TED演讲 第21期:说服 让利他精神成为你的准则(1)

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but also an immense power to do harm.  但为恶的能力也不可小觑。

Any tool can be used to build or to destroy.  任何工具，在人类手里都可用于行善， 也都可用于作恶。

That all depends on our motivation.  这完全取决于我们内心的动机。

Therefore, it is all the more important to foster an altruistic¹ motivation rather than a selfish one.  因此，心怀利他精神，而不是自私的念头，比什么都重要。

So now we indeed are facing many challenges in our times.  当今世界我们确实面临着太多挑战。

Those could be personal challenges.  其中有我们自身的挑战，

Our own mind can be our best friend or our worst enemy.  我们的思想可以是我们最善良的朋友， 也可以是最危险的敌人；

There's also societal challenges:  也有社会层面的挑战：

poverty in the midst of plenty, inequalities, conflict, injustice².  贫富分布不均、不平等、战乱、不公平；

And then there are the new challenges, which we don't expect. 还有很多尚未料到的新的挑战。

Ten thousand years ago, there were about five million human beings on Earth.  一万年前，地球上只有大概五百万人，

Whatever they could do,  无论那时的人做了什么，

the Earth's resilience would soon heal human activities.  地球的恢复力都会让人类的影响消于无形。

After the Industrial and Technological³ Revolutions,  自工业技术革命开始以来，

that's not the same anymore.  这种情况就不复存在了。

We are now the major agent of impact on our Earth.  人类成为了破坏地球最主要的因素。

We enter the Anthropocene, the era of human beings.  我们迎来了人类纪，即人类的纪元。

So in a way, if we were to say we need to continue this endless growth,  从某种角度来看，如果我们持续这种无节制的发展，

endless use of material resources,  持续不断地消耗资源，

it's like if this man was saying and I heard a former head of state, I won't mention who, saying Five years ago, we were at the edge of the precipice⁴.  我们就会像这位,我从一位前国家元首那听来的， 我不会说是谁—说的这样，五年前，我们站在悬崖边，

Today we made a big step forward. 今天我们又跨出了一大步。

So this edge is the same that has been defined by scientists as the planetary boundaries. 这个悬崖边，就是科学家们定义的地球限度。

And within those boundaries, they can carry a number of factors.  在限度以内—这个限度是由多种因素决定的。

We can still prosper⁵, humanity can still prosper for 150,000 years if we keep the same stability of climate as in the Holocene for the last 10,000 years. 我们仍然可以繁荣发展，如果维持曾经持续了一万年的 全新纪的环境稳定性，人类可以再发展十五万年。

But this depends on choosing a voluntary simplicity,  但这决定于我们的选择，

growing qualitatively⁶, not quantitatively⁷.  要自发地求简、求质，而不是求数量。

So in 1900, as you can see, we were well within the limits of safety.  在二十世纪初，你们能看到， 我们还处在安全的限度以内。

Now, in 1950 came the great acceleration⁸.  到二十世纪五十年代， 社会的发展速度有了极大提升。

Now hold your breath, not too long, to imagine what comes next.  请屏住呼吸，快速想一下， 接下来会发生什么吧。

Now we have vastly overrun some of the planetary boundaries.  如今我们在很多方面大幅超出地球限度，

Just to take biodiversity, at the current rate,  以生物多样性来说吧，按现有速度，

by 2050, 30 percent of all species on Earth will have disappeared.  到2050年，地球上30%的物种将会消失。

Even if we keep their DNA⁹ in some fridge, that's not going to be reversible.  即便我们冷藏其DNA，消失的物种也不能复原。

So here I am sitting in front of a 7,000-meter-high, 21,000-foot glacier¹⁰ in Bhutan. 照片中的我坐在不丹境内七千米高，也就是两万一千英尺高的冰川前。

At the Third Pole, 2,000 glaciers¹¹ are melting fast, faster than the Arctic.  在第三极点，两千米高的冰川在迅速融化， 速度比北极融化的还要快。

So what can we do in that situation?  这种情况下我们能做些什么呢？

Well, however complex politically, economically, scientifically the question of the environment is,  环境问题尽管充斥着政治、经济、学术等诸多因素，

it simply boils down to a question of altruism¹² versus¹³ selfishness.  但可以归结为一点：是利他，还是利己。

I'm a Marxist of the Groucho tendency.  我是格劳乔马克思主义者。

Groucho Marx said, "Why should I care about future generations?  格劳乔马克思说过，我为什么要为后代考虑呢？

What have they ever done for me?  他们为我做过什么吗？

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