what on earth we are doing

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2023年12月29日发(作者：)

1At the outside limit, the earth will

probably last another 4 billion to 5 billion

years. By that time, scientists predict, the

sun will have burned up so much of its own

hydrogen fuel that it will expand and

incinerate the surrounding planets,

including the earth. A nuclear cataclysm, on

the other hand, could destroy the earth

tomorrow. Somewhere within those

extremes lies the life expectancy of this

wondrous, swirling globe. How long it

endures and the quality of life it can

support do not depend alone on the

immutable laws of physics. For man has

reached a point in his evolution where he

has the power to affect, for better or worse,

the present and future state of the planet.

1 或许地球至多能生存40至50亿年。到那时，科学家们预测，太阳将会烧掉如此之多的氢燃料以至于它会膨胀并且焚毁周围的行星，包括地球。另一方面核战争能在未来摧毁地球。这个奇异的、旋转的球体的寿命在两种极端之间延续着。地球能生存多久以及地球所能维持的生命质量不仅仅依赖于不可更改的物理学原理。因为不管怎样人类在其进化过程中已经达到能够影响地球的现在与将来的程度。

2Through most of his 2 million

years or so of existence, man has

thrived in earth’s environment --

perhaps too well. By 1800 there

were 1 billion human beings

bestriding the planet. That number

had doubled by 1930 and doubled

again by current birthrates

hold, the world’s present

population of 5.1 billion will

double again in 40 more years.

The frightening irony is that

thisexponential growth in the

human population — the very sign

of Homo sapiens’ success as an

organism — could doom the earth

as a human habitat.

2 人类在二百万年左右的历史中在地球上繁衍生命，兴旺发达——也许人口过于兴旺了。截止到1800年时地球上有10亿人口。 到1930年时这个数字翻了一番，到1975年时又翻了一番。以目前的出生率，现有51亿人口在40多年后还将再次翻番。这一令人可怕的讽刺意味就在于，人口增长越来越快，虽然它是现代人作为生物体智慧的象征，然而它却能够彻底地毁掉地球——人类的栖息地。

3The reason is not so much the

sheer numbers, though 40,000

babies die of starvation each day

in Third World countries, but the

reckless way in which humanity

has treated its planetary host. Like

the evil genies that flew

fromPandora’s box, technological

advances have provided the means

of upsetting nature’s equilibrium,

that intricate set of biological,

physical and chemical interactions

that make up the web of life.

Starting at the dawn of the

Industrial Revolution,

smokestacks have disgorged

noxious gases into the atmosphere,factories have dumped toxic

wastes into rivers and streams,

automobiles haveguzzled

irreplaceable fossil fuels and

fouled the air with their detritus.

In the name of progress, forests

have been denuded, lakes

poisoned with pesticides,

underground aquifers pumped dry.

For decades, scientists have

warned of the possible

consequences of all this

profligacy. No one paid much

attention .

3

虽然在第三世界各国每天有4万婴儿死于饥饿，但是其原因并不在于死亡人数众多而在于人类对待地球主人的不计后果的做法上。正如从潘多拉魔盒中飞出的邪恶妖怪一样，科技进步打破了自然界的平衡，自然界平衡是组成日常生活网的一套错综复杂的生物、物理和化学的相互作用体系。 在工业革命初期，大烟囱向大气中喷出许多有毒的气体，工厂向众多大小河流倾倒许多有毒的垃圾，汽车耗费掉许多不可替代的矿物燃料，并且污染了空气。人们以社会进步为借口，砍伐森林，用杀虫剂污染湖水，地下水被抽干。几十年来科学家提醒人们注意这种恣意挥霍带来的可能后果，但是没有人引起重视。

4This year the earth spoke, like

God warning Noah of the deluge.

