《经济学人》双语：地质学上的“人类世”将以何种方式终结？

原文标题：
Geology
Tomorrow and tomorrow and...
What matters about the Anthropocene is less how it began and more how it might end
地质学
明日复明日，明日何其多
人类世最重要的不是它如何开始，而是它可能如何结束

It is all too easy to imagine an era that is nasty, brutish and short
人们很容易想象出一个肮脏、野蛮和短暂的时代

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IT IS BY their beginnings that the ages of the Earth are known.
通过起源，我们可以知道地球的地质年代。

Agreeing on the precise point at which each particular syllable of recorded time began is a fundamental, often fractious and frequently long-winded part of geological science.
在地质科学中，对每一特定时间开始的确切时间点达成一致意见是基本要素，也是经常争论不休和费时费力的部分。

The Cretaceous period, for example, was first identified by Jean Baptiste Julien d’Omalius d’Halloy, a Belgian geologist, in 1822. But which rocks were the earliest to belong to it remains undecided.
例如，白垩纪是由比利时地质学家让·巴蒂斯特·朱利安·多马利厄斯·奥马利尤斯·德哈洛伊于1822年首次确认的。但到底哪些岩石最早属于白垩纪仍未确定。

A working group of the International Subcommission on Cretaceous Stratigraphy recently spent a decade exploring the pros and cons of an outcrop in the French Alps.
最近，国际白垩纪地层学小组委员会花了十年时间，对法国阿尔卑斯山一处露头岩层的利弊进行了研究。

In the end the subcommission felt unable to accept its findings, and the group was disbanded. A reconstituted working group is now trying again.
最终，小组委员会无法接受其研究结果，该小组被解散。现在，一个重组的委员会正在重新研究。

The depths of geological time teach patience.地质年代的深度教会我们要有耐心。

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Nowadays, though, geological time has fast-flowing shallows.
然而如今，地质年代的变化速度加快了。

In 2000 Paul Crutzen, a Dutch Earth scientist, made a public plea that the role humankind now plays in shaping the Earth be made explicit; science should recognise the advent of the Anthropocene, “the recent age of man”.
2000 年，荷兰地球科学家保罗·克鲁岑公开呼吁，人类在塑造地球中所扮演的角色应该得到明确；科学应该承认“人类世”的到来，即“人类最近的时代”。

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In 2009 the Anthropocene working group of the Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy was charged with deciding whether the Earth’s transformation at human hands was significant enough to declare the beginning of a new epoch.
2009年，第四纪地层学小组委员会人类世工作组负责确定一件事，即人类活动对地球的转变是否足够显著以宣布新纪元的开始。

In 2016 the working group answered “Yes”, and said that it began in the mid-20th century.
2016年，工作组回答“是”，并表示新纪元始于20世纪中叶。

On July 11th this year it announced that it had chosen the bit of rock that should be taken as marking this beginning.
今年7月11日，工作组宣布它已经选择了一块岩石作为新纪元开始的标志。

It is a layer of sediment laid down in Crawford Lake, near Toronto, in 1950, shortly after the start of the nuclear age.
1950年，这是一层在多伦多附近的克劳福德湖中的沉积物，当时核时代刚刚开始不久。

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The idea of the Anthropocene is a striking expression of a profound truth.
"人类世 "的概念惊人地表达了一个深刻的事实。

Human activity is having effects that will be visible for periods of time far longer than recorded history.
人类活动所产生的影响将会在超过历史记载的时间段内持续可见。

Humans are responsible for physical, chemical and biological changes previously brought about only by the great forces of nature.
人类使物理、化学和生物发生变化，以前只有大自然的巨大力量才能带来这些变化。

Part of the idea’s imaginative and rhetorical power comes from the fact that geologists, readers and curators of the record in the rocks vouch for its validity.
这一观点的想象力和修辞力部分来自于这样一个事实，即地质学家、读者和岩石记录的管理者都为其有效性提供了担保。

There is an undeniable bathos in the crusted ooze at the bottom of a Canadian sinkhole being called to stand in for all the change humankind has wrought.
加拿大一个天坑底部的结痂淤泥代表人类带来的所有变化，不得不说有点牵强。

But the most important thing about the Anthropocene is not when and where it began, but when and how it might end.
但人类世最重要的不是它如何开始，而是它可能如何结束。

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It is possible to imagine an Anthropocene that endures. This would be a world where human activity on its current scale continues, but human institutions rein in its excesses.
我们可以想象一个持久的 "人类世"。在这个世界上，人类活动将以目前的规模继续进行，但人类机构会控制过度行为。

Its carbon cycle is rebalanced; its climate cools; the chemistry of its abused oceans is tempered; its ice sheets and rainforests are restored.
这个世界的碳循环得到重新平衡；气候变得凉爽；海洋中被滥用的化学物质得到调节；冰川和雨林得到恢复。

[Paragraph 6]
It is also possible to imagine an Anthropocene which fades away as the economy and the environment are decoupled.
我们也可以想象一个人类世逐渐消逝的情景，那时经济与环境已脱钩。

