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今天我要和各位談談個人「泳」渡北極的經歷,橫越這個位於世界最北端的地方,最好的開場白應該要從我已過世的父親說起,他很會講故事,當他開講時,保證你會覺得身歷其境,而小時候他最常講的一則故事是大英的第一次原子彈試爆,他就在現場親眼目睹爆炸實況,他說爆炸聲震耳欲聾,而且火光非常刺眼,他必需將雙手放在臉的前面以保護眼睛,但他卻看到自己X光片般的手指頭,因為那爆炸的強光實在太明亮了,我瞭解到觀看原子彈引爆對亡父有著非常深遠的影響,小時候每當放假時,我就會在國家公園裡待著,他會試著啟發我保護這個世界,讓我知道這個世界有多麼脆弱。
他也跟我提及許多偉大的探險家,他熱愛歷史,他講過Scott 船長徒步走進南極,艾德蒙·希拉瑞爵士登上聖母峰,而我在六歲時就開始夢想可以親訪極地,我真的很想到訪北極,那裡有一種莫名的東西牽引著我,有時需要長時間的蘊釀,才能美夢成真,但七年前我終於首度到訪北極,那裡真是美極了,往後的七年,我便常常往返於該地,我愛死那裡了。
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以下為系統擷取之英文原文
Today I want to talk to you about swimming across the North Pole, across the most northern place in the whole world. And perhaps the best place to start is with my late father. He was a great storyteller. He could tell a story about an event, and so you felt you were absolutely there at the moment. And one of the stories he told me so often when I was a young boy was of the first British atomic bomb test. He had been there and watched it go off.
And he said that the explosion was so loud and the light was so intense, that he actually had to put his hands in front of his face to protect his eyes. And he said that he could actually see an x-ray of his fingers because the light was so bright. And I know that watching that atomic bomb going off had a very very big impact on my late father. Every holiday I had as a young boy was in a national park. What he was trying to do with me was to inspire me to protect the world, and show me just how fragile the world is.
He also told me about the great explorers. He loved history. He would tell me about Captian Scott walking all the way to the south pole. And Sir Edmund Hillary climbing up Mount Everest. And so ever since I think I was just six years old I dreamed of going to the polar regions. I really really wanted to go to the Arctic. There was something about that place which drew me to it. And, well, sometimes it takes a long time for a dream to come true. But seven years ago I went to the arctic for the first time. And it was so beautiful that I've been back there ever since, for the last seven years. I love the place.
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可是我也看到當地的變遷早已超出言語所能形容,而且就發生在那短短幾年內,我看到了北極熊走在薄冰上尋找食物,我游泳時所見的冰川已退縮了很多,而且我每年都看到海上冰層不斷變少,所以我要讓全世界都知道當地所發生的變化,我在當地游泳前的兩年,23%覆蓋北極海的冰已融化掉了,我想要震醒全世界的領袖,讓他們明白現況的急迫,所以我決定進行這項象徵性的游泳,就在世界的頂端,當地本來應該是冰封一片,但現在卻不斷的急速解凍,這傳達了一個非常清楚的訊息:「氣候變化是事實,我們必需有所行動,而且必需立即付諸行動」。
嗯,「泳」渡北極並不是一件尋常的事,這麼說吧,27度是一般室內游泳池的溫度,今天早上英吉利海峽的溫度是18度,鐵達尼號沉船落難旅客落入攝氏五度的水中,淡水在零度結冰,而北極的水溫是零下1.7度。
幹!冷死了! (笑聲) (掌聲)
抱歉,但真的沒有其他方式可以更貼切地形容那種溫度。 (笑聲)
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But I have seen that place change beyond all description, just in that short period of time. I have seen polar bears walking across very very thin ice in search of food. I have swum in front of glaciers which have retreated so much. And I have also, every year, seen less and less sea ice. And I wanted the world to know what was happening up there.
In the two years before my swim, 23 percent of the arctic sea ice cover just melted away. And I wanted to really shake the lapels of world leaders to get them to understand what is happening. So I decided to do this symbolic swim at the top of the world, in a place which should be frozen over, but which now is rapidly unfreezing. And the message was very clear: Climate change is for real and we need to do something about it. And we need to do something about it right now.
