2007-5-14 20:56
oracle
科学家呼吁保护加拿大北部森林
Scientists call for Canadian boreal forest's protection
Last Updated: Monday, May 14, 2007 | 5:23 PM ET
CBC News
Some 1,500 scientists from more than 50 countries around the world on Monday urged Canadian governments to protect the country's 566.6 million-hectare [color=Red]boreal （[color=Red][b]北半球北部山区的[/b][/color]） [/color]forest.
来自50个国家的大约1500名科学家星期一呼吁加拿大政府保护加拿大北部五亿六千六百六十万公顷的森林。
The forest — described by the researchers in an open letter as one of the world's last remaining and largest intact forest and wetland ecosystems — is a major source of fresh water in North America, home to billions of animals and important to the livelihood of First Nations communities, they noted.
科学家们在一份公开信中说：加拿大北部森林是世界上最后几个原始森林和湿地生态系统之一。加拿大北部森林是北美主要的淡水水源，亿万动物的家园，对第一国民社区的生计十分重要。
According to the researchers, the boreal forest is threatened by logging, mining, oil and gas operations and other activities, and will continue to be at risk unless federal, provincial and territorial governments increase the area that enjoys protected status from the current 10 per cent to at least 50 per cent.
研究人员说：砍伐，采矿，石油天然气开采和其它人类活动正威胁到北部森林。除非联邦政府和省以及地区政府增加保护区，这些威胁会持续下去。
"The world scientific community is recognizing that the Canadian boreal forest is more important than they knew," Jeff Wells, a scientist with the International Boreal Conservation Campaign and the Boreal Songbird Initiative, told CBC.ca.
"About 50 per cent of migratory bird species, or about three to five billion birds, migrate through the region, it has the world's largest reservoirs of fresh water in its 1.5 million lakes and ponds … and [it] is a critical shield against global warming," said Wells, who holds a PhD in avian ecology.
Wells说:大约50%的候鸟，大约30-50亿只鸟每年都要飞过这个地区。这里的150万个湖泊是世界上最大的淡水水源，森林是防止全球变暖的重要屏障。Wells拥有鸟类生态学博士学位。
The region constitutes about one-quarter of the world's forest and is one of five remaining regions that serve a global environmental balancing role, he said.
这一地区占有全球四分之一的森林，5个保持全球环境平衡的区域之一。
Scientists say the forest is the world's largest storage mass for carbon — a crucial link to help curb global climate change. It is capable of storing 186 billion tonnes of carbon, or the equivalent of 27 years of carbon dioxide emissions from planetary consumption of fossil fuels, according to the researchers.
科学家说（加拿大北部森林）是世界上碳储量最大的地区。该地区可以储存1860亿吨的碳。
Wells said that in other parts of the world — including the United States — upwards of 90 per cent of forest and grasslands that serve as obstacles to global climate change have been destroyed, changing ecosystems and resulting in the extinction of species.
"The carrier pigeon went from [a population] of three to five billion to zero in about 100 years. It was one of the most common species but the last one died in a zoo in 1914. We don't want to repeat that."
信鸽的数量在大约100年的时间里从30-40亿减少到0，这是一个很普遍的物种，但是1914年最后一只信鸽死在动物园里。我们不希望这样的事再发生。
Ecological models suggest that a four-degree increase in temperature will put 40 per cent of all species at risk of extinction, he said, citing recent research.
'People once thought clean water was unlimited'
生态模型显示温度上升4摄氏度可能导致40%的物种面临灭绝的危险。
Scientists have only recently started to realize the global importance of the Canadian boreal forest, Wells said.
科学家最近才开始意识到加拿大北部森林的重要性。
"People once thought clean water was unlimited, they thought clean air was unlimited, they thought animals were unlimited. Now we know they're not," he said.
人们一直认为清洁的水源取之不尽，清洁的空气用之不竭，动物数量无穷多，但是现在我们知道不是这样。
The elimination of ecosystems and species that have occurred to date are a direct result of that, Wells said.
"It's a function of lack of vision, lack of knowledge, and poor planning," Wells said.
The International Boreal Conservation Campaign, the Canadian Boreal Initiative and the Boreal Songbird Initiative, backed by U.S.-based Pew Charitable Trusts, publicly released the letter Monday.