 - 這是關鍵的東西 -

into a frothy emulsion, something like mayonnaise.

瀝青質被海浪掀起

It triples the amount

乳化成泡沫，類似蛋黃醬

of oily, messy goo that you have in the water,

面積變成三倍

and it makes it very hard to handle.

油膩膩的，骯髒混亂的在水中

It also makes it very viscous.

這使得它很難處理

When the Prestige sank off the coast of Spain,

這也使得它非常粘稠

there were big, floating cushions the size of sofa cushions

當威望沉沒在西班牙海岸

of emulsified oil,

有大的漂浮的沙發墊的大小的靠墊

with the consistency, or the viscosity, of chewing gum.

乳化油

It's incredibly hard to clean up.

有口香糖一般的濃度及黏稠度

And every single oil is different when it hits water.

非常困難去清理

When the chemistry of the oil and water

而當它散播在水中每一個油有不同的狀況

also hits our politics,

當油和水的化學性質

it's absolutely explosive.

也影響到我們的政治

For the first time, American consumers

這是相當爆炸性的

will kind of see the oil supply chain in front of themselves.

這是第一次，美國消費者

They have a "eureka!" moment,

將看到石油供應鏈呈現在自己面前

when we suddenly understand oil in a different context.

他們目前有一個“eureka！”

So I'm going to talk just a little bit about the origin of these politics,

當我們突然明白石油在不同的狀況

because it's really crucial to understanding

那麼，我現在就要談論一點點有關這些政治的起源

why this summer is so important, why we need to stay focused.

因為它是讓我們真正的理解至關要件

Nobody gets up in the morning and thinks,

為什麼今年夏天是如此重要，為什麼我們需要集中精力

"Wow! I'm going to go buy

沒有人早上起床，然後想著

some three-carbon-to-12-carbon molecules to put in my tank

“哇！我要去買

and drive happily to work."

一些3碳到12碳的分子然後放進我的油箱

No, they think, "Ugh. I have to go buy gas.

和然後愉快地開車去工作。“

I'm so angry about it. The oil companies are ripping me off.

不，他們會認為，“喔不，我必須去購買天然氣。

They set the prices, and I don't even know.

我真是感到不開心。石油公司像在搶劫我。

I am helpless over this."

我甚至不知道他們什麼時候會調高價格

And this is what happens to us at the gas pump --

這樣會讓我很無奈。“

and actually, gas pumps are specifically designed

這就是發生我們在加油站的狀況。

to diffuse that anger.

而實際上，加油站有特別的設計去

You might notice that many gas pumps, including this one,

化解這種憤怒。

are designed to look like ATMs.

您可能會注意到，許多加油站，包括這一個，

I've talked to engineers. That's specifically to diffuse our anger,

設計看起來像自動取款機。

because supposedly we feel good about ATMs.

我有和工程師談論過。這是專門設計減低我們的憤怒，

(Laughter)

因為據說我們在自動取款機前會感覺良好。

That shows you how bad it is.

（眾笑）

But actually, I mean, this feeling of helplessness

這表明你是多麼糟糕。

comes in because most Americans actually feel

但實際上，我的意思是，這種無奈的感覺

that oil prices are the result of a conspiracy,

大多數美國人實際感受到

not of the vicissitudes of the world oil market.

石油價格是一個陰謀的結果

And the thing is, too,

不是世界石油市場所形成的。

is that we also feel very helpless about the amount that we consume,

而事實上也是

which is somewhat reasonable,

我們也對於我們消費的金額感到很無奈

because in fact, we have designed this system

這是某些理由

where, if you want to get a job,

因為，事實上，這是我們造成的

it's much more important to have a car that runs,

在那裡，如果你想找到一份工作，

to have a job and keep a job, than to have a GED.

要有車可以開是很重要的

And that's actually very perverse.

這樣才能有一份工作，保持一份工作

Now there's another perverse thing about the way we buy gas,

而這其實是很反常的

which is that we'd rather be doing anything else.

現在有另一種有害的東西是有關我們買天然氣

This is BP's gas station

我們寧願做別的

in downtown Los Angeles.