Well, swimming across the North Pole, it's not an ordinary thing to do. I mean, just to put it in perspective, 27 degrees is the temperature of a normal indoor swimming pool. This morning, the temperature of the English Channel was 18 degrees. The passengers who fell off the Titanic fell into water of just five degrees centigrade. Fresh water freezes at zero. And the water at the North Pole is minus 1.7. It's fucking freezing. (Laughter) (Applause) I'm sorry but there is no other way to describe it. (Laughter)
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我還必需要組織一支優秀的團隊來幫助我完成這個任務,我號召了來自10個國家組成29人的團隊,有些人認為游泳是一項單獨的運動,你跳進海裡,然後開始游,對我而言即是如此,隨後我進行了大量的訓練,在冰冷的水中來回游泳,但最重要的是訓練我的心智,準備好面對即將到來的挑戰,我必需要想像游泳的情境,自始至終,我必需要親口嚐到鹽水,必需聽著教練對我大喊:「加油 Lewis!繼續游!前進!加油!不要停下來!」。
所以,其實泳渡北極的場景已經在我的心中上演了數百次,一年的訓練結束後,我自覺準備好了,我自覺有信心可以克服這場游泳挑戰,所以,我和五位同伴搭了一艘破冰船的便車,前往北極,第四天時,我們決定要快泳,試游五分鐘。
我從來沒有在零下1.7度的水中游過泳,因為你根本無法在那種水溫下練習,我們要求船暫停行駛,我們全走到冰層上,我穿上泳褲,跳進海中,我這輩子從來沒有經歷過那樣的感覺,幾乎無法呼吸,不斷喘息,也因為換氣過度,我的雙手一下子就麻木了。
但奇怪的是當你身處冰凍海水時,感覺卻像是烈火灼身,我死命地游了5分鐘,我只記得自己奮力爬出水面、爬出冰層,我記得當我摘下蛙鏡,看著雙手時,真是嚇壞了,因為我的手指,全腫的像剛灌好的香腸,腫脹到我根本無法彎曲握實,這是因為人體部份由水組成,水冰凍時會膨脹,而事實就是我手指的細胞被冰凍了,然後膨脹起來,感覺好像快爆裂開了一樣,極度痛苦。
我被連忙帶上船沖熱水澡,我記得站在熱水噴嘴下,試著解凍我的手指,而我心裡仍掛念2天後將要泳渡北極,我將試著游20分鐘,橫越北極一公里的歷程,這個打從兒時即和父親一起立下的夢想,此刻已幻滅,不可能實現了,我還記得沖完熱水澡後發現雙手毫無知覺,身為一名泳者,你必需要能感覺到雙手,因為您需要能夠抓住水流作為推進憑藉。
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And so I had to assemble an incredible team around me to help me with this task. I assembled this team of 29 people from 10 nations. Some people think that swimming is a very solo sport, you just dive into the sea and off you go. It couldn't be further from the truth for me. And I then went and did a huge amount of training. Swimming in icy water, backwards and forwards.
But the most important thing was to train my mind to prepare myself for what was going to happen. And I had to visualize the swim. I had to see it from the beginning all the way to the end. I had to taste the salt water in my mouth. I had to see my coach screaming for me, "Come on Lewis! Come on! Go! Go! Go! Don't slow down!" And so I literally swam across the North Pole hundreds and hundreds of times in my mind.
And then after a year of training I felt ready. I felt confident that I could actually do this swim. So myself and the five members of the team, we hitched a ride on an icebreaker which was going to the North Pole. And on day four we decided to just do a quick five minute test swim. I had never swum in water of minus 1.7 degrees before because it's just impossible to train in those types of conditions. So we stopped the ship, as you do. We all got down onto the ice, and I then got into my swimming costume, and I dived into the sea.
I have never in my life felt anything like that moment. I could barely breathe. I was gasping for air. I was hyperventilating so much and within seconds my hands were numb. And it was, the paradox is that you're in freezing cold water, but actually you're on fire. I swam as hard as I could for five minutes. I remember just trying to get out of the water. I climbed out of the ice. And I remember taking the goggles off my face and looking down at my hands in sheer shock because my fingers had swollen so much that they were like sausages. And they were swollen so much, I couldn't even close them.
What had happened is, that we are made partially of water, and when water freezes it expands. And so what had actually happened is that the cells in my fingers had frozen and expanded. And they had burst. And I was in so much agony. I immediately got rushed onto the ship and into a hot shower.
And I remember standing underneath the hot shower and trying to defrost my fingers. And I thought, in two days time I was going to do this swim across the North Pole. I was going to try and do a 20 minute swim, for one kilometer across the North Pole. And this dream which I had had ever since I was a young boy, with my father, was just going out the window. There is no possibility that this was going to happen. And I remember then getting out of the shower and realizing I couldn't even feel my hands. And for a swimmer, you need to feel your hands because you need to be able to grab the water and pull it through with you.
