評論
打印
Looking at the food in the British Museum canteen, so much of it flown across the world, I'm struck by the fact that while we all travel more and more freely, we depend on food grown by people who cannot move, who must stay on the same piece of land.
在大英博物館職工餐廳里，環(huán)顧四周，這么多的食物都是從世界其它地方空運過來的。讓我十分感概的是在我們擁有越多自由四處旅行的今天，我們?nèi)耘f依賴于那些農(nóng)作物，種植它們的人們相當(dāng)于被固定在那片土地上，無法自由旅行。
We're all increasingly aware of how vulnerable this makes farmers across the world to any change in climate, and this dependence on regular predictable weather led the farmers of ten thousand years ago to identify gods of food and climate, who needed constant placation and prayer in order to ensure the cycle of nature and safe, good harvests. Nowadays, most people look to governments, and to campaigners like Sir Bob Geldof:
這讓我們越來越意識到在各種氣候變化面前，全世界的農(nóng)民與農(nóng)業(yè)是多么的脆弱。其實早在一萬年前，農(nóng)民已經(jīng)學(xué)會了依賴于定期預(yù)測氣候變化，也因此導(dǎo)致他們開始定義出掌管食物與氣候的神靈，這些神靈需要人類不斷的祭拜與祈禱，才會保佑人們風(fēng)調(diào)雨順、谷物豐收。如今，大多數(shù)人把希望寄托到各國政府上，或者像鮑勃·格洋多夫爵士一樣的活動家：
'The whole psychology of food, where it places us, is I think more important than almost any other aspect of our lives. Essentially, the necessity to work comes out of the necessity to eat. So, this central idea of food is the fundamental in all human existence.
“就心理角度而言，我覺得食物比我們生活中其他方方面面幾乎都要更加重要。本質(zhì)上講，勞作的必要性來源于吃的必要性。所以食物的中心思想便是所有人類生存的根本。
It's clear that no animal can exist without being able to eat, but right now, at the beginning of the 21st century, it is clearly in the top three of priorities for the global powers to address. Upon their success or not will depend the future of huge sections of the world population. There simply isn't enough food for the world at the moment. There are several factors, but the predominant one is climate change.'
很顯然，沒有任何動物能不依靠吃而存生。在二十一世紀(jì)開端的今天，它無疑位居全球各力量必須最優(yōu)先解決的三大問題之首。其成功與否將取決于未來世界人口的絕大部分。目前而言世界上根本沒有足夠的食物。其中因素有幾個，但最主要的就是氣候變化。
So a change in climate, like the one that brought us agriculture in the first place, is now threatening our global survival. Just after the Ice Age, the growing population that the new foods allowed was of course not a problem but a positive advantage. The first settled societies increased quickly in numbers and, as long as the weather allowed, they developed new, stable communities.
因此當(dāng)初氣候變化迎來了我們農(nóng)業(yè)的誕生，而今這種氣候變化卻已經(jīng)威脅到我們?nèi)蛉祟惿?。?dāng)初冰河時代后，新興糧食的到來引起的人口增長，并非是個問題，而是一種優(yōu)勢。最早的人類定居群體在人口數(shù)量上增長迅速，而且在氣候允許的情況下，發(fā)展出更多新興、穩(wěn)定的人類群體。
Tomorrow I'll be focussing on the fertility not of the land, but of the people farming it. I'll be looking at a stone sculpture that's the first representation, anywhere, of a couple making love.
明天我的側(cè)重點將不是土地的肥沃力，而是在土地上耕作的人類的生育能力。我將會介紹一件石頭雕塑品，全世界史上最早的男女配偶間性愛活動的象征品。
