“北極熊之都”的北極熊未來何在？

3,000 Miles From Glasgow,

a Town and Its Polar Bears Face the Future

第一段

CHURCHILL, MANITOBA — This is not another story about saving Hudson Bay’s polar bears. It’s too late for that. This is a story about what comes next for a small town that?bills itself?as the Polar Bear Capital of the World.

加拿大曼尼托巴省丘吉爾鎮(zhèn)——這里發(fā)生的并不是又一個拯救哈德遜灣北極熊的故事。拯救已經(jīng)來不及了?，F(xiàn)在要說的是，一個以“世界北極熊之都”自居的小鎮(zhèn)，接下來該怎辦。

In Churchill, an isolated town?perched?on the southern edge of the Arctic, climate change is not a?looming danger. It?imbues?daily life. It is broken?sewer lines?and taller trees, longer summers and bigger snowstorms and moose where?caribou?used to go. Most of all, it is the fear that Americans won’t come visit anymore.

丘吉爾鎮(zhèn)是座落在北極圈南緣的一座偏遠(yuǎn)城鎮(zhèn)，對這里來說，氣候變化不是迫在眉睫的威脅，而是充斥于日常生活中的現(xiàn)實(shí)。氣候變化是破裂的下水管道、更高的樹木、更長的夏天以及更猛烈的暴風(fēng)雪，在以往馴鹿出沒的地方見到的卻是駝鹿。最大的擔(dān)憂是，美國人不會來這里旅游了。

1.bills itself以什么自居，號稱

2.Perch棲息，坐落，此處的被動：perch sth on sth of

3.Sth is looming指不好的事情 the danger is looming

4.Sewer lines下水管道 sewerage污水處理 sewage污水

5.Caribou 馴鹿/moose駝鹿

第二段

In 2014, a Canadian doctor visiting Churchill from southern Ontario took a photograph of climate change. It shows a red fox holding an arctic fox in its mouth, the blood of the smaller creature?staining?its snow-white fur.

2014年，一位來自安大略省南部的加拿大醫(yī)生去了丘吉爾鎮(zhèn)，拍下了一張呈現(xiàn)氣候變化的照片。一只赤狐嘴里叼著一只北極狐，后者身形較小，雪白的毛上沾滿了血跡。

Warmer weather is endangering Arctic species, in part by?opening the gates for?other animals, like red foxes, wolves and brown bears, as well as a host of smaller species, to move north.?“We haven’t found anything that isn’t changing”?in the Hudson Bay ecosystem, said David Barber, a professor at the University of Manitoba who studies climate change as scientific director of the Churchill Marine Observatory.?“From the viruses and the bacteria right up to the whales, every single thing is being affected by climate change.”That includes the?local celebrities: Ursus maritimus, or polar bears.

氣候變暖正在危及北極物種，部分是因?yàn)樗?strong>導(dǎo)致赤狐、狼、棕熊以及許多較小的物種向北遷移。馬尼托巴大學(xué)教授戴維·巴伯說，在哈德遜灣的生態(tài)系統(tǒng)中，“我們沒有發(fā)現(xiàn)任何不變的東西，”同時在丘吉爾海洋天文臺以科學(xué)總監(jiān)的身份研究氣候變化的巴伯說?！皬牟《?、細(xì)菌到鯨魚，一切都在受到氣候變化的影響?！边@其中也包括當(dāng)?shù)氐闹锓N：Ursus maritimus，北極熊。

While the polar bears are on land, people in Churchill are careful to?make wide turns around street corners. They avoid walking alone at night. They guard their trash with the kind of care usually reserved for things that are valuable. Everyone has a story about a close?encounter. Joseph Michel Boudreau, 74, told me that one morning he made the mistake of cooking bacon without turning on the?stovetop vent. A bear put a paw through a front window. Mr. Boudreau went out the back door.

當(dāng)北極熊在陸地上時，丘吉爾鎮(zhèn)的人們在街角轉(zhuǎn)彎都會小心翼翼。他們避免在夜間獨(dú)自行走。他們像保護(hù)財物一樣小心翼翼地保護(hù)著自己的垃圾。每個人都有和北極熊親密接觸的故事。74歲的約瑟夫·米歇爾·布德羅告訴我，有一天早上，他犯了一個錯誤，煎培根時沒有打開爐灶上的通風(fēng)口。一只熊把爪子伸進(jìn)前窗。布德羅從后門溜走了。

The bears are not just a?nuisance, however. They are also the?mainstays?of the local economy. Great White Bear Tours, Lazy Bear Expeditions and other companies with similar names cater?to?an annual influx of wealthy tourists, carrying them in big-wheeled buses to the shoreline, where the bears congregate. The warnings about bears in town add a little excitement to the experience.

然而，這些熊不僅僅是惹麻煩的東西。它們也是當(dāng)?shù)亟?jīng)濟(jì)的支柱。“大白熊旅游”、“懶熊探險”以及其他有類似名字的公司，每年都會接待大量涌入的富有游客，公司會用大巴把他們拉到北極熊聚集的海岸線上。鎮(zhèn)上關(guān)于北極熊的警告給這樣的體驗(yàn)增加了一點(diǎn)刺激性。

Churchill?is stuffed with?bearskins, but these days, every effort is made to keep the animals alive. Bears that don’t behave used to be shot. Now they’re trapped, taken to?“bear jail”?— an?airport hangar with reinforced cells?— and eventually airlifted about 70 kilometers (about 43 miles) north, where there are even fewer people.

