首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Publicising his imminent new series about the evolution of animals, Sir David Attenborough said this week that he thought a redu
Publicising his imminent new series about the evolution of animals, Sir David Attenborough said this week that he thought a redu
admin
2015-01-10
80
问题
Publicising his imminent new series about the evolution of animals, Sir David Attenborough said this week that he thought a reduction in human population in this century is impossible and "we’re lucky to be living when we are, because things are going to get worse". People will look back in another 100 years "at a world that was less crowded, full of natural wonders, and healthier". His is a common view and one I used to share. He longs for people to enjoy the open spaces and abundant herds of game that he has been fortunate enough to see. To that end he thinks it vital that there should be fewer of us. I would now disagree with his two premises. It’s actually quite likely, rather than impossible, that population will be falling by the end of this century and that the people alive then will have lots more wilderness to explore and wildlife to admire than today.
The rate at which world population grows has roughly halved from 2 per cent a year in the 1960s to roughly 1per cent a year now. Even the total number of people added to the annual population has been dropping for nearly 30 years. If those declines continue, they will hit zero in about 2070. In recent decades the birth rate has fallen in every part of the world. Fertility in Bangladesh has fallen from nearly 7 children per woman in the 1960s to just over 2 today; Kenya from 8 to 4. 5; Brazil 5. 7 to 1. 8; Ireland 3. 9 to 2.
It is still conventional wisdom that the only way to get population growth down is to be nasty to people, albeit with noble motives. You must coerce, bribe, shame or educate them into having fewer babies against their preferences. China did indeed bring down its birth rate with one-child policy. India tried to introduce coerced sterilization in the 1960s in return for food aid from America, but was defeated by popular protest and democracy.
Yet everywhere else voluntary birth control proved a more effective weapon than coercion, and the birth rate came down just as fast. This was because nice things happened: economic growth, female emancipation and, above all, the conquest of child mortality. So long as women have some access to the means of birth control, then one of the best predictors of a falling birth rate is a falling child mortality rate. Once they think their kids will survive, they start investing in them, rather than in having more kids. You can see this in the statistics. There is no country on Earth with a child mortality rate below 10 per 1,000 births that has a fertility higher than 3 children per woman; whereas all countries except one(Swaziland)that have a child mortality rate above 100 also have a fertility rate above 4. 5. Keep kids alive and you bring down population growth.
Which is why the recent plummeting of child mortality in Africa is such good news for Sir David and others with his concerns. Thanks to rapid economic growth, better governance and much improved public health, most African countries are now experiencing child-mortality falls of 5 per cent or more a year. These falls will surely soon be followed, as night follows day, by an even faster fall in birth rates. Europe, Asia and Latin America have already gone through this transition and most countries are producing babies at or below replacement rate of 2. 2 per woman, at which population stabilizes. Africa is following suit almost exactly.
For this reason alone, I suspect the world population will stop growing and begin to shrink even earlier than 2070. But even if it does not, there is good reason to reassure Sir David that our great grandchildren will have more wildlife to look at than he has had. An ingenious study by Rockefeller University scientists has recently calculated that even with population continuing to grow, we have almost certainly already passed "peak farmland", because of the rate at which fertilisers are improving yields. We will feed nine or ten billion people in 2070 from a considerably smaller acreage than we need to feed seven billion today.
Land sparing is already occurring on a grand scale. Forest cover is increasing in many parts of the world, from Scotland to Bangladesh. Wildlife populations are booming in Europe, in the polar regions and North America and this is happening fastest in the richest countries. According to one recent report, animal populations grew by 6 % in Europe, North America and Northern Asia between 1970 and 2012, while shrinking in tropical regions. There is almost a perfect correlation between the severity of conservation problems and poverty, because the richer people get, the less they try to live off the land and compete with nature—the less they seek bushmeat and charcoal from the forest.