Its message was loud and clear,

and suddenly people began to

listen, to ponder whatportents the

message held. In the U.S., a

three-month drought baked the

soil from California to Georgia,

reducing the country’s grain

harvest by 31% and killing

thousands of head of livestock. A

stubborn seven-week heat wave

drove temperatures above 100°F

across much of the country,

raising fears that the dreaded

“green-house effect” — global

warming as a result of the buildup

of carbon dioxide and other gases

in the atmosphere — might

already be under way. Parched by

the lack of rain, the Western

forests of the U.S., including

Yellowstone National Park, went

up in flames, also igniting a

bitter conservationist controversy.

And on many of the country’s

beaches, garbage, raw sewage and

medical wastes washed up to spoil

the fun of bathers and confront

them personally with the growing

despoliation of the oceans.

4 正像上帝提醒诺亚洪水即将到来一样，今年地球发布了信息。这一信息既响亮又清晰易懂，人们突然开始倾听，并考虑这个信息含有什么凶兆。在美国三个月的旱灾晒硬了从加利福尼亚到乔治亚的土壤。因此国家的粮食产量削减30%, 牲畜死亡数以千头。持续七周的热浪使国内许多地区的温度达到华氏100度以上，增加了人们对可怕的温室效应的恐惧，温室效应即由于大气中二氧化碳以及其它气体的逐步增加造成的全球变暖，它也许已经开始出现。由于缺雨，土地干裂，美国的西部森林，包括黄石国家公园，已毁于大火，由此也引发了一场有关自然环境保护的激烈争论。在国内许多海滩上，生活垃圾，未经处理的污水和医学垃圾被冲到岸上，破坏了游泳人的兴致，使他们很不开心，并且亲身面临了海洋日益严重的自然环境的破坏。

5Similar pollution closed beaches

on the Mediterranean, the North

Sea and the English Channel.

Killer hurricanes ripped through

the Caribbean andfloods

devastated Bangladesh, reminders

of nature’s raw power. In Soviet

Armenia a monstrous earthquake

killed some 55,000 people. That

too was a natural disaster, but its

high casualty count, owing largely

to the construction of cheap

high-rise apartment blocks over a

well-known fault area illustrated

the carelessness that has become

humanity’s habit in dealing with

nature.

5

类似的污染也触及到了地中海、北海和英吉利海峡。能直接导致死亡的飓风迅猛地席卷了加勒比海地区，洪水毁灭了孟加拉国，这些事件提醒人们认识到大自然的威力是多么可 怕。在前苏联加盟共和国亚美尼亚，巨大的地震使55，000人丧生。那也是自然灾害，但是主要原因是在人所共知的断层带上建造质量低劣的高层建筑所致，众多伤亡人数其次也表 明人类在与大自然打交道时的粗心大意的习性。

6There were other forebodings of

environmental disaster. In the U.S.

it was revealed that federal

weapons-making plants had

recklessly and secretly littered

large areas with radioactive waste.

The further depletion of the

atmosphere’s ozone layer, which

helps block cancer-causing

ultraviolet rays, testified to the

continued overuse of

atmosphere-destroyingchlorofluorocarbons emanating from such

sources as spray cans and

air-conditioners. Perhaps most

ominous of all, the destruction of

the tropical forests, home to at

least half the earth’s plant and

animal species, continued at a rate

equal to one football field a

second.

6 环境灾害还会有其它的不祥预感。在美国联邦武器制造厂不计后果地秘密地用放射性废物污染了大片地区。 臭氧层的进一步减少表明人类继续在过度使用由喷雾罐和空调散发出的污染空气的含氯氟烃，臭氧层有助于阻挡能致癌的紫外线的照射。也许对人类构成的最大威胁就是对热带雨林的毁灭，热带雨林中有地球上至少一半的动植物，它正以每秒钟一个足球场地大小的速度遭受人类的毁灭。

7Most of these evils had been

going on for a long time, and some

of the worst disasters apparently

had nothing to do with human

behavior. Yet this year’sbout of

freakish weather and

environmental horror stories

seemed to act as a powerful

catalyst for world-wide public

opinion. Everyone suddenly

sensed that this gyrating globe,

this precious repository of all the

life that we know of, was in

danger. No single individual, no

event, no movement captured

imaginations or dominated

headlines more than the clump of

rock and soil and water and air

that is our common home. Thus in

a rare but not unprecedented

departure from its tradition of

naming a Man of the Year, TIME

has designated Endangered Earth

as Planet of the Year for 1988.

