評論
打印
For Want of a Drink
因為缺水
Author Unknown
作者未知
When the word water appears in print nowadays, crisis is rarely far behind. Water, it issaid, is the new oil: a resource long squandered, now growing expensive and soon to be overwhelmed by insatiable demand. Aquifers are falling, glaciers vanishing, reservoirs drying up and rivers no longer flowing to the sea. Climate change threatens to make the problem worse. Everyone must use less water if famine, pestilence and mass migration are not to sweep the globe.
如今，當“水”這個詞出現在印刷品中時，“危機”就會緊隨其后。人們說水就像過去的石油那樣，是一種長期被隨意浪費的資源，現在越來越貴，很快就會無法滿足貪得無厭的需求。地下蓄水層正在下降，冰川正在消失，水庫正在干涸，江河不再流向大海。氣候的變化預示著問題將越來越嚴重。如果我們不想讓饑荒、瘟疫以及人類大規模遷徙橫掃全球，就必須人人節約用水。
The language is often overblown, and the remedies sometimes ill-conceived, but the basic message is not wrong. Water is indeed scarce in many places, and will grow scarcer. Bringing supply and demand into equilibrium will be painful, and political disputes may increase in number and intensify in their capacity to cause trouble. To carry on with present practice would indeed be to invite disaster.
這些印刷品中的措辭往往言過其實，提出來的解決辦法有時也考慮不周，但它們所傳遞的基本信息沒有錯。在許多地方水確實稀缺，而且稀缺的狀況會愈發嚴重。使水的供需達到平衡極為困難，由此引起的國與國之間的政治爭端次數會增多，水資源稀缺會導致越來越多的麻煩。如果目前的狀況不改變，那就等于惹禍上身。
