--传奇鸟儿信天翁踏上不归途

The albatross - legendary protector of seafarers - is heading for extinction. Biologists have discovered that swordfish and tuna fishing fleets are eliminating more than 100,000 of these birds every year. In a couple of decades most species will be wiped out unless urgent action is taken. This alarming conclusion, to be outlined this week at a major zoological conference in London, is based on a new generation of tracking units that have been monitoring the behaviour of these giant birds for the past few years. The instruments have shown that albatrosses are capable of astonishing feats of endurance and navigation, and can fly round the world several times without stopping on land. During their lives, they fly the equivalent of 50 return trips to the moon: more than 10 million miles. 'However, our research has discovered that albatrosses are being killed at a horrific rate,' said Professor John Croxall, of the British Antarctic Survey. 'The trouble stems from long-line fishing in which boats tow huge, heavily baited lines. The albatrosses try to eat the bait and get dragged down and drowned.' Albatrosses breed once every one or two years. While rearing youngsters, parents undergo journeys of thousands of miles to find food. However, these vast distances increase the albatrosses' chance of encountering a fishing fleet. Many get tangled in mile-long lines laced with bait. Most fleet owners deny causing anything but the occasional death. However, recent data makes clear that more than 100,000 albatrosses a year may die in lines. 'The problem is that albatrosses - no matter the species - breed relatively infrequently and only by the time they are 12 to 15 years old,' said Croxall. 'They used to live to around the age of 50, so that was not a great problem. But now they are being killed off before they can reach even half that age.' Measures include weighting lines so they sink quickly and do not entice birds, setting lines at night, and setting off bird-scaring lines - made up of multi-coloured streamers to startle seabirds. 'All these measures are relatively simple to implement and cost only a few dollars,' Croxall said. 'However, we have to convince fleet managers that it is worth their while. We reckon they are losing about ￡10 million a year because albatrosses are getting caught on their lines, preventing fish from being caught.' 　　信天翁--传说中航海人的守护者--已经濒临灭绝了。生物学家发现，每年有10万多只信天翁被捕捉旗鱼或金枪鱼的渔船杀死。如果不采取紧急措施，几十年之后，大部分的信天翁种类都会灭绝。　　在过去的几年中，科学家利用一种新型跟踪设备对信天翁的行为进行了监控，才得出了这一惊人的结论，并在本周于伦敦召开的一个动物学会议上将之公布。　　这一跟踪仪器还表明，信天翁有极强的耐力和航海能力，能够绕地球飞行几圈而不着陆。它们一生的行程约有一千多万英里，相当于往返地球与月球之间50次。　　英国南极勘查局教授约翰·克罗克索尔说："然而，我们的研究人员发现，信天翁正以惊人的速度被杀死，而凶手正是延绳钓捕鱼作业。信天翁总是被延绳钓的诱饵所吸引，从而被布满诱饵的绳子缠绕溺死。" 　　信天翁每一或二年繁殖一次，为了喂养孩子，他们跋涉数千英里去觅食。也正是这样的长途跋涉增加了信天翁碰上捕鱼船的几率。它们被布满诱饵的长长的鱼线缠住无法脱身。大部分渔船都否认这一严重后果，只承认偶尔会有信天翁死在鱼线上。然而，最新数据表明，每年有超过十万只信天翁丧生于此。　　克罗克索尔说："问题在于不论何种信天翁，都只有满12至15岁后才会繁殖，次数也不多。他们通常的寿命有50年，但现在他们还没到繁殖年龄的一半就已经被杀死了。" 　　可以挽救信天翁的方法包括加重延绳钓线的重量，使它们可以迅速下沉而不会缠住鸟儿；在夜晚布钓线或在钓线上加上彩带惊吓鸟儿，使其不敢靠近等。　　克罗克索尔说："所有的措施操作起来都相当简单，花费也很少。但我们必须让渔船经营者相信这么做是值得的。根据我们计算，如果信天翁被缠在他们的钓线上，他们每年会因为少捉鱼而损失约一千万英镑。" The history of life on earth has been a history of interaction between living things and their surroundings. To a large extent, the physical form and the habits of the earth's vegetation and its animal life have been molded by the Pressure Vessel environment. Considering the whole span of earthly time, the opposite effect, in which life actually modifies its surroundings, has been relatively slight. Only in the present century has one species man acquired significant power to alter the nature of his world. During the past quarter century this power has not only become increasingly great but it has changed in character. The most alarming of all man's assaults upon the environment is the contamination