原文標(biāo)題：
Geology
Tomorrow and tomorrow and...
What matters about the Anthropocene is less how it began and more how it might end
地質(zhì)學(xué)
明日復(fù)明日，明日何其多
人類世最重要的不是它如何開始，而是它可能如何結(jié)束

It is all too easy to imagine an era that is nasty, brutish and short
人們很容易想象出一個(gè)骯臟、野蠻和短暫的時(shí)代

[Paragraph 1]
IT IS BY their beginnings that the ages of the Earth are known.
通過起源，我們可以知道地球的地質(zhì)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.
在地質(zhì)科學(xué)中，對每一特定時(shí)間開始的確切時(shí)間點(diǎn)達(dá)成一致意見是基本要素，也是經(jīng)常爭論不休和費(fèi)時(shí)費(fèi)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，白堊紀(jì)是由比利時(shí)地質(zhì)學(xué)家讓·巴蒂斯特·朱利安·多馬利厄斯·奧馬利尤斯·德哈洛伊于1822年首次確認(rèn)的。但到底哪些巖石最早屬于白堊紀(jì)仍未確定。

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，國際白堊紀(jì)地層學(xué)小組委員會花了十年時(shí)間，對法國阿爾卑斯山一處露頭巖層的利弊進(jìn)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.
最終，小組委員會無法接受其研究結(jié)果，該小組被解散。現(xiàn)在，一個(gè)重組的委員會正在重新研究。

The depths of geological time teach patience.地質(zhì)年代的深度教會我們要有耐心。

[Paragraph 2]
Nowadays, though, geological time has fast-flowing shallows.
然而如今，地質(zhì)年代的變化速度加快了。

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，荷蘭地球科學(xué)家保羅·克魯岑公開呼吁，人類在塑造地球中所扮演的角色應(yīng)該得到明確；科學(xué)應(yīng)該承認(rèn)“人類世”的到來，即“人類最近的時(shí)代”。

[Paragraph 3]
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，第四紀(jì)地層學(xué)小組委員會人類世工作組負(fù)責(zé)確定一件事，即人類活動對地球的轉(zhuǎn)變是否足夠顯著以宣布新紀(jì)元的開始。

In 2016 the working group answered “Yes”, and said that it began in the mid-20th century.
2016年，工作組回答“是”，并表示新紀(jì)元始于20世紀(jì)中葉。

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，工作組宣布它已經(jīng)選擇了一塊巖石作為新紀(jì)元開始的標(biāo)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，這是一層在多倫多附近的克勞福德湖中的沉積物，當(dāng)時(shí)核時(shí)代剛剛開始不久。

[Paragraph 4]
The idea of the Anthropocene is a striking expression of a profound truth.
"人類世 "的概念驚人地表達(dá)了一個(gè)深刻的事實(shí)。

Human activity is having effects that will be visible for periods of time far longer than recorded history.
人類活動所產(chǎn)生的影響將會在超過歷史記載的時(shí)間段內(nèi)持續(xù)可見。

Humans are responsible for physical, chemical and biological changes previously brought about only by the great forces of nature.
人類使物理、化學(xué)和生物發(fā)生變化，以前只有大自然的巨大力量才能帶來這些變化。

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.
這一觀點(diǎn)的想象力和修辭力部分來自于這樣一個(gè)事實(shí)，即地質(zhì)學(xué)家、讀者和巖石記錄的管理者都為其有效性提供了擔(dān)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.
加拿大一個(gè)天坑底部的結(jié)痂淤泥代表人類帶來的所有變化，不得不說有點(diǎn)牽強(qiáng)。

But the most important thing about the Anthropocene is not when and where it began, but when and how it might end.
但人類世最重要的不是它如何開始，而是它可能如何結(jié)束。

[Paragraph 5]
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.
我們可以想象一個(gè)持久的 "人類世"。在這個(gè)世界上，人類活動將以目前的規(guī)模繼續(xù)進(jìn)行，但人類機(jī)構(gòu)會控制過度行為。

Its carbon cycle is rebalanced; its climate cools; the chemistry of its abused oceans is tempered; its ice sheets and rainforests are restored.
這個(gè)世界的碳循環(huán)得到重新平衡；氣候變得涼爽；海洋中被濫用的化學(xué)物質(zhì)得到調(diào)節(jié)；冰川和雨林得到恢復(fù)。

[Paragraph 6]
It is also possible to imagine an Anthropocene which fades away as the economy and the environment are decoupled.
我們也可以想象一個(gè)人類世逐漸消逝的情景，那時(shí)經(jīng)濟(jì)與環(huán)境已脫鉤。

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.
人類繼續(xù)繁榮，但他們在聚變能源、人工智能優(yōu)化、室內(nèi)養(yǎng)殖、萬物可回收的城市中享受著虛擬樂趣——這些城市是流光溢彩的明珠，而后隨著地球慢慢歸于沉寂。

[Paragraph 7]
Alas, it is easy—perhaps too easy—to imagine instead an Anthropocene which is nasty, brutish and short.
唉，我們很容易--也許是太容易--想象出一個(gè)骯臟、野蠻和短暫的人類世。

The nuclear weapons whose testing produced the telltale layers of fallout in Crawford Lake still abound.
在克勞福德湖，核武器試驗(yàn)產(chǎn)生的放射性塵埃層仍然存在。

