It is important that we be mindful of the earth, the planet out of which we are born and by which we are nourished, guided, healed
关注地球很重要。因为这是我们出生的地方，我们在地球的滋养下茁壮成长、受到指导教育、愈合我们的伤痛；
the planet, however, which we have abused to a considerable degree in these past two centuries of industrial exploitation.
而在过去200年里进行的工业开发中，我们严重滥用了地球资源。
This exploitation has reached such extremes
这样的开发造成了如此极端的后果，
that presently it appears that some hundreds of thousands of species will be extinguished before the end of the century.
以致目前将有数十万物种于本世纪末之前灭绝。
In our times, human shrewdness has mastered the deep mysteries of the earth at a level far beyond the capacities of earlier peoples.
在我们这个时代，人类借由自身的精明与智慧早已解开了地球的奥秘，早期人类的能力水平自然远不及我们。
We can break the mountains apart; we can drain the rivers and flood the valleys.
我们可以分裂山脉、干涸河水、水填山谷。
We can turn the most luxuriant forests into throwaway paper products.
我们可以将最茂密的树林变为一次性的纸制品。
We can tear apart the great grass cover of the western plains
我们可以分裂绿草如茵的西部平原，
and pour toxic chemicals into the soil until the soil is dead and blows away in the wind.
往土壤中灌入有毒的化学物品直至土壤坏死、沙化，被风吹散。
We can pollute the air with acids, the rivers with sewage, the seas with oil.
我们可以用酸性气体污染空气，用污水污染河流，用石油污染海洋。
We can invent computers capable of processing ten million calculations per second.
我们可以发明能够每秒进行一千万次运算的电脑。
And why? To increase the volume and the speed with which we move natural resources through the consumer economy to the junk pile or the waste heap.
那么这是为什么呢？是为了增加我们将自然资源通过消费经济转变为一堆堆垃圾和废品的数量和速度。
Our managerial skills are measured by the competence manifested in accelerating this process.
我们的管理技能是由在加速该转变过程中展现的能力来衡量的。
If in these activities the physical features of the planet are damaged,
如果在这些生产开发活动中地球的地理特征遭到破坏，
if the environment is made inhospitable for a multitude of living species, then so be it.
如果地球的环境不再适合许多生命物种居住，那么就随它去吧。
We are, supposedly, creating a technological wonder world.
我们应该可以创造一个科技化的奇妙世界。