PETS三级考试必备阅读资料及参考译文(27)

　　Ecosphere thinking

　　Although in theory every educated person knows that the world is more than people， resources， and a vague environment to be protected， the very fact of seeing it as one spherical air-water-land system gives it a new and different reality. From a vantage point outside our home， a revealing perspective has shown us the planet for what it really is; a ball of living star dust， a four-and-one-billion year old miracle.

　　Perhaps the strange human desire to fly away from the planet， to “slip the surly bonds of earth，” is a necessary impulse for discovering who we are. Perhaps we can never be satisfied on earth until we have traveled away in space and come back home， back to our roots， to where we belong.

　　To the question， “what is the world?” the answers still tend to be ambiguous. In the traditional sense， the earth remains the supportive environment for humanity; merely the means for enhancement of the one animal “made in God‘s image.” To physical science that has denatured reality the world is a material place of molecules and atoms， of solids， liquids and gases， of atmosphere， hydrosphere， lithosphere and biosphere. For biological science it is a scene wherein mechanistic organisms compete for survival， driven by selfish genes. To the economist it is raw materials and resources， valueless until transformed by the “innovative genius of man” into marketable commodities. There are our humanistic homo-centred legacies—no longer reasonable.

　　In the profounder ecological sense， the world is now known as a unity. The various spheres—atom， hydro， litho， and bio—are intertwined and related， both in the historical evolutionary sense and in the present functional sense. Organic tissues of living things are fashioned from the elements of air， water and soil which in turn bear the imprints of life. Thus， the nutrient composition of sea water is maintained by organisms which also stabilize the improbable composition of the atmosphere. Plants and animals formed the limestone in mountains whose sediments make our bones. Our blood and sea water are akin. On the earth‘s surface the artificial divisions that we have made between living and non-living， biotic and abiotic， organic and inorganic， are not only false but mischievous.

　　The reality of the world is not people and separate “other things”。 Nor is the earth a machine whose secrets lie in its fragmented parts. It is — beyond all understanding—an integrated ecosphere of marvelous creativity.

　　The root meaning of “eco” is “home”， and the revealed ecosphere is the home-sphere from which all life came and in which all life exists. Thanks to NASA， ecology—which means study of the home—has had its eyes opened to the reality of the Home of all homes.

　　Ecology needs to escape its obsession with organisms—the legitimate subject matter of biology—and fasten its attention on the larger whole in which organisms， including people， function as parts. Ecology‘s natural subject of interest is the earth-home， the ecosphere， not its fragmentary compositional parts. Ecology studies the whole; biology studies the organic constituents of the whole that are no more important than air， water and soil.

　　参考译文：

　　从理论上讲，所有受过教育的人都知道不光是人、资源和一个模糊的需要保护的环境，把世界看作是一个空气—水—土地为整体的球体会赋予它一个全新的、不同的实际意义。从地球以外的有利地位来看，地球是一个有生命的、虚无缥缈的球体，一个有着50亿年生命的奇迹。

　　人类有一个奇怪的想法，那就是从地球上远走高飞以挣脱这个乖戾的星球。或许这个冲动对于发现我们究竟是谁是必要的。也许我们永远不会对地球感到满足，直到我们去太空旅行一圈再回来，回到我们的根，回到这个我们从属的地方。

　　对于“什么是地球?”这个问题的答案还不明确。从传统的感觉上讲，地球仍是给予人类支持的环境;它的作用仅仅是增强人类这种“以上帝形象创造的”动物。对于具有变性的物理学来说世界是由分子、原子，固体、液体、气体，大气圈、水圈、岩石圈和生物圈组成的物质世界;对于生物学家来说，世界是一个有机理性的有机物为了生存而展开竞争的地方，这种竞争是被自私所驱;对经济学家来说，地球是原材料和资源，这些资源如果不被人类天才般的创造力转化为市场商品的话就毫无价值。这些都是以人类为中心的人本主义思想的遗留物，已经不再合理。

　　站在深刻的生态学角度，世界现在被看作是一个整体。各个圈——大气圈，水圈，岩石圈，生物圈——都是相互依赖相互联系的，不管是以过去进化的角度来看还是以现在功能的角度来看。生物休的有机经组织是由空气、水和土壤中的元素构成，这些元素都带着生命的印记。海水中的养分保存在有机物中，有机物对大气层奇异的构成也有稳定作用。山上的植物和动物形成石灰岩，石灰岩的沉积物构成人体骨骼。我们的血液和海水相近。在地球表面，我们对生物和非生物、生命体和非生命体、有机物和无机物所作的人为划分不光是错误而且是有害的。

　　真正的世界不是人类和分开的“其他东西”;也不是一台机器，这台机器的秘密在于所分裂的各个部分。真正的世界——不同于所有的理解——是一个完整的，充满了各种绝妙创造物的生物圈。

　　“eco”的根本意思是“家”。裸露的生物圈就是家，我们从这个家里来也在这个家里生存。多亏了美国宇航局，生态学——也就是研究我们的家园——已经注意到我们这个大家庭的现实。

　　生态学需要逃离有机生物的束缚——有机物是生物学的正规课题——而将注意力放在更大范围上。有机生物，包括人，只是这个范围的一部分。生态学本质主题的兴趣在于地球——我们的家、生物圈，而不是分裂开的各个组成部分。生态学研究的是整体;生物学研究的是这个整体里的有机成分，这些有机成分并不比空气、水和土壤更重要。