Once again, Africa may spring a pleasant surprise. Over the decades agricultural yields in Africa hardly budged while they doubled or quadrupled in most of Asia. That is entirely down to a dearth of fertilizer and it is beginning to change. If African yields were to rise, the acreage devoted to farmland globally would start to fall even faster, releasing more and more land for "rewilding". The great herds and flocks that so delight Sir David would reassemble in more and more places. The happy conclusion is that making people better off and making nature better off are not in opposition; they go hand in hand.
Which of the following statements is not in alignment with the others in its theme?
选项
A、More countries are producing babies at or below replacement rate of 2. 2 per women.
B、In half a century’s time human population growth has been cut by 50%.
C、African countries are experiencing child-mortality falls of 5% or more a year.
D、Fertility in Bangladesh(7 to 2), Kenya(8 to 4. 5), Brazil(5. 7 to 1. 8), Iran(6. 8 to 1. 9), Ireland(3. 9 to 2)has fallen greatly in recent decades.
答案
C
解析
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/NxSO777K
本试题收录于:
NAETI高级口译笔试题库外语翻译证书(NAETI)分类
0
NAETI高级口译笔试
外语翻译证书(NAETI)
相关试题推荐
Theamazingsuccessofmanasa【C1】________istheresultoftheevolutionarydevelopmentofourbrainswhichhas【C2】________,am
Hemustusethissurplusasaninsurance________theunpredictableeffectsofbadweather.
Onthe________inthecountryside,thereareonlyone-tenthasmanydoctorsasthereareinthecity.
EveryyearBerryBros&Rudd,Britain’soldestwinemerchant,issuesapocket-sizedpricelist.Readingoldcopiesmakesamateur
旅游是一项集观光、娱乐、健身为一体的愉快而美好的活动。旅游业随着时代进步而不断进步。从20世纪中期起,现代旅游业在全世界迅速发展。游客人数不断增长,旅游业规模持续扩大,旅游经济地位显著提升,旅游活动愈益成为各国人民交流文化、增进友谊、扩大交往的重
WhichofthefollowingisNOTtrueaboutthenewcapitalaccordingtothereport?
Theeconomyurgesthegovernmenttotakemeasurestocountertheinflationandloweringsalaries.
A、$8billion.B、$120billion.C、$128billion.D、$18billion.B
反面广告有奇效,至少对一名瑞典护工来说是如此。他曾多次尝试用较为传统的方法来找一份新的工作,失败后就采用了这种新方法。他在地方日报上登出广告说“本人需要高薪工作。本人完全没有想像力,反社会,缺乏创造力且无一技之长。”三天之后,他到一家公司进行了面试。该公司
A、ToattempttotransfertoProfessorAtkins’class.B、Tocutbackonhisclasses.C、Togetajobatthelibraryshelvingbooks.
随机试题
艾青《我爱这土地》选自艾青诗集《_______》。
小肠上皮吸收细胞游离面有
()不符合借贷记账法的记账规则。
以FAS术语成交,若装运港口吃水线浅使船舶不能靠岸,则货物从码头驳运到装运船只船边的一切风险及费用,应由卖方负担。()
法人申请挂失补办证券账户卡所需的申请材料有( )。
企业发生的固定资产毁损净损失,应记入“营业外支出”。()
甲、乙、丙同时从A地出发去距A地100千米的B地。甲与丙以25千米/时的速度乘车行进,乙以5千米/时的速度步行。过了一段时间后,丙下车改以5千米/时的速度步行。甲乘车以原速折回,并将乙载上后前往B地,这样甲、乙、丙三人同时到达B地。则该旅程花费的时间是:
《中日修好条规》
在Windows系统中,若要查找文件名中第二个字母为b的所有文件,则可在查找对话框输入(1);若用鼠标左键双击应用程序窗口左上角的图标,则可以(2)该应用程序窗口。(2)
Ihavelittleinformationasregardsherfitnessforthepost.
最新回复
(
0
)