科学美国人播客：人类健康有赖于一个健康的环境
2013-11-27 10:33:10   来源：   作者：  评论：0 点击：

What is the value of an intact rainforest? From a people perspective, maybe it's more useful turned into lumber and cropland.
一个原始的热带雨林有什么价值？从人的角度来看，可能把它开发成木材和耕田会更有用。
The responses to such arguments have often cited what are called ecosystem services. These are the keys to life that natural systems provide for free—think: breathable air and potable water. Other counters point to the psychological benefits of the natural world. Now we have a new reason for conservation: human health.
人们在回应这些争论时常会引用一个词，叫做“生态系统服务”。可呼吸的空气和可以饮用的水，想想这些自然系统免费提供的福利，这些才是生活的关键啊。另一些论据便是大自然可以带给人类精神上的馈赠。而现在我们又有了一个保护大自然的理由：为了人类的健康。
Turns out forest fires set to clear land in Indonesia generate the kind of soot that lodges in lungs and shortens lives across Southeast Asia. Dams and irrigation projects upriver in Africa increase the population of malarial mosquitoes downriver. These are just two of the examples from a new analysis in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
原来印度尼西亚地区放火烧林清理土地时产生的一种碳烟是可入肺的，它缩短了东南亚地区人们的寿命。在非洲，河流上游处实施的水坝和灌溉工程导致河流下游地区携带疟疾的蚊子肆虐。这些只是一项新的分析报告所列举的其中两个例子，该报告出自美国国家科学院院刊。
Then consider big upheavals like global warming. Climate change means more deadly heat waves, allergies, infectious diseases and, potentially, a breakdown in food supplies. All obviously bad for human health.
然后再细想像全球变暖这一类（环境）的骤变。气候的改变意味着致命热浪、过敏、传染病等更频繁的出现，还有可能导致食物供应的崩溃。所有这些都明显不利于人类健康。
Our understanding of these complex interactions is incomplete. For example, a given forest clearing may be good for some people's well-being but not others, both now and in the future. A better understanding of nature’s value will probably prove vital for human health in the 21st century.
我们并不能完全理解以上这些复杂的相互作用。那么举个例子吧，假设有一片森林，如果开垦了它可能会成全某些人的幸福，但对其他人并没有任何好处，不管是现在还是将来。
更好地去理解大自然的价值，这很可能会是决定21世纪人类健康的关键。