??2018-07-10 人類簡史筆記10
??罪名成立 Guilty as charged
學者試圖為人類脫罪，把物種滅絕的責任推給氣候變遷，但三大證據(jù)顯示人類難辭其咎：
Some scholars ?try to exonerate our species, putting the blame on the vagaries of the climate (the usual scapegoat in such cases). Yet there are pieces of evidence that weaken the climate alibi, and implicate our ancestors in the extinction of the Australian megafauna.
1. 氣候變遷幅度很小丰滑，很難造成大規(guī)模滅絕。況且倒庵，動物在冰河期都能安然無恙褒墨。
Firstly, even though Australia's climate changed, it was not a remarkable upheaval, which was unlikely to have caused such a massive ?extinction. ?
2. 海洋生物并未受到影響。滅種潮只席卷了人類生活的陸地擎宝。
Secondly, when climate change causes mass distinctions, sea creatures are usually hit as hard as land dwellers. Yet there is no evidence of any significant disappearance of oceanic fauna 45,000 years ago. Homo sapiens was still overwhelmingly a terrestrial menace.
3. 類似澳大利亞這種生物大滅絕的事情郁妈，在接下來的幾千年里不斷上演，而時間點都是在人類又再次移居外面世界的時候绍申。人類罪證確鑿噩咪，就是個生態(tài)的連環(huán)殺手顾彰。
Thirdly, mass extinctions akin to the archetypal?Australian decimation occurred again and again in the ensuing millennia--whenever homo sapiens settled another part of the Outer World.?
人類是怎么搞出這場生態(tài)浩劫的？
How could they cause an ecological disaster? There are three explanations that mesh quite nicely.
1. 大型動物繁殖緩慢胃碾、智人狩獵技能強大.
Lage animals--the primary ?victims of the Australian extinction--breed slowly. People slowly honed their hunting skills.
2. 智人已掌握火耕技術涨享，將地貌變?yōu)殚_闊的草原。
They had already mastered fire agriculture. Faced with an alien and threatening environment, they deliberately burned vast areas of dense forests to create open grasslands.?
3. 氣候變遷加上人類狩獵
We can't completely ignore the role of climate. The climate that beset Australia 45,000 years ago destabilized the ecosystem and made it particularly vulnerable.?
??表達積累
1. 可愛的 cuddly
2. 處于不斷變化中 in constant flux
3. 僥幸罷了 just a fluke?
4. 開啟一個黃金時代 inaugurate a golden age
5. 安然無恙 without a scratch
6. 更重要的是人類在新世界的所作所為 Of even greater importance was what the human pioneers did in this new world.
