Looking at the basic biological systems, the world is not doing very well.
观察基础生态系统，这个世界运作的并不是甚好。
Yet, economic indicators show the world is prospering.
但经济预测表明这个世界正在高速发展。
Despite a slow start at the beginning of the eighties,
尽管八十年代初有一个较为缓慢的开始，
global economic output increased by more than a fifth during the decade.
世界经济在那十年增长了五分之一以上。
The economy grew, trade increased, and millions of new jobs were created.
经济发展，贸易额增加，成千上万的新岗位诞生。
How can biological indicators show the opposite of economic indicators?
为什么生态指标和经济指标显示出截然相反的情况呢？
The answer is that the economic indicators have a basic fault:
答案是经济指标有一个基本的错误：
they show no difference between resource uses that sustain progress and those uses that will hurt it.
可持续发展的资源利用和不可持续发展的资源利用之间没有显示出差别。
The main measure of economic progress is the gross national product - GNP.
衡量经济发展的主要标准是国民生产总值GNP。
In simple terms, this totals the value of all goods and services produced and subtracts loss in value of factories and equipment.
简单地说，就是产出的所有商品和服务的价值总和，减去工厂和设备的支出。
Developed a half-century ago, GNP helped establish a common way among countries of measuring change in economic output.
半个世纪前发展而来的GNP，帮助国家了解经济产出的变化。
For some time, this seemed to work reasonably well, but serious weaknesses are now appearing.
一段时间内看上去运作的很好，但严重的弱点正暴露出来。
As indicated earlier, GNP includes loss in value of factories and equipment.
正如之前提到的那样，GNP包含了工厂和设备的支出。
But it does not take into account the loss of natural resources,
但并不包含自然资源的损失，
including nonrenewable resources, such as oil or renewable resources, such as forests.
比如石油这样的不可再生资源，或是森林这样的可再生资源。
This basic fault can produce a misleading sense of national economic health.
这个基本错误可能会导致对国家经济健康状况的误解。
According to GNP, for example, countries that overcut forests actually do better than those that preserve their forests.
举例来说，根据GNP来衡量，乱砍滥伐森林的国家反而比保护森林的国家经济更好。
The trees cut down are counted as income but no subtraction is made for using up the forests.
被砍伐的数目被记为收入，但耗尽森林资源却不被记为支出。