Spill, baby, spill 泄漏，还在漏！

MORE than a week after an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico, 11 of the rig"s workers are still unaccounted for. The US Coast Guard reckons that 5,000 barrels of oil are leaking out every day, though this is really an informed guess. The great depth of the leaks from the rig makes staunching them a huge technical challenge. Despite the development of some fancy new techniques to deal with oil spills there is a sense of inevitability about the oil"s arrival on shore.

距 “深水地平线”钻井平台（位于墨西哥湾）的爆炸事故已经一星期有余，11名平台工人仍然下落不明。美国海岸警卫队估算每天约有5,000桶原油泄漏，不过这次估算是有理可据的。基于泄漏的严重程度，止漏成为了一道技术上的难题。尽管一些对付原油泄漏的新奇技术有所发展，但是必然的是，原油仍会到达海岸。

The spill is embarrassing for those Republicans who have campaigned for more off-shore drilling. It is embarrassing too for Barack Obama, who accepted more drilling off the coast to ease the passage of legislation on climate change. On April 30th the White House announced that new off-shore drilling would be suspended until the cause of the accident could be verified.

对于致力于更多近海石油开采的共和党人来说，此次泄漏事件无疑是尴尬的。而这次事件也让奥巴马总统难堪不已，因为他准许有更多的沿海石油钻探，以便使气候变化的立法顺利通过。4月30日，白宫宣布在事故原因没有核实前，暂时不会有新的沿海钻探。

Every type of disaster, whether tsunami (Asian), volcano (Krakatoa), or hurricane (Katrina), has its own metric. When it comes to oil spills the Exxon Valdez rules the waves. The oil spill (from a tanker) happened in Prince William Sound in Alaska in 1989. Although the amount of oil spewing into the Gulf today sounds scary, it is quite small compared with Exxon Valdez, which itself was a relatively small spill. Five thousand barrels a day is the equivalent of 210,000 gallons of oil. The Exxon Valdez spilt 11m gallons, so it will take some time for the spill in the Gulf of Mexico to equal it.

每一种灾难，不管是海啸（亚洲）、火山喷发（喀拉喀托火山）、还是飓风（卡特里娜），都有自己的衡量标准。在原油泄漏的灾难中，Exxon Valdez事件最为严重。1989年，来自Exxon Valdez这艘油轮的原油泄漏于阿拉斯加威廉王子湾沿岸。尽管这次泄漏于墨西哥湾的原油量听上去惊人，但相比较Exxon Valdez事件，仍然是小巫见大巫。每天泄漏的5000桶原油相当于210,000加仑。Exxon Valdez当时泄漏了1100万加仑的原油，所以此次墨西哥湾的泄漏量若要与之持平，则需要一段时间。更多信息请访问：http://www.24en.com/

However one of the first lessons from the Exxon Valedez is that it is not the quantity of oil released that is important, but where it ends up. What made that spill synonymous with environmental devastation was that the oil that reached the coast then slurped over 1,200 miles of pristine shoreline. The scale of the current disaster in the Gulf of Mexico will be directly related to where the oil comes ashore. Louisiana’s coastline features some important and vulnerable habitats and nature reserves. There is also a thriving fishing industry, providing shrimp and oysters.

但是从Exxon Valedez事件中最先汲取的教训中，重要的不是原油泄漏的数量，而是其最终去向。那次原油泄漏之所以成为环境破坏的同义词，是因为原油到达海岸之后吞噬了1200英里长的原生态沿岸。当前灾难在墨西哥湾的影响范围，直接取决于泄漏原油靠岸的地点。

The concentration of the oil is important too. Marine lubricants, oils used to lubricate marine engine parts and hydraulic equipment, leak from the back of all the world’s ships. Every year four-and-a-half times the quantity spilled by the Exxon Valdez is poured into the ocean and nobody bats an eyelid. This does not mean that it is harmless (environmental groups are campaigning to reduce it), but the point is that if oil is dispersed into the ocean where it biodegrades naturally, its effects are less damaging. Indeed, much more oil seeps from the sea bed around the world naturally than from spills and shipping, says Simon Boxall from the University of Southampton.

关注原油泄漏问题也是十分重要的。船用润滑油是用来润滑船用引擎部件和液压设备的，而世界上所有船只的尾部都会泄漏出这种油。每年涌入大海的原油大约是Exxon Valdez事件中泄漏量的4.5倍，但是人们对此泰然处之。这并不意味着泄漏的原油是无害的（环境保护组织都在呼吁减少它的量），但是问题在于如果散布在海洋中的原油能被自然地生物降解，它的危害会减小很多。确实，从海床中自然溢出的原油比泄漏和运输过程中产生的原油要多得多，来自南安普顿大学的Simon Boxall 说到。

But when a large amount of oil is released in a single place it causes direct hazards for marine wildlife. The best way of minimising damage is to protect sensitive areas with floating dams, or booms. However experts reckon that the size of the spill will exhaust the world’s supply of booms very quickly. The region’s best hope is that the wind blows most of the slick offshore, in which case little needs to be done. Intervention with dispersants and surfactants can create more damage than it prevents.

但是当大量原油被释放到单单一块区域时，对海洋生物的危害是直接的。减小损失的最好方法是用浮闸或者拦河坝保护敏感的地域。但是，专家们估算此次泄漏事件的规模会很快耗尽拦河坝在全世界的贮备量。对于该区域来说，最大的愿望就是风能将大部分的浮油吹离海岸，在这种情况下，人们并不需要做什么。化油剂和表面活性剂的使用会造成更多的损害，而不是避免。

Crude oil is a natural product which disperses and biodegrades in the ocean fairly rapidly, although some of it may remain over the longer term. A study released earlier this year found evidence of ongoing environmental damage in Prince William Sound 21 years after the Exxon Valdez. Older reports found that about 20,000 gallons of oil could be found there 14 years after the disaster. Prince William Sound is recovering. But it has taken an awfully long time to do so.

原油是一种自然产物，它在大海中散布和自然降解的速度都相当快，尽管一部分可能会残存较长时间。今年早些时候发表一份研究中，有证据表面Exxon Valdez事件对于威廉王子湾造成的环境破坏在21年后仍在持续。早期的报告指出在灾害发生的14年后，仍有大约20,000加仑的原油的踪迹。威廉王子湾正在恢复过程中，但这一过程太漫长了。