TED演讲：改变荒漠现状,扭转气候变化(6)

 　　So let's do that. So on this bit of grassland¹, we'll do it, but just in the foreground.  那就做吧。我们将在这块小草地上实验这种方式。这只是一开始的样子。

　　We'll impact it very heavily with cattle to mimic² nature, and we've done so, and look at that.  我们将会在上面用大量的家畜来模拟大自然的行为，现在来看下模拟之后草地的样子。

　　All of that grass is now covering the soil as dung, urine and litter or mulch,  现在土壤已经被野草完全的覆盖，上面还有家畜的粪便、尿液、以及其它的覆盖物，

　　as every one of the gardeners amongst you would understand,  在座的观众如果做过园艺就会明白，

　　and that soil is ready to absorb and hold the rain, to store carbon, and to break down methane³.  这样的土壤已经可以吸收并保存雨水，可以保留住碳元素，并能够分解甲烷。

　　And we did that, without using fire to damage the soil, and the plants are free to grow. 我们做到了这一点，在没有用火去破坏土壤的前提下，植被也可以自由生长。

　　When I first realized that we had no option as scientists but to use much-vilified livestock⁴ to address climate change and desertification, ok?  当我第一次意识到，我们作为科学家没有别的选择，只有用破坏性强的牲畜来应对气候变化和荒漠化，

　　I was faced with a real dilemma⁵. How were we to do it?  我面临着真正的困境。我们应该怎么去实现这个目标？

　　We'd had 10,000 years of extremely knowledgeable⁶ pastoralists bunching and moving their animals,  牧民们已经积累了一万年丰富的畜牧经验，知道如何群养和迁徙他们的动物，

　　but they had created the great manmade deserts of the world.  但是，他们创造了世界上最大的人造沙漠。

　　Then we'd had 100 years of modern rain science, and that had accelerated desertification,  现代的降雨研究也持续了一百年以上，而这些研究反而加快了荒漠化，

　　as we first discovered in Africa and then confirmed in the United States,  正如我在非洲首先发现在美国得到证实的那样，

　　and as you see in this picture of land managed by the federal government.  你们现在看到的图片是联邦政府管理的土地。

　　Clearly more was needed than bunching and moving the animals,  这些土地需要的显然比起群牧和迁徙更多，

　　and humans, over thousands of years, had never been able to deal with nature's complexity⁷.  几千年来，我们人类始终无法完全理解大自然的复杂性。

　　But we biologists and ecologists had never tackled anything as complex as this.  而我们的生物学家和生态学家从来没有尝试解决过这么复杂的事。

　　So rather than reinvent the wheel, I began studying other professions to see if anybody had.  没有尝试重新发明车轮，而是转向别的科学领域，看看是否有成果可以借鉴。

　　And I found there were planning techniques that I could take and adapt to our biological need,  我找到了任务规划方面的一些技术，能够满足我们生物学领域的需求，

　　and from those I developed what we call holistic⁸ management and planned grazing, a planning process,  在将这些技术引入生物学的过程中，我们开发了一种称为“整体管理和计划放牧”方法，是一个规划过程，

　　and that does address all of nature's complexity and our social, environmental, economic complexity. 这个方法设法了解并解决自然的复杂性和我们社会的、环境的、经济的复杂性。

1 grassland   

n.牧场，草地，草原

参考例句：

• There is a reach of grassland in the distance.远处是连绵一片的草原。
• The snowstorm swept the vast expanse of grassland.暴风雪袭击了辽阔的草原。

2 mimic   

v.模仿，戏弄；n.模仿他人言行的人

参考例句：

• A parrot can mimic a person's voice.鹦鹉能学人的声音。
• He used to mimic speech peculiarities of another.他过去总是模仿别人讲话的特点。

3 methane   

n.甲烷，沼气

参考例句：

• The blast was caused by pockets of methane gas that ignited.爆炸是由数袋甲烷气体着火引起的。
• Methane may have extraterrestrial significance.甲烷具有星际意义。

4 livestock   

n.家畜，牲畜

参考例句：

• Both men and livestock are flourishing.人畜两旺。
• The heavy rains and flooding killed scores of livestock.暴雨和大水淹死了许多牲口。

5 dilemma   

n.困境，进退两难的局面

参考例句：

• I am on the horns of a dilemma about the matter.这件事使我进退两难。
• He was thrown into a dilemma.他陷入困境。

6 knowledgeable   

adj.知识渊博的；有见识的

参考例句：

• He's quite knowledgeable about the theatre.他对戏剧很有心得。
• He made some knowledgeable remarks at the meeting.他在会上的发言颇有见地。

7 complexity   

n.复杂(性)，复杂的事物

参考例句：

• Only now did he understand the full complexity of the problem.直到现在他才明白这一问题的全部复杂性。
• The complexity of the road map puzzled me.错综复杂的公路图把我搞糊涂了。

8 holistic   

adj.从整体着眼的，全面的

参考例句：

• There is a fundamental ambiguity in the use of word "whole" in recent holistic literature.在近代的整体主义著作中，“整体”这个词的用法极其含混。
• In so far as historicism is technological,its approach is not piecemeal,but "holistic".仅就历史决定论是一种技术而论，它的方法不是渐进的，而是“整体主义的”。