7

长久以来大部分的灾祸一直在持续着，然而一些最严重的灾难显然与人类行为无关。本年度反常的天气和与环境有关的恐怖的新闻记事似乎成了全世界舆论的强效催化剂。突然所有人感觉到这个旋转的球体——我们所熟知的所有生物的宝库——正处于危险之中。没有任何人，任何事件，任何活动能比构成我们共同家园的岩石，土壤，水和空气更激发想象力并主宰各大报刊的主要标题。《时代》杂志以少有的，但并不是空前的违背传统的命名人类年的做法，把濒危的地球确定为1988年地球年。

8What would happen if nothing

were done about the earth’s

imperiled state? According to

computer projections, the

accumulation of CO2 in the

atmosphere could drive up the

planet’s average temperature 3°F

to 9°F by the middle of the next

century. That could cause the

oceans to rise by several feet,

flooding coastal areas and ruining

huge tracts of farmland through

salinization. Changing weather

patterns could make huge areas

infertile or

uninhabitable,touching off

refugee movements unprecedented

in history.

8 如果人类不采取任何措施拯救濒危的地球，那么会出现什么情况呢？根据电脑的预测，大气中二氧化碳的积聚会使地球的平均温度到下个世纪中叶上升3℉至9℉，从而使海洋升高好几英尺，淹没沿海的陆地并且由于土壤的盐碱化彻底毁掉大片的农田。天气的变化模式会使土地变得不肥沃或不适合居住，结果引发历史上前所未有的难民迁徙。

9Toxic waste and radioactive

contamination could lead to

shortages of safe drinking water,

the sine qua non of human

existence. And in a world that

could house between 8 billion and

14 billion people by the mid-21st

century, there is a strong

likelihood of mass starvation. It is

even possible to envisionthe world

so wryly and chillingly prophesied

by the typewriting cockroach

inDonald Marquis’ archy and

mehitabel: “man is making deserts

of the earth/it won’t be long now/

before man will have it used up/so

that nothing but ants/and

centipedes and scorpions can find

a living on it.”

9 有毒的污水和放射性污染能够导致安全饮用水的短缺，安全的饮用水是人类生存的必要条件。在这个到21世纪中叶能够容纳80至140亿人口的地球上，完全有可能面临饥饿的威胁。在唐纳德•马奎斯的《阿尔奇与梅希塔贝尔》中会打字的蟑螂用讽刺的、令人恐惧的语气预言未来世界：“人类正在变地球为沙漠/很快/人类将会消耗殆尽万物/因此只有蚂蚁、蜈蚣、和蝎子/能够生存。”

10Humanity’s current predatory

relationship with nature reflects a

man-centered world view that has

evolved over the ages. Almost

every society has had its myths

about the earth and its origins.

The ancient Chinese

depictedChaos as an enormous egg

whose parts separated into earth

and sky, yin and yang. The Greeks

believed Gaia, the earth, was

created immediately after Chaos

and gave birth to the gods. In

many pagan societies, the earth

was seen as a mother, a fertile

giver of life. Nature — the soil,

forest, sea — was endowed with

divinity, and mortals were

subordinate to it.

