国家地理 没有垃圾的世界可能存在吗(3)

The "circularity gap," as de Wit and his colleagues dubbed¹ it when they presented their report at the World Economic Forum² in Davos in 2018, is relatively³ new in human history. It dates to our industrial use of fossil fuels in the 18th century. Until then, most of what humans did was done with muscle power, whether human or animal. Growing things, making things, shipping⁴ things took hard labor⁵, which made them valuable. Our limited physical energy also restricted how big a dent⁶ we could put in the planet. It kept most of us very poor, however.

德威特及同事在2018年达沃斯世界经济论坛上作报告时，将这一现状称为“闭环差距”，它在人类历史中属于较新的现象，始于18世纪开始的化石燃料工业应用。在那之前，大部分生产都依靠人力或畜力。种植、生产、运输都需要付出艰苦的劳动，令它们价值更高。有限的体力约束了我们对地球造成的冲击。但这也让大多数人非常贫困。

Cheap fossil energy, concentrated by geologic⁷ time and pressure in seams of coal or pools of oil, changed all that. It made it easier to extract raw materials anywhere, ship them to factories, and send the merchandise everywhere. Fossil fuels exploded our possibilities -- and the process keeps intensifying⁸. In the past half century, while the world's population has more than doubled, the amount of material flowing through the economy has more than tripled.

经过地质时间和压力的凝缩、富集于煤层和油田中的廉价化石能源改变了这一切：从世界各地提取原材料、运到工厂、输出产品都变得更加容易。化石燃料使人类事业的可能性暴增，搜刮资源的过程也愈演愈烈。在过去半个世纪中，全世界人口增长了一倍多，而在经济系统中流通的物资量增长了两倍有余。

"Now we're reaching the limits," de Wit said.

“现在我们即将到达极限，”德威特说。

1 dubbed   

v.给…起绰号( dub的过去式和过去分词 )；把…称为；配音；复制

参考例句：

• Mathematics was once dubbed the handmaiden of the sciences. 数学曾一度被视为各门科学的基础。
• Is the movie dubbed or does it have subtitles? 这部电影是配音的还是打字幕的？ 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 forum   

n.论坛，讨论会

参考例句：

• They're holding a forum on new ways of teaching history.他们正在举行历史教学讨论会。
• The organisation would provide a forum where problems could be discussed.这个组织将提供一个可以讨论问题的平台。

3 relatively   

adv.比较...地，相对地

参考例句：

• The rabbit is a relatively recent introduction in Australia.兔子是相对较新引入澳大利亚的物种。
• The operation was relatively painless.手术相对来说不痛。

4 shipping   

n.船运（发货，运输，乘船）

参考例句：

• We struck a bargain with an American shipping firm.我们和一家美国船运公司谈成了一笔生意。
• There's a shipping charge of ￡5 added to the price.价格之外另加五英镑运输费。

5 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

6 dent   

n.凹痕，凹坑；初步进展

参考例句：

• I don't know how it came about but I've got a dent in the rear of my car.我不知道是怎么回事，但我的汽车后部有了一个凹痕。
• That dent is not big enough to be worth hammering out.那个凹陷不大，用不着把它锤平。

7 geologic   

adj.地质的

参考例句：

• The Red Sea is a geologic continuation of the valley.红海就是一个峡谷在地质上的继续发展。
• Delineation of channels is the first step of geologic evaluation.勾划河道的轮廓是地质解译的第一步。

8 intensifying   

v.（使）增强， （使）加剧( intensify的现在分词 )；增辉

参考例句：

• The allies are intensifying their air campaign. 联军部队正加大他们的空战强度。 来自辞典例句
• The rest of the European powers were in a state of intensifying congestion. 其余的欧洲强国则处于越来越拥挤的状态。 来自英汉非文学 - 历史