7．“We started thinking about this post-9/11 and on the heels of Hurricane Katrina,” said Cary Fowler, president of the Global Crop Diversity Trust, a nonprofit group that runs the vault. “Everyone was saying, why didn’t anyone prepare for a hurricane before? We knew it was going to happen.

卡里·福勒是一家負責管理種子庫的非營利性組織全球作物多樣性托管會的總裁，他說：“我們是在‘9·11’事件之后、尤其是卡特里娜颶風之后，開始有這個構想的。” 他還說：“每個人都在問：為什么事先不作好迎接颶風的準備呢？我們明明知道會發生颶風的。”

8．“Well, we are losing biodiversity every day — it’s a kind of drip, drip, drip. It’s also inevitable. We need to do something about it.”

他指出：“喏，我們每天都在損失生物多樣性——一點一滴地在損失。這種損失沒有止步的跡象，我們必須為此做點什么。”

9．This week the urgency of the problem was underscored as wheat prices rose to record highs and wheat stores dropped to the lowest level in 35 years. A series of droughts and new diseases cut wheat production in many parts of the world. “The erosion of plants’ genetic resources is really going fast,” said Dr. Rony Swennen, head of the division of crop biotechnology at the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium, who has preserved half of the world’s 1,200 banana types. “We’re at a critical moment and if we don’t act fast, we’re going to lose a lot of plants that we may need.”

本周，由于小麥價格上升到最高紀錄水平和小麥儲存量下滑到35年來最低水平，更加突出了這個問題的緊迫性。由于一連串的干旱及新的疾病，世界很多地方的小麥產量下降。羅尼·斯文奈恩博士現任比利時魯汶天主教大學作物生物技術部主任，他保存了世界上1200種香蕉種的一半以上。斯文奈恩博士說：“植物基因資源正在受到快速侵蝕。”他還指出：“我們正處于關鍵時刻，如果不迅速采取行動，我們將失去很多我們需要的植物物種。”

10．The United Nations International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources, ratified in 2004, created a formal global network for banking and sharing seeds, as well as for studying their genetic traits. Last year, its database received thousands of new seeds.

已于2004年獲得批準的聯合國國際植物基因資源條約創建了一個正式的全球網絡，旨在對種子進行儲存和共享并對其遺傳特征進行研究。去年，有成千上萬的新種子在其數據庫安家落戶。

11．A system of plant banks could be crucial in responding to climate crises since it could identify genetic material and plant strains better able to cope with a changed environment.

由于植物庫系統能夠識別出那些對環境變化適應能力較強的基因物質和植物種類，因而這種系統能在應對氣候危機中發揮至關重要的作用。

12．Here at the Global Vault, hundreds of gray boxes containing seeds from places ranging from Syria to Mexico were moved this week into a freezing vault to be placed in suspended animation. They harbor a vast range of qualities, like the ability to withstand drier, warmer climate.

本周，數以百計的裝有種子的灰色盒子從敘利亞、墨西哥等地運至全球種子地庫，藏于這個冷凍庫之中。儲存在這里的種子具有很多特性，如能夠抵御較為干燥和較為溫暖的氣候。