譯文簡介：

18世紀工業(yè)文明的誕生意味著人類能夠提取、運輸和加工更多大自然的恩賜，并永久影響自然的循環(huán)。當我們在人類世航行時，備受爭議的地質(zhì)世記錄著工業(yè)時代對地質(zhì)和生態(tài)的沖擊，學(xué)校應(yīng)該教導(dǎo)一些環(huán)境災(zāi)難和環(huán)境犯罪，以教育年輕人我們?nèi)祟悓ξ覀児餐窒淼倪@個星球的影響。

Five environmental disasters that we should make sure children know about

我們應(yīng)該讓孩子們知道的五個環(huán)境災(zāi)難

The birth of industrial civilisation in the 18th century meant humans could extract, transport, and process ever more of nature’s bounty, permanently affecting natural cycles. As we navigate the Anthropocene, the much-debated geological epoch that recognises the geological and ecological impact of the industrial age, there are several environmental disasters and crimes that should be taught in schools to educate young people about the human impact on our shared planet.

18世紀工業(yè)文明的誕生意味著人類能夠提取、運輸和加工更多大自然的恩賜，并永久影響自然的循環(huán)。當我們在人類世航行時，備受爭議的地質(zhì)世記錄著工業(yè)時代對地質(zhì)和生態(tài)的沖擊，學(xué)校應(yīng)該教導(dǎo)一些環(huán)境災(zāi)難和環(huán)境犯罪，以教育年輕人我們?nèi)祟悓ξ覀児餐窒淼倪@個星球的影響。

In choosing a list of five, I have confined my choices to the 1960s and beyond as popular environmental alarmism was born in the decade of cultural revolution that questioned the conventional wisdom of Western civilisation.?

在選擇五個災(zāi)難時，我把我的選擇限制在20世紀60年代以后，因為公眾關(guān)于環(huán)境的危言聳聽是在十年的文化革命中產(chǎn)生的，該革命質(zhì)疑了西方文明的傳統(tǒng)智慧。

1. Torrey Canyon Oil Disaster, 1967: an early televised warning

1。1967年，Torrey Canyon號石油災(zāi)難：早期在電視上播放的警告

This was the first major oil spill of the post-Second World War era. When the SS Torrey Canyon was shipwrecked on a reef off the coast of Cornwall, England, spilling 875,000 barrels of crude oil into the sea, a national event sparked an international debate about the impact of transporting oil, the size of tankers (which had grown dramatically since 1945), and the use of untested chemicals to break down the spilled oil.?

這是第二次世界大戰(zhàn)后的第一次大規(guī)模的石油泄漏。當Torrey Canyon號油輪在英格蘭康沃爾海岸外的一個礁石上失事時，875000桶原油溢入大海，一場國內(nèi)事件引發(fā)了國際上關(guān)于運輸石油，油輪的規(guī)模（自1945年以來急劇增長），以及使用未經(jīng)測試的化學(xué)藥品來分解溢出的石油的國際辯論。

Millions of litres of the detergent BP 1002 were sprayed into the sea, but it failed to break down the oil and caused more long term damage to birds and the marine environment.

數(shù)以百萬公升的清潔劑 BP 1002被噴灑到海中，但是它未能分解石油，并對鳥類和海洋環(huán)境造成更長期的損害。

Torrey Canyon was one of the first televised environmental disasters. Images broadcast around the world helped fuel the fledgling environmental movement and highlighted the vulnerability of marine ecosystems, the role of chemicals, and the dangers of a new global economy based on consumerism and fossil fuels.

Torrey Canyon號事件是最早的在電視上播放的環(huán)境災(zāi)難之一。在全世界傳播的畫面幫助推動了剛剛起步的環(huán)境運動，并強調(diào)了海洋生態(tài)系統(tǒng)的脆弱性、化學(xué)品的地位，以及基于消費主義和化石燃料的新全球經(jīng)濟的危險性。

2. Love Canal, 1978: popular protest and environmental protection

2。1978年，拉夫運河事件：民眾抗議與環(huán)境保護?

One of the most significant environmental disasters in American history happened in the city of Niagara Falls, upstate New York. Between 1942 and 1953 the Hooker Chemical Company used the city’s “Love Canal” to dump 21,000 tonnes of toxic chemicals, including 12 carcinogens. It then sold the land to the Niagara Falls School Board for US$1.

美國歷史上最嚴重的環(huán)境災(zāi)難之一發(fā)生在紐約州北部的尼亞加拉瀑布市。在1942年到1953年之間，胡克化學(xué)公司利用城市的“拉夫運河”傾倒了21000噸有毒化學(xué)物質(zhì)，包括12種致癌物。然后它以1美元的價格把土地賣給了尼亞加拉瀑布學(xué)校委員會。

By 1978, the chemical pollution had caused residents surrounding Love Canal to suffer from birth defects, miscarriages and cancer rates far in excess of national averages.

