The technosphere, in contrast, is dominated by linear processes. Crops Jon and the animals to which they are fed are eaten by people; their waste is flushed into the sewer system, altered in composition but not in amount at a treatment plant, and the residue is dumped into rivers or the ocean as waste, which upsets the natural aquatic ecosystem. Uranium is mined, processed into nuclear fuel which, in generating power, becomes highly radioactive waste that must be carefully guarded-ineffectually thus far-from contaminating the environment for thousands of years. The energy sources that now power the technosphere are mostly fossil fuels, stores that, once depleted, will never be renewed. The end result of this linear process is air pollution and the threat of global warming. Thus, In the technosphere Contentgoods are converted, Iinearly, into waste: crops into seware uranium intoradioactive residues: fossil fuels into carbon dioxide. In the technosphere, the end of the line is always waste, an assault on the cyclical processes that sustain the ecosphere.
與生態圈相反，技術圈是由線性流程決定的。農作物和以它們為生的動物被人食用；而它們的廢物被沖進下水道，經處置后成分發生了改變但數量沒有變化，然后殘余部分作為廢物被倒入河流或海洋中，因此這部分廢物便打亂了自然水域生態系統。鈾經開采后被加工成用于生產能源的原子燃料，然后變成放射性極強的核廢料。為防止污染環境，這些核廢料必須被認真保管長達數千年。但迄今為止，保管工作一直效果不佳。現在技術圈運作的能源主要是礦物燃料，一旦用完，永不再生。線性流程的最終后果就是空氣污染和全球變暖的威脅。所以，在技術圈中，物質被直線性地轉化為廢物：農作物轉化為污物；鈾成為放射性殘余物；礦物燃料成為二氧化碳。在技術圈中，直線末段永遠是廢物，是對維持生態圈循環流程的一種侵害。
The third informal law of ecology is "Nature knows best." The ecosystem is consistent with itself: its numerous components are compatible with eachother and with the whole. Such a harmonious structure is the outcome of a very long period of trial and error-the 5 billion years of biological evolution. The biological sector of the ecosphere-the biosphere is composed of living things that have survived this test because of their finely tuned adaptationto the particular ecological niche that they occupy. Left to their own devices, ecosystems are conservative; the rate of evolution is very slow, and temporary changes, such as an overpopulation of rabbits, for example, are quickly readjusted by the wolves.
第三條非正式的生態規律即“自然深知一切”。生態系統內部和諧；許多成分間相容并共存于一體。經過50億年這一相當長時期生物進化的反復嘗試，終于成就了如此和諧的結構。生態圈的生物部分——生物圈——由經受過考驗而存活下來的生物構成。它們經過準確的調整后能適應自身居住的特殊生態小環境。若生態小環境保持其自身的方式，它們將幾乎保持不變，進化速度十分緩慢。即使有暫時的變化，比如說兔子的激增，也會很快被狼群重新調整過來。
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