As industrial-scale farms flourish in the European Union, its fields have grown quiet—robbed of the birds that once filled them with song. Since 1980 the number of birds that typically inhabit Europe's farmlands has shrunk by 55 percent. And in the last 17 years alone, French farmland-bird counts dropped by a third -- a "level approaching an ecological catastrophe," according to a recent survey.
隨著工業(yè)規(guī)模的農場在歐盟蓬勃發(fā)展,那里的農田變得安靜起來,不再有鳥兒在歌唱。自1980年以來,通常棲息在歐洲農田中的鳥類的數量減少了55%。而根據最近的一次調查,僅在過去的17年里,法國農田中的鳥類的數量就減少了三分之一--這是“接近生態(tài)災難的水平”。
Intensified agriculture is driving the losses. Habitats where birds once bred, nested, and wintered now bear crops, and pesticides have killed off birds' prey. In the past 27 years Germany has lost 75 percent of its flying insects by mass. Even avian species that typically adapt to humans have dwindled on farms, suggesting that the land is less able to sustain all kinds of birds.
集約農業(yè)是造成這一數字下降的主要原因。鳥類曾經繁殖、筑巢和越冬的棲息地現在都種植了莊稼,而殺蟲劑殺死了鳥類的獵物。在過去27年里,德國飛行昆蟲的總數已經下降了75%。即使是那些一般來說已經適應人類的鳥類,在農場上也有所減少,這表明該土地不具備養(yǎng)活所有鳥類的能力了。
To curb the losses of farmland birds, researchers contend that agriculture must be remade in nature's image: less dependent on the addition of chemicals, more diverse in its flora, and more hospitable to local fauna.
為了控制農田鳥類數量的減少,研究人員主張農業(yè)必須按照自然的形象重塑:減少對化學物質的依賴,植物群更加多樣化,對當地的動物更加友好。