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This water is so clean, you can drink it.
这水很干净，能喝的。
"I've been drinking out of this river for probably fifty years."
“我喝这条河的水喝了大概五十年了。”
"What does it taste like?" "Tastes like water."
“味道怎么样？”“就是水的味道啊。”
That's because the water here comes from one of the most protected places in the United States.
这是因为这里的水是从全美国最受保护的地方之一流下来的。
You can't get here with a car.
这个地方开车是开进不来的。
You can't use a boat with a motor.
用马达的船也开不进来。
We couldn't even fly our drone past this point.
连我们的无人机也无法飞越这个地方。
These are the Boundary Waters of northern Minnesota's Superior National Forest.
这里就是尼苏达州北部的苏必利尔湖国家森林的界河。
Thousands of pristine lakes like this one.
这里有成千上万个这样的原始湖泊。
Hundreds of thousands of people come to see it every year.
每年都有成千上万的游客前来观光。
"You listen to the sounds of the rapids. You watch the eagle fly overhead. You paddle on still waters. Be on your own."
“要注意急流的声音。注意头顶飞过的老鹰。在平静的水面上划船。天地之间，唯汝一人耳。”
But there's one problem.
但有一个问题。
The Boundary Waters is just outside one of the largest untapped sources of copper in the world.
这条界河就在世界上规模最大的，尚未开发的铜矿矿源的门口。
"Under the previous administration, America's rich natural resources, of which your state has a lot, were put under lock and key."
“上届政府执政期间，美国丰富的自然资源，其中，你们州就占了很大一部分，都被锁起来了。”
Since taking office in 2017,
2017年上台以来，
the Trump administration has opened up more than 13 million acres of public land for drilling and mining,
特朗普政府业已开放了逾1300万英亩的土地用于钻探和采矿，
that's more than any previous administration,
比以往任何一届政府开放的都多，
including a part of Superior National Forest, right outside the Boundary Waters.
其中就包括苏必利尔湖国家森林恰好位于界河外的一部分土地。
Copper, the mineral underneath the forest, is the wiring in our phones, the pipes in our walls.
森林下方储存的铜矿既是我们手机里的电线的原材料，也是墙里安装的管道的原材料。
And we also need it for electric car batteries, and solar panels, and wind turbines.
制造电动汽车电池、太阳能电池板和风车也都离不开它。
We need copper, and there aren't that many places in the world to get it.
我们需要铜，世上能开采到铜矿的地方却并不多。
All this has renewed a really old and complicated question:
由此，那个古老而复杂的问题再次摆在了世人面前；
when is it worth risking the life above ground for the riches underneath?
究竟何时才值得我们冒着生命危险获取脚底下的财富？
The US has more than 600 million acres of national parks, monuments, forests and wilderness areas.
美国有超过6亿英亩的国家公园、国家保护区、国家森林以及旷野。
They are the brainchild of President Theodore Roosevelt.
它们都是罗斯福总统的智慧结晶。
He worried that the reckless speed logging, blast rock mining, and oil drilling that fueled the Industrial Revolution
出于对驱动工业革命的那种不计后果的快速砍伐，爆破岩石采矿以及石油钻探等做法
could ruin the country's beauty and resources for future generations.
会毁掉这个国家的美和资源的隐忧，
So he created 150 national forests and parks, 18 national monuments, and 51 bird sanctuaries.
他成立了150个国家森林和国家公园，18个国家保护区，还有51个鸟类保护区。
"I mean, get up on a high mountain somewhere and remember that somebody saved that
“我的意思是，当你站在某座高山的山顶，想到是因为某个人的挽留，
so that you could have that experience and that's a kind of remarkable legacy."
你才有机会目睹那些风光，它们也是了不起的遗产。”
"We call them drinking water lakes,
“我们管这些湖叫饮水湖，
because you can dip your cup right out the side of your canoe
因为你可以直接用杯子舀你船下面的水喝，
and drink straight from the lakes without even treating them or anything."
完全不用处理什么的。”
Jason owns a business that outfits visitors for canoe trips in the Boundary Waters.
贾森开了一家专门为游客定制界湖划船游的公司。
"They come here because what we have is so special and it's so unique
“它们来这儿是因为我们这儿的旅游资源太特别，太独一无二了，
you just can't, you can't have this sort of an experience anyplace else in the world.
来这儿的旅行体验是你在世界其他任何地方都体验不到的。
To have, you know, a million acres totally undeveloped."
这可是一百万英亩完全没有开发的土地啊。”
The recreation and tourism industry here is big. It brings in about $77 million a year.
这儿的休闲旅游产业规模非常大，给当地带来的年收入高达7700万美元左右。
The problem is, that's not enough to support the entire region.
问题是，这么高的收入依然不足以填补当地的支出和消耗。
Seasonal recreation workers typically make about twenty-five thousand dollars a year.
季节性的休闲行业的从业者基本一年能挣个2.5万美元左右。
That's less than the state's average income.
连该州的平均收入都达不到。
"You're not going to be able to raise a family on $25,000 a year.
“一年2.5万美元的工资是没办法养家糊口的。
You're not even going to be able to buy a house."
你甚至连房子都买不起。”
And this part of the state used to have a different core industry: iron mining.
而该地区过去依赖的是完全不同的核心产业——开采铁矿。
"We've been mining up in this area for well over a hundred years, and so it has a big significance.
“我们这个地方开矿已经有一百多年的历史了，所以，采矿对我们是非常重要的。
There are lot of second, third, fourth, generation miners
有很多家庭二代，三代，四代人都是矿工，
that have always worked in the mine or their family has worked in the mine."
或者有家人在矿上工作。”
The company that plans to build the mine near the Boundary Waters, Twin Metals,
计划在界河附近建矿厂的“双生金属”表示，
has said they'll pay about $90,000 a year, which is well over the state's average income.
他们会给矿工支付一年9万美元的工资，这一金额远远超出了该州的平均收入。
But copper mining is also risky in ways that iron mining wasn't.
问题是，开采铜矿的风险比开采铁矿的风险要大。
For the last two years, the Twin Metals company has been collecting samples of the rock that they plan to mine near the Boundary Waters.
过去两年，双生金属公司一直在收集界河附近他们准备开采的矿石的样本。
"This is a typical core sample, these little blocks that you're seeing in here
“这就是一个典型的矿核样本，这些小块
really establish how deep we are below ground surface.
就决定了我们下挖的深度。
Once we hit this, 755 feet, this is where we start seeing the minerals."
一旦我们挖到755英尺（230米）这个深度，就看得见矿了。”
The copper is locked inside this shiny part here.
铜就在发光的这个位置里。
To get it out, you have to crush up the rock to a powder-like consistency,
要把它取出来，你得把石头碎开成连续粉末状态，
copper only makes up about 1% of the sample, which means 99% of it is waste.
然而，真正的铜只占样本成分的1%，换句话说，样本99%的成分都是废料。
The crushed up rock is submerged in a solution that floats the copper to the top.
然后，他们会将碾碎的石粉浸入一种溶液，让铜浮到溶液表面上来。
It's eventually what becomes wires, pipes, and everything else.
浮上来的铜最终就变成了电线、管道以及其他用铜制成的一切产品。
And the waste rock sinks.
废弃的部分则会下沉。
That's the risky part.
而问题也就出在了这里。
