本集內容

Deep-sea mining 深海采礦

學習要點

有關 “mining（采礦）” 的詞匯

邊看邊答

Which metal is needed for batteries that power electric cars?

文字稿

In the waters off Malaga, an experiment with a strange looking machine – lowered underwater to test a new and controversial kind of mining – on the ocean floor.

在馬拉加附近海域，一項試驗用一種外觀奇怪的機器潛入水下，目的是測試一種新的、有爭議的海底采礦方法。

A camera on the machine monitors its advance over the seabed. A soft coral stands in its path.

機器上的攝像頭監控著它在海床上的移動。軟珊瑚擋住了它的去路。

Mining would involve excavating rocks down here and no one knows the implications.

采礦需要在這里挖掘巖石，沒有人知道這意味著什么。

The project is run from this Spanish research ship – funded by the EU to find new sources of important metals.

該項目由歐盟資助的這艘西班牙研究船負責，目的是尋找重要金屬的新來源。

David Shukman, BBC Science editor
What this project shows is how the technology is advancing in a way that makes deep-sea mining seem much more plausible which confronts us with a very difficult question - is it the right thing to do given how little we know about the potential impact it could have on life on the ocean floor?

大衛·舒克曼          BBC科學新聞主編
這個項目顯示技術的進步使深海采礦顯得更加真實可信，但也讓我們面臨一個非常困難的問題——我們對深海采礦對海底生命的潛在影響知之甚少，這樣做對嗎？

Operating underwater, mining the seabed has never been tried before. It would destroy whatever is directly in front of the machines and they’d create clouds of sand and silt which could smother marine plants and creatures even a long way away.

在水下作業，在海床上采礦以前從未有人嘗試過。它會破壞任何直接在采礦機器正前方的東西，還會制造出大量的沙子和淤泥，這些沙子和淤泥會讓周邊甚至很遠的地方的海洋植物和生物窒息。

But there’s growing pressure for mining to start. Rocks like these – billions of them – are the target. Because, they’re amazingly rich in important metals, especially cobalt, which is needed for batteries. So the boom in electric cars means there’s growing demand for cobalt. And mining companies think the deep ocean could provide it. So if mining goes ahead, can the damage be limited?

但要求開始采礦的壓力越來越大。像這樣的巖石，目標是要采出數十億塊。因為它們富含重要的金屬，尤其是電池所需的鈷。因此，電動汽車的蓬勃發展意味著對鈷的需求在不斷增長。礦業公司認為深海可以提供金屬鈷。那么，如果采礦繼續進行，相關破壞會受到限制嗎？

Henko de Stigter, Chief Scientist
We’re on the brink of a new time that we will go down to the deep sea and start changing the landscape of the deep sea and the deep-sea life. And then we have to consider, is it worth it? Do we want to do that in the same say as we did already with the land?

Henko de Stigter          首席科學家
“我們正處在一個新時代的邊緣，我們將進入深海，開始改變深海的景觀和深海生物。然后我們需要考慮，這樣做值得嗎？我們想要像對待我們的土地一樣對待海洋嗎？”

This is a trial device – the machines that will actually do mining will be about ten times bigger. Dozens of ventures are planning to open mines on the seabed. This is a glimpse of how they might look.

這是一個試驗裝置，實際用于采礦的機器將會大十倍。數十家企業正計劃在海底開礦。這就是可能出現的海底采礦景象。

詞匯

excavating 挖出，發掘

sources 來源

rich in 富含……的

on the brink 處于……的邊緣

ventures （有風險的）企業

問題答案

Cobalt.