10 人类与大自然目前掠夺性的关系反映了经过许多世纪逐渐形成的以人类为中心的世界观。几乎每个社会都对地球和地球的起源流传着许多神话。古代中国人认为宇宙形成前是模糊的一团就像一个巨大的鸡蛋，后来分裂成大地与天空，即阴与阳。希腊人认为吉亚，大地女神，是在宇宙形成之后即刻产生的，然后生下众神。在许多无宗教信仰的社会里，地球被看作是母亲——生命的给与者，大自然——土壤，森林和大海——被赋予神性，人类从属于它。

11The Judeo-Christian tradition

introduced a radically different

concept. The earth was the

creation of a monotheistic God,

who, after shaping it, ordered its

inhabitants, in the words of

Genesis: “Be fruitful and multiply,and replenish the earth and subdue

it: and have dominion over the

fish of the sea and over the fowl

of the air and over every living

thing that moveth upon the

earth. ”The idea of dominion

could be interpreted as an

invitation to use nature as a

convenience. Thus the spread of

Christianity, which is generally

considered to have paved the way

for the development of technology,

may at the same time have carried

the seeds of the wanton

exploitation of nature that often

accompanied technical progress.

11 犹太教与基督教提出了根本不同的看法。地球是由独一无二的上帝创造的，在使它成形之后，用《创世纪》中的话语命令它的居住者：“要多生育，多繁殖后代，要充满地球并且 征服它；要拥有对海里的鱼，空中的鸟以及地球上所有生物的统治权。对自然界拥有统治权的思想无疑于怂恿人类把自然界当作便利设施来加以利用。通常被认为是为科技发展创造有利条件的基督教，它的传播可能同时播下了对大自然恣意开发的种子，然而对自然界开发的同时也促进了工业技术的发展。

12Those tendencies were

compounded by the Enlightenment

notion of a mechanistic universe

that man could shape to his own

ends through science. The

exuberant optimism of that world

view was behind some of the

greatest achievements of modern

times: the invention of

laborsaving machines, the

discovery of anesthetics and

vaccines, the development of

efficient transportation and

communication systems. But,

increasingly, technology has come

up against the law of unexpected

consequences. Advances in health

care have lengthened life-spans,

lowered infant-mortality rates and,

thus,aggravated the population

problem. The use of pesticides

had increased crop yields but

polluted water supplies. The

invention of automobiles and jet

planes has revolutionized travel

but sullied the atmosphere.

12 十八世纪欧洲启蒙运动时期的机械论宇宙观使这一趋势更加严重，机械论宇宙观认为人类利用科学可以达到自己的目的。这种过于乐观的世界观的产生是由于现在人类取得了一些最伟大的成就：省力机器的发明，麻药和疫苗的发现，高效能的交通与通讯系统的研制。但是，科技却越来越多地出现违反常规现象，产生意想不到的后果。保健工作的进步延长了人类的寿命，降低了婴儿的死亡率，因此也加重了人口问题。杀虫剂的使用提高了粮食的产量，但是却污染了水源，汽车与喷气式飞机的发明根本改变了人们的旅行方式，但是却污染了空气。

13Yet the advance of technology

has never destroyed man’s wonder

and aweat the beauty of the earth.

The coming of England’s

Industrial Revolution, with its

“dark Satanic mills,” coincided

with the extraordinary flowering

of Romantic poetry, much of it

about the glory of nature. Many

people in this century voiced the

same tender feelings on seeing

the first images of the earth as

viewed from the moon. The sight

of that shimmering luminescent

ball set against the black void

inspired even normally prosaic

astronauts to flights of eloquence.

Edgar Mitchell, who flew to the

moon aboard Apollo 14 in 1971,

described the planet as “a

sparkling blue-and-white

jewel…laced with slowly swirling

veils like a small pearl

in a thick sea of black mystery.”

Photos of the earth from space

prompted geologist Preston Cloud

to write, “Mother Earth will never

seem the same again. No more can

thinking people take this little

planet…as an infinite theater of

action and provider of resources

for man, yielding new largesse to

every demand without limit.” That

conclusion seems all the more

imperative in the wake of the

environmental shocks of 1988.