of air, earth, rivers, and sea with dangerous and even lethal materials. This pollution is for the most part irrecoverable. In this now universal Pressure Gauge contamination of the environment, chemicals are the sinister partners of radiation in changing the very nature of the world the very nature of its life. Chemicals sprayed on croplands or forests or gardens lie long in soil, entering into living organisms, passing from one to another in a chain of poisoning and death. Pressure and Vacuum Or they pass mysteriously Prince tennis racquet printed bag by underground streams until they emerge and combine into new forms that kill vegetation, sicken cattle, and work unknown harm on those who drink from once pure wells. "Man can hardly even recognize the devils of his own creation," as a scientist has said. It took hundreds of millions of years to produce the life that now inhabits the earth. Given time not in years but in millennia life adjusts, and a balance has been reached. But in the modern world there is no time. The rapidity of change follows prepared slides the impetuous pace of man rather than the deliberate pace of nature. Radiation is now the unnatural creation of man's tampering with the atom. The chemicals are the synthetic5 creations of man's inventive mind, having no counterparts in nature. To adjust to these chemicals would require not merely the years of a man's life but the life of generations. And even this, were it by some miracle possible, would be futile, for the new chemicals come from our laboratories in an endless stream; powerful fan powersports vehicles almost five hundred annually find their way into actual use in the United States alone. Among them are many that are used in man's precision grinding war against nature. Since the mid 1940's over 200 basic chemicals have been created for use in killing insects, pre-dispersion pigment chips weeds, and other organisms described as "pests." It is not my contention that chemical insecticides must never be used. I do contend that we have put poisonous and biologically potent chemicals Powerful Adhesive Tape indiscriminately into the hands of persons largely or wholly ignorant of their potentials for harm. We have subjected enormous numbers of people to contact with these poisons, without their consent and often without their knowledge. I contend,pp bags prada shoes furthermore, that we have allowed these chemicals to be used with little or no advance investigation of their effect on soil, precision castings water, wildlife, and man himself. Future generations are unlikely to forgive our lack of concern for the integrity of the natural world that supports all life. 　　地球上生命的历史一直就是一部生物与其环境相互作用的历史。在很大程度上，地球上动植物的形态以及习性都是由外部环境所塑造的。考虑到地球上生命存在的整个时间，相反作用，即生命对其周围环境的实际改变作用，却相对很小。只有在当前这个世纪(指20世纪)才有一个物种--人类，获得了强大的力量，改变了其所生存的世界的自然状态。　　在过去的1/4世纪中，这种力量不仅日趋强大，而且其性质也发生了变化。在人类破坏环境的种种行为中，最令人担忧的是人类向大气、土壤、河流以及海洋中排放危险甚至致命物质，而当今这种污染在很大程度上是无法挽救的。在当今这种对环境的普遍污染中，化学制品与辐射狼狈为奸，改变着地球的自然状态，也就是改变着地球上生命的自然状态。喷洒到农田、森林或者花园里的化学物质长期滞留于土壤中，渗入有机体内，并彼此相传，形成了一个中毒与死亡的链条。化学物质还神秘地通过地下水传递，最终以新的形式出现并结合，使植物毒死，牲畜害病，并使饮用一度纯净的井水的人遭受了不明之害。正如一位科学家所言：“人类甚至对自己创造的恶魔都不认识。” 　　地球历经了许多亿年才创造了栖息其上的生命。经过了一定时间--不是以若干年计而是以若干千年计的时间--生命开始适应环境，并形成了一种与环境的平衡。但是在现代世界中，时间这一因素已经没有了。　　环境改变的速度不再顺从大自然从容不迫的节奏，而是顺从人类急切匆匆的步伐。辐射是当今人类通过支配原子而得到的一种非自然的创造物。化学制品则是人类有发明创造力的头脑创造出来的合成物，在自然界本无相应的东西。　　为了适应这些化学制品，人类需要付出的时间不会只是一个人一生的时间，而是几代人的时间。而即使这样，就算出现奇迹成为可能，这种适应也是徒劳的，因为新的化学制品从我们的实验室中源源不断地涌出。仅在美国，每年就有大约500种化学制品投入使用，其中许多是用于人类对自然的战争中。从20世纪40年代中期起，人类已经创造了200多种基本化学制品用来消灭昆虫、野草以及其他所谓的“有害生物”。　　我不是说人类决不能使用化学杀虫剂。我要说的是，我们不分青红皂白地将这些有毒的、具有强大生物功能的化学制品，交给了那些对这些制品的潜在危害基本上或者完全无知的人去使用。我们使众多的人接触这些有毒物质，却没有征得他们的同意，并常常将他们蒙在鼓中。我还要说的一点是，我们允许使用这些化学制品，却事先很少或者根本没有调查它们对土壤、水、野生生物以及人类自身造成的影响。我们缺乏对万物赖以生存的自然界生态统一的关心，对此，我们的后代是不可能原谅的。

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