這是BP的加油站

It is green. It is a shrine to greenishness.

在洛杉磯市中心

"Now," you think, "why would something so lame

它是綠色的。是淺綠色。

work on people so smart?"

現在，你想想，為什麼這東西會如此跛腳

Well, the reason is, is because, when we're buying gas,

對人卻是這麼聰明？“

we're very invested in this sort of cognitive dissonance.

是的，原因是，因為當我們買天然氣

I mean, we're angry at the one hand and we want to be somewhere else.

我們非常投入在這樣的認知失調

We don't want to be buying oil;

我的意思是，一方面，我們感到憤怒，我們想要去別處。

we want to be doing something green.

我們不想要去買石油

And we get kind of in on our own con.

我們希望做一些環保的事

I mean -- and this is funny,

我們被自己哄騙

it looks funny here.

我的意思是 - 這是很有趣的事

But in fact, that's why the slogan "beyond petroleum" worked.

在這裡這件事看起來很有趣

But it's an inherent part of our energy policy,

但事實上，這就是為什麼這個口號“超越石油”是有效的。

which is we don't talk about

但在我們的能源政策中它是一個固有的一部分

reducing the amount of oil that we use.

這我們不談論

We talk about energy independence. We talk about hydrogen cars.

減少我們使用石油的數量，

We talk about biofuels that haven't been invented yet.

我們談論能源獨立。我們談論氫汽車。

And so, cognitive dissonance

我們談論還沒有發明的生物燃料

is part and parcel of the way that we deal with oil,

因此，認知失調

and it's really important to dealing with this oil spill.

我們處理石油的方式是不可或缺的一部分，

Okay, so the politics of oil

處理溢油是真正重要的。

are very moral in the United States.

OK，政治石油

The oil industry is like a huge, gigantic octopus

美國是很不道德的。

of engineering and finance

石油工業是像一個無底洞

and everything else,

對於工程及財務

but we actually see it in very moral terms.

和其他一切

This is an early-on photograph -- you can see, we had these gushers.

但我們真正看到它在道德上。

Early journalists looked at these spills,

這是一張早期的照片。你可以看到，我們有這些噴油井。

and they said, "This is a filthy industry."

記者看著這些早期漏油，

But they also saw in it

他們說，“這是一個骯髒的行業。”

that people were getting rich for doing nothing.

但他們也從中看到了

They weren't farmers, they were just getting rich for stuff coming out of the ground.

人們的生活越來越富裕且不勞而獲。

It's the "Beverly Hillbillies," basically.

他們不是農民，他們只是得到豐富的東西出自於地底。

But in the beginning, this was seen as a very morally problematic thing,

這是“暴發戶”基本上是這樣。

long before it became funny.

但在一開始，這個被認為是一個非常不道德的事情，

And then, of course, there was John D. Rockefeller.

不久，就成為笑話。

And the thing about John D. is that

當然，還有約翰洛克菲勒。

he went into this chaotic wild-east

和他有關的的事情是...

of oil industry,

他走進這未開發的東部

and he rationalized it

石油工業，

into a vertically integrated company, a multinational.

他合理化它

It was terrifying; you think Walmart is a terrifying business model now,

垂直整合成一個公司，一家跨國公司。

imagine what this looked like in the 1860s or 1870s.

這是非常可怕的。就像你認為沃爾瑪現今是一個可怕的商業模式，

And it also the kind of root

這看上去就像19世紀 60年代或19世紀 70年代。

of how we see oil as a conspiracy.

它也是一種

But what's really amazing is that

我們如何看到油作為一個陰謀。

Ida Tarbell, the journalist,

但真正令人驚訝的是，

went in and did a big exposé of Rockefeller

井田塔貝爾，一位記者，

and actually got the whole antitrust laws

深入了解並爆料洛克菲勒

put in place.

並使得反托拉斯法

But in many ways,

到位。

that image of the conspiracy still sticks with us.

但在許多方面，

And here's one of the things

這種陰謀仍然與我們同在。

that Ida Tarbell said --

而在這有一件事