时差N小时:农夫和树

Dear Don and Yale: For a long time now, decadesprobably, I've been hearing about deforestation.But who, exactly, is cutting down all the trees?

亲爱的唐和雅艾尔：长久以来，或许几十年以来，关于滥砍滥伐的事情我听得太多了。但到底是谁在砍伐这些树木呢?

Yale: If I had to guess, I'd say it's farmers clearingland for planting crops. Am I right?

雅艾尔：要我猜的话，我觉得是农民们在开荒垦植。我猜对了吗?

Don: That would seem to make sense. Farmers do need to clear space to plant their fields. Butactually, farmers around the world have just as much to do with planting trees as they do withchopping them down. A study using satellite pictures looked at around 2.5 billion acres offarmland around the world. It found that about ten-percent of it is covered by trees. That's anarea twice as large as the Amazon rain forest.

唐：听起来似乎有道理。农民们确实需要开荒垦植。但事实上，世界各地的农民既砍树也植树。一项研究采用卫星照片观察了世界各地约25亿公顷的农田。研究发现大约有十分之一的农田周围种有树木。且其总面积是亚马逊热带雨林的两倍。

Yale: That's pretty surprising. I mean why would farmers want so many trees taking up space?Don't they want their fields to be as large as possible?

雅艾尔：这实在令人惊奇。我的意思是为什么农民们会种植占用这么多土地的树木?难道他们不希望尽可能多地耕种土地吗?

Don: Yes, generally. But other studies have found that trees are very useful for farmers. Theyhelp keep soil healthy. And they can be harvested to feed animals, provide timber and wood forburning, and produce fruit. Trees also help prevent soil erosion and improve groundwaterquality.

唐：一般来说，是的。但另一项研究显示树木对农民用处非常大。树木能保持土壤健康，能用来喂牲口，树干和树枝可用来烧柴，此外树还能结果。同时，树能防止水土流失，改善地下水水质。

Yale: So farmers grow trees because they're profitable.

雅艾尔：所以农民们种树是因为树木用处大。

Don: Basically farmers have to make a living, and if trees made it harder to make a profit thenfarmers wouldn't keep them around. Of course, deforestation is still a big problem. Manyfarmers, especially in the Brazilian rain forest, cut down thousands of trees to make way forfields. But in many other places, farms and forests work together.

唐：从根本上来说，农民需要谋生。如果农民们很难依靠树木获利，他们是不会四处种植树木的。当然，滥砍滥伐仍是一个大问题。许多地区，尤其是在巴西雨林中，成千上万的树被砍伐，为耕地腾地方。但是在其它许多地方，农民和森林是相互依存的。