评论
打印
For Want of a Drink
因为缺水
Author Unknown
作者未知
When the word water appears in print nowadays, crisis is rarely far behind. Water, it issaid, is the new oil: a resource long squandered, now growing expensive and soon to be overwhelmed by insatiable demand. Aquifers are falling, glaciers vanishing, reservoirs drying up and rivers no longer flowing to the sea. Climate change threatens to make the problem worse. Everyone must use less water if famine, pestilence and mass migration are not to sweep the globe.
如今，当“水”这个词出现在印刷品中时，“危机”就会紧随其后。人们说水就像过去的石油那样，是一种长期被随意浪费的资源，现在越来越贵，很快就会无法满足贪得无厌的需求。地下蓄水层正在下降，冰川正在消失，水库正在干涸，江河不再流向大海。气候的变化预示着问题将越来越严重。如果我们不想让饥荒、瘟疫以及人类大规模迁徙横扫全球，就必须人人节约用水。
The language is often overblown, and the remedies sometimes ill-conceived, but the basic message is not wrong. Water is indeed scarce in many places, and will grow scarcer. Bringing supply and demand into equilibrium will be painful, and political disputes may increase in number and intensify in their capacity to cause trouble. To carry on with present practice would indeed be to invite disaster.
这些印刷品中的措辞往往言过其实，提出来的解决办法有时也考虑不周，但它们所传递的基本信息没有错。在许多地方水确实稀缺，而且稀缺的状况会愈发严重。使水的供需达到平衡极为困难，由此引起的国与国之间的政治争端次数会增多，水资源稀缺会导致越来越多的麻烦。如果目前的状况不改变，那就等于惹祸上身。