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隔天醒來後,我感到極度沮喪,想像得到的人只有Ranulph Fiennes爵士,或許你不認識,他是傳奇的大英探險家,多年前他試著用滑雪的方式橫越北極,他不慎踩到薄冰跌入海中,僅僅落水三分鐘,三分鐘後,他就爬出了水面,可是他的雙手嚴重凍傷,只得返回大英。
他到當地醫院就診時,他們說:「Ran,我們真的無法救回您的手指頭,我們必需進行手術切除」,最後,Ran決定回到自己的工具間,拿出電鋸,自斷手指。
我當時能想是,如果Ran的三分鐘結果是斷指,而我游了五分鐘卻還能感覺到雙手的話,那如果我嘗試20分鐘又會如何呢?頂多就是失去幾根手指,至於最糟的情況,我根本不去想。
我們繼續駛過浮冰區向北極挺進,我的好朋友David看出我的想法,於是上前來跟我說:「Lewis,你18歲時我們就認識了,我瞭解你,我真的了解,Lewis,內心深處,你將可以成功達成這一趟泳渡任務,我絕對相信你,Lewis,我一路看著你訓練,我也明瞭你出這趟任務的目的,這次的游泳很重要,我們站在一個非常、非常重要的歷史時刻,你將會完成這場象徵性的游泳,試圖震醒世界的領袖們,Lewis,鼓起勇氣跳入水中,因為我們隨時都會看顧著你」。
我聽到他這麼說後信心大增,因為他非常瞭解我,船繼續前駛,我們終於抵達北極,船停後,四周的情景果然如同科學家所預測,海上處處是融開的冰洞,我回到寢室,換上泳褲,然後醫生將胸腔監測器捆在我身上,以測量身體主幹的溫度與心跳,之後我們走到冰上,我記得觀察到冰的情況,都是很大塊的白冰,而海水的顏色則是純黑,我沒看過這種黑色海水,水深達4,200公尺,我告訴自己:「Lewis,不看左,不看右,只要小步快跑向前,然後跳入水中」。
現在,就讓我們來看看這段簡短的冰原歷程影片。
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The next morning I woke up and I was in such a state of depression. And all I could think about was Sir Ranulph Fiennes. For those of you who don't know him he's the great British explorer. A number of years ago he tried to ski all the way to the North Pole. He accidentally fell through the ice into the sea. And after just three minutes in that water, after just three minutes in that water, he was able to get himself out. And his hands were so badly frostbitten that he had to return to England. He went to a local hospital and there they said, "Ran, there is no possibility of us being able to save these fingers. We are going to actually have to take them off." And Ran decided to go into his tool shed and take out a saw and do it himself.
And all I could think of was, if that happened to Ran after three minutes, and I can feel my hands after five minutes, what on earth is going to happen if I try 20 minutes? At the very best I'm going to end up losing some fingers. And at worst, I didn't even want to think about it. We carried on sailing through the ice packs towards the North Pole.
And my close friend David saw the way I was thinking. And he came up to me and he said, "Lewis, I've known you since you were 18 years old. I've known you, and I know, Lewis, deep down, right deep down here, that you are going to make this swim. I so believe in you Lewis. I've seen the way you've been training. And I realize the reason why you're going to do this. This is such an important swim. We stand at a very very important moment in this history. And you're going to make a symbolic swim here to try to shake the lapels of world leaders. Lewis, have the courage to go in there because we are going to look after you every moment of it."
And I just, I got so much confidence from him saying that, because he knew me so well. So we carried on sailing and we arrived at the North Pole. And we stopped the ship, and it was just as the scientists had predicted. There were open patches of sea everywhere. And I went down into my cabin and I put on my swimming costume. And then the doctor strapped on a chest monitor which measures my core body temperature and my heart rate. And then we walked out onto the ice.
And I remember looking into the ice and there were big chunks of white ice in there, and the water was completely black. I had never seen black water before. And it is 4,200 meters deep. And I said to myself, "Lewis, don't look left, don't look right. Just scuttle forward and go for it." And so I now want to show you a short video of what happened there on the ice.
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(影片)
「我們剛駛出海港,這個時候,人的心智最容易有點搖擺不定,四周是一片灰濛,而且看起來很冷,我們剛剛看到了第一頭北極熊,太神奇了,一隻母熊帶著一隻小熊,多美的一幕,可是想到30、40年後,牠們可能會絕跡,就令人感到十分惶恐,我們終於抵達北極,這是數月以來的夢魘以求之境,也是經年的訓練、計劃與準備,噢,再幾個小時後,我就會跳入這片海洋中游泳,感覺有點緊張和激動」。
「Amundson,準備好了嗎」?
