脆弱时代：全球视野下的生态与生存  

Fragile Era: Ecology and Survival in a Global Perspective

作　　者：唐纳德.沃斯特 侯深[2] 

机构地区：[1]中国人民大学 [2]中国人民大学历史学院

出　　处：《中国高校社会科学》2014年第3期62-70,158,共9页Social Sciences in Chinese Higher Education Institutions

摘　　要：尽管有充足的证据表明,与以往任何时候相比,人类就整体而言,营养更好,健康更佳,寿命更长,但是在人类中间始终存在一种持久的脆弱感和环境危机将至的意识。至少在西方,如此对灾难的恐惧已然演进了数个世纪。在中世纪,如洪水与干旱这样的灾难被视为上帝对于人类抗命的惩戒。然而今天,灾难更普遍地被看做是人口增长、过度消费和污染的后果。电影人与小说家都在想象如此的人为灾难,如凯文·科斯特纳之《未来水世界》和科马克·麦卡锡之《路》。虽然科学家可能认为这番想象并不总是基于冷静的科学,可是他们确实同意,这种忧虑是有其道理的。从未来气候变化的角度考察科斯特纳和麦卡锡在美国西部的家乡,它告诉我们,这种新生的脆弱是真实的。历史学者从艺术和科学中汲取知识,他们同样面临着如何生态地思索过去与当前,在新的视角中看待社会变化的挑战。While abundant evidence suggests that the human population on the whole is better fed, more healthy, and long-lived than ever before, there is a persistent sense of vulnerability and approaching environmental disaster. This fear of disaster has evolved, at least in the West, over the centuries. In medieval times disasters like floods and droughts were seen as God's punishment for human disobedience.But today disasters are more commonly seen as the effect of human population increase, overconsumption, and pollution. Both film makers and fiction writers have imagined such man-made disasters, as in Kevin Costner's 'Water world' or Cormac McCarthy's 'The Road'. Although scientists might agree that such imaginings are not always based on sober science, they do agree that there is good reason to be concerned. Examining Costner's and McCarthy's home region of the American West from the perspective of future climate change suggests that our new vulnerability is real. Learning from the arts as well as the sciences, historians are challenged to think about the past and present ecologically and see social change in a new light.

关 键 词：生态 脆弱时代 环境危机 

分 类 号：K153[历史地理—历史学]