世界水资源的缺乏World Water Shortage
A new study warns that about thirty percent of the world's people may not have enough water by the year 2025.
一项新的研究结果提出警告:到2025年,世界上将有30%的人没有足够的水饮用。
A private American organization called Population Action International did the new study. It says more than three-hundred-thirty-five-million people lack enough water now. The people live in twenty-eight countries. Most of the countries are in Africa or the Middle East.
这项研究是由美国一家名叫“人口行动”的私立机构进行的。报告说现在世界上有三亿三千五百万人没有足够的水。这些人主要分布在非洲或中东的28个国家。
P-A-I researcher Robert Engelman says by the year 2025, about three-thousand-million people may lack water. At least 18 more countries are expected to have severe water problems. The demand for water keeps increasing. Yet the amount of water on Earth stays the same.
人口行动组织的研究人罗博特.安格曼说,到2025年大约三十亿人缺水。至少还有其他18个国家将可能面临同样严重的水短缺问题。人类对水的需求不断上升,但地球上水的还是保持不变。
Mr. Engelman says the population in countries that lack water is growing faster than in other parts of the world. He says population growth in these countries will continue to increase.
安格曼先生说,水短缺的国家的人口增长率要高于世界其他地区的人口增长率。他还说这些国家的人口出生率将持续增长。
The report says lack of water in the future may result in several problems. It may increase health problems. Lack of water often means drinking waters not safe. Mr. Engelman says there are problems all over the world because of diseases, such as cholera, which are carried in water. Lack of water may also result in more international conflict. Countries may have to compete for water in the future. Some countries now get sixty percent of their fresh water from other countries. This is true of Egypt, the Netherlands, Cambodia, Syria, Sudan, and Iraq. And the report says lack of water would affect the ability of developing to improve their economies. This is because new industries often need a large amount of water when they are beginning.
报告表明,在未来,水资源的缺乏可能会导致一些严重的后果。首先它可能会产生更多的健康问题。水资源的缺乏就意味着饮用水不再有保障。安格曼先生说,诸如霍乱等在水中传播的疾病会使世界出现许多问题。水缺乏也会引起更多的国际纷争。各国可能由于水而发动战争。现在有些国家,例如埃及,荷兰,柬埔寨,叙利亚,苏丹和伊拉克等,60%的纯净水是从国外进口的。报告认为水缺乏将影响发展国家发展经济的能力。这是因为新工业在开始阶段经常需要大量的水。
The Population Action International study gives several solutions to the water problem. One way, it says, is to find ways to use water for more than one purpose. Another way is to teach people to be careful not to waste water. A third way is to use less water of agriculture.
人口行动组织的研究报告为世界的水短缺问题提出了几个解决的办法。第一,找到多用途的用水方法。第二,教育人们不要浪费水资源。第三就是少用农业水。
The report also says long-term solutions to the water problem must include controls on population growth. It says countries cannot provide clean water unless they slow population growth by limiting the number of children people have.
报告同时表明,控制人口增长是长远解决水缺乏问题不可缺少的措施之一。它说除非各国能通过限制生育来降低人口的增长,否则它们不可能提供干净的水。
Global warming a bigger threat to poor全球变暖加剧贫穷 气候变化急待控制
Global warming, modelled on computer here, kills more people than terrorism
Global warming threatens to reverse human progress, and make unachievable all UN targets to reduce poverty(联合国所有减少贫穷的目标), according to some of the world's leading international and development groups.
In a report published today, Oxfam, Greenpeace, Christian Aid, Friends of the Earth, WWF(英国牛津救济委员会、“绿色和平”组织、基督徒互援会、“地球之友”组织、世界野生动物基金组织) and 15 other groups say rich governments must immediately address(致力于) climate change to avoid even "obscene levels(无法忍受的程度)" of worldwide poverty.
"Food production, water supplies, public health and people's livelihoods are already being damaged and undermined," the report says. "There is no either/or approach possible(想找一个‘非此即彼'的办法是不可能的). The world must meet its commitments to achieve poverty reduction and also tackle climate change. The two are inextricably linked(二者的联系是难解难分的)."
The report, which draws on UN predictions of the effects of climate change in poor countries over the next 50 years, says poor countries will experience more flooding, declining food production, more disease and the deterioration or extinction of entire ecosystems(整个生态系统的退化甚至消失) on which many of the world's poorest people depend.
"Climate change needs to be addressed now. The poor will bear the brunt of the impacts. The frontline experience of many of us working in international development indicates that communities are having to combat more extreme weather conditions."
Climate change will play havoc(大范围的破坏;浩劫) with agriculture and water supplies and will increase diseases. "By 2025 the proportion of the world's population living in countries of significant water stress will almost double, to 6 billion people. Tropical and sub-tropical areas will be hardest hit - those countries already suffering from food insecurity(食品短缺)".
Poor communities mostly do not need hi-tech solutions, but would most benefit from education, research and being shown how to farm better. The report says unchecked global warming(尚未得到抑制的全球变暖), more than wars or political upheaval(政变), will displace millions of people and destabilise many countries.