TED演讲：我为什么划船横渡太平洋(8)

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　　They were running out of food; I was running out of water. 他们没有了食物，我没有了水。

　　So we liaised by satellite phone and arranged to meet up. 我们用卫星电话取得了联系，安排见面。

　　And it took about a week for us to actually gradually converge². 大约一周以后，我们才真正会了面。

　　I was doing a pathetically slow speed of about 1.3 knots,  我划行的速度慢的可怜，只有1.3海里，

　　and they were doing only marginally less pathetic speed of about 1.4: it was like two snails³ in a mating dance.  而他们的最低速度也少于1.4海里，就像两只蜗牛在缓慢地跳着交欢舞。

　　But, eventually, we did manage to meet up and Joel hopped⁴ overboard,  不管怎么样，我们最终还是会面了，乔伊跳下船，

　　caught us a beautiful, big mahi-mahi, which was the best food I'd had in, ooh, at least three months. 为我们抓住了一条漂亮的大鲯鳅鱼，这是我在三个月以来吃到的最好吃的东西。

　　Fortunately, the one that he caught that day was better than this one they caught a few weeks earlier. 我们很走运，那天抓到的鱼要比几个星期前他抓到的那要好。

　　When they opened this one up, they found its stomach was full of plastic. 当他们宰鱼的时候，发现鱼的胃里全是塑料。

　　And this is really bad news because plastic is not an inert⁵ substance. 糟糕的是，塑料是惰性物质。

　　It leaches⁶ out chemicals into the flesh of the poor critter that ate it, 可怜的小生物吃下这些塑料，而后塑料分解出的化学物质进入他们的肌体里，

　　and then we come along and eat that poor critter, and we get some of the toxins⁷ accumulating in our bodies as well. 然后我们再吃那些可怜的生物，然后这些有毒物质也会在我们的身体里积攒起来。

　　So there are very real implications for human health. 这也会对我们人类的健康造成潜在的危害。

　　I eventually made it to Hawaii still alive. 最后，我还是活着到了夏威夷。

　　And, the following year, set out on the second stage of the Pacific, from Hawaii down to Tarawa. 转年，我又出发，进行我横渡太平洋的第二个阶段，从夏威夷到塔拉瓦。

　　And you'll notice something about Tarawa; it is very low-lying. 你们也许对塔拉瓦有所了解，它的海拔很低。

　　It's that little green sliver⁸ on the horizon, which makes them very nervous about rising oceans. 它就像地平线上的一小段绿线，这使得他们非常担心海平面的上升。

　　This is big trouble for these guys. They've got no points of land more than about six feet above sea level. 对这些人来讲，这是个大麻烦。在高于海平面六英尺的地方就没有立锥之地了。

　　And also, as an increase in extreme weather events due to climate change,  然而，极端天气的增多导致气候变化，

　　they're expecting more waves to come in over the fringing reef, which will contaminate their fresh water supply. 巨浪也会随之增多，巨浪淹没岸礁，就将导致他们的淡水源受到污染。

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