TED演讲:论生物多样性(5)

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The human juggernaut is permanently¹ eroding² Earth's ancient biosphere³ by a combination of forces that can be summarized by the acronym⁴ HIPPO, the animal hippo.  人类正在以不可抗拒的力量，持续破坏着那些亿万年演化而成的生物系统,这些力量可以总结为HIPPO，原意是河马。

H is for habitat destruction, including climate change forced by greenhouse gases.  H是代表栖息地破坏, 这包括因为大量排放温室气体而产生的气候变化。

I is for the invasive species like the fire ants, the zebra mussels, broom grasses， I是代表入侵物种，包括红火蚁、 斑马贻贝等，

and pathogenic bacteria and viruses that are flooding every country, and at an exponential rate that's the I.  以及那些正在以惊人速度在各个国家蔓延的病毒和致病菌。

The P, the first one in HIPPO, is for pollution.  P，第一个P是代表污染。

The second is for continued population, human population expansion.  第二个是指持续的人口增长。

And the final letter is O, for over-harvesting driving species into extinction⁵ by excessive hunting and fishing. 而O则代表过度捕获，过度的狩猎和捕捞正使许多物种走向消亡

The HIPPO juggernaut we have created, if unabated, is destined⁷ according to the best estimates of ongoing⁸ biodiversity research, 人类如果不减弱这些力量（HIPPO）,根据一直在进行的生物多样性研究的最乐观估计，

to reduce half of Earth's still surviving animal and plant species to extinction or critical endangerment by the end of the century. 也将使得地球现存的动植物种类中有一半，走向灭绝或走到濒危的境地，也许就发生在本世纪末。

Human-forced climate change alone again, if unabated could eliminate a quarter of surviving species during the next five decades.  单单是人为引起的气候变化，假如不加以遏制就将会在未来的半个世纪使得现存物种数目减少四分之一。

What will we and all future generations lose if much of the living environment is thus degraded? 假如地球环境真的这样恶化下去，那么我们以及我们的后代将经受怎样的后果？

Huge potential sources of scientific information yet to be gathered,  有大量的科学数据就藏在大自然当中等待我们去发掘，

much of our environmental stability and new kinds of pharmaceuticals⁹ and new products of unimaginable strength and value all thrown away.  环境稳定性，还有许多价值非凡的新药物新产品都会因此而被遗弃。

The loss will inflict¹⁰ a heavy price in wealth, security and yes, spirituality for all time to come,  这样的损失也将给我们的财富、安全以及精神生活带来巨大的冲击，

because previous cataclysms¹¹ of this kind the last one, that ended the age of dinosaurs¹² took, normally, five to 10 million years to repair. 我们知道，历史上曾出现过的类似这类灾难性事件，对上一次是数百万年前，使得恐龙走向灭绝必须经过一千万年才能得到恢复。

Sadly, our knowledge of biodiversity is so incomplete that we are at risk of losing a great deal of it before it is even discovered.  可悲的是，我们关于生物多样性的了解是如此之少，也许有许多知识未待我们发现就已经不复存在。

For example, even in the United States, the 200,000 species known currently actually has been found to be only partial in coverage¹³; 比方说，在美国，我们知道有20万个物种，但我们发现这其实只是很小的一个部分；

it is mostly unknown to us in basic biology.  而我们学基础生物学的时候是没有学这个的。

Only about 15 percent of the known species have been studied well enough to evaluate their status.  只有15%的已知物种是有过深入研究，使得我们可以评估它们的境况。

Of the 15 percent evaluated, 20 percent are classified as in peril,  在这15%的物种里，有20%是被列为处于危险状态，

that is, in danger of extinction.  换言之，它们就在灭绝的边缘。

That's in the United States.  这只是美国的故事。

We are, in short, flying blind into our environmental future.  概而言之，我们就像盲人一样去迎接这样的未来环境。

We urgently need to change this.  我们必须尽快改变这一现状。

We need to have the biosphere properly explored so that we can understand and competently manage it. 我们需要对生物圈正确地进行探测，唯有如此，我们才能把握其秘密，并更好的加以保护。

We need to settle down before we wreck¹⁴ the planet.  我们要知道我们的处境，而后才能对未来采取应对措施。

And we need that knowledge.  我们需要这样的知识。

This should be a big science project equivalent to the Human Genome Project.  这将会是一个相当庞大的科学项目，堪与人类基因组计划相比。

It should be thought of as a biological moonshot with a timetable.  或者说是一次时间概念更强烈的生物学阿波罗项目。

So this brings me to my wish for TEDsters,  我接下来就 要宣布我的TED⁶愿望，

and to anyone else around the world who hears this talk.  世界各地热爱科学的朋友也欢迎你们的聆听。

I wish we will work together to help create the key tools that we need to inspire preservation¹⁵ of Earth's biodiversity.  我希望我们可以携手合作，创建一些工具来鼓励保护地球生物多样性。

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