Humans continue to thrive, but they take their largely virtual pleasures in fusion-powered, AI-optimised, indoor-farm-fed, everything-recycled cities—jewels of light on a planet slowly returning to wilderness.
人类继续繁荣，但他们在聚变能源、人工智能优化、室内养殖、万物可回收的城市中享受着虚拟乐趣——这些城市是流光溢彩的明珠，而后随着地球慢慢归于沉寂。

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Alas, it is easy—perhaps too easy—to imagine instead an Anthropocene which is nasty, brutish and short.
唉，我们很容易--也许是太容易--想象出一个肮脏、野蛮和短暂的人类世。

The nuclear weapons whose testing produced the telltale layers of fallout in Crawford Lake still abound.
在克劳福德湖，核武器试验产生的放射性尘埃层仍然存在。

At some point a geopolitical rupture will see them used, possibly one exacerbated by the environmental catastrophes caused by Anthropocene excess.
在某个时刻，地缘政治的断裂将导致核武器的使用，而人类世的过度发展所造成的环境灾难可能会加剧这种断裂。

What remains of civilisation would fall back to a level where its technology no longer rivalled the volcanoes and ocean currents.
文明的残余将回落到一个不再与火山和海洋洋流相提并论的技术水平上。

Perhaps, in time, civilisation would grow back up, perhaps not.
或许，随着时间的推移，文明会重新崛起，也或许不会。

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Think again about the Cretaceous. What captures the imagination is how it ended: in fire, tsunami and a deep, wintry darkness brought about by the impact of a massive asteroid.
再想想白垩纪。让人浮想联翩的是它的终结方式：世界处于一片火海、海啸和深邃的寒冷黑暗中，这一切源自于一颗巨大的小行星撞击地球。

Its gravestone is a worldwide layer of extraterrestrially tainted clay and ash sitting like a rocky shroud over the bones of the last dinosaurs.
白垩纪的墓碑是全球范围内被外星污染的粘土和灰烬层，如同覆盖在最后一批恐龙尸骨上的岩石裹尸布。

The less the Anthropocene looks like that, the better.
如果人类世能不以那种方式终结，该多好！

（恭喜读完，本篇英语词汇量694左右）
原文出自：2023年7月15日《The Economist》Leaders版块

精读笔记来源于：自由英语之路

本文翻译整理: Irene本文编辑校对: Irene
仅供个人英语学习交流使用。

【补充资料】（来自于网络）
白垩纪（Cretaceous）是地质年代中的一个时期，距今约1.45亿年到6,550万年之间。白垩纪是地质年代划分中最后一个时期，也是恐龙统治地球的时代。白垩纪以其丰富的化石记录而闻名，尤其是恐龙化石。这个时期出现了许多著名的恐龙，如霸王龙、三角龙和雷龙等。此外，白垩纪还见证了许多其他生物群的出现和进化，如鸟类的起源和昆虫的多样化。在白垩纪早期，地球经历了一个暖化和海平面上升的时期。然后，白垩纪中期发生了一系列重大的地质事件，如巨大的火山喷发和地壳运动，可能导致了恐龙的灭绝。最后，白垩纪末期发生了一次全球性的物种灭绝事件，被称为白垩纪-古近纪灭绝事件，导致恐龙和许多其他生物群的消失。

人类世（Anthropocene）是指自工业革命以来，人类活动对地球生态系统和地质环境产生的深远影响的时代。这个概念首次由荷兰地质学家保罗·克鲁岑于2000年提出，意在描述人类活动对地球的重要性和持久性影响。在人类世中，人类的活动对地球的生态系统、气候、地质形态和生物多样性产生了全球性的影响。例如，大量的化石燃料燃烧导致大气中二氧化碳含量的增加，引发全球气候变化；大规模的土地利用变化导致生物多样性丧失和生态系统破坏；人类活动产生的大量物质和化学物质在地球表层留下了明显的标记，形成了人造地质。人类世的提出也引发了许多关于可持续发展和环境保护的讨论。人类世的认识让我们意识到，我们需要采取行动来减少我们对地球的负面影响，并寻找可持续的发展模式，以保护我们共同的家园。

fast-flowing shallows是指水流迅速的浅水区域。在河流、溪流或其他水体中，当水流速度较快时，会形成快速流动的浅水区域。这些浅水区域通常具有较浅的水深，水流动力强，水面波动较大。这种水体特征常见于急流、急湍或瀑布等地方。

【重点句子】（3个）
On July 11th this year it announced that it had chosen the bit of rock that should be taken as marking this beginning.
今年7月11日，工作组宣布它已经选择了一块岩石作为新纪元开始的标志。

But the most important thing about the Anthropocene is not when and where it began, but when and how it might end.
但人类世最重要的不是它如何开始，而是它可能如何结束。

What remains of civilisation would fall back to a level where its technology no longer rivalled the volcanoes and ocean currents.
文明的残余将回落到一个不再与火山和海洋洋流相提并论的技术水平上。