300 Years of FOSSIL FUELS in 300 Seconds

7月的第一次办公室活动，看了一部自己很喜欢的动画，因为没有字幕，所以可能观众理解起来有点难度，这里把全文翻译如下，愿对活动参加者有所帮助：
后碳学院作品
300 Years of FOSSIL FUELS in 300 Seconds
300秒讲述化石燃料300年历史
It all started with a Big Bang.
这一切都始于一个大爆炸... ...
we don't have to go back that far.
Umm, 其实没必要说得那么远
The Earth was formed 4.5 billion years ago.
地球诞生于45亿年前
No, still too far.
不行, 年代还是太久远了
Try this: It's the Middle Ages.
试试这个，中世纪
Britain run out of firewood
英国人们用光了木柴
and start burning coal,
于是他们开始找煤
but they use up the coal on the ground.
但地表的煤也很快用尽
Miners dig deep. Coal mines fill with water.
矿工们开始向地下挖煤，但煤矿经常被水淹
Samuel Newcome invents a coal burning steam engine
Samuel Newcome在这时发明了蒸汽机
to pump out water so miners can keep digging. .
将煤矿里的水抽出使矿工们能够继续挖煤
James Watt makes it practical for other uses
瓦特又发明了其他用途
Now we have ingredients for the Industrial Revolution
现在我们备齐了工业革命的主要原料：
fossil fuels and a way to put them to work
化石可燃物和使用它们的方式。
All hell breaks loose.
地狱之门被打开
miners bog down lugging coal.
矿工们沦陷地下挖煤运煤
Rails make it easier.
铁轨使运输工作更容易。
Rails and steam engine combined make a railroad.
铁轨和蒸汽机的结合造就了铁路
Michael Faraday makes the first electric motor.
法拉第创建了第一个电动马达。
Nicola Tesla invents alternating current.
尼古拉特斯拉发明了交流电。
Soon, utility companies start burning coal to generate electricity.
不久，公共事业公司也开始利用煤来发电
Meanwhile, Edwin Drake drills the first Rock Oil well in Pennsylvania.
与此同时，Edwin Drake在宾州钻到了第一桶石油
and Carl Daimler builds an automobile running on petroleum.
Carl Daimler发明了以石油为动力的汽车
Coal tar and oil are turned into industrial chemicals
焦油和石油也被用于工业化学品制造
and pharmaceuticals that prolong life
制药等，延长人类寿命
More population growth.
人口得到增长
The Wright brothers start oil fueled aviation.
莱特兄弟发明了带有汽油发动机的第一架飞机。
Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch make fertilizer from fossil fuels.
Fritz Haber和Carl Bosch从化石燃料中变出了化肥
Fertilizer and oil powered tractors expand food production,
化肥和拖拉机大大提高了粮食生产率
feeding more people.
为更多的人提供口粮
World War I is the first fossil fueled conflict.
第一次世界大战其实是第一次化石能源的大规模冲突
Then comes World War II
然后是二战
giving us guided missiles and atom bombs.
见证了导弹和原子弹的问世。
between is a great depression partly caused by overproduction.
在两次世界大战之间是生产过剩所带来的经济大萧条
In Powered assembly lines make products
生产线的生产速度
faster than people need them
超过了人们使用的速度
Advertising executives invent consumerism to soak up overproduction.
于是发明了广告来解决过度生产问题
It's the 1950's. Advertisers use television to hook new generations of consumers.
1950年代用电视广告来引诱新生代的消费群
 In the 70's there's an oil shock.
70年代发生了石油危机
Everyone's shocked to realize how dependent they are on oil.
每个人都惊讶于对石油的依赖程度！
With the energy crisis, the environmental movement is born.
随着能源危机，环保运动诞生了
But oil prices fall and everyone forgets energy shortages.
但是石油价格随后暴跌，每个人好像都忘记了能源短缺的事实
There's a showdown between market and planned economies.
那也是一个市场经济与与计划经济对峙的时期
Market wins.
市场经济获胜。
Goodbye evil Soviet Empire.
再见了邪恶的苏联帝国！
Politicians decide the market will solve everything.
政治家们认为市场会解决一切
Personal computers arrive.
个人电脑时代来临
Globalization takes over when the market notices labor is cheaper in China.
当市场嗅到便宜的中国劳动力时，全球化时期也来临了
Suddenly everyone has a cell phone.
一夜之间，每个人都有了一部手机
But world oil production stalls out.
但是全球石油生产抛锚了
China's now burning half the world's coal to make export products.
中国为了生产出口产品，要消耗世界上一半的煤
But where will China get more coal and oil to fuel more growth?
