The technosphere, in contrast, is dominated by linear processes. Crops Jon and the animals to which they are fed are eaten by people; their waste is flushed into the sewer system, altered in composition but not in amount at a treatment plant, and the residue is dumped into rivers or the ocean as waste, which upsets the natural aquatic ecosystem. Uranium is mined, processed into nuclear fuel which, in generating power, becomes highly radioactive waste that must be carefully guarded-ineffectually thus far-from contaminating the environment for thousands of years. The energy sