经济学人69:欢迎来到人类纪

 　　The geology of the planet

　　地球的地质情况

　　Welcome to the Anthropocene

　　欢迎来到人类纪

　　Humans have changed the way the world works. Now they have to change the way they think about it, too

　　人类改变了世界运行方式，现在，人类不得不改变他们思考世界的方式

　　May 26th 2011 | from the print edition

　　THE Earth is a big thing; if you divided it up evenly among its 7 billion inhabitants, they would get almost 1 trillion tonnes each. To think that the workings of so vast an entity¹ could be lastingly² changed by a species that has been scampering³ across its surface for less than 1% of 1% of its history seems, on the face of it, absurd. But it is not. Humans have become a force of nature reshaping the planet on a geological scale—but at a far-faster-than-geological speed.

　　地球是个庞然大物。如果你把它均分给其间的70亿居民，每个人能分到近1万亿吨。表面看来，一个渺小的物种，生命不及地球的万分之一，在其表面跑跑跳跳竟能永久性地改变如此巨大实体的运行机制，想一想都是荒谬之事。不过确有其事。人类已经成为重塑地球地质年表的自然力量，其速度比地质构造自然演化的过程快得多。

　　A single engineering project, the Syncrude mine in the Athabasca tar⁴ sands, involves moving 30 billion tonnes of earth—twice the amount of sediment⁵ that flows down all the rivers in the world in a year. That sediment flow itself, meanwhile, is shrinking; almost 50,000 large dams have over the past half- century cut the flow by nearly a fifth. That is one reason why the Earth’s deltas⁶, home to hundreds of millions of people, are eroding⁷ away faster than they can be replenished⁸.

　　阿萨巴斯卡油砂的辛克鲁德矿是一个单一工程项目。该项目涉及移动300亿吨泥土——这一数字是地球上所有河流一年中流动的泥沙总量的两倍。与此同时，泥沙流本身也在逐渐消减。在过去半个世纪中，近50000个大型大坝截断近1/5的泥沙流。这也是为什么数以百万计人类的家园——三角洲地区泥沙补给速度不及侵蚀速度而呈现蚀退之势。

　　Geologists⁹ care about sediments¹⁰, hammering away at them to uncover what they have to say about the past—especially the huge spans of time as the Earth passes from one geological period to another. In the same spirit they look at the distribution of fossils, at the traces of glaciers¹¹ and sea-level rises, and at other tokens of the forces that have shaped the planet. Now a number of these scientists are arguing that future geologists observing this moment in the Earth’s progress will conclude that something very odd was going on.

　　地质学家关心泥沙，潜心研究以揭示过去——尤其是当地球从一个地质时期到另外一个地质时期这种巨大跨度时，地球究竟发生了什么。基于相似的理念，他们把目光投向化石的分布、冰川的痕迹、海平面的上升以及其他一些使地球成型的外力标志。现在，相当数量的地质学家推测，未来地质学家在观察今天的地质演化时，也会发现一些奇怪的变化。

　　The carbon cycle (and the global warming debate) is part of this change. So too is the nitrogen cycle, which converts pure nitrogen from the air into useful chemicals, and which mankind has helped speed up by over 150%. They and a host of other previously¹² natural processes have been interrupted, refashioned and, most of all, accelerated (see article). Scientists are increasingly using a new name for this new period. Rather than placing us still in the Holocene, a peculiarly stable era that began only around 10,000 years ago, the geologists say we are already living in the Anthropocene: the age of man.

　　碳循环（和全球变暖争论）是这种变化的一部分。氮循环也是如此，它将空气中纯粹的氮转化为有用的化学制品——人类在使氮循环加速超过150%。这两种循环和其他一些此前的自然进程被打断、被改变，而且最重要的是，被加速（看文章）。科学家们越来越多地为这种新时期使用一种新的名称。地质学家们称，我们已经生活在人类纪——人的时代，而不是仍将人类放在约1000年前开始的特别稳定的年代——全新世。

　　The new geology leaves all in doubt

　　新地质学一切没有定论

　　What geologists choose to call a period of history normally matters little to the rest of mankind; tussles¹³ at the International Commission on Stratigraphy over the boundaries of the Ordovician era do not normally capture headlines. The Anthropocene is different. It is one of those moments where a scientific realisation, like Copernicus grasping that the Earth goes round the sun, could fundamentally change people’s view of things far beyond science. It means more than rewriting some textbooks. It means thinking afresh about the relationship between people and their world and acting¹⁴ accordingly.

　　地质学家选择称呼历史一个时期为什么名字通常与其他人关系不大。地层学国际研究组关于奥陶纪时代界限的争辩往往不能占领头条。人类纪就不一样了，像哥白尼掌握了地球围绕太阳运转那样，它是科学认识可以从根本上改变人们对远远超乎科学事物看法的时刻。它不仅仅意味着一些教科书的重写。它意味着对人与世界关系的重新审视并以此采取相应行动。

　　Thinking afresh is the easier bit. Too many natural scientists embrace the comforting assumption that nature can be studied, indeed should be studied, in isolation¹⁵ from the human world, with people as mere¹⁶ observers. Many environmentalists—especially those in the American tradition inspired by Henry David Thoreau—believe that “in wilderness¹⁷ is the preservation¹⁸ of the world”. But the wilderness, for good or ill, is increasingly irrelevant¹⁹.

　　重新审视相对比较容易。太多的自然科学家接受让人欣慰的假定，即研究自然可以（实际上应当）与人类世界分离，把人类当作纯粹的旁观者。许多环保主义者——尤其是受亨利·戴维·梭罗处受到启发的美国传统中的那些人认为，“世界存于荒野之中”。不过，在现实世界中，无论好坏，它们的关系渐行渐远。

　　Almost 90% of the world’s plant activity, by some estimates, is to be found in ecosystems²⁰ where humans play a significant role. Although farms have changed the world for millennia²¹, the Anthropocene advent²² of fossil fuels, scientific breeding and, most of all, artificial nitrogen fertiliser has vastly increased agriculture’s power. The relevance²³ of wilderness to our world has shrunk in the face of this onslaught. The sheer amount of biomass now walking around the planet in the form of humans and livestock²⁴ handily outweighs²⁵ that of all other large animals. The world’s ecosystems are dominated by an increasingly homogenous²⁶ and limited suite²⁷ of cosmopolitan²⁸ crops, livestock and creatures that get on well in environments dominated by humans. Creatures less useful or adaptable²⁹ get short shrift: the extinction³⁰ rate is running far higher than during normal geological periods.

　　一些评估认为，全球90%的农业种植，在人类起重要作用的生态系统中进行。尽管农业改变世界已有千年历史，人类纪出现的化石燃料、科学繁殖以及最重要的人工氮肥极大地加大了农业的力量。在无孔不入的人力改造面前，我们与自然产生了疏离。以人类和牲畜形式在地球上行走的巨大生物量轻易地超过了其他大型动物。世界生态系统由同质的有限系列的世界性的庄稼、家畜以及与人类主导的环境相处不错的生物们支配。人们对不那么有用、适应性不那么强的生物漠不关心，与正常的地质时期相比，这些生物的死亡率要高出许多。

　　Recycling the planet

　　循环利用地球

　　How frightened should people be about this? It would be odd not to be worried. The planet’s history contains many less stable and clement³¹ eras than the Holocene. Who is to say that human action might not tip the planet into new instability?

　　面对如此种种，人类该有多么担惊受怕？不担心才让人觉得奇怪。地球历史包含许多没有全新世稳定和温和的时期。谁敢说人类行为就不能将地球带到一种新的不稳定状态？

　　Some will want simply to put the clock back. But returning to the way things were is neither realistic nor morally tenable. A planet that could soon be supporting as many as 10 billion human beings has to work differently from the one that held 1 billion people, mostly peasants, 200 years ago. The challenge of the Anthropocene is to use human ingenuity³² to set things up so that the planet can accomplish its 21st-century task.

　　一些人只是简单地希望时光倒流。但种种回到本初的方式既不实际，在道义上也站不住脚。一个即将养活多达100亿人类的地球与200年前养活10亿人类（大多是农民）时期相比，运行方式不可同日而语。人类纪的挑战在于运用人类智慧让地球能够完成21世纪的任务。

　　Increasing the planet’s resilience will probably involve a few dramatic changes and a lot of fiddling³³. An example of the former could be geoengineering. Today the copious³⁴ carbon dioxide emitted to the atmosphere is left for nature to pick up, which it cannot do fast enough. Although the technologies are still nascent³⁵, the idea that humans might help remove carbon from the skies as well as put it there is a reasonable Anthropocene expectation; it wouldn’t stop climate change any time soon, but it might shorten its lease, and reduce the changes in ocean chemistry that excess carbon brings about.

　　增加地球的恢复很可能包括一些剧烈的变化和细枝末节。地球工程就是一个先例。现在，大量的二氧化碳被排放至大气层，等待自然界的消化吸收。但自然界的速度有限。尽管技术尚不成熟，人类可能从天空去除碳，也能将碳放到天空这一想法可能是合理的人类纪展望。这种技术可能不能很快地阻止气候变化，但是，也许可以缩短气候变化的阶段，并且减少产生过多碳的海洋化学变化。

　　More often the answer will be fiddling—finding ways to apply human muscle with the grain of nature, rather than against it, and help it in its inbuilt tendency to recycle things. Human interference in the nitrogen cycle has made far more nitrogen available to plants and animals; it has done much less to help the planet deal with all that nitrogen when they have finished with it. Instead we suffer ever more coastal³⁶ “dead zones” overrun by nitrogen-fed algal blooms. Quite small things, such as smarter farming and better sewage treatment, could help a lot.

　　通常情况下，答案是无足轻重的：找到将人类力量适用于自然的方式，而不是与自然进行抵触，协助自然用其内在趋势对事物进行再循环利用。人类对氮循环的干预使得地球和动物有了更多可以获取的氮，当人类对氮循环的干预完成后，却又没有设法帮助自然去处理所有的氮。相反，我们遭受由氮提供养分的赤潮肆虐造成的沿海“死区”。一些相当小的事情，如智能养殖、污水净化处理，都能有不少帮助。

　　For humans to be intimately involved in many interconnected processes at a planetary scale carries huge risks. But it is possible to add to the planet’s resilience, often through simple and piecemeal³⁷ actions, if they are well thought through. And one of the messages of the Anthropocene is that piecemeal actions can quickly add up to planetary change.

　　对人类而言，在全球范围密切参与如此之多相互联系的过程充满巨大风险。不过通常经过简单而零碎的行动——只要从头到尾认真思考过，对地球恢复都不无裨益。人类纪传达出的一个信息即是：人类的琐碎行为加起来就能很快使地球发生改变。

1 entity   

n.实体，独立存在体，实际存在物

参考例句：

• The country is no longer one political entity.这个国家不再是一个统一的政治实体了。
• As a separate legal entity,the corporation must pay taxes.作为一个独立的法律实体，公司必须纳税。

2 lastingly   

[医]有残留性，持久地，耐久地

参考例句：

• At least seven people had been particularly and lastingly helpful to me. 至少有七个人对我有过不同寻常、影响深远的帮助。 来自互联网
• Due to great attachment to the ecologic environment, eco-tourism must develop lastingly. 摘要生态旅游对生态环境具有非常大的依赖性，必须走可持续发展道路。 来自互联网

3 scampering   

v.蹦蹦跳跳地跑，惊惶奔跑( scamper的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• A cat miaowed, then was heard scampering away. 马上起了猫叫，接着又听见猫逃走的声音。 来自汉英文学 - 家（1-26） - 家（1-26）
• A grey squirrel is scampering from limb to limb. 一只灰色的松鼠在树枝间跳来跳去。 来自辞典例句

4 tar   

n.柏油，焦油；vt.涂或浇柏油/焦油于

参考例句：

• The roof was covered with tar.屋顶涂抹了一层沥青。
• We use tar to make roads.我们用沥青铺路。

5 sediment   

n.沉淀，沉渣，沉积(物)

参考例句：

• The sediment settled and the water was clear.杂质沉淀后，水变清了。
• Sediment begins to choke the channel's opening.沉积物开始淤塞河道口。

6 deltas   

希腊字母表中第四个字母( delta的名词复数 )； （河口的）三角洲

参考例句：

• Tidal channels, deltas, and washover fans are characteristically associated with offshore bars. 潮汐水道、三角洲和冲刷扇典型地与滨外砂洲伴生在一起。
• I know many of the early civilizations prospered on deltas. 我知道很多古老的文明都是在三角洲上蓬勃发展起来的。

7 eroding   

侵蚀，腐蚀( erode的现在分词 )； 逐渐毁坏，削弱，损害

参考例句：

• The coast is slowly eroding. 海岸正慢慢地被侵蚀。
• Another new development is eroding the age-old stereotype of the male warrior. 另一个新现象是，久已形成的男人皆武士的形象正逐渐消失。

8 replenished   

补充( replenish的过去式和过去分词 )； 重新装满

参考例句：

• She replenished her wardrobe. 她添置了衣服。
• She has replenished a leather [fur] coat recently. 她最近添置了一件皮袄。

9 geologists   

地质学家，地质学者( geologist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Geologists uncovered the hidden riches. 地质学家发现了地下的宝藏。
• Geologists study the structure of the rocks. 地质学家研究岩石结构。

10 sediments   

沉淀物( sediment的名词复数 )； 沉积物

参考例句：

• When deposited, 70-80% of the volume of muddy sediments may be water. 泥质沉积物沉积后，体积的70-80％是水。
• Oligocene erosion had truncated the sediments draped over the dome. 覆盖于穹丘上的沉积岩为渐新世侵蚀所截削。

11 glaciers   

冰河，冰川( glacier的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Glaciers gouged out valleys from the hills. 冰川把丘陵地带冲出一条条山谷。
• It has ice and snow glaciers, rainforests and beautiful mountains. 既有冰川，又有雨林和秀丽的山峰。 来自英语晨读30分（高一）

12 previously   

adv.以前，先前（地）

参考例句：

• The bicycle tyre blew out at a previously damaged point.自行车胎在以前损坏过的地方又爆开了。
• Let me digress for a moment and explain what had happened previously.让我岔开一会儿，解释原先发生了什么。

13 tussles   

n.扭打，争斗( tussle的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• They need no running fights with large, fierce rats or tussles with grown rabbits. 它们不必奔跑着与大又凶的老鼠搏斗了，也不必跟大兔子扭斗了。 来自辞典例句
• The magazine has had a series of tussles with Asian governments. 该杂志曾与亚洲多国政府发生争执。 来自互联网

14 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

15 isolation   

n.隔离，孤立，分解，分离

参考例句：

• The millionaire lived in complete isolation from the outside world.这位富翁过着与世隔绝的生活。
• He retired and lived in relative isolation.他退休后，生活比较孤寂。

16 mere   

adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过

参考例句：

• That is a mere repetition of what you said before.那不过是重复了你以前讲的话。
• It's a mere waste of time waiting any longer.再等下去纯粹是浪费时间。

17 wilderness   

n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠

参考例句：

• She drove the herd of cattle through the wilderness.她赶着牛群穿过荒野。
• Education in the wilderness is not a matter of monetary means.荒凉地区的教育不是钱财问题。

18 preservation   

n.保护，维护，保存，保留，保持

参考例句：

• The police are responsible for the preservation of law and order.警察负责维持法律与秩序。
• The picture is in an excellent state of preservation.这幅画保存得极为完好。

19 irrelevant   

adj.不恰当的，无关系的，不相干的

参考例句：

• That is completely irrelevant to the subject under discussion.这跟讨论的主题完全不相关。
• A question about arithmetic is irrelevant in a music lesson.在音乐课上，一个数学的问题是风马牛不相及的。

20 ecosystems   

n.生态系统( ecosystem的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• There are highly sensitive and delicately balanced ecosystems in the forest. 森林里有高度敏感、灵敏平衡的各种生态系统。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Madagascar's ecosystems range from rainforest to semi-desert. 马达加斯加生态系统类型多样，从雨林到半荒漠等不一而足。 来自辞典例句

21 millennia   

n.一千年，千禧年

参考例句：

• For two millennia, exogamy was a major transgression for Jews. 两千年来，异族通婚一直是犹太人的一大禁忌。
• In the course of millennia, the dinosaurs died out. 在几千年的时间里，恐龙逐渐死绝了。

22 advent   

n.(重要事件等的)到来，来临

参考例句：

• Swallows come by groups at the advent of spring. 春天来临时燕子成群飞来。
• The advent of the Euro will redefine Europe.欧元的出现将重新定义欧洲。

23 relevance   

n.中肯，适当，关联，相关性

参考例句：

• Politicians' private lives have no relevance to their public roles.政治家的私生活与他们的公众角色不相关。
• Her ideas have lost all relevance to the modern world.她的想法与现代社会完全脱节。

24 livestock   

n.家畜，牲畜

参考例句：

• Both men and livestock are flourishing.人畜两旺。
• The heavy rains and flooding killed scores of livestock.暴雨和大水淹死了许多牲口。

25 outweighs   

v.在重量上超过( outweigh的第三人称单数 )；在重要性或价值方面超过

参考例句：

• Her need to save money outweighs her desire to spend it on fun. 她省钱的需要比她花钱娱乐的愿望更重要。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Its clarity in algebraic and analytical operations far outweighs any drawbacks. 文化代数和解析运算中的清晰性远远胜过任何缺点。 来自辞典例句

26 homogenous   

adj.同类的，同质的，纯系的

参考例句：

• Japan is a wealthy,homogenous,developed nation with a stable political system.日本是一个富裕的同质型发达国家，政治体制稳定。
• My family is very homogenous and happy.我们这个家庭很和睦很幸福。

27 suite   

n.一套(家具)；套房；随从人员

参考例句：

• She has a suite of rooms in the hotel.她在那家旅馆有一套房间。
• That is a nice suite of furniture.那套家具很不错。

28 cosmopolitan   

adj.世界性的，全世界的，四海为家的，全球的

参考例句：

• New York is a highly cosmopolitan city.纽约是一个高度世界性的城市。
• She has a very cosmopolitan outlook on life.她有四海一家的人生观。

29 adaptable   

adj.能适应的，适应性强的，可改编的

参考例句：

• He is an adaptable man and will soon learn the new work.他是个适应性很强的人，很快就将学会这种工作。
• The soil is adaptable to the growth of peanuts.这土壤适宜于花生的生长。

30 extinction   

n.熄灭，消亡，消灭，灭绝，绝种

参考例句：

• The plant is now in danger of extinction.这种植物现在有绝种的危险。
• The island's way of life is doomed to extinction.这个岛上的生活方式注定要消失。

31 clement   

adj.仁慈的；温和的

参考例句：

• A clement judge reduced his sentence.一位仁慈的法官为他减了刑。
• The planet's history contains many less stable and clement eras than the holocene.地球的历史包含着许多不如全新世稳定与温和的地质时期。

32 ingenuity   

n.别出心裁；善于发明创造

参考例句：

• The boy showed ingenuity in making toys.那个小男孩做玩具很有创造力。
• I admire your ingenuity and perseverance.我钦佩你的别出心裁和毅力。

33 fiddling   

微小的

参考例句：

• He was fiddling with his keys while he talked to me. 和我谈话时他不停地摆弄钥匙。
• All you're going to see is a lot of fiddling around. 你今天要看到的只是大量的胡摆乱弄。 来自英汉文学 - 廊桥遗梦

34 copious   

adj.丰富的，大量的

参考例句：

• She supports her theory with copious evidences.她以大量的例证来充实自己的理论。
• Every star is a copious source of neutrinos.每颗恒星都是丰富的中微子源。

35 nascent   

adj.初生的，发生中的

参考例句：

• That slim book showed the Chinese intelligentsia and the nascent working class.那本小册子讲述了中国的知识界和新兴的工人阶级。
• Despite a nascent democracy movement,there's little traction for direct suffrage.尽管有过一次新生的民主运动，但几乎不会带来直接选举。

36 coastal   

adj.海岸的，沿海的，沿岸的

参考例句：

• The ocean waves are slowly eating away the coastal rocks.大海的波浪慢慢地侵蚀着岸边的岩石。
• This country will fortify the coastal areas.该国将加强沿海地区的防御。

37 piecemeal   

adj.零碎的；n.片，块；adv.逐渐地；v.弄成碎块

参考例句：

• A lack of narrative drive leaves the reader with piecemeal vignettes.叙述缺乏吸引力，读者读到的只是一些支离破碎的片段。
• Let's settle the matter at one stroke,not piecemeal.把这事一气儿解决了吧，别零敲碎打了。