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地球未來很“悽慘”?100萬個物種正遭受滅絕威脅

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One million of the planet's eight million species are threatened with extinction by humans, scientists warned Monday in what is described as the most comprehensive assessment of global nature loss ever.

科學家們本週一(5月6日)發佈了迄今爲止最全面的一份全球自然損失評估報告,報告警告稱,地球上800萬個物種中有100萬個正因人類而遭受滅絕威脅。

Their landmark report paints a bleak picture of a planet ravaged by an ever-growing human population, whose insatiable consumption is destroying the natural world.

這份具有里程碑意義的報告描繪的灰暗圖景顯示因全球人口增長而遭受破壞的地球,人類無止境的消費正在毀掉大自然。

The global rate of species extinction "is already tens to hundreds of times higher than it has been, on average, over the last 10 million years," according to the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), a UN committee, whose report was written by 145 experts from 50 countries.

聯合國生物多樣性和生態系統服務政府間科學政策平臺(IPBES)發佈的這份報告由來自50個國家的145名專家撰寫。報告稱,全球物種滅絕的“平均速度已經數十甚至數百倍於千萬年前”。

Shrinking habitat, exploitation of natural resources, climate change and pollution are the main drivers of species loss and are threatening more than 40% of amphibians, 33% of coral reefs and over a third of all marine mammals with extinction, the IPBES report said.

報告稱,日漸縮小的棲息地、自然資源過度開採、氣候變化和污染是地球物種損失的主因,這些因素正在威脅全世界40%以上的兩棲類動物、33%的珊瑚礁和1/3以上的海洋哺乳動物,它們都面臨滅絕風險。

"The health of ecosystems on which we and all other species depend is deteriorating more rapidly than ever," said Sir Robert Watson, IPBES chair, adding that "transformative change" is needed to save the planet.

“所有物種賴以生存的生態系統正以史無前例的速度惡化”,IPBES主席羅伯特·沃森先生表示。他補充說,爲了保護地球,人類需要進行“轉型變革”。

The report comes six months after the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned that the world has less than 12 years to avoid catastrophic levels of global warming.

半年前,聯合國政府間氣候變化專門委員會提醒說,人類只有不到12年的時間來避免災難性的全球氣候變暖。

Just as with climate change, humans are the main culprits of biodiversity damage, altering 75% of Earth's land and 66% of marine ecosystems since pre-industrial times, according to the report.

該報告稱,除導致氣候變化外,人類還是破壞地球生物多樣性的“元兇”之一,自前工業社會以來,人類已改變了地球75%的土地和66%的海洋生態環境。

The report emphasizes the disastrous impact of population growth and rising demand. It notes that the world's population has more than doubled (from 3.7 to 7.6 billion) in the last 50 years, and gross domestic product per person is four times higher.

報告強調指出,人口增長和需求上升造成了災難般的影響。在過去50年間,全球人口已經增加了一倍多(從37億增加到76億),人均國內生產總值增長到此前的4倍。

More than a third of the world's land and 75% of freshwater supplies are used for crop or livestock production, it noted.

如今,全世界1/3以上的土地和75%的淡水正被用於農作物種植和牲畜飼養。

"[There is] very little of the planet left that has not been significantly altered by us," Sandra Diaz, co-author of the report and professor of ecology at the University of Córdoba, told CNN. "We need to act as stewards for life on Earth."

報告合著者之一、科爾多瓦大學生態學教授桑德拉·迪亞茲告訴美國有線新聞網說:“如今地球上已經沒有什麼沒被人類明顯改變過了。我們需要做地球生命的管理員。”

Diaz said countries in the Global North are particularly to blame for nature damage due to their "unsustainable" levels of consumption, especially when it comes to fishing and logging.

迪亞茲說,由於“不可持續的消費水平”,特別是漁業和伐木業,地球北部的國家對自然的損壞有更大責任。

地球未來很“悽慘”?100萬個物種正遭受滅絕威脅

Despite the ominous picture "it is not too late to make a difference, but only if we start now at every level from local to global," said Watson, adding that this would require an overhaul of economic systems and a shift in political and social mindsets.

沃森表示,儘管前景黯淡,“現在做出改變還不算遲,但我們必須從地方到全球,在每個層面開始行動起來”。他補充說,這需要徹底改變經濟制度,並轉變政治和社會理念。

Diaz said that governments should implement drastic changes now to avoid a "dire future" in 10-20 years when their "food and climate security [is] in jeopardy."

迪亞茲說,政府應實行大規模變革,以避免10到20年內的“悲慘未來”,屆時人類的“食品和氣候安全可能陷入危險”。

The IPBES report comes ahead of two high-level summits in 2020 where world leaders will scale up their climate and environment protection goals. That is when China will host the UN convention on biodiversity to set new 20-year targets and when the signatories of the 2015 Paris Agreement to keep global warming to less than 2 degrees will revise their commitments.

該報告的發佈正值2020年全球兩場高級別峯會前夕,屆時各國領導人將提升其氣候和環境保護目標。一是中國將主辦聯合國《生物多樣性公約》締約方大會,以設定未來20年新目標,二是2015年《巴黎氣候協定》簽署國將重新修訂全球變暖幅度的承諾(此前承諾爲將全球平均升溫控制在2攝氏度以內)。