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這是一條河,這是一條溪,這也是一條河,全國各處都發生這種情況。美國有數萬英里沒有水的河川溪流,在這張地圖上著色區塊表示有用水衝突的問題。美國東部也有類似的問題,各州的原因雖然不同,但差別大多在於細節。單單蒙大拿這一州,缺水的河流就有4千英里,原本供給魚類和其他野生動物生存所需,可說是生態系統血脈的河流,如今經常是乾涸的。
我想告訴各位其中一條河流的故事,因為它是一個更大故事的雛形,這條河流叫做仙人掌溪,流經居住地區,從東Helena流到Helena湖裡,它是野生魚類棲息地,包括割喉鱒、褐鱒還有彩虹鱒。一百多年來,幾乎每年夏天這條河看起來都像這樣。怎會變成這樣的呢?嗯,這要從19世紀末期說起。人們開始移居到像蒙大拿這樣的地方,簡單來說,當時水源豐沛,居民也不多,但需要用水的人越來越多,先到居民開始有點擔心。1865年,蒙大拿通過第一部水資源法,基本上來說,凡居住在河流附近者皆有權共享河流的水。怪的是,許多人紛紛出現,要求共享河水,先到者感到憂慮,便找來律師,於是在1870和1872年發生了兩樁訴訟先例,都與仙人掌溪有關。1921年,蒙大拿最高法院裁定了一樁有關仙人掌溪的案子,凡先到該地區的居住者,有優先使用該地水源的權利。水源的優先使用權是關鍵。
現在美國西部也開始出現同樣的問題。這些溪流當中,有些配出的用水權高達實有溪水的50到100倍以上,有優先用水權的人,如果不行使他們的用水權,可能就會失去用水權,也同時失去其他附帶的經濟價值,因此他們沒有節約用水的誘因。因此,這不只是用水人數的問題,而是制度本身不鼓勵節約用水,因為你不用水就會失去用水權。因此,經過幾十年訴訟,累積了140年的經驗,老問題還是沒有解決。這是個失敗的制度,無法鼓勵節約用水,因為如果不行使用水權,就會失去用水權。我相信大家都知道,這造成了農業和環保團體間的嚴重衝突。
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以下為系統擷取之英文原文
This is a river. This is a stream. This is a river. This is happening all over the country. There are tens of thousands of miles of dewatered streams in the United States. On this map, the colored areas represent water conflicts. Similar problems are emerging in the East as well. The reasons vary state to state, but mostly in the details. There are 4,000 miles of dewatered streams in Montana alone. They would ordinarily support fish and other wildlife. They're the veins of the ecosystem, and they're often empty veins.
I want to tell you the story of just one of these streams because it's an archetype for the larger story. This is Prickly Pear Creek. It runs through a populated area from East Helena to Lake Helena. It supports wild fish including cutthroat, brown and rainbow trout. Nearly every year for more than a hundred years, it's looked like this in the summer. How did we get here? Well, it started back in the late 1800s when people started settling in places like Montana. In short, there was a lot of water and there weren't very many people. But as more people showed up wanting water, the folks who were there first got a little concerned, and in 1865, Montana passed its first water law. It basically said, everybody near the stream can share in the stream. Oddly, a lot of people showed up wanting to share the stream, and the folks who were there first got concerned enough to bring out their lawyers. There were precedent-setting suits in 1870 and 1872, both involving Prickly Pear Creek. And in 1921, the Montana Supreme Court ruled in a case involving Prickly Pear that the folks who were there first had the first, or senior, water rights. These senior water rights are key.
The problem is that all over the West now it looks like this. Some of these creeks have claims for 50 to 100 times more water than is actually in the stream. And the senior water rights holders, if they don't use their water right, they risk losing their water right, along with the economic value that goes with it. So they have no incentive to conserve. So it's not just about the number of people; the system itself creates a disincentive to conserve because you can lose your water right if you don't use it. So after decades of lawsuits and 140 years now of experience, we still have this. It's a broken system. There's a disincentive to conserve, because, if you don't use your water right, you can lose your water right. And I'm sure you all know, this has created significant conflicts between the agricultural and environmental communities.
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好,我現在換個方式來說,在座各位大多都會很高興知道,以下的演講是免費的,有些人還會很高興知道,這裡有供應啤酒。(笑聲)全國各處還發生另一件事,有些公司也開始憂慮關於他們的「水足跡」問題(指製作產品時消耗地球水資源的程度),他們關心能否保有充足的水源,他們試圖有效地利用水資源,也關心自己的用水情況將如何影響公司的品牌形象。好,這是全國性的問題,但我想再說另一個蒙大拿州的故事,這跟啤酒有關。我猜大家並不知道,釀造一品脫啤酒需要大約五品脫的水,如果將所有廢水都算入,釀造一品脫啤酒需要消耗超過一百品脫的水。
當今蒙大拿州的釀酒商已經盡了很大努力節約用水,但還是用了數百萬加侖的水。我是說,啤酒裡不能沒有水,那麼針對生態環境方面,可能會造成嚴重影響的其他「水足跡」問題,他們能怎麼辦?對蒙大拿的釀酒商和顧客而言,生態環境相當重要,畢竟在水和釣魚之間,兩者有很大關聯,對某些人來說,釣魚和啤酒之間也有很大關聯。(笑聲)蒙大拿的釀酒商和顧客也開始關心,並開始尋找能解決這個問題的方法。
他們如何解決其餘的「水足跡」問題呢?請記住,仙人掌溪到目前為止,商業水資源管理一直局限在測量和減少水資源利用,而我們建議的下一步行動是恢復水資源。記得仙人掌溪的例子,那是個失敗的制度,它無法鼓勵節約用水,因為如果不行使用水權,就可能失去用水權。我們決定將這兩個世界連結起來,一邊是關心「水足跡」的公司,另一邊是擁有這些溪流優先用水權的農民。在某些州裡,有優先用水權的人可以把他們有權用的水留在溪裡,同時有法律保障這些水不被他人佔用,並保留他們的用水權。畢竟這是他們的用水權,如果他們要行使用水權,來幫助生活在溪流中的魚類,那也是他們的權利。但他們並沒有意願這麼做。
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Okay. Now I'm going to change gears here. Most of you will be happy to know that the rest of the presentation's free. And some of you'll be happy to know that it involves beer. (Laughter) There's another thing happening around the country, which is that companies are starting to get concerned about their water footprint. They're concerned about securing an adequate supply of water, they're trying to be really efficient with their water use, and they're concerned about how their water use affects the image of their brand. Well, it's a national problem, but I'm going to tell you another story from Montana, and it involves beer. I bet you didn't know, it takes about 5 pints of water to make a pint of beer. If you include all the drain, it takes more than a hundred pints of water to make a pint of beer.
