評論
打印
It took hundreds of millions of years to produce the life that now inhabits the earth. Given time—time not in years but in millennia—life adjusts, and a balance has been reached. But in the modern world there is no time.
今天，寄居在地球上的生命是經(jīng)過上億年進化而來的。生物適應(yīng)所需的時間不是以年計算的，而是以千年來計算的。生命體不斷適應(yīng)，才能達到一種平衡狀態(tài)。但是現(xiàn)代世界的變化太快已經(jīng)來不及適應(yīng)了。
The rapidity of change follows the impetuous pace of man rather than the deliberate pace of nature. Radiation is now the unnatural creation of man's tampering with the atom. The chemicals are the synthetic creations of man's inventive mind, having no counterparts in nature.
這種快速的變化追隨著人類輕率的步伐而非大自然的從容步態(tài)。輻射是人們干預(yù)原子時違背自然的創(chuàng)造。化學(xué)物質(zhì)是人們依靠聰明的頭腦所創(chuàng)造的人工合成物，而這些東西在自然界是找不到對等物質(zhì)的。
To adjust to these chemicals would require not merely the years of a man's life but the life of generations. And even this, were it by some miracle possible, would be futile, for the new chemicals come from our laboratories in an endless stream; almost five hundred annually find their way into actual use in the United States alone.
調(diào)整以適應(yīng)這些化學(xué)物質(zhì)不僅需要一代人很多年的努力，甚至需要幾代人的努力。即便如此，如果沒有奇跡發(fā)生，這些努力也是徒勞的，因為我們的實驗室會源源不斷地生產(chǎn)出新的化學(xué)物質(zhì)，僅在美國，每年就有將近500種化學(xué)合成物投入使用。
Among them are many that are used in man's war against nature. Since the mid-1940s over 200 basic chemicals have been created for use in killing insects, weeds, and other organisms described as "pests"; and they are sold under several thousand different brand names.
這些化學(xué)品中，很多是被人類用于對抗自然的。自20世紀40年代中期以來，人類制造出了超過200種基本化學(xué)物質(zhì)，用來殺蟲、滅草和其他一些被稱之為“害蟲”的有機生命體；這些化學(xué)物質(zhì)是以幾千種不同的商品形式被出售的。
These chemicals are now applied almost universally to farms, gardens, forests, and homes, killing every insect, the "good" and the "bad," to still the song of birds and the leaping of fish, to coat the leaves with a deadly film, and to linger on in soil—all this though the intended target may be only a few weeds or insects.
這些化學(xué)物質(zhì)現(xiàn)在被廣泛用于農(nóng)田、園子、森林和家庭生活之中，用來殺死那些不管是“好的”還是“有害的”昆蟲，這致使鳥兒不再歌唱，魚兒不再跳躍，樹葉上蒙上一層致命的薄膜，化學(xué)物質(zhì)將長期留存在土壌里——盡管使用它的最初目的是除掉少量的野草和昆蟲。
