亚马逊雨林即将跨越一个不可逆转的门槛，变成热带稀树草原

The Amazon Rainforest Is About To Cross An Irreversible Threshold That Will Turn It Into A Savanna, Top Scientists Say

顶级科学家表示，亚马逊雨林即将跨越一个不可逆转的门槛，变成热带稀树草原

Experts fear the Amazon rainforest has reached a catastrophic tipping point.

专家们担心亚马逊雨林已经到了一个灾难性的临界点。

Leading rainforest scientists Thomas Lovejoy and Carlos Nobre warned in an editorial published Thursday that deforestation in the world's largest rainforest has led the Amazon to the brink of an irreversible process called "dieback."

著名的热带雨林科学家托马斯·洛夫乔伊和卡洛斯·诺布雷在周四发表的一篇社论中警告说，世界上最大的热带雨林的滥伐已经把亚马逊带到了一个被称为“死亡”的不可逆过程的边缘。

That scenario would turn the Amazon into an African-savanna-type landscape. The tropical trees — and the fauna they support — would disappear, releasing up to 140 billion tons of stored carbon into the atmosphere, causing an uptick in already rising global temperatures.

这种情况将把亚马逊变成非洲大草原式的景观。热带树木——以及它们所供养的动物群——将会消失，向大气中释放多达1400亿吨储存的碳，导致已经在上升的全球气温上升。

Today, we stand exactly in a moment of destiny, Lovejoy and Nobre wrote in the editorial, which was published in the journal Science Advances. Both scientists have studied the Amazon for decades. "The tipping point is here, it is now."

洛夫乔伊和诺布尔在这篇发表在《科学进展》(Science Advances)杂志上的社论中写道:“今天，我们完全站在了一个命运的时刻。”这两位科学家都对亚马逊河进行了数十年的研究。“临界点就在这里，就是现在。”

Fears about this tipping point spread over the summer, when fires raged through the Brazilian Amazon. Researchers recorded more than 195,000 fires in Brazil this year. The surge of blazes in August marked an 83% increase from the same period in 2018.

对这一临界点的担忧在夏季蔓延开来，当时大火肆虐巴西亚马逊地区。研究人员今年在巴西记录了超过19.5万起火灾。与2018年同期相比，8月份的火灾激增了83%。

But overall, this year was not unique. People have been setting fires like this, which are not a natural part of the Amazon ecosystem, for years to clear land for farming and mining. Brazil saw over 205,000 fires in 2017, more than 182,000 in 2016, and 212,000 in 2015.

但总的来说，今年并不是唯一的。多年来，人们一直在这样放火，这不是亚马逊生态系统的自然组成部分，目的是为了清理土地用于农业和采矿。巴西在2017年发生超过20.5万起火灾，2016年超过18.2万起，2015年21.2万起。

This year's fires did, however, gain worldwide attention after wind carried the smoke into S?o Paulo, 2,000 miles away.

然而，今年的火灾确实引起了全世界的关注，因为风把烟雾吹到了2000英里外的圣保罗。

The rampant winds awoke the Brazilian populace and indeed the world to the harsh reality that the precious Amazon is teetering on the edge of functional destruction and, with it, so are we, Lovejoy and Nobre wrote. "The loss of forest will lead to staggering losses of biodiversity, carbon, and, in turn, human well-being."

洛夫乔伊和诺布雷写道:“肆虐的狂风唤醒了巴西民众，乃至全世界，让他们意识到一个残酷的现实:宝贵的亚马逊正处于功能破坏的边缘，我们也一样。”“森林的消失将导致生物多样性、碳以及人类福祉的惊人损失。”