13 然而科技的发展从未破坏人类对地球之美所感到的惊奇与敬畏。具有黑暗恐怖工厂的英国工业革命的到来，随之也出现了十九世纪浪漫主义诗歌的繁荣时期，诗歌的许多内容是有关赞美大自然的。本世纪的许多人在从月球上第一眼看见地球时表达了相同的美好情感。看见那个在漆黑的夜空衬托下闪烁发光的圆球，甚至平时没有任何诗意的宇航员竟突发奇思异想，侃侃而谈。1971年乘坐阿波罗14号飞到月球的埃德加•米歇尔把地球描绘成“亮晶晶的蓝白色宝石……它的周边缭绕着白色的面纱……恰似浩瀚神秘夜空中一颗璀璨的小珍珠。从太空中拍摄的地球照片激励地质学家普雷斯顿•克劳德写道，“地球母亲看上去永远不会再像以前一样了，有理性的人不能再把这颗小行星看作是人类行为无垠的剧场，自然资源的提供者，从而毫无限度地慷慨解囊以满足人类的每个需求。”1988年令人震惊的环境灾难过后，这一结论似乎更为重要。

14Let there be no illusions.

Taking effective action to halt the

massive injury to the earth’s

environment will require a

mobilization of political will,

international cooperation and

sacrifice unknown except in

wartime. Yet humanity is in a war

right now, and it is not too

Draconian to call it a war for

survival. It is a war in which all

nations must be allies. Both the

causes and effects of the problems

that threaten the earth are global,

and they must be attacked globally.

“All nations are tied together as to

their common fate,” observes

Peter Raven, director of the

Missouri Botanical Garden. “We

are all facing a common problem,

which is, how are we going to

keep this single resource we have,

namely the world, viable?”

14

让我们不要抱有任何幻想。采取有效措施阻止对地球生态环境的严重破坏将需要调动政治意志，国际合作和除战时以外从不存在的牺牲精神。然而人类现在正处于战争中，把它称为生存战争并非危言耸听，这是所有国家必须成为同盟者的战争。对地球构成威胁的所有问题的因果是全球性的，因此要在全球范围内处理问题。密苏里植物园主任彼德•雷文说： “共同的命运把世界上所有的国家联系在一起，”我们都面临一个共同的问题，那就是：如何让我们所拥有的唯一宝物，即地球，能够独立生存下去?”

15As man heads into the last

decade of the 20th century, he

finds himself at a crucial turning

point: the actions of those now

living will determine the future,

and possibly the very survival, of

the species. “We do not have

generations, we only have years,

in which to attempt to turn things

around,” warns Lester Brown,

president of the Washington-based

Worldwatch Institute. Every

individual on the planet must be

made aware of its vulnerability

and of the urgent need to preserve

it. No attempt to protect the

environment will be successful in

the long run unless ordinary

people — the California

housewife ,the Mexican peasant,

the Soviet factory worker, the

Chinese farmer — are willing to

adjust their lifestyles. Our

wasteful, careless ways must

become a thing of the past. We

must recycle more, procreate less,

turn off lights, use mass transit,

do a thousand things differently in

our everyday lives. We owe this

not only to ourselves and our

children but also to the unborn

generations who will one day

inherit the earth.

15 当人类进入到20世纪最后10 年时，人类发现自己正处在关键性转折点上：现在我们的所作所为决定着未来，也许决定物种的生存。“我们没有几代的时间，我们只有几年的时间试图扭转目前的局面.”华盛顿世界观察研究所所长莱斯特•布朗警告道。地球上的每个人要意识到地球的脆弱性和保护地球的迫切需要。除非普通人——加利福尼亚的家庭主妇，墨西哥的小农经济者，苏联的工人，中国的农民——愿意调整它们的生活方式，否则为保护生态环境所付出的所有努力都将以失败而告终。浪费、粗心大意必须成为昔日之事。我们必须多回收利用废品，少生育，关掉电灯，使用批量运输，在日常生活中用不同的方式做许多事情。我们这样做不仅是为了我们自己和我们的孩子，而且也是为了将来某一天继承地球的未出生的后代人。

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