Become a bilingual volunteer

人造黄河“洪水”，改造自然？

2010年9月1日

黄河调水调沙工程被捧为技术与环保意义上的巨大胜利，然而人造“洪水”却也使当地居民陷于险境。孟斯报道。

Muddy waters

September 01, 2010

A project to flush sediment from the Yellow River has been hailed as a technological and environmental triumph. But, writes Meng Si, local communities are at risk.

保卫克什米尔的树

2010年8月19日

在印度最北边省邦中人口密集的城镇上，腐败纵容了木材被非法偷运。杰森•伯克写道，木材交易如火如荼也少不了政府暗中资助。

Uphill fight for Kashmir’s trees

August 19, 2010

Amid a building boom in India’s northernmost state, corruption is hindering efforts to stop illegal timber smuggling. And, writes Jason Burke, the trade in wood is fuelled in part by government cash.

边疆的终结

2010年7月12日

中国的西部大开发使云南融入到全球经济的大潮中。然而，新的基础设施建设却让环境付出了一定代价。埃德•格拉宾撰文探讨农村转型的环境动力学问题。

End of the frontier

July 12, 2010

China’s Go West campaign is launching Yunnan into the global economy, but new infrastructure carries an ecological price tag. R Edward Grumbine reports on the green dynamics of a rural transformation.

偷猎者正使犀牛走向灭绝

据全球自然保护团体称，偷猎者为了寻求供传统医学使用的犀牛角，正推动亚洲和非洲一度繁荣的犀牛种群走向灭亡。路透社援引该组织的说法报道，对濒危动物的非法猎杀越来越多。以亚洲为主的犯罪团伙为满足市场对犀牛角的需求，大量增加屠杀活动，这导致犀牛死亡率达到15年来的最高水平。

Poachers pushing rhinos to extinction

Poachers seeking horn for traditional medicines are driving once-thriving rhinoceros populations in Asia and Africa toward extinction, according to global nature-protection groups. Illegal slaughter of the endangered animals was accelerating, Reuters quoted the organisations as saying, with rhino death rates reaching a 15-year high amid increased activities by Asian-based criminal gangs feeding the demand for horn.

二氧化碳"能增加农作物的毒素"

世界上有数以百万计的人口以例如甘薯的主食为生。据路透社援引澳洲科学家的研究发现，由于世界二氧化碳水平升高、干旱更为频密，这些主食因此带有愈来愈高的毒素，收成亦愈来愈少。科学家补充，该发现强调有需要使能够承受气候变化的农作物或栽培种更多样化。

CO2 “can increase toxicity” of crops

Staple foods such as cassava, on which millions of people depend, become more toxic and produce much smaller yields in a world with higher carbon-dioxide levels and more drought, Reuters reported Australian scientists as saying. The findings, the researchers noted, underscore the need for cultivated plant varieties, or cultivars, that are resistant to climate change.

海草床的生态系统面临流失

据科学期刊《自然》报道，首项对世界上海草床状况的全面评估显示人类活动已伤害了经济及生物重地。科学家说，海草床是地球上其中一个最受威胁的生态系统，其流失率可与红树林、珊瑚礁和热带炎森林相提并论。

Seagrass ecosystems facing losses

The first comprehensive assessment of the state of seagrass meadows around the world shows the damage that human activities have done to the economically and biologically essential areas, the journal Nature reported. The meadows are among the most threatened ecosystems on earth, scientists say, with loss rates comparable to those of mangroves, coral reefs and tropical rain forests.