The overthrow of Madagascar’s president in mid-March was partly caused by water problems—in South Korea. Worried by the difficulties of increasing food supplies in its water-stressed homeland, Daewoo, a South Korean conglomerate, signed a deal to lease no less than half Madagascar’s arable land to grow grain for South Koreans. Widespread anger at the terms of the deal (the island’s people would have received practically nothing) contributed to the president’s unpopularity. One of the new leader’s first acts was to scrap the agreement.
三月中旬，馬達(dá)加斯加總統(tǒng)下臺(tái)，水資源問(wèn)題難逃其咎——韓國(guó)水資源問(wèn)題。韓國(guó)大宇物流集團(tuán)由于擔(dān)心國(guó)內(nèi)水資源缺乏，糧食短缺日益嚴(yán)重，便租用馬達(dá)加斯加近一半面積的可耕種土地，用作韓國(guó)人民糧食供給。協(xié)議中的條款引起舉馬達(dá)加斯加不滿（因?yàn)槿嗣駧缀跻粺o(wú)所獲），總統(tǒng)的支持率跌至谷底。新總統(tǒng)上任后第一把火，就是撕毀協(xié)議。
Three weeks before that, on the other side of the world, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger of California declared a state of emergency. Not for the first time, he threatened water rationing in the state. “It is clear,” says a recent report by the United Nations World Water Assessment Programme, “that urgent action is needed if we are to avoid a global water crisis.”
此事三周前，在世界另一端的加利福尼亞，州長(zhǎng)阿諾.施瓦辛格宣布事態(tài)緊急，揚(yáng)言要在州中分區(qū)供水——這已經(jīng)不是第一次了。聯(lián)合國(guó)世界水資源評(píng)估方案最近報(bào)道也稱：“顯然，如果我們希望避免全球水危急，就必須采取緊急行動(dòng)。”
Local water shortages are multiplying. Australia has suffered a decade-long drought. Brazil and South Africa, which depend on hydroelectric power, have suffered repeated brownouts because there is not enough water to drive the turbines properly. So much has been pumped out of the rivers that feed the Aral Sea in Central Asia that it collapsed in the 1980s and has barely begun to recover.
地方水資源短缺現(xiàn)象日益嚴(yán)峻。澳大利亞干旱十年，依賴水電的巴西和南非也因?yàn)槿彼?，渦輪不能正常運(yùn)轉(zhuǎn)，只得受限電之苦。河流抽水過(guò)量，中亞咸海供水不足，20世紀(jì)80年代發(fā)生了生態(tài)災(zāi)難后，一直沒(méi)能恢復(fù)。
Yet local shortages, caused by individual acts of mismanagement or regional problems, are one thing. A global water crisis, which impinges on supplies of food and other goods, or affects rivers and lakes everywhere, is quite another. Does the world really face a global problem?
個(gè)人行為管理不善或者區(qū)域問(wèn)題引發(fā)地方性短缺是一回事，然而危及糧食和其他產(chǎn)品供應(yīng)，影響各處河流湖泊的水危機(jī)，則另當(dāng)別論。現(xiàn)在的世界，當(dāng)真面臨著一個(gè)全球性問(wèn)題嗎？
三月中旬，馬達(dá)加斯加總統(tǒng)下臺(tái)，水資源問(wèn)題難逃其咎——韓國(guó)水資源問(wèn)題。韓國(guó)大宇物流集團(tuán)由于擔(dān)心國(guó)內(nèi)水資源缺乏，糧食短缺日益嚴(yán)重，便租用馬達(dá)加斯加近一半面積的可耕種土地，用作韓國(guó)人民糧食供給。協(xié)議中的條款引起舉馬達(dá)加斯加不滿（因?yàn)槿嗣駧缀跻粺o(wú)所獲），總統(tǒng)的支持率跌至谷底。新總統(tǒng)上任后第一把火，就是撕毀協(xié)議。
Three weeks before that, on the other side of the world, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger of California declared a state of emergency. Not for the first time, he threatened water rationing in the state. “It is clear,” says a recent report by the United Nations World Water Assessment Programme, “that urgent action is needed if we are to avoid a global water crisis.”
此事三周前，在世界另一端的加利福尼亞，州長(zhǎng)阿諾.施瓦辛格宣布事態(tài)緊急，揚(yáng)言要在州中分區(qū)供水——這已經(jīng)不是第一次了。聯(lián)合國(guó)世界水資源評(píng)估方案最近報(bào)道也稱：“顯然，如果我們希望避免全球水危急，就必須采取緊急行動(dòng)。”
Local water shortages are multiplying. Australia has suffered a decade-long drought. Brazil and South Africa, which depend on hydroelectric power, have suffered repeated brownouts because there is not enough water to drive the turbines properly. So much has been pumped out of the rivers that feed the Aral Sea in Central Asia that it collapsed in the 1980s and has barely begun to recover.
地方水資源短缺現(xiàn)象日益嚴(yán)峻。澳大利亞干旱十年，依賴水電的巴西和南非也因?yàn)槿彼?，渦輪不能正常運(yùn)轉(zhuǎn)，只得受限電之苦。河流抽水過(guò)量，中亞咸海供水不足，20世紀(jì)80年代發(fā)生了生態(tài)災(zāi)難后，一直沒(méi)能恢復(fù)。
Yet local shortages, caused by individual acts of mismanagement or regional problems, are one thing. A global water crisis, which impinges on supplies of food and other goods, or affects rivers and lakes everywhere, is quite another. Does the world really face a global problem?
個(gè)人行為管理不善或者區(qū)域問(wèn)題引發(fā)地方性短缺是一回事，然而危及糧食和其他產(chǎn)品供應(yīng)，影響各處河流湖泊的水危機(jī)，則另當(dāng)別論。現(xiàn)在的世界，當(dāng)真面臨著一個(gè)全球性問(wèn)題嗎？