填空题

The question I am asked most often like I travel around the world springs from people’s deepest fear: "Jane, do you think there is hope" Is there hope for the rain forests of Africa For the chimpanzees’ For Africa’s people Is there hope for the planet, our beautiful planet that we were spoiling Is there hope for us and for our children and grandchildren Sometimes it is hard to be optimistic. In Africa one can fly over mile after mile of country that was lush and green fifteen or twenty years which is now almost desert, where far more people and livestock are trying to live than the land can properly support. People, moreover, who are too poor to buy food from elsewhere. What lies ahead for them And what of Gombe When I first arrived there in 1960 the entire shoreline up and off the lake was forested. Gradually, over the years, the trees have been cut down by the local people for firewood, for building poles, and to clear the land for cultivation. Today the forests outside the boundary of the national park have gone, left treeless slopes, where the precious topsoil is eroding away, washed down with each rain into the lake, silting up the breeding grounds of the fish. Even the steepest slopes the forests are gone: farmers have cleared them and are making pitiful attempts to grow crops of cassava and beans in the increasingly infertile soil that remains. Already, outside the national park, the chimpanzees and most of the other animals have gone. And people are beginning to suffer; in some places women must dig up the root of trees long since cut down to get the firewood they need for cooking. And all this changes is because the numbers of people have increased dramatically-mainly due to the explosive population growth, but also to repeated influxes of refugees from troubled Burundi in the north, and more recently from eastern Congo. And this scenario is repeated again and again across the African continent and other developing countries; increased population growth, diminishing resources, and the destruction of nature, resulting from poverty and human suffering.