科技英语阅读(李健版)

Unit 1 Environment

Earth’s Health in Sharp Decline, Massive Study Finds

大规模研究发现：地球的“健康”每况愈下

The report card has arrived from the largest ever scientific Earth analysis, and many of the planet’s ecosystems are simply not making the grade.

有史以来对地球进行的最大规模的科学分析结果表明，地球上的许多生态系统都达不到标准。

The UN-backed Millennium Ecosystem Assessment Synthesis Report found that nearly two-thirds of Earth’s life-supporting ecosystems, including clean water, pure air, and stable climate, are being degraded by unsustainable use.

由联合国主持的《千年生态系统评估综合报告》指出，由于不可持续的使用，地球上将近三分之二的用来维持生命的生态系统（包括干净的水源、纯净的空气以及稳定的气候）正遭受破坏。

Human has caused much of this damage during the past half century. Soaring demand for food, fresh water, timber, fiber and fuel have led to dramatic environmental changes, from deforestation to chemical pollution, the report says. The already grim situation may worsen dramatically during the first half of the 21st century, the report’s authors warn.

以上大部分的破坏都是人类在过去的半个世纪里造成的。据报告分析，随着人类对食物、淡水、木材、纤维以及燃料等资源的需求日趋激增，环境发生了极大的变化，引发了诸如滥伐森林、化学污染等问题。因此，该报告的作者警告说，照此下去，本已岌岌可危的生态环境将会在21世纪的上半叶进一步恶化。

Over 1,300 governmental and private-sector contributors from 95 countries collaborated to create the landmark study. For four years they examined the plant’s many habitats and species and the systems that bind them together. The United Nations Environment Programme compiled the report and released the results yesterday in Beijing, China.

这项历史性的研究由来自世界95个国家的政府部门以及民间组织的1,300多位科学家共同完成。四年来，他们考察了地球上许多生物的生长环境、物种以及将他们联系起来的生态体系。联合国环境规划署对该报告进行了编辑整理并于昨天在中国北京公布了研究结果。

“Only by understanding the environment and how it works, can we make the necessary decisions to protect it,”UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said in a press statement accompanying the report’s release.“Only by valuing all our precious natural and human resources, can we hope to build a sustainable future.”

在公布该报告的新闻发布会上，联合国秘书长科菲·安南指出：“只有了解环境及其运作过程，我们才能制定出必要的措施加以保护它。”他还说，“只有珍惜所有宝贵的自然资源和人类资源，我们才有希望去建设一个可持续发展的未来。”

Socioeconomic Impact

对社会经济的影响

The report paints a rather bleak picture for biodiversity throughout much of the natural world. Perhaps 10 to 30 percent of earth’s mammal bird and amphibian species are facing extinction.

该报告对自然界的大部分生物多样性持悲观态度，地球上可能有10%—30%的哺乳动物，

鸟类以及两栖动物濒临灭绝。

The massive ecological survey was begun in response to Annan’s Millennium Development Goals, a UN initiative that aims to dramatically reduce socioeconomic problems, such as hunger and extreme poverty, by 2015.

这次大规模生态调查是根据安南的《千年发展目标》展开的，该发展目标是由联合国发起的，旨在2015年之前大幅减少饥饿与极度贫困等社会经济问题。

“The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment give us, in some ways for the first time, an insight into the economic importance of ecosystem services and some new and additional arguments for respecting and conserving the Earth’s life-supporting systems.”said Klaus Toepfer, executive director of the Nairobi-based UN Environment Programme.

总部位于内罗毕的联合国环境规划署执行主席克劳斯·托普弗说：“从某些方面来说，《千年生态系统评估综合报告》让我们首次认识到生态系统服务功能的经济价值，并使我们对尊重和保护地球生命维护系统有了新的见解。”

Current human usage patterns of Earth’s environment have increased the global food supply, albeit too slowly to accomplish the UN goal of halving word hunger by 2015.

目前由于人类社会对地球环境的开发利用，食物供应不断增加，然而增长的速度仍然太慢，难以完成联合国制定的在2015年之前消除全球一半饥饿人口的目标。

The negative effects of ecosystem strain also include collapsing fisheries, coastal“dead zones” near sediment-heavy river mouths, shifting water quality, and unpredictable regional climate, the report says.

报告还说，过度使用生态系统的负面影响还包括渔业的衰退，含有大量沉积物的河口周围近海“死亡区”的出现，水质的变化以及不可预测的区域性气候等。

Deforestation and other radical ecosystem alterations also promote disease, such as malaria and cholera, as well as new strains of existing contagions.

此外，森林的滥伐和其他生态系统的巨大改变也加剧了诸如疟疾、霍乱等疾病的传播，并使已有传染病分化出新的类别。

Changes to water systems may increase the frequency and severity of destructive floods. Over a hundred thousand people were killed in the 1990s by floods, which also caused destruction to the tune of 243 billion dollars (U.S.), according to the report.

根据该报告，水资源体系的变化会增加毁灭性洪灾的爆发频率和程度。在20世纪90年代，洪灾造成的死亡人数超过10万，损失约2,430亿美元。

The regions facing the greatest environmental degradation are also among the world’s poorest: sub-Saharan Africa, Central Asia, and parts of Latin America, and South and Southeast Asia.

目前，世界上环境破坏最严重的地区恰是全球最贫穷的地区：撒哈拉沙漠以南之中部非洲地区，亚洲中部，拉丁美洲的部分地区，以及亚洲的南部及东南部。

Call for Radical Change

呼吁彻底改变现状

The report urges drastic policy changes to the ways in which natural resources are used.

《千年生态系统评估综合报告》呼吁在自然资源利用方面对目前的政策进行大幅度的改