TED演讲：改变荒漠现状,扭转气候变化(8)

 　　I began helping¹ a family in the Karoo Desert in the 1970s turn the desert that you see on the right there back to grassland,  20世纪70年代我开始帮助一个在卡鲁沙漠的家庭，你们看到在右边沙漠变回了草地，

　　and thankfully, now their grandchildren are on the land with hope for the future.  值得庆幸的是，现在他们的子孙在这片土地上，对未来充满希望。

　　And look at the amazing change in this one, where that gully has completely healed using nothing but livestock² mimicking⁴ nature,  看看这个喜人的变化，那里的沟壑已完全愈合，只是用了牧群模仿大自然的过程，

　　and once more, we have the third generation of that family on that land with their flag still flying. 更可喜的是，第三代人生活在那里，他们的旗帜依旧飞扬。

　　The vast grasslands⁵ of Patagonia are turning to desert as you see here.  巴塔哥尼亚这片辽阔的草原正在变成沙漠。

　　The man in the middle is an Argentinian researcher,  在中间的那个人是一位阿根廷研究员，

　　and he has documented the steady decline of that land over the years as they kept reducing sheep numbers.  他已经记录了这片土地的持续衰落，多年来羊群数目持续减少。

　　They put 25,000 sheep in one flock, really mimicking nature now with planned grazing, ok?  他们把2万5千只羊作为一群，真正模仿大自然的过程并有规划的放牧，

　　And they have documented a 50-percent increase in the production of the land in the first year. 他们的记录显示，第一年土地的产量有50%的增长。

　　We now have in the violent Horn of Africa pastoralists planning their grazing to mimic³ nature  现在在冲突不断的非洲之角（非洲大陆最东的地区）牧民们通过规牧群游牧活动模仿大自然，

　　and openly saying it is the only hope they have of saving their families and saving their culture.  并公开的表示这是他们唯一的希望，来哺育他们的家人，挽救他们的文化。

　　Ninety-five percent of that land can only feed people from animals. 这块地的95%的人依靠动物为生。

　　I remind you that I am talking about most of the world's land here that controls our fate,  我要提醒大家，世界上大部分的土地都是如此，它们掌握着人类的命运，

　　including the most violent region of the world, where only animals can feed people from about 95 percent of the land.  包括世界最暴力的地区，这些土地上有95%的人以动物作为唯一的食物来源。

　　What we are doing globally is causing climate change as much as, I believe, fossil fuels, and maybe more than fossil fuels.  这种全球范围的人类行为导致了气候变化，我相信这种原因的重要性至少和化石燃料一样，可能比化石燃料还多。

　　But worse than that, it is causing hunger, poverty, violence, social breakdown⁶ and war,  更糟的是，它引起饥饿、贫困、暴力、社会崩溃和战争，

　　and as I am talking to you, millions of men, women and children are suffering and dying.  正如我刚才告诉你们的，数以百万计的男人、女人和孩子正在遭受痛苦和死亡。

　　And if this continues, we are unlikely to be able to stop the climate changing, even after we have eliminated the use of fossil fuels. 如果这种情况持续下去，即使我们停止使用了化石燃料，我们可能也无法阻止气候的改变了。

1 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

2 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。

3 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。

4 mimicking   

v.（尤指为了逗乐而）模仿( mimic的现在分词 )；酷似

参考例句：

• She's always mimicking the teachers. 她总喜欢模仿老师的言谈举止。
• The boy made us all laugh by mimicking the teacher's voice. 这男孩模仿老师的声音，逗得我们大家都笑了。 来自辞典例句

5 grasslands   

n.草原，牧场( grassland的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Songs were heard ringing loud and clear over the grasslands. 草原上扬起清亮激越的歌声。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Grasslands have been broken and planted to wheat. 草原已经开垦出来，种上了小麦。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 breakdown   

n.垮，衰竭；损坏，故障，倒塌

参考例句：

• She suffered a nervous breakdown.她患神经衰弱。
• The plane had a breakdown in the air,but it was fortunately removed by the ace pilot.飞机在空中发生了故障，但幸运的是被王牌驾驶员排除了。