VOA慢速英语: 全球变暖、人口增长和无限制开发威胁非洲物种（双语）

全球变暖、人口增长和无限制的开发威胁非洲物种

From VOA Learning English, this is the Agriculture Report.

这里是美国之音慢速英语农业报道。

Climate researchers met recently in Cameroon to talk about threats to Africa's land and animals. They said they believe the continent may lose as much as 30 percent of its animal and plant species by the end of this century. They blame the expected losses on the warming of earth, population growth and unrestricted development.

最近气候研究人员在喀麦隆会面商讨非洲的土地和动物所面临的威胁。他们认为到本世纪末，非洲大陆可能会失去30%多的动植物物种。他们认为这种预期的损失是由全球变暖、人口增长和无限制的开发所带来的。

The researchers represent 20 African, American and European universities. They say countries south of the Saharan desert are losing forest faster than any place on earth. Wood companies are cutting down trees to meet growing demand from China, Europe and the United States.

这些研究者代表着非洲、美洲和欧洲的20所大学，他们称，撒哈拉沙漠以南的非洲国家失去森林的速度比地球上的任何地方都要快。木材公司大量砍伐树木以用来销往中国、欧洲和美国，来满足其不断增长的需求。

The population is growing at 3 percent per year. There are now homes, factories and farms on land that once was forest. Many African animals and plants no longer have a place to live as result. Climate change also continues to threaten species.

非洲人口以每年3%的速度在增长，曾经满是森林的土地上，现在都是住宅、工厂和农场。这就导致非洲许多的动植物再没有地方生存，气候变化也一直威胁着物种。

Thomas Smith is the director of the Center for Tropical Research at the University of California.

托马斯·史密斯是美国加州大学的热带研究中心的主任。

"With a 1.5 degree rise in global temperature, Africa may lose 30 percent of its animals and plants. And unfortunately with the increase in CO2 that has been now estimated to be up to three degrees in terms of rising global temperatures -- that means we may lose 40 percent of all mammal species in Africa by the end of the century," said Smith.

史密斯说：“全球气温每上升1.5度，非洲可能会失去30%的动植物。而不幸的是，随着二氧化碳的增加，现在全球气温预计将会上升3度，这就意味着到本世纪末，非洲可能会失去其所有哺乳动物中的40%。”

The African chimpanzee is one such animal at risk. Mary Katherine Gonder is a professor in the Department of Biology at Drexel University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

非洲黑猩猩就是处于危险中的动物之一，玛丽·凯瑟琳·贡德尔是宾尼法尼亚州费城德雷赛尔大学的生物系的教授。

She studies chimpanzees in the Congo Basin. She says the forest home is disappearing. She also says hunters continue to kill the animals to sell as food.

她在刚果盆地研究黑猩猩，她称，森林家园正在消失。并称，猎人仍在捕猎动物用于出售。

"What will happen over the next 20 years, the distribution of those chimpanzees will change. Their habitat will change fundamentally and they will no longer be around. So it is a real threat. The habitat for those chimpanzees will be gone," said Gonder.

贡德尔说：“在未来二十年将会发生什么，黑猩猩的分布将会发生改变，它们的栖息地将会发生彻底改变，它们也将会消失。所以，这真的是一个威胁。这些黑猩猩的栖息地都将会消失。”

Thomas Smith of the University of California says it's possible to develop Africa and care for the environment at the same time.

加州大学的托马斯·史密斯称，在开发非洲的同时，也保护环境是可以做到的。

"With these enormous challenges, we need to develop green economies. We need to make sure that the development we do is sustainable. For example, we are working with parties here to develop new ways of providing green jobs, for example areas that you can preserve, [like] forests, and at the same time produce crops that are appropriate for people to sell and to eat. So we need to be thinking about how to preserve the natural processes and at the same time provide for the economic needs of the country," said Smith.

史密斯说：“因为面临这些巨大挑战，所以我们必须要发展绿色经济。我们必须要确保我们所进行的开发具有可持续性。例如，我们正在同这里的各方合作，来开发新途径，来提供绿色就业，例如保护区，像森林保护区。与此同时，要生产出适合人们销售和食用的农作物。所以我们需要思考如何保护这一自然过程，并与此同时满足该国经济发展的需求。”

The Congo Basin area of western and central Africa has the second largest equatorial rain forest in the world. It is important to lives of millions of people.

非洲中西部地区的刚果盆地拥有世界上第二大的赤道雨林，该地区对数百万人的生活非常重要

And that's the VOA Learning English Agriculture Report. I'm Caty Weaver.

这就是本期的美国之音慢速英语农业报道的全部内容，我是卡蒂·韦弗。