「倒數十秒,倒數十秒」
「拿下蛙鏡,拿下蛙鏡!」
男人:「拿著鞋子,拿著鞋子,做得好,伙伴!成功了!你做到了,Lewis!你做到了!你成功了」!
Lewis Pugh:「我們到底是怎麼做到的」?
男人:「戰勝了水流!你戰勝了水流」!
(掌聲)
Lewis Pugh:「非常感謝,非常感謝」。
(掌聲)
「十分感謝」
聽眾:「安可」!
(笑聲)
Lewis Pugh:「結束前我想要特別強調,我經過了四個月才恢復雙手的知覺,但這值得嗎?是的,絕對值得!因為現在只有非常、非常少的人還不知道北極的現況」。
而人們會問我:「Lewis,對於氣候變化,我們該怎麼做」?我會告訴他們,我們必需要做三件事情,第一件,我們必需要將問題分割成可控制的單位,您看到影片中的那些旗幟,那些旗幟代表著我隊友所屬的國家,相同的,對於氣候變化,每個國家都必需分擔責任,大英、美國、日本、南非、剛果,齊心協力,我們都應同舟共濟。
第二件該做的是,我們必需回顧在這一小段時間裡,我們有多少作為,我記得不過幾年前,只要講到氣候變化,總會有人起哄,說我是空穴來風,我才剛完成一系列的演講,是在南非一些最貧窮的村莊,聽講的小孩子大約只有10歲,四五個小孩就坐在課桌旁,但就算是在那麼糟的環境,他們都對氣候變化有著非常正確的觀念。
我們必需相信自己,現在是相信的時候了,我們任重道遠,但我們做的很好,而我們必需做的最重要一件事是,我們必需想像我們的一生,然後回頭自問一個最基本的問題,就是:「我們想要生存在怎樣的世界中?今日,我們要做出什麼樣的決定,才能確保我們都可以生存於一個永續的世界中」?
女士、先生們,非常、非常感謝聆聽
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Video: We're just sailing out of harbor now, and it's at this stage when one can have a bit of a wobble mentally. Everything just looks so gray around here, and looks so cold. We've just seen our first polar bears. It was absolutely magical. A mother and a cub. Such a beautiful sight. And to think that in 30, 40 years they could become extinct. It's a very frightening, very very frightening thought. We're finally at the North Pole. This is months and months and months of dreaming to get here. Years of training and planning and preparation. Ooh. In a couple of hours time I'm going to get in here and do my swim. It's all a little bit frightening, and emotional. Amundson, you ready? Ten seconds to swim. Ten seconds to swim. Take the goggles off. Take the goggles off!
Man: Take the shoes. Take the shoes. Well done lad! You did it! You did it Lewis! You did it! You did it man!
Lewis Pugh: How on earth did we do that?
Man: Against the current! You did it against the current!
(Applause)
Lewis Pugh: Thank you very much. Thank you very much. (Applause) Thank you so much.
Audience: Encore! (Laughter)
Lewis Pugh: I'd just like to end off by just saying this. It took my four months again to feel my hands. But was it worth it? Yes, absolutely it was. There are very very few people who don't know now about what is happening in the Arctic. And people ask me, "Lewis, what can we do about climate change?"
And I say to them I think we need to do three things. The first thing we need to do is we need to break this problem down into manageable chunks. You saw during that video all those flags. Those flags represented the countries from which my team came from. And equally, when it comes to climate change, every single country is going to have to make cuts. Britain, America, Japan, South Africa, the Congo. All of us together, we're all on the same ship together.
The second thing we need to do is we need to just look back at how far we have come in such a short period of time. I remember just a few years ago speaking about climate change, and people heckling me in the back and saying it doesn't even exist. I've just come back from giving a series of speeches in some of the poorest townships in South Africa to young children as young as 10 years old. Four or five children sitting behind a desk, and even in those poorest conditions, they all had a very very good grasp of climate change.
We need to believe in ourselves. Now is the time to believe. We've come a long way. We're doing good. But the most important thing we must do is, I think, we must all walk to the end of our lives and turn around, and ask ourselves a most fundamental question. And that is, "What type of world do we want to live in, and what decision are we going to make today to ensure that we all live in a sustainable world?" Ladies and gentlemen thank you very very much.