TED演讲:论生物多样性(1)

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After two days here, I declare myself boggled, and enormously impressed,  在这里呆了两天，我承认，我已经被深深感染，

and feel that you are one of the great hopes not just for American achievement in science and technology,  我感到，你们代表着伟大的希望不仅仅是美国在科学技术上取得进步的希望，

but for the whole world.  也是整个世界的希望。

I've come, however, on a special mission on behalf of my constituency,  我今天来到这里，是代表我的选民，

which are the 10-to-the-18th-power that's a million trillion insects and other small creatures, and to make a plea for them. 它们的数量多达10的18次方,它们是昆虫以及其他的小动物，我是来为它们申张正义的。

If we were to wipe out insects alone, just that group alone, on this planet which we are trying hard to do, 假如我们要把昆虫从地球上消灭掉，就单单是昆虫,实际上我们也在努力这样做，

the rest of life and humanity with it would mostly disappear from the land.  那么剩下的生物包括人类也很可能从地球消失。

And within a few months.  这只需几个月的时间。

Now, how did I come to this particular position of advocacy?  那我是怎么成为这样一个为昆虫辩护的斗士呢？

As a little boy, and through my teenage years,  当我还是小孩子的时候，

I became increasingly fascinated by the diversity of life.  我就对生物之多样性感到越来越浓厚的兴趣。

I had a butterfly period, a snake period, a bird period, a fish period, a cave period and finally and definitively¹, an ant period. 我曾经对蝴蝶、蛇、小鸟、鱼以及洞穴感兴趣,最后，我对蚂蚁产生浓厚而长久的兴趣。

By my college years, I was a devoted² myrmecologist,  读大学的时候，我对于蚂蚁研究很有热情，

a specialist on the biology of ants,  我是一位研究蚂蚁的专家，

but my attention and research continued to make journeys across the great variety of life on Earth in general, 我的关注点以及研究都围绕地球上巨大的生物多样性而展开,

including all that it means to us as a species, how little we understand it and how pressing a danger that our activities have created for it. 包括这对我们人类意味着什么，以及为何我们对此所知甚少,还有人类活动正在对生物多样性构成的严重威胁。

Out of that broader study has emerged a concern and an ambition,  长期的研究使我产生一种对生物的关切以及一个宏愿，

crystallized in the wish that I'm about to make to you.  待会我会在叙述愿望的时候具体说明。

My choice is the culmination³ of a lifetime commitment that began with growing up on the Gulf⁴ Coast of Alabama, on the Florida peninsula.  我的这一选择是整个研究生涯之落脚点,我小时候在佛罗里达半岛的阿拉巴马湾度过。

As far back as I can remember, I was enchanted⁵ by the natural beauty of that region and the almost tropical exuberance⁶ of the plants and animals that grow there. 从记事起，我就被那一带的自然美景深深陶醉,包括该地繁盛成长的接近热带的动植物。

One day when I was only seven years old and fishing,  七岁那年，有一天我去钓鱼，

I pulled a pinfish, they're called, with sharp dorsal⁷ spines⁸, up too hard and fast,  我捉到一条免齿鲷—有尖利的背棘—猛然用力拉上来，

and I blinded myself in one eye.  并因此而弄瞎了其中一只眼睛。

I later discovered I was also hard of hearing,  另外，我后来还发现自己在听力方面也不是很好，

possibly congenitally, in the upper registers.  也许是生来就有的缺陷。

So in planning to be a professional naturalist⁹. 于是，为了成为一名职业的自然学家。

I never considered anything else in my entire life.  我就决定只做一件事。

I found that I was lousy at bird watching and couldn't track frog calls either.  要我观鸟，我不在行；要我追踪青蛙，我也不擅长于此。

So I turned to the teeming¹⁰ small creatures that can be held between the thumb and forefinger:  于是我决定做那些小动物的研究,它们大多可以放在我的拇指跟食指之间，

the little things that compose the foundation of our ecosystems,  而正是它们构建了我们整个生态圈的基础，

the little things, as I like to say, who run the world.  它们才是世界的主人。

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