拥抱生态环境.doc

英语短文：拥抱生态旅游 Aremote Patagonian town thats just beginning to prosper by guiding tourists through the virgin forests nearby is being shaken by the realization that its sitting on a gold mine. Literally. More than 3,000 worried Esquel residents recently took to the streets in protests aimed at assuring that their neat community of 28,000 beco mes an ecotourism center, not a gold-rush town. 　巴塔哥尼亚一处偏远的小镇因为发展附近一处原始林的观光业正渐趋繁荣，在这个节骨眼，却如晴天霹雳般得知，当地原来蕴含金矿。没错。三千多位忧心如焚的艾斯圭尔居民最近走上街头抗议，要求将这处拥有两万八千居民的净地作为生态旅游中心，不要沦为淘金城。　　Esquels plight is winning attention from international conservation and environmental groups such as Greenpeace. In Argentina, the town has become a national symbol in the debate over exploitation vs. preservation of the countrys vast natural resources.　　　艾斯圭尔的窘境正获得绿色和平等国际保育及环保团体的高度关切。在争论阿根廷丰富的自然资源究竟该开发或保育的议题上，该镇俨然成为全国的象征。 About 3.2 million acres already are under contract for mineral exploration in poor and sparsely settled Chubut Province, where Esquel is, near the southern tip of South America. Whether Meridian Gold Corp. gets its open-pit gold mine outside Esquel could determine the fate of mining in Patagonia, a pristine region spanning southern Argentina and Chile.　　　艾斯圭尔位于接近南美洲大陆极南点、贫穷而人烟稀少的丘布省内，矿物探勘合约涵盖了该省近三百二十万亩的土地。巴塔哥尼亚高原是横跨阿根廷与智利两国南部的化外之地，而该地采矿业的命运，将取决于MDG公司能否取得艾斯圭尔外围露天金矿的开采权。 Meridians project, about 5 miles outside Esquel at a higher elevation, is about 20 miles from a national park that preserves rate trees known as alerces, a southern relative of Californias giant sequoia. Some of them have been growing serenely in the temperate rain forest for more than 3,000 years.　　MDG公司计划开采的地点约在艾斯圭尔五里外海拔高一点的地方，跟一座国家公园约二十里，这座国家公园保育着稀有的落叶柏科树木，一种美国加州红木的南方品种。有些柏树已在这片温带雨林安然度过三千多年了。 　The greatest fear is that cyanide, which is used to leach gold from ore, will drain downhill and poison Esquels and possibly the parks water supplies. The mine will use 180 tons of the deadly chemical each month. Although many townspeople and some geologists disagree, the company s