我们已经没有荒野了

我们已经没有荒野了

Almost half of the land on Earth is now farmland.

现在地球上几乎一半的土地是农田。

When you picture the world, you might imagine vast jungles, meadows, and untouched wilderness. But if you find yourself driving past a whole lot more corn fields than forests, you’re not just imagining things. Nature is disappearing.

当你描绘这个世界的时候，你可能会想到广阔的丛林、草地和未被开发的荒野。但如果你发现自己开车经过的玉米地比森林多得多，那你就不是在想象了。自然正在消失。

©. Ilana E. Strauss

That’s what Navin Ramankutty, an agricultural geographer at the University of British Columbia, told me. Ramankutty and his colleagues use satellites to figure out how much nature is left on the planet. What he found could ruin your lunch break. Fair warning.

这是英属哥伦比亚大学农业地理学家拉曼库蒂告诉我的。拉曼库蒂和他的同事利用卫星计算出地球上还剩下多少自然资源。他的发现可能会毁了你的午休时间。这是合理的警告。

© Ilana E. Strauss

Humans use almost half of the land on Earth for agriculture. And keep in mind, “land on Earth” includes Antarctica and the far north. In fact, most of the land that hasn’t been farmed is either too cold for most plants (think penguins and polar bears) or too dry (the Sahara desert). The only real lush natural areas left are forests like the Amazon, and even these are dwindling.

人类将地球上几乎一半的土地用于农业。请记住，“地球上的陆地”包括南极洲和极北地区。事实上，大部分没有被耕种的土地要么太冷，不适合大多数植物生长(想想企鹅和北极熊)，要么太干燥(撒哈拉沙漠)。仅存的真正繁茂的自然区域是像亚马逊这样的森林，但即使是这样的森林也在减少。

Crops cover a third of the land being farmed, while cows and other animals graze on the other two thirds. That means we use more land to “grow” (raise?) animals than we do to grow everything else altogether. Since it takes so much food to bring an animal to adulthood, we must be pouring tons of resources into these animals.

农作物占据了三分之一的耕地，而奶牛和其他动物占据了其余三分之二的土地。这意味着我们用更多的土地来“养殖”动物，比我们用来种植其他东西占了更多的土地。因为把动物养大需要大量的食物，我们必须把大量的资源投入到这些动物身上。

As cows, corn, soybeans, and other farmed species take over most of the places where stuff can grow, the wilderness melts away. An awful lot of plants and animals are going endangered in what scientists are calling the planet's sixth mass extinction (the dinosaurs died in the fifth), and this is a big part of the reason why: wild species have nowhere to live. There are more tigers in zoos and than in the wild.

随着奶牛、玉米、大豆和其他农耕物种占据了大部分可以生长植物的地方，荒野就越来越少了。在科学家们所说的地球第六次大灭绝(恐龙在第五次灭绝)中，大量的动植物濒临灭绝，一个很大的原因:野生物种无处生存。动物园的老虎比野生的多。

“We are basically destroying the planet for our own survival,” Ramankutty said. “This is not very sustainable.”

拉曼库蒂说:“我们基本上是在为自己的生存毁灭地球。这是不可持续的。”

Still, he’s not a cynic. Problem-solving is humanity's specialty. For instance, Ramankutty gave me the data to make this infographic, which could theoretically spread awareness.

不过，他并不是一个愤世嫉俗者。解决问题是人类的专长。例如，拉曼库蒂给了我制作这张信息图的数据，理论上可以传播意识。

“We just need to be more wise about how we use our land,” he went on. “We can imagine an ultimate future that is much more hopeful.”

“我们只是需要更明智地使用我们的土地，”他继续说。“我们可以想象一个更有希望的最终未来。”