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科学家们开始研究人类带来的影响

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2019年06月04日

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Scientists start the clock on human impact

科学家们开始研究人类带来的影响

Though it's clear we're currently living in it, scientists have long debated when the Anthropocene, the epoch of human dominance over the planet, first began.

虽然很明显我们现在生活在地球上,但科学家们一直在争论人类世是何时开始的,即人类统治地球的时代。

The Anthropocene Era refers to the period of time humans have had a measurable global impact on Earth's ecosystems.

人类世指的是人类对地球生态系统产生了可测量的全球性影响的时期。

Did it start with the advent of agriculture around 10,000 years ago? With the Industrial Revolution? With the first explosions of nuclear weapons in the 1940s?

它始于一万年前农业的出现吗?还是工业革命?又或是20世纪40年代第一次核武器爆炸?

The Anthropocene Working Group (AWG), a panel of scientists, recently voted to official recognize the epoch and suggested starting it in the middle of the 20th century, according to Nature.

据《自然》杂志报道,由科学家组成的人类世工作组(AWG)最近投票决定正式承认这一纪元,并建议从20世纪中叶开始。

They are now working to determine a "golden spike," or a feature that best describes its start. It may be hydrogen bomb tests in the 1950s, for example, or the increase of industrial production and the widespread use of agricultural chemicals.

他们现在正在努力确定一个“节点”,或者一个最能描述它开始的特性。例如,可能是20世纪50年代的氢弹试验,或者是工业生产的增加和农业化学品的广泛使用。

“The Anthropocene works as a geological unit of time, process and strata,” says Jan Zalasiewicz, chair of the AWG and a geologist at the University of Leicester, U.K.. Zalasiewicz wasn’t sure of that conclusion when the AWG began its work a decade ago. But the current vote shows that the group has mostly reached agreement on the idea of the geological unit.

“人类世是时间、过程和地层的地质单位。”AWG主席、英国莱斯特大学的地质学家Jan Zalasiewicz说。十年前,当AWG开始工作时,Zalasiewicz并不确定这个结论。但目前的投票结果显示,该小组基本上就地质单元的想法达成了一致。

At one point, 2015 data suggested the Anthropocene Era may have actually started in the year 1610.

2015年的数据显示,人类世实际上可能始于1610年。

What happened in 1610 that made it such a tipping point for humanity's impact on Earth? According to Simon Lewis, an ecologist at University College London, and geologist Mark Maslin of Leeds University, a golden spike can be seen in the global geological record in this year which can be directly attributed to humans, reports the Independent.

1610年发生了什么,使得它成为人类对地球影响的转折点?据英国《独立报》报道,伦敦大学学院的生态学家西蒙·刘易斯和利兹大学的地质学家马克·马斯林表示,这一年全球地质记录中出现的一个金色尖峰可以直接归因于人类。

Two global signatures appear in 1610: Pollen from imported New World crops begins to appear in Europe, and a massive dip in carbon dioxide levels can be seen in Antarctic ice cores dating to that time. Both of these events are a direct result of increased trade and transport of animals and plants across the Atlantic Ocean — a barrier that had previously kept the New and Old Worlds separated for millions of years.

1610年出现了两个全球特征:来自新大陆进口作物的花粉开始出现在欧洲,可以看到在那个时候南极冰芯的二氧化碳水平大幅下降。这两件事都是大西洋两岸动植物贸易和运输增加的直接结果,而大西洋是过去几百万年来把新旧世界分隔开的一道屏障。

In the case of the global dip in carbon dioxide, Lewis and Maslin believe this to be the result of the deaths of millions of indigenous people in the aftermath of European colonization. As many as 50 million Native Americans died in the aftermath of European expansion into the New World, mostly as a result of infectious diseases such as smallpox. As their numbers dwindled, the resultant loss in agriculture allowed forests to re-grow throughout the Americas. These expanded forests scrubbed the atmosphere of carbon dioxide.

在全球二氧化碳排放量下降的情况下,刘易斯和马斯林认为,这是欧洲殖民之后数百万土著人死亡的结果。在欧洲向新大陆扩张的过程中,多达5000万印第安人死于诸如天花之类的传染病。人类数量的减少造成了农业的损失,这使得整个美洲的森林得以重新生长,这些扩张的森林缓解了大气中的二氧化碳。

"In a hundred thousand years, scientists will look at the environmental record and know something remarkable happened in the second half of the second millennium," said Lewis. "They will be in no doubt that these global changes to Earth were caused by their own species. The anthropocene probably began when species jumped continents, starting when the old world met the new."

刘易斯说:“数万年后,科学家们将研究环境记录,并知道在第二个千年的下半叶发生了一些不同寻常的事情。毫无疑问,这些对地球的全球性变化是由它们自己的物种造成的。人类世很可能是从物种跨越大陆开始的,从旧世界和新世界相遇开始的。”

Lewis and Maslin contend that this is the first time that human actions had a truly global impact. The bridging of the Old and New Worlds fundamentally changed the entire biosphere of the planet. This was not just a regional impact; its ecological footprint stretched around the world.

刘易斯和马斯林认为,这是人类行为第一次真正产生全球性影响。新旧世界的连接从根本上改变了地球的整个生物圈。这不仅仅是区域性的影响;它的生态足迹遍布世界各地。

"We humans are now a geological power in our own right, as earth-changing as a meteorite strike. Historically, the collision of the old and new worlds marks the beginning of the modern world," Lewis added.

“我们人类现在凭借自己的力量成为一股地质力量,就像陨石撞击地球一样改变着地球。从历史上看,新旧世界的碰撞标志着现代世界的开始。”刘易斯说。


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