但中国今后将从何处得到更多的煤和石油来保持增长率呢？
Environmental problems everywhere!
环境危机无处不在。
Rising CO2-levels lead to record heat waves, floods, droughts.
CO2的增加导致创纪录的高温天气、洪水、干旱
Oceans acidify.
海洋酸化
Top soil erodes by 25 billion tons a year from industrial agriculture.
因为工业化农业，每年250亿吨的表土层受到侵蚀
Ancient forests disappear.
原始森林消失。
Species go extinct at a thousand times normal rates.
物种灭绝的速度是正常水平的一千倍
Fresh water's scarce or polluted.
淡水稀缺、淡水污染。
Oil companies drill in miles of sea water because the easy oil is gone.
石油公司海上钻油，因为陆地上的石油已几本耗尽
But a deep water oil platform explodes and fouls the Gulf of Mexico.
但深海钻油平台的爆炸污染了墨西哥湾。
Manufacturing moves to polluting countries where labor is cheap
制造业转移到劳动力低廉的国家继续污染当地环境
while the US becomes a casino.
美国则变成了一个赌场：
The financial sector is forty percent of the economy!
金融业占到整个经济的40％！
But Wall Street is over-leveraged.
华尔街使用了过高的金融杠杆
Banks fail.
银行破产
Unemployment soars.
失业率飙升
Credit evaporates!
信贷蒸发
The economy is on the verge of collapse!
经济到了崩溃的边缘。
Ok, present time.
好了，拉回现在
It's amazing how far we've come in two hundred years.
200年来我们发展的步伐是多么惊人
Just three human lifetimes from the beginning of industrialism until now.
只消三代，从工业时代的开端到现在
But where are we headed?
但是我们将走向何处？
 We can't keep doubling human population.
人类的人口不能再翻一番。
We can't keep dumping carbon in the atmosphere.
我们不能再随意地向大气中排放CO2
We can't keep ruining top soil.
我们不能再继续破坏表土层
We can't keep growing population and consumption
我们不能再让人口和消费飙升
or basing our economy on depleting fossil fuels.
或是以化石燃料支撑我们的经济
We can't just print more money to solve the debt crisis.
我们也不能通过印钞票来解决金融危机。
It's been an exhilarating ride but there are limits.
这是一个狂热的旅程，但我们遇到了极限
No, it's not the end of the world
不，这不是世界末日
but we have to do four things fast.
但是，我们必须抓紧做四件事情：
Learn to live without fossil fuels.
学会如何在无化石燃料下发展
Adapt to the end of economic growth as we've known it.
适应经济增长停滞模式，
Support seven billion humans and stabilize population at a sustainable level,
支撑70亿人口 - 并稳定在一个可持续的水平上
and deal with our legacy of environmental destruction.
处理与我们的环境破坏的后遗症、
In short, we have to live within nature's budget of renewable resources at rates of natural replenishment.
简言之，我们必须在自然资料上量入为出
Can we do it? We have no choice!
我们可以么？我们别无选择！
Alternative energy sources are important but none can fully replace fossil fuels in the time we have.
替代能源很重要，但没有一个能在短期内代替化石能源
Also, we've designed and built our infrastructure for transport, electricity and farming to suit oil, coal and gas.
此外，现有的基础设施的设计和建造也是基于石油煤天然气的考虑的
Changing to different energy sources will require us to redesign cities,
转换到不同的能源意味着重新设计城市
manufacturing processes, health care and more.
工业体系，医疗保健等
We'll also have to rethink some of our cultural values.
此外，我们必须重新考量我们的文化价值观
None of our global problems can be tackled in isolation and many cannot be fully solved.
没有一个问题是孤立的，有的甚至不能得到彻底解决
We have to prepare for business as unusual.
我们必须对新兴商业有所准备
Our best goal is resilience, the ability to absorb shocks and keep going.
最优目标是发展韧性，能够缓冲危机，继续前行
If we do nothing, we still get to a post-carbon future but it will be bleak.
如果我们什么都不做，我们仍将进入“后碳”时代，但这将无比荒凉
However, if we plan the transition,
然而，如果我们有所计划
we can have a world that supports robust communities of
我们可以拥有一个充满活力的社会
healthy, creative people and ecosystems with millions of other species.
健康、创新的世界，与数百万其他物种和谐共生的生态系统
One way or the other, we're in for the ride of a lifetime.
不论那种方式，我们都在时光时弄潮
Understand the issues and pitch in.
了解这些问题，并参与进来
It's all hands on deck.
齐心协力，共迎挑战！