我们星球上的生命（2023）

全新世稳定的气候
The stable climate of the Holocene
使我们的祖先
enabled our ancestors
与植物建立了一种独特的关系
to develop a unique relationship with plants.
他们精心选择特定物种
They hand-selected certain species
并将种子播撒在最适合生长的地方
and sowed their seeds where they were best able to grow.
这样的关心与照护
All this care and attention
极大地增加了植物生存的机会
dramatically increased the plants' chances of survival,
作为回报 人类可以收获果实
and in return, humans could reap the rewards.
他们学会了如何生产更多食物
They learned how to produce more food
全年供应不辍
and to make it last all year round.
作物生长的地方
And where their plants grew,
人就能兴盛发展
people prospered.
我们的祖先发现了 确保食物稳定供应的方法
Our ancestors discovered how to ensure a stable food supply.
不仅驯化了植物
And it wasn't just plants they domesticated.
也驯化了动物
Animals too.
在世界范围内
Across the world,
许多猎手和采集者放弃了游牧生活
many hunter-gatherers gave up their nomadic lifestyles
转而从事农业
in favor of farming.
荒野慢慢被改变
Slowly but surely, the wilderness was transformed,
被人类的双手驯化
tamed by human hands.
由于不用再为寻找食物而不断争斗
Freed from the constant battle to find food,
人口增长
human populations grew,
工作多样化
work diversified,
社会变得更加复杂
society became more complex...
文明就此诞生
and civilizations were born.
我们做到了其他物种从未做到的事
We achieved something no other species has ever done.
我们摆脱了大自然的束缚并将其超越
We broke free of nature and rose above it.
农业改变了一切
Agriculture changed everything...
但另一次革命即将到来
but another revolution was coming.
我们的聪明才智 令我们取得了过去从未设想过的成就
Our ingenuity has taken us further than we could ever have imagined,
我们的故事如今已书写在地球的表面
and our story is now written on the surface of the Earth.
曾经的蛮荒已被驯服
What was once wild has been tamed
或已灭绝
or lost.
对自己来说 我们太过成功
We're too successful for our own good
对地球来说 也是成功过了头
and for that of the planet...
如今我们正在导致 下一次大规模灭绝的发生
and we are now causing the next mass extinction.
不仅是因为
It's not just that
养活我们自己 要占用超过一半的可栖息土地
simply feeding ourselves takes up more than half of all habitable land...
不仅是因为我们释放出的氧化碳
and it's not just that the carbon dioxide we are releasing
正在以五亿年来从未有过的速度 令地球升温
is heating our planet faster than at any time in the last 500 million years.
也不仅是因为 我们正在令海洋升温及酸化
Nor is it just that we are warming and acidifying the oceans,
破坏其自然平衡
destroying their natural balance
杀死大量海洋生物
and killing off vast swathes of marine life.
也不仅是因为 我们正在引发极端天气事件
Nor is it just that we are causing extreme weather events...
火灾和旱灾
...fire and drought
将地球带回当初的贫瘠
that are returning the Earth to its barren beginnings.
不是因为 我们在做这些之中的任何一件
And it's not just that we are doing any one of these
而是因为我们在做所有这些事
but that we are doing all of them,
而且是同时进行
all at the same time.
更糟糕的是
And to make matters worse,
我们做得极快
we are doing it at meteoric speed.
大规模灭绝虽然罕见 但会极大地改变历史的进程
Although rare, mass extinctions change the course of history like nothing else.
到目前为止 地球已经经历了五次这样的末日事件
So far, Earth has endured five of these apocalyptic events,
每一次都消灭了四分之三以上的生命
each one wiping out more than three-quarters of all life.
而且
What's more,
事件前的主导物种
the dominant species going in
在事件之后 往往威风不再
are not the dominant species coming out.
上一次大规模灭绝
The impact of a mass extinction
已经是6600万年前的事了
has not been felt for 66 million years.
如今我们正在走向第六次
Now we're on track for the sixth.
光是在过去的50年中
In the last 50 years alone,
野生动物种群就已平均下降将近70%
wildlife populations have fallen by an average of almost 70%,
这一次 我们是罪魁祸首
and this time, we are the ones responsible.
虽然前景黯淡
And yet despite this grim forecast,
但仍有一线希望
there remains a glimmer of hope.
40亿年的生命故事中
We are the first species in the four-billion-year story of life
我们是第一个理解世界发展的物种
to understand what is happening to our world.
我们也是第一个 明白该如何采取措施进行纠正的物种
We are also the first species to understand what is needed to put it right.
智慧让我们走到今天
Our intelligence has brought us this far,
也只有智慧才能拯救我们
and it's the only thing that can save us.
我们的未来
Our future,
以及地球的未来
and that of the planet,
尚待书写
is yet to be written.
我们现在如何行动
How we act now
将决定生命故事的下一个篇章
will determine the next chapter...
但无论未来如何
But whatever future awaits in the story of life.
历史告诉我们
...if there's one thing we've learned from the past...
生命总会找到出路
it's that life has always found a way.