Now the brewers in Montana have already done a lot to reduce their water consumption, but they still use millions of gallons of water. I mean, there's water in beer. So what can they do about this remaining water footprint that can have serious effects on the ecosystem? These ecosystems are really important to the Montana brewers and their customers. After all, there's a strong correlation between water and fishing. And for some, there's a strong correlation between fishing and beer. (Laughter) So the Montana brewers and their customers are concerned, and they're looking for some way to address the problem.
So how can they address this remaining water footprint? Remember Prickly Pear. Up until now, business water stewardship has been limited to measuring and reducing, and we're suggesting that the next step is to restore. Remember Prickly Pear. It's a broken system. You've got a disincentive to conserve, because if you don't use your water right, you risk losing your water right. Well, we decided to connect these two worlds -- the world of the companies with their water footprints and the world of the farmers with their senior water rights on these creeks. In some states, senior water rights holders can leave their water in-stream while legally protecting it from others and maintaining their water right. After all, it is their water right, and if they want to use that water right to help the fish grow in the stream, it's their right to do so. But they have no incentive to do so.
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因此我們和當地水資源託管機構合作,創造出獎勵這麼做的辦法。我們付錢讓他們把水留在溪裡,就像照片中的情形,這位居民做了決定,關閉引水道,讓水留在溪裡,他沒有失去用水權,只是選擇運用這項權利,或其中部分權利,讓水留在溪裡,而不是用在陸地上。因為他有優先用水權,他的水受到保障,他人不得使用,了解嗎?他收錢讓水留在溪裡。
這個人正在測量他留在溪裡的水量,然後我們把測到的水量分成一千加侖的增量,每一增量發給一組序號和證書,然後釀酒商或其他人可以購買這個證書,作為把水歸還給受損生態環境的一種方式。釀酒商付錢讓溪流裡的水資源恢復,這提供了既簡單、也不貴、又能測量的方法,讓水回歸到受損的生態環境中,既給予農民們一個經濟上的選擇,也讓關心「水足跡」的公司有了應對問題的簡單方法。
歷經140年的水資源衝突,和100年來的河流乾涸,這個在訴訟與調解下都無法解決的問題,我們理出一個讓買賣雙方你情我願的市場解決機制。這是個無須訴訟的解決方案,這是讓關切「水足跡」的人們,有一個真正的機會把水放到迫切需要之處,放回這些受到損害的生態系統裡,同時也提供農民們在水的使用方面,一個有意義的經濟選擇。
這種交易創造出來的是盟友而非敵人,將人們連結起來,而非使他們產生分歧,並為鄉村社區提供所需的經濟支持。最重要的是,這方法行得通,我們使超過四十億加侖的水回歸到受損的生態系統裡,我們連結了擁有優先用水權者和蒙大拿的釀酒商,以及Oregon的飯店和茶葉公司,還有西南部用水量龐大的高科技公司。在我們成功創造出這樣的連結時,我們能做到,也確實做到,把河流從這樣變成這樣。
謝謝各位。
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So, working with local water trusts, we created an incentive to do so. We pay them to leave their water in-stream. That's what's happening here. This individual has made the choice and is closing this water diversion, leaving the water in the stream. He doesn't lose the water right, he just chooses to apply that right, or some portion of it, to the stream, instead of to the land. Because he's the senior water rights holder, he can protect the water from other users in the stream. Okay? He gets paid to leave the water in the stream.
This guy's measuring the water that this leaves in the stream. We then take the measured water, we divide it into thousand-gallon increments. Each increment gets a serial number and a certificate, and then the brewers and others buy those certificates as a way to return water to these degraded ecosystems. The brewers pay to restore water to the stream. It provides a simple, inexpensive and measurable way to return water to these degraded ecosystems, while giving farmers an economic choice and giving businesses concerned about their water footprints an easy way to deal with them.
After 140 years of conflict and 100 years of dry streams, a circumstance that litigation and regulation has not solved, we put together a market-based, willing buyer, willing seller solution -- a solution that does not require litigation. It's about giving folks concerned about their water footprints a real opportunity to put water where it's critically needed, into these degraded ecosystems, while at the same time providing farmers a meaningful economic choice about how their water is used.
These transactions create allies, not enemies. They connect people rather than dividing them. And they provide needed economic support for rural communities. And most importantly, it's working. We've returned more than four billion gallons of water to degraded ecosystems. We've connected senior water rights holders with brewers in Montana, with hotels and tea companies in Oregon and with high-tech companies that use a lot of water in the Southwest. And when we make these connections, we can and we do turn this into this.
Thank you very much.