地球变暖、人口增长和无序发展威胁非洲物种

    From VOA Learning English, this is the Agriculture Report.
    这里是美国之音慢速英语农业报道。

    Climate researchers met recently in Cameroon to talk about threats to Africa's land and animals. They said they believe the continent may lose as much as 30 percent of its animal and plant species by the end of this century. They blame the expected losses on the warming of earth, population growth and unrestricted development.
    气候研究人员近期在喀麦隆会面讨论非洲的土地和牲畜面临的威胁。他们表示,他们认为到本世纪末,这片大陆可能会失去多达30%的牲畜和植物物种。他们将这一预期损失归咎于地球变暖、人口增长和无序发展。
     
    The researchers represent 20 African, American and European universities. They say countries south of the Saharan desert are losing forest faster than any place on earth. Wood companies are cutting down trees to meet growing demand from China, Europe and the United States.
    这些研究人员代表着20所非洲、美洲和欧洲大学。他们表示,撒哈拉以南非洲国家比地球上任何地区都更快地失去森林。木材公司砍伐树木以满足来自中国、欧洲和美国不断增长的需求。
     
    The population is growing at 3 percent per year. There are now homes, factories and farms on land that once was forest. Many African animals and plants no longer have a place to live as result. Climate change also continues to threaten species.
    非洲人口以每年3%的速度增长。曾经是森林的土地上现在都是住宅、工厂和农场。结果就是许多非洲动物和植物不再有地方生存。气候变化也继续威胁到物种。

    Thomas Smith is the director of the Center for Tropical Research at the University of California.
    托马斯·史密斯(Thomas Smith)是加州大学热带研究中心的负责人。

    "With a 1.5 degree rise in global temperature, Africa may lose 30 percent of its animals and plants. And unfortunately with the increase in CO2 that has been now estimated to be up to three degrees in terms of rising global temperatures --  that means we may lose 40 percent of all mammal species in Africa by the end of the century," said Smith.
    史密斯:“全球气温上升1.5度,非洲可能失去其30%的动植物。而不幸的是随着二氧化碳的增加,目前估计全球气温会上升多达3度。这意味着到本世纪末,我们可能会失去非洲所有哺乳类动物的40%。”

    The African chimpanzee is one such animal at risk. Mary Katherine Gonder is a professor in the Department of Biology at Drexel University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She studies chimpanzees in the Congo Basin. She says the forest home is disappearing. She also says hunters continue to kill the animals to sell as food.
    非洲黑猩猩就是处于险境的动物之一。玛丽·凯瑟琳·贡德尔(Mary Katherine Gonder)是宾夕法尼亚州费城市德雷塞尔大学生物系的教授。她在刚果盆地研究黑猩猩。她说,森林家园正在消失。她还说,猎人们继续扑杀动物作为食物出售。

    "What will happen over the next 20 years, the distribution of those chimpanzees will change. Their habitat will change fundamentally and they will no longer be around. So it is a real threat. The habitat for those chimpanzees will be gone," said Gonder.
    贡德尔说,“未来二十年将会发生什么?这些大猩猩的分布将会发生变化。它们的栖息地将会发生根本性变化,它们将会消失。所以这是一个真正的威胁。这些黑猩猩的栖息地都会消失。”

    Thomas Smith of the University of California says it's possible to develop Africa and care for the environment at the same time.
    加州大学的史密森表示,在开发非洲的同时保护环境是可能的。

    "With these enormous challenges, we need to develop green economies. We need to make sure that the development we do is sustainable. For example, we are working with parties here to develop new ways of providing green jobs, for example areas that you can preserve, [like] forests, and at the same time produce crops that are appropriate for people to sell and to eat. So we need to be thinking about how to preserve the natural processes and at the same time provide for the economic needs of the country," said Smith.
    史密森说,“因为这些巨大挑战,我们必须大力发展绿色经济。我们必须确保我们进行的开发具备可持续性。例如,我们同这里的各方合作开发新途径来提供绿色就业,例如保护区,像森林保护区。与此同时生产出适合人类出售和食用的作物。所以我们需要思考如何保护这一自然过程,并同时满足该国的经济需求。”

    The Congo Basin area of western and central Africa has the second largest equatorial rain forest in the world. It is important to lives of millions of people.
    西部和中部非洲地区的刚果河流区域有着全球第二大的热带雨林。它对数百万人的生活非常重要。

    And that's the VOA Learning English Agriculture Report. For more agriculture stories, go to our website 51voa.com. I'm Caty Weaver.
    以上就是本期美国之音慢速英语农业报道的全部内容。更多农业新闻请访问51voa.com。我是卡蒂·韦弗(Caty Weaver)。(51VOA.COM对本文翻译保留全部权利,未经授权请勿转载,违者必究!)