英文自修45：珍惜地球环境

本系列内容英文原文取自BBC Thought for the Day节目网站，朋友们也可以下载节目录音收听。

本篇译者：王宥轩，沪上某名牌大学英语专业学生

审读、定稿、图片、背景图文：武太白

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Thought for the Day 20140313 - Bishop Tom Butler

Opening my newspaper yesterday I was quite put off eating my breakfast kipper by the picture of the open jaws of a huge great white shark heading my way. Apparently the creature was tagged by a group of marine biologists a year ago off the coast of Florida, since then she’s been to Bermuda, north to Newfoundland and now she’s heading across the Atlantic in our direction, however she’s still a thousand miles away so there’s no need to panic.

昨天早餐时我打开报纸，被一幅大白鲨张开血盆大口扑来的图片倒了胃口，熏鲑鱼也吃不下了。这鲨鱼是一年前在佛罗里达洲近海被一群海洋生物学家加了标记，此后到了百慕大、向北到了纽芬兰，如今又在横穿大西洋，向我们游来。好在还有一千英里，也不必慌张。

 

But the journey of the white shark is just another indication that something is going on with the climate. Patterns are shifting in the atmosphere and in the oceans. We don’t have to tell the people of Somerset 萨默塞特郡（英格兰郡名） this as they try to put together their lives after the floods caused by the second wettest winters on record. Meanwhile my same daily newspaper reports that the drought in California is now in its 14th month and draconian 非常严厉的 water rationing controls are being put into place. 

大白鲨的故事仅仅是气候变化的征兆之一。大气和海洋变化的气候特性正发生转变。这一点，不用我们告诉萨默塞特郡人，今冬是他们有史以来降雨量第二大的冬天，洪水过后他们正努力重整生活。另外，今天的早报称加利福尼亚的干旱已持续14个月，当地已开始严格限量供水。

 

Opinions differ to the cause of all this although most scientists claim that human intervention has some part to play and it’s been estimated that it will take a thousand years for the earth to recover from the damage already done. 

尽管大部分科学家们声称人类活动是一部分原因，而据预测，地球从已有的破坏中恢复需要一千年的时间，对这一切的起因，还是存在分歧。

Something must be done and there are indications that with determination something can be done. With the ban on CFC gases氯氟烃气体（用于冰箱和喷雾器等） in aerosol cans 气溶胶罐 the growth in the hole in the ozone layer protecting the earth from cosmic rays has been halted. Then we’ve seen in Britain how clean air acts have eradicated 摧毁；根除 the smog that used to regularly engulf our cities and the same could be done in Beijing. Then it’s reported that Indonesia’s highest Islamic clerical body（伊斯兰教团体） has issued a fatwa 法学家的裁决 instructing Muslims not to engage in the destruction of threatened species and the tropical forests, the lungs of the planet.

我们必须采取行动。有证据表明，只要有决心，就能有所成就。禁止使用气溶胶罐的氯氟烃气体后，保护地球不受宇宙射线直射的臭氧层，其空洞已经停止扩大。我们还看到，过去经常笼罩在英国城市上空的雾霾，经由清洁空气法案的实施，已经得到根除，那么北京也能做到这一点。还有报道称印度尼西亚的最高伊斯兰团体公布了一项决议，要求穆斯林不可参与破坏濒危物种和地球之肺——热带雨林。

Something like catastrophic climate change must have been there very early in the history of humanity because there are stories of a great flood in many faith traditions. The version in the bible ties it to the punishment of God on a sinful humanity, but Noah and his family, together with members of innumerable species, are rescued in an ark. And when the rain ceased and the floods began to subside we read that a rainbow appeared as a sign of God’s covenant 圣约. And I find it of interest that this wasn’t just a covenant with Noah, representing humanity, it was a covenant with all the creatures which were with him, because we live in a web of interconnectedness. 

像这类灾难性的气候变化，在人类史上应是自古有之了，因为很多宗教传统中就有关于洪灾的故事。圣经里的故事将灾难视为上帝对人性之恶的惩罚。而诺亚和他的家人，还有其他数不清的物种一起在方舟中获得了救赎。雨息风止后，洪水退去，圣经里面提到彩虹的出现代表着上帝的圣约。我发现有趣的是，这不仅是对代表人类的诺亚的承诺，也是对他身边的所有生物的承诺，因为我们的生命是生息相关的。

In the covenant God promised not to destroy again, but of course humanity might. Some see humankind today as a kind of cancer eating up the resources of the globe and threatening its life. But the earth owes us no favours and the truth might be that if we fail to care for the earth, it will take of itself by making us not welcome.

在圣约中，上帝承诺不再毁灭人类，但是，人类可能会自我毁灭。有人认为如今的人类就像是癌症，耗尽全球资源，威胁人类自身。但地球不会宠溺我们，事实就是，如果我们没有爱护地球，她就只能将我们赶出以求安宁。