到1978年，化學(xué)污染已經(jīng)使拉夫運河附近的居民遭受出生缺陷、流產(chǎn)和癌癥發(fā)病率遠遠超過全國平均水平。

Operation Ranch Hand was part of an American herbicidal warfare programme during the Vietnam War, which sought to remove the strategic cover the forest canopy provided for the Viet Cong. Three US administrations – the governments of Lyndon Johnson, John F. Kennedy, and Richard Nixon – sprayed 72m litres of defoliants and herbicides, primarily “Agent Orange” to kill Vietnam’s forests and poison its rice paddies.?

“牧場之手”行動是越戰(zhàn)期間美國除草戰(zhàn)計劃的一部分，該計劃試圖清除森林覆蓋物為越共提供的戰(zhàn)略覆蓋物。三屆美國政府——林登·約翰遜、約翰·F·肯尼迪和理查德·尼克松——噴灑了7200萬升的落葉劑和除草劑，主要是為了殺死越南的森林以及毒害其稻田的所謂“橙劑“。

The US was condemned internationally and accused of breaking the Geneva Convention which banned the uses of chemical weapons on humans. Though it defended itself by stating that humans were not directly targeted, America’s actions were described as “ecocide” by Swedish prime minister Olof Palme at the UN’s first environment summit in 1972.

In March 2011, a strong earthquake off the coast of Japan resulted in the largest nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986. A tsunami unleashed by the quake overwhelmed the Fukushima nuclear plant’s safety systems, disabling the emergency generators and preventing the reactors from being cooled. As a result, reactors one, two, and three suffered meltdowns.?

2011年3月，日本沿海發(fā)生強烈地震，造成自1986年切爾諾貝利核事故以來最大的核災(zāi)難。地震引發(fā)的海嘯淹沒了福島核電站的安全系統(tǒng)，使應(yīng)急發(fā)電機失效，并阻止反應(yīng)堆冷卻。結(jié)果，一號、二號和三號反應(yīng)堆發(fā)生熔毀。

Despite no deaths being directly attributed to the nuclear meltdown, unlike at Chernobyl, it is estimated that the radiation from the many dump sites will last for 300 years. Teaching about the Fukushima disaster in schools encourages children to consider the fuels of the future as we come to legislate for the roles of solar, tidal, wind, and non-renewable energies. With a growing global population and energy demands, how we produce energy and maintain the health of the natural world is a central question for the 21st century.

與切爾諾貝利核電站不同，盡管沒有直接導(dǎo)致人員死亡，但據(jù)估計，來自許多垃圾場的輻射將持續(xù)300年。在學(xué)校里講解福島災(zāi)難，來鼓勵孩子們考慮未來的燃料，因為我們要立法規(guī)定太陽能、潮汐能、風(fēng)能和不可再生能源的地位。隨著全球人口和能源需求的增長，我們?nèi)绾紊a(chǎn)能源和維持自然世界的健康是21世紀的一個中心問題。

5. Palm Oil plantations: an ongoing ecological disaster

5。棕櫚油種植：一場正在進行中的生態(tài)災(zāi)難

Palm oil is derived from the palm fruit which originates in West Africa but is now largely cultivated in Malaysia and Indonesia. It is found in cosmetics, cleaning products, shampoos and all kinds of food from frozen pizzas to peanut butter.?

棕櫚油來源于棕櫚果實，原產(chǎn)于西非，但現(xiàn)在大部分都種植在馬來西亞和印度尼西亞。它存在于化妝品、清潔產(chǎn)品、洗發(fā)水，以及從冷凍披薩到花生醬的各種食物中。

Yet palm oil is also a leading cause of deforestation and biodiversity loss. The World Wildlife Fund estimates that 300 football pitches are deforested every hour to make way for plantations, while species such as the orangutan are being driven towards extinction as their habitats disappear.

然而，棕櫚油也是森林砍伐和生物多樣性喪失的主要原因。世界野生動物基金會估計，每小時有300個足球場面積的森林被砍伐，為種植園讓路，而像猩猩這樣的物種正隨著棲息地的消失而瀕臨滅絕。

It is important to teach about the impact of palm oil production because it forces us to confront the very foundations of our relationship with nature. It is a case study of an unsustainable economic system that elevates short term economic gain at an ecological cost. A discussion about palm oil is a discussion about the future of life on this planet.

在學(xué)校講述棕櫚油生產(chǎn)帶來的影響很重要，因為它迫使我們面對我們與自然關(guān)系的基礎(chǔ)。這是一個以生態(tài)成本來提高短期經(jīng)濟收益的不可持續(xù)的經(jīng)濟系統(tǒng)的案例研究。關(guān)于棕櫚油的討論是關(guān)于這個星球上生命的未來的討論。

Author
Brett Sanders
Lecturer in History, Coventry University


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Andrew Slaughter
Visiting professor, University of Saskatchewan
Hi Brett
Some examples of environmental disasters that fall outside of the realm of Western civilization include:
The worst nuclear-power-plant disaster ever: the Chernobyl disasterhttps.
Deforestation on Easter Islandhttps.

不屬于西方文明范疇的環(huán)境災(zāi)難的一些例子包括：
有史以來最嚴重的核電站災(zāi)難：切爾諾貝利災(zāi)難
復(fù)活節(jié)島的森林砍伐.