At some point a geopolitical rupture will see them used, possibly one exacerbated by the environmental catastrophes caused by Anthropocene excess.
在某個(gè)時(shí)刻，地緣政治的斷裂將導(dǎo)致核武器的使用，而人類世的過度發(fā)展所造成的環(huán)境災(zāi)難可能會加劇這種斷裂。

What remains of civilisation would fall back to a level where its technology no longer rivalled the volcanoes and ocean currents.
文明的殘余將回落到一個(gè)不再與火山和海洋洋流相提并論的技術(shù)水平上。

Perhaps, in time, civilisation would grow back up, perhaps not.
或許，隨著時(shí)間的推移，文明會重新崛起，也或許不會。

[Paragraph 8]
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.
再想想白堊紀(jì)。讓人浮想聯(lián)翩的是它的終結(jié)方式：世界處于一片火海、海嘯和深邃的寒冷黑暗中，這一切源自于一顆巨大的小行星撞擊地球。

Its gravestone is a worldwide layer of extraterrestrially tainted clay and ash sitting like a rocky shroud over the bones of the last dinosaurs.
白堊紀(jì)的墓碑是全球范圍內(nèi)被外星污染的粘土和灰燼層，如同覆蓋在最后一批恐龍尸骨上的巖石裹尸布。

The less the Anthropocene looks like that, the better.
如果人類世能不以那種方式終結(jié)，該多好！

（恭喜讀完，本篇英語詞匯量694左右）
原文出自：2023年7月15日《The Economist》Leaders版塊

精讀筆記來源于：自由英語之路

本文翻譯整理: Irene本文編輯校對: Irene
僅供個(gè)人英語學(xué)習(xí)交流使用。

【補(bǔ)充資料】（來自于網(wǎng)絡(luò)）
白堊紀(jì)（Cretaceous）是地質(zhì)年代中的一個(gè)時(shí)期，距今約1.45億年到6,550萬年之間。白堊紀(jì)是地質(zhì)年代劃分中最后一個(gè)時(shí)期，也是恐龍統(tǒng)治地球的時(shí)代。白堊紀(jì)以其豐富的化石記錄而聞名，尤其是恐龍化石。這個(gè)時(shí)期出現(xiàn)了許多著名的恐龍，如霸王龍、三角龍和雷龍等。此外，白堊紀(jì)還見證了許多其他生物群的出現(xiàn)和進(jìn)化，如鳥類的起源和昆蟲的多樣化。在白堊紀(jì)早期，地球經(jīng)歷了一個(gè)暖化和海平面上升的時(shí)期。然后，白堊紀(jì)中期發(fā)生了一系列重大的地質(zhì)事件，如巨大的火山噴發(fā)和地殼運(yùn)動，可能導(dǎo)致了恐龍的滅絕。最后，白堊紀(jì)末期發(fā)生了一次全球性的物種滅絕事件，被稱為白堊紀(jì)-古近紀(jì)滅絕事件，導(dǎo)致恐龍和許多其他生物群的消失。

人類世（Anthropocene）是指自工業(yè)革命以來，人類活動對地球生態(tài)系統(tǒng)和地質(zhì)環(huán)境產(chǎn)生的深遠(yuǎn)影響的時(shí)代。這個(gè)概念首次由荷蘭地質(zhì)學(xué)家保羅·克魯岑于2000年提出，意在描述人類活動對地球的重要性和持久性影響。在人類世中，人類的活動對地球的生態(tài)系統(tǒng)、氣候、地質(zhì)形態(tài)和生物多樣性產(chǎn)生了全球性的影響。例如，大量的化石燃料燃燒導(dǎo)致大氣中二氧化碳含量的增加，引發(fā)全球氣候變化；大規(guī)模的土地利用變化導(dǎo)致生物多樣性喪失和生態(tài)系統(tǒng)破壞；人類活動產(chǎn)生的大量物質(zhì)和化學(xué)物質(zhì)在地球表層留下了明顯的標(biāo)記，形成了人造地質(zhì)。人類世的提出也引發(fā)了許多關(guān)于可持續(xù)發(fā)展和環(huán)境保護(hù)的討論。人類世的認(rèn)識讓我們意識到，我們需要采取行動來減少我們對地球的負(fù)面影響，并尋找可持續(xù)的發(fā)展模式，以保護(hù)我們共同的家園。

fast-flowing shallows是指水流迅速的淺水區(qū)域。在河流、溪流或其他水體中，當(dāng)水流速度較快時(shí)，會形成快速流動的淺水區(qū)域。這些淺水區(qū)域通常具有較淺的水深，水流動力強(qiáng)，水面波動較大。這種水體特征常見于急流、急湍或瀑布等地方。

【重點(diǎn)句子】（3個(gè)）
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，工作組宣布它已經(jīng)選擇了一塊巖石作為新紀(jì)元開始的標(biāo)志。

But the most important thing about the Anthropocene is not when and where it began, but when and how it might end.
但人類世最重要的不是它如何開始，而是它可能如何結(jié)束。

What remains of civilisation would fall back to a level where its technology no longer rivalled the volcanoes and ocean currents.
文明的殘余將回落到一個(gè)不再與火山和海洋洋流相提并論的技術(shù)水平上。