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The history of life on earth has been a history of interaction between living things and their surroundings. To a large extent, the physical form and the habits of the earth's vegetation and its animal life have been molded by the environment. Considering the whole span of earthly time, the opposite effect, in which life actually modifies its surroundings, has been relatively slight. Only in the present century has one species—man—acquired significant power to alter the nature of his world.
地球生命的歷史一直是生物體和它周圍環境相互作用的歷史。在很大程度上，地球上植物和動物的自然形態和習性都是由環境塑造的。就地球的整個歷史而言，生命改造環境的反作用實際上是相對微小的。但在本世紀，一個物種——人類——獲得了改造自然界的非凡能力。
During the past quarter century this power has not only become increasingly great but it has changed in character. The most alarming of all man's assaults upon the environment is the contamination of air, earth, rivers, and sea with dangerous and even lethal materials. This pollution is for the most part irrecoverable. In this now universal contamination of the environment, chemicals are the sinister partners of radiation in changing the very nature of the world—the very nature of its life. Chemicals sprayed on croplands or forests or gardens lie long in soil, entering into living organisms, passing from one to another in a chain of poisoning and death. Or they pass mysteriously by underground streams until they emerge and combine into new forms that kill vegetation, sicken cattle, and work unknown harm on those who drink from once pure wells. "Man can hardly even recognize the devils of his own creation." as a scientist has said.
在過去的25年里，這種能力不僅在不斷地增長，而且性質也發生了變化。在所有人類對環境的褻瀆行為中，最令人擔憂的當屬空氣、土地、河流以及大海受到的危險的、甚至是致命物質的污染。這種污染在很大程度上是不可逆轉的。在當前這種對環境的普遍污染中，化學物質變成了輻射的邪惡幫兇，它們改變著世界的本質——生命的本質。被灑在農田、森林或者花園里的化學物質將長期潛伏在土壤中，或進入生物體內部，并在中毒和死亡的連鎖反應中不斷傳遞遷移。它們或者隨著地下水流神秘地轉移，直到它們顯現并結合成新的化學物質，毒害植物和家畜，并且使那些曾經飲用純凈井水的人們不知不覺遭受傷害。正如一個科學家所說，“人類甚至辨認不出自己制造的惡魔了”。