丘吉爾鎮(zhèn)上到處都是熊皮，但在近來，人們竭盡全力讓這些動物活下來。行為惡劣的熊過去會遭到射殺。如今它們會被困在“熊監(jiān)獄”里——一個有加固牢房的機(jī)場飛機(jī)庫——最終被空運(yùn)到北邊70公里的地方，那里的人更少。

1.it shows sth +doing補(bǔ)充說明? stain玷污/soil弄臟

2.arctic北極的，嚴(yán)寒的（arct熊+ic形容詞）

3.Warmer weather：global warming全球變暖 risen temperature

4.Open the gate for sth,此處沒有直譯出來，屬于去形象化

5.A host of許多，一系列：此處不能用a series of (排序列） a number of可以用于人 /a batch of必須是產(chǎn)品編號，不能用于人

6.Director/head/chief ?頭? /國際組織的負(fù)責(zé)人：dead of the International Organization ;head還可動詞 be headed by sb由..擔(dān)任

7.Roam across漫步? well-travelled遍游海外的? well-read 博覽群書的 well-trained訓(xùn)練有素的 travel the world /well-educated受過良好教育的/well-brought有教養(yǎng)的

8.獨(dú)行快眾行遠(yuǎn) if you want to walk fast,walk alone;if you want to walk far,walk together.

9.Walk the talk付諸行動,talk the talk夸夸其談 walk the walk付諸實(shí)踐

10.變廢為寶upcycle 循環(huán)利用

11.However很少用在句首

12.Paradigm? wealthy? well-heeled有錢的 people with deep pocket有錢人 deep-pocked

13.Keep sth alive傳承? keep the tradition alive

第三段

One immediate impact of global warming is that the bears are spending more time around Churchill as the sea ice forms later in the year and melts earlier. On land, polar bears lose about 1 kilogram (2.2 pounds) of their weight each day.?As ice season shrinks, the bears face the double pain of fewer days of hunting and more days of?fasting. Between 1980 and 2019, the weight of the average pregnant polar bear in the Churchill region declined by 15 percent, according to Nick Lunn, a Canadian government scientist. New births are in decline. The number of polar bears in western Hudson Bay fell by 30 percent from 1987 to 2016, and some experts think the population already is in terminal decline.

由于今年海冰形成時間較晚，融化時間較早，北極熊在丘吉爾鎮(zhèn)附近的時間越來越多，這也是全球變暖的一個直接影響。在陸地上，北極熊每天減重約1公斤。隨著冰期縮短，北極熊們面臨著雙重痛苦：更短的捕獵時間和更長的斷食時間。根據(jù)加拿大政府科學(xué)家尼克·倫恩的說法，1980年至2019年期間，丘吉爾地區(qū)懷孕北極熊的平均體重下降了15%。新生幼崽的數(shù)量在下降。從1987年到2016年，哈德遜灣西部的北極熊數(shù)量下降了30%，一些專家認(rèn)為，北極熊的狀況已經(jīng)岌岌可危。

Some bears may survive, at least for a time, by moving farther north. But over the coming decades, if greenhouse gas emissions continue to build at the current pace, the disappearance of polar bears from the Hudson Bay region is inevitable, according to a 2020 study conducted by scientists at Polar Bears International, a research and?advocacy?group. Steven Amstrup, its chief scientist, said it’s not too late.?“I am confident that holding the global temperature rise below two degrees Celsius will preserve polar bears in parts of their current range,”?he said. That is the goal nations set at the Paris climate meetings in 2015. But the commitments that nations have made are inadequate to achieve that goal. Scientists estimate global temperatures are?on pace to rise?by roughly three degrees Celsius above the?preindustrial norm?by the end of the century.

一些熊可能會向北遷移，從而至少在一段時間內(nèi)存活下來。但研究和倡導(dǎo)組織“北極熊國際”的科學(xué)家2020年進(jìn)行的一項(xiàng)研究顯示，在未來幾十年里，如果溫室氣體排放繼續(xù)以目前的速度增加，哈德遜灣地區(qū)的北極熊將會不可避免地消失。該公司首席科學(xué)家史蒂芬·阿姆斯特拉普表示，現(xiàn)在還不算太晚。“我相信，將全球氣溫上升控制在2攝氏度以內(nèi)，可以保護(hù)北極熊在目前活動范圍內(nèi)的部分活動，”他說。這是各國在2015年巴黎氣候會議上設(shè)定的目標(biāo)。但是，各國作出的承諾不足以實(shí)現(xiàn)這一目標(biāo)?？茖W(xué)家估計，到本世紀(jì)末，全球氣溫將比工業(yè)化前的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)上升大約3攝氏度。

In his 2019 book, “The Wizard and the Prophet,” the science writer Charles C. Mann described?a long-running argument?between those who believe humans can survive in the long term only by accepting the limits of nature and those who believe humans can survive by reshaping nature.?Wittingly?or otherwise, we are?placing our chips in the second basket.

在2019年的書《巫師與先知》中，科學(xué)作家查爾斯·C·曼談到一場持續(xù)多年的爭論，爭論的一方認(rèn)為，人類要想生存下去，必須首先承認(rèn)大自然是有極限的，而另一方認(rèn)為人類可以通過重塑自然來求生。不管是否出于有意，我們現(xiàn)在把籌碼放在了第二個籃子里。

1.as the sea ice forms later in the year原因放在了后面（事實(shí)背景）重要的信息放在前面

2.Sth is in decline=be on the decrease下降?

3.Terminal不可逆轉(zhuǎn) be terminally ill病入膏肓

4.at the current pace：at the current rate照這種速度發(fā)展下去

5.are on pace to rise：be on track / course to do將要，將會

6.多注意小詞的使用以及斷句的變化

7.a long-running argument 長期爭論

8.Wittingly or otherwise, we are placing our chips in the second basket.不管是有意還是無意，我們都在把籌碼放在第二個籃子里