Ted 演讲-the boiling river (中英对照).pdf

The boiling river of the Amazon As a boy in Lima my grandfather told me a legend of the Spanish conquest of Peru Atahualpa emperor of the Inca had been captured and killed Pizarro and his conquistadors had grown rich and tales of their conquest and glory had reached Spain and were bringing new waves of Spaniards hungry for gold and glory They would go into towns and ask the Inca Where s another civilization we can conquer Where s more gold 小时候 我住在利马 爷爷给我讲了一个关于 西班牙征服秘鲁的传奇故事 印加帝国的 末代皇帝阿塔瓦尔帕 被抓住并处死 皮萨罗和征服者们变得富有起来 他们攻克秘鲁的传 说和赞颂传到了西班牙 吸引了一批西班牙人来此淘金 他们去到镇子里 问印加人 还有 哪个文明没被攻克 还有哪里有黄金 And the Inca out of vengeance told them Go to the Amazon You ll find all the gold you want there In fact there is a city called Paititi El Dorado in Spanish made entirely of gold 而出于报复 印加人就告诉他们 去亚马逊 那里有挖不完的黄金 事实上 那里有 一个叫做 帕依提提 西班牙语叫 El Dorado 的城市是由黄金建成的 The Spanish set off into the jungle but the few that return come back with stories stories of powerful shamans of warriors with poisoned arrows of trees so tall that they blotted out the sun spiders that ate birds snakes that swallowed men whole and a river that boiled 于是这些西班牙人动身前往那片丛林 结果只有少数人带着故事回来了 他们带回了关 于强大的萨满巫师的故事 关于拿着毒箭的武士的故事 关于那里的树太高以至遮住了阳光 的故事 关于吃鸟的蜘蛛 能够吞下一整个人的大蛇 以及一条沸腾的河流的故事 All this became a childhood memory And years passed I m working on my PhD at SMU trying to understand Peru s geothermal energy potential when I remember this legend and I began asking that question Could the boiling river exist 所有这些都成为了我的童年记忆 多年过去了 我到了南方为理公会大学 SMU 攻读 博士学位 当我试着了解秘鲁的地热能源潜力时 我想到了这个传说 于是想到了一个问题 传说中的那条沸腾的河流真的存在吗 I asked colleagues from universities the government oil gas and mining companies and the answer was a unanimous no And this makes sense You see boiling rivers do exist in the world but they re generally associated with volcanoes You need a powerful heat source to produce such a large geothermal manifestation And as you can see from the red dots here which are volcanoes we don t have volcanoes in the Amazon nor in most of Peru So it follows We should not expect to see a boiling river 我咨询了一些同僚 他们来自各大高校 政府部门 石油 天然气和矿业公司 所有人 的答案都是 不 这个答案是有道理的 因为沸腾的河流的确存在 但通常是在火山旁 只 有一个强大的热源 才制造出如此大的地热现象 你看到的这些红点 它们代表火山 而在 亚马逊是没有火山的 秘鲁的大部分地区也没有火山 所以得出的结论为 这片区域看不到 沸腾的河流 Geothermal energy is produced by heat from inside the earth As a boy in Lima my grandfather told me a legend of the Spanish conquest of Peru Telling this same story at a family dinner my aunt tells me But no Andr s I ve been there I ve swum in that river 在一次家庭聚餐上我又讲了这个故事 然后我的阿姨告诉我 不 安德烈 我去过那 我在那条河里游过泳 Then my uncle jumps in No Andr s she s not kidding You see you can only swim in it after a very heavy rain and it s protected by a powerful shaman Your aunt she s friends with his wife 然后我叔叔也加入了讨论 真的 安德烈 她没有开玩笑 只有在大雨过后 才能在里 面游泳 它被一位强大的萨满巫师保护着 而你的阿姨 跟他的妻子是朋友 You know despite all my scientific skepticism I found myself hiking into the jungle guided by my aunt over 700 kilometers away from the nearest volcanic center and well honestly mentally preparing myself to behold the legendary warm stream of the Amazon 尽管我作为科学家 对此表示怀疑 还是在我的阿姨带领下 踏上了那片丛林 那里距 最近的火山口有 700 公里 坦白说 我已经做好了见证那条传奇的 亚马逊暖流 的心理准 备了 But then I heard something a low surge that got louder and louder as we came closer It sounded like ocean waves constantly crashing and as we got closer I saw smoke vapor coming up through the trees And then I saw this 但是 紧接着 我听到一些声响 随着我们逐步走进 一股低涌 变得越来越响彻 就像海浪 不停的冲击一样 而当我们走近时 我看到烟雾和蒸汽从树林中冒出 不久 我看到了这个 I immediately grabbed for my thermometer and the average temperatures in the river were 86 degrees C This is not quite the 100 degree C boiling but definitely close enough The river flowed hot and fast I followed it upriver and was led by actually the shaman s apprentice to the most sacred site on the river And this is what s bizarre It starts off as a cold stream And here at this site is the home of the Yacumama mother of the waters a giant serpent spirit who births hot and cold water And here we find a hot spring mixing with cold stream water underneath her protective motherly jaws and thus bringing their legends to life 我立马拿起了温度计 测量到这条河流的平均温度为 86 虽然这并没有达到 100 的沸点 但也很接近了 这条高温河水流湍急 在这位萨满大师徒弟的带领下 我沿河而上 去往这 条河最神圣的地点 奇妙的事情发生了 这条河的起点是冷流 而这个地方 是亚库马马的 故乡 亚库马马是河之母 是创造冷热水的 巨大的蛇灵 而在这里 我们找到了一处热泉 同受她保护的河口下的冷流混合在一起 将这些传说变为现实 The next morning I woke up and 第二天早上 当我醒来的时候 I asked for tea I was handed a mug a tea bag and well pointed towards the river To my surprise the water was clean and had a pleasant taste which is a little weird for geothermal systems 我说想喝杯茶 于是有人递给我一个马克杯 一个茶包 然后 指着那条河 让我惊 讶的是 河水是如此的清澈 喝起来也很可口 这对于地热系统来说是有点异常的 What was amazing is that the locals had always known about this place and that I was by no means the first outsider to see it It was just part of their everyday life They drink its water They take in its vapor They cook with it clean with it even make their medicines with it 更神奇的一点是 本地人似乎一直都知道有这么个地方 而我也绝不是第一个发现此地 的外来人 这些都是他们的家常便饭 他们饮用河里的水 享用这些蒸汽 用河水烹饪 清 洁 甚至用这些河水来制药 I met the shaman and he seemed like an extension of the river and his jungle He asked for。