Long since have I marveled
“吾尝悲夫万物莫不好鸣
How of ten thousand creatures there is not one
若乃四时代谢
But has its tune; how, as each season takes its turn,
百鸟嚶兮
A hundred new birds sing, each weather wakes
一气候至
A hundred insects from their sleep.
百虫惊兮”
Ouyang Xiu (1007-1072) The Cicada
欧阳修（1007-1072)《鸣蝉賦》
This poem by Ouyang Xiu conveys the essence of biodiversity, though it was written many centuries before the term was used in any language. Yet despite this early conceptual grasp of the earth’s immense variety, 21st century humans still struggle to come to terms with how and why biodiversity matters to us.
900多年前欧阳修所写的这首赋描述了生物多样性的本质，而 那时还根本没有生物多样性这个词。尽管人类很早就对地球上丰富 的多样性有了了解，但是直到21世纪,人类仍然在为以下这些问题 而争论不休:生物多样性如何对我们产生重要影响？它为什么会对 我们产生重要影响？
With all these uncertainties, there is also one globally agreed target relating to biodiversity, endorsed at the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD): “the achievement of a significant reduction in the current rate of loss of biodiversity”.
虽然存在这些不确定性，但全世界已经达成了关于生物多样性 的一个目标。在2002年召开的可持续发展全球峰会上，各国签署的 目标是“将目前生物多样性的损失速度显著降低”。
Like most targets, this represents a huge simplification. Indeed, there can be no single globally quantifiable measure of the current “rate of loss”. Biodiversity is far more than the sum of answers to such questions as: “How much forest cover does the world have?” or “How many species are there?” It is a pulsating network of processes embracing the growth, survival, change—and extinction-of all forms of life on earth.
和多数目标一样，这个目标也是极其笼统的。实际上，现在世界 上还没有一种定量方法能够测量目前(生物多样性)的“损失速度”。 生物多样性绝不仅仅是回答诸如以下这样的问题世界上的森林 覆盖率是多少？ ”或者“总共有多少物种？ ”它是一个动态的过程， 这些过程包括地球上各种生命体的增长、生存、变化以及灭绝。
Nothing, however, compares to the effects of industrialization, which has provided the tools for far more efficient reduction in the variety of life forms. Plants and wild animals that are economically valuable are often exploited by methods that amount to reducing biodiversity: trawlers and chain-saws instead of fishing-rods and axes.
没有什么比工业化给生物多样性造成的损失更大了,工业化提供 了导致物种数量减少的更加有效的工具。人类用来开发具有经济价值的植物和野生动物的方法往往就意味着对生物多样性的破坏:捕鱼船和链锯代替了鱼竿和斧头。
Classic approaches share the same perspective of viewing life from the standpoint of just one species: Homo sapiens. Now in the 21st century humans are realizing how premature is that self-naming claim to wisdom.
对生物多样性有多种典型看法。这些不同看法的共同点在于:从一个物种——人类的角度去 看待生命。进人21世纪，人类正在意识到这种标榜自己智慧的做法是多么的幼稚。
Awareness is also growing of the unintended effects that our one species is having on the planet. Loss of biodiversity has been going on for centuries, but awareness of it as a global phenomenon really only developed during the 19th and 20th centuries. Two relatively recent issues—AIDS and climate change—have made us dramatically aware of our vulnerability.
我们已经逐渐意识到人类这个物种在无意识的情况下给地球造成的影响。生物多样性的丧失已 经持续了数个世纪,但是意识到它是一个全球的现象还只是丨9和20世纪的事情。两个相对来说新出 现的课题——艾滋病和气候变化,已经使我们明显感到了人类自身的脆弱。
Today, we have the knowledge to tackle climate change, to clean up rivers, to restore wetlands, to recreate forests—and affect biodiversity positively; but our power to destroy, both deliberately and inadvertently, through our numbers and our activities, appears far greater. It must certainly seem like that from the perspective of other species.
今天，我们有办法可以应对气候变化,可以清洁河流、恢复湿地以及重造森林——并对生物多 样性产生积极的影响。但相比起来，我们通过人口的增长和行为有意和无意地破坏生物多样性的 力量显然要强大的多。我们必须学会从其他物种的角度来考虑问题。
James Lovelock laments in his recent book——The Revenge of Gaia: Why the Earth is Fighting Back—how “The humanist concept of sustainable development and the Christian concept of stewardship are flawed by unconscious hubris. We have neither the knowledge nor the capacity to achieve them. We are no more equipped to be the stewards or developers of the Earth than are goats to be gardeners.” This suggests that to tackle loss of biodiversity and global warming we need to evolve quickly into a new subspecies: Homo sapiens humilis.
詹姆斯拉夫洛克在他的新作《盖亚的复仇:地球为什么反击》中哀叹——“可持续发展的人 文主义理念和基督教的上帝造人并授予人管理世界权利的观念都存在着没有被意识到的专横傲 慢的问题。我们既没有知识也没有能力来达到这两种理论提出的目标。我们不具备成为地球的管 理者或者开发者的条件,就像山羊不能成为园丁一样。”这就提醒我们：为了解决生物多样性丧失 和全球变暖的问题,我们需要尽快进化为一种明智而谦虚的人类。
Will we learn to reduce our impacts, so that other species have more space? Will Homo sapiens ever become wise enough to realize that for one species to dominate the planet is as unattractive, unstable and unethical as for one nation, gender or religion to rule others? Whether human biodiversity targets are ever met will depend on developing a concept of “sharing the earth” in which life forms other than humans are seen not as part of the earth but as part of the sharing.
我们能学会减少我们对他们的影响从而给其他物种留下更多生存空间吗?人类能发展到具有 足够的智慧从而可以意识到由一个物种来统治地球是没有吸引力的、不稳定的和不道德的，就像 一个国家、一个性别或者一种宗教不能统治其他国家、性别或者宗教一样？人类有关生物多样性的 目标能否达成将取决于能否发展一种“分享地球”的理念,这种理念不是将人类而是将所有物种视 为共享地球的一份子而不是地球的组成部分。