人类与自然剪不断纠葛.docVIP

人类与自然剪不断的纠葛 　　We cannot command Nature except by obeying her. 　　―Francis Bacon (弗兰西斯?培根) 　　 　　Graced by beautiful rings and ridges on their shells, diamondbacks1) look like a field of galaxies on the move. They inhabit neither freshwater nor sea, but the brackish2) slurry3) of coastal marshes. Mating in the spring, they need to lay their eggs on land, so in June and July they migrate to the sandy dunes of Jamaica Bay4). The shortest route leads straight across the tarmac5) at Kennedy International Airport. 　　Never mess with6) a female ready to give birth. On June 29, 2011, more than 150 diamondback terrapins scuttled7) across Runway No. 4, delaying landings, halting takeoffs, foiling8) air traffic controllers, crippling9) timetables and snarling10) traffic for hours. Cold-blooded reptiles they may be, but they are also ardent and single-minded. 　　Don’t the plucky11) turtles notice the jets? Probably not as monsters. Even with polka-dot necks stretched out, diamondbacks don’t peer up very high. And unlike, say, lions, they don’t have eyes that dart after fast-moving prey. So the jets probably blur into background―more of a blowy weather system than a threat. But planes generate a lot of heat, and the turtles surely find the crossing stressful. 　　Mounted on the shoreline of Jamaica Bay and a federally protected park, indeed almost surrounded by water, J.F.K. occupies land where wildlife abounds, and it’s no surprise that planes have collided with gulls, hawks, swans, geese, and osprey. Or that every summer there’s another turtle stampede12), sometimes creating two-hour delays. 　　People around the world became obsessed with the plight of the quixotic13) turtles, a drama biblical in its proportions (slow, sweater-necked Davids vs. steely Goliaths)14). It defied reason that small reptiles would take on15) whirring leviathans16) whose gentlest tap may crush them and whose breath can blow them to kingdom come. 　　Many people also felt a quiver of disquiet, of some