Reference to Homework 6
At the start of the 21st century, humankind finds itself on a non-sustainable course ––– the course that, unless it is changed, could lead to grand scale catastrophes. At the same time, we are unlocking formidable new capabilities that lead to more exciting lives and glorious civilizations. This could be either humanity’s last century or the century that set the world on a course toward a spectacular future.
二十一世纪伊始，人类发现自己正处于一种难以维系下去的状态——这种状态如果听之任之，将导致大规模的灾难。与此同时，我们也正释放出种种新的巨大潜能，而借助这种潜能，人类能迎来各种更令人激动的生活和更光辉的文明。这可能是人类的最后一个世纪，但也可能是人类拨正航行，朝光辉灿烂未来驶去的一个世纪。
We live on a small, beautiful and totally isolated planet, but its population is becoming too large; enormous new consumer societies are growing, of which China is the largest; and technology is becoming powerful enough to wreck the planet. We are traveling at breakneck speed into an age of extremes ––– extremes in wealth and poverty, extremes in technology and the experiments that scientists want to perform, extreme forces of globalism, weapons of mass destruction and terrorists acting in the name of religion. If we are to survive, we have to learn how to manage this situation.
我们生活在一个与其他星球隔绝的美丽的小星球上，但是地球
的人口正日益增多；庞大的新消费社会正在成长，而中国是其中最大的一个；科技也变得无比强大，足以毁坏这个星球。我们正疯狂地奔向一个极端的时代：极端的富有，极端的贫困，极端的科技，极端的科学实验，极端的全球化影响力，大规模毁灭性武器，还有以宗教的名义进行的恐怖活动。假如想要逃此一劫，我们就得学会如何驾驭这一形势。
Formidable problems confront us, but this is a book about solutions---many solutions. With these solutions we will bring about the change in course, a great 21st century transition. If we get it right, we have an extraordinary future. If we get it wrong, we face an irreversible disruption that could set humanity back centuries. A drastic change is needed in the first half of that 21st century to set the stage for extraordinary events in the rest of the century.
尽管可怕的难题摆在我们面前，但这本书为之提供了解决之道的——无数的解决之道。凭借这些方案我们将带来相应的改变，即伟大的二十一世纪的过渡。如果我们措置得当，我们将会有一个迥然不同的未来。如果我们措置失当，人类文明进程将面临不可逆转的中断，乃至后退数个世纪。在二十一世纪的前半叶需要采取大刀阔斧的变革，为后半叶那些意义非凡的进程创造条件。
Humankind has been able to thrive for thousands of years because nature provided it with resources like topsoil, underground water, fish in the oceans, minerals, oil and wetlands, but these resources are finite, like
cookies in a jar. We are using up many of these resources, and some don’t have substitutes.
在几千年里，人类之所以能够保持繁荣进程，是因为大自然提供了诸如表土、地下水、海洋的鱼类、矿产、石油和湿地等资源。但这些资源并非取之不尽、用之不竭的，就好象家中点心桶里的饼干。我们正在耗尽其中许多资源，而且有一些是不可替代的。
Nature also provided us with an ozone layer and a delicately regulated atmosphere, with forests that remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere but are now being depleted. Every year, because of our misuse of the Earth’s resources, we lose 100 million acres of farmland and 24 billion tons of topsoil, and we create 15 million acres of new desert around the world. An inch of good topsoil can take a thousand years to form, but when people destroy windbreaks by cutting down trees, the topsoil can be washed or blown away in months.
自然还为我们提供了臭氧层和能微妙调节的大气层，这种调节是靠森林来避免向大气中释放二氧化碳的，但森林正在被砍伐。每年，由于我们对自然资源的不当使用，我们损失1亿英亩的农地和240亿吨的表土，同时在全世界创造出1500万英亩的新荒漠。一英寸的优质表土需要花费几千年形成，但是由于人们砍伐树木摧毁了这道防风障，表土在几个月内就会被冲走或吹走。
Water is vital for our survival and for producing food. It takes about a thousand tons of water to produce one tone of grain that, fed to cows,
produces only 18 pounds of meat. Today mankind is using about 160 billion tons more water each year than is being replenished by rain and fed back into water storages. If this water were carried in water trucks, it would require a 300,000-mile-long convoy of trucks every day---a convoy length 37 times the diameter of the Earth. This is how much water we are using and not replenishing
水对于我们的生存和食物的生产是至关重要的。耗费大约一千吨水生产一吨谷物，用这来喂牛，只能生产18磅肉。今天人们每年消耗大约1600多亿吨水，超过了雨水和回流所能补给给水资源的量。如果用卡车来装运这些水，可能需要每天组成30万公里长的车队……这个车队的长度将是地球直径的37倍。这就是我们所消耗而未能补充上的水的数量。