As People Stay Home, Earth Turns Wilder and Cleaner

人类足不出户后，地球变得更野更洁净

 

Wednesday marked the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. American Gaylord Nelson launched the first Earth Day in 1970. His aim was to urge local action and increase people’s understanding of our planet and its environment.

 

周三是世界地球日创立50周年。地球日由美国盖洛德·尼尔森于1970年首次发起。他的目的是敦促地方采取行动，并增强人们对地球及其环境的了解。

 

The creation of Earth Day is widely considered the beginning of the modern environmental movement.

 

地球日的创建被广泛认为是现代环保运动的开端。

 

As climate activists marked the event this year, an unplanned experiment is changing the planet.

 

今年气候活动家举行了纪念活动，一项意料外的实验正在改变我们的地球。

 

Many people continue to stay at home to stop the spread of the new coronavirus. As a result, people are making less pollution, and the air has become cleaner.

 

很多人仍然待在家里以阻止新冠状病毒的传播。也正因如此，人们制造的污染减少了，空气变得更加清洁。

 

Smog stopped covering New Delhi, one of the world’s most polluted cities. Nitrogen dioxide pollution in the northeastern United States has dropped 30 percent. Air pollution levels in Rome have dropped 49 percent compared to a year ago. Stars seem more visible at night.

 

雾霾不再笼罩新德里——全球污染最严重的城市之一。美国东北部的二氧化氮污染下降了30%。罗马的空气污染水平与去年相比下降了49%。夜晚星星看起来也更加明显。

 

People also report seeing wild animals in unusual places. Coyotes have been observed walking in downtown Chicago and near San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge. A puma was seen in the streets of Santiago, Chile. Goats entered a town in Wales and showed no interest in leaving.

 

人们还报告称在意想不到的地方发现了野生动物。有人在芝加哥市中心以及旧金山的金门大桥附近发现土狼在闲逛。还有人在智利圣地亚哥的街道上看到了一只美洲狮。山羊们闯进了威尔士的一个小镇而且看起来并不想离开。

 

When people stay home, the Earth becomes cleaner and wilder.

 

当人们待在家里的时候，地球变得更加清洁和狂野了。

 

Cleaner air

空气更清洁了

 

Stuart Pimm is a scientist at Duke University in the United States. He says the stay-at-home orders worldwide are “giving us this quite extraordinary insight into just how much of a mess we humans are making of our beautiful planet.”

 

斯图尔特·皮姆是美国杜克大学的科学家。他表示，全球范围内的居家隔离令“给我们机会深刻洞察，人类已经把我们美丽的星球破坏成什么样子了”。

 

Pimm told The Associated Press that the situation is providing a chance to “see how much better it can be.”

 

皮姆告诉美联社，当前的境况给了我们一个机会，“认识到地球到底能恢复得多么美好”。

 

Scientists, stuck at home like the rest of us, say they are interested in studying unexpected changes in plants, insects, weather, noise and light pollution.

 

科学家们也跟普通人一样待在家里。他们表示，很有兴趣研究植物，昆虫，天气，噪声和光污染会发生怎样意外的变化。

 

Researchers have been observing sharp drops in traditional air pollutants, such as nitrogen dioxide, smog and tiny particles. These kinds of pollutants kill up to 7 million people a year worldwide, says Dan Greenbaum, president of the Health Effects Institute.

 

研究人员注意到传统的空气污染现象急剧下降，例如二氧化氮，烟雾和微小颗粒污染。健康影响研究所所长丹·格林鲍姆说，这类污染物每年在全世界造成700万人死亡。

 

Cleaner air has been most noticeable in India and China. On April 3, people living in Jalandhar, a city in north India’s Punjab, woke up to a sight not seen for many years: snow-covered Himalayan mountains more than 160 kilometers away.

 

印度和中国空气变化最为显着。4月3日，生活在印度北部旁遮普邦贾朗达尔市的人们醒来，看到了多年来从未见过的景象：160多公里外白雪覆盖的喜马拉雅山脉。

 

Cleaner air means stronger lungs for asthmatics, especially children, said Mary Prunicki. She is a doctor and director of air pollution and health research at the Stanford University School of Medicine in California. She noted early studies have linked coronavirus severity to people with weak lungs and those living in more polluted areas.

 

玛丽·普鲁尼基说，空气清新意味着哮喘患者尤其是儿童的肺部功能变得更强。她是加利福尼亚州斯坦福大学医学院的医生兼空气污染与健康研究主任。她指出，早期研究发现新冠病毒的严重程度与人的肺部健康状况和生活地区的污染严重程度相关。

 

Animals take over

动物接管了地球

 

In Australia, police shared a video of a kangaroo on social media. It showed the animal jumping around a mostly empty neighborhood in downtown Adelaide. Several wild jackals recently occupied a city park in Tel Aviv, Israel.

 

澳大利亚警方在社交媒体上分享了一只袋鼠的视频，视频中这只袋鼠在阿德莱德市区一个空荡的社区中跳来跳去。几匹野生豺狼最近占领了以色列特拉维夫的一个城市公园。

 

We are not being invaded, Duke’s Stuart Pimm noted. The wildlife has always been there, but many animals only come out when people are not around.

 

杜克大学的斯图尔特·皮姆指出，我们并非被入侵。野生动物一直在，只不过只有人类不在时，许多动物才会出来。

 

Human activity usually makes it difficult for sea turtles to leave their eggs on sandy coastlines. Nesting turtles need to be undisturbed. After they come out of their eggs, baby turtles might have problems finding their way to the water because of bright lights, said David Godfrey. He is executive director of the Sea Turtle Conservancy.

 

通常人类活动会导致海龟很难将卵留在沙滩海岸上。筑巢内的乌龟需要不受干扰。大卫·戈弗雷说，孵化后小乌龟可能会因为亮光而难以回到海中。他是海龟保护协会的执行董事。

 

But with lights mostly off and people in their homes, the sea turtle nesting seems much better this year – from India to Costa Rica to Florida, Godfrey said.

 

戈弗雷说，然而由于灯光大都关闭而且人们都居家隔离，今年海龟的筑巢似乎要好得多——从印度到哥斯达黎加再到佛罗里达。

 

“There’s some silver lining for wildlife in what otherwise is a fairly catastrophic time for humans,” he added.

 

他补充道：“在对人类来说较为灾难性的时刻，反而给野生生物带来了一线生机。”

 

I’m Ashley Thompson.

 

艾什莉·汤普森报道。

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