科学美国人60秒 SSS World Wilderness Down 10 Percent in 20 Years
时间：2018-12-24 作者：英语课 分类：2016年Scientific American(九)月
Only about 23 percent of the world’s land area is still what you’d call wilderness 1—where indigenous 2 people, wildlife, plants and microbes get a chance to live with little or no disturbance 3 from large human populations. But even that current figure of 23 percent is down by a tenth in just the last couple of decades. Which translates into an area the size of Alaska being converted away from wilderness since the 1990s. That’s according to a study in the journal Current Biology that was also announced at the just completed Honolulu meeting of the International Union for Conservation of Nature. [Watson et al, Catastrophic Declines in Wilderness Areas Undermine Global Environment Targets]
The research found that the regions that suffered the biggest wilderness losses were South America and Central Africa. South America lost almost a third of its wilderness while Africa’s is down about 14 percent.
James Watson is the lead author of the study. He’s with the Wildlife Conservation Society and the University of Queensland—he’s no relation to the more famous DNA 4 double helix James Watson.
In the journal article he and his colleagues write: “The continued loss of wilderness areas is a globally significant problem with largely irreversible outcomes for both humans and nature: if these trends continue, there could be no globally significant wilderness areas left in less than a century. Proactively protecting the world’s last wilderness areas is a cost-effective conservation investment and our best prospect 5 for ensuring that intact ecosystems 6 and large-scale ecological 7 and evolutionary 8 processes persist for the benefit of future generations.” And future generations includes both the organisms in the remaining wilderness—and us.
—Steve Mirsky
[The above text is a transcript 9 of this podcast.]
- She drove the herd of cattle through the wilderness.她赶着牛群穿过荒野。
- Education in the wilderness is not a matter of monetary means.荒凉地区的教育不是钱财问题。
- Each country has its own indigenous cultural tradition.每个国家都有自己本土的文化传统。
- Indians were the indigenous inhabitants of America.印第安人是美洲的土著居民。
- He is suffering an emotional disturbance.他的情绪受到了困扰。
- You can work in here without any disturbance.在这儿你可不受任何干扰地工作。
- DNA is stored in the nucleus of a cell.脱氧核糖核酸储存于细胞的细胞核里。
- Gene mutations are alterations in the DNA code.基因突变是指DNA密码的改变。
- This state of things holds out a cheerful prospect.事态呈现出可喜的前景。
- The prospect became more evident.前景变得更加明朗了。
- There are highly sensitive and delicately balanced ecosystems in the forest. 森林里有高度敏感、灵敏平衡的各种生态系统。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- Madagascar's ecosystems range from rainforest to semi-desert. 马达加斯加生态系统类型多样，从雨林到半荒漠等不一而足。 来自辞典例句
- The region has been declared an ecological disaster zone.这个地区已经宣布为生态灾难区。
- Each animal has its ecological niche.每种动物都有自己的生态位.
- Life has its own evolutionary process.生命有其自身的进化过程。
- These are fascinating questions to be resolved by the evolutionary studies of plants.这些十分吸引人的问题将在研究植物进化过程中得以解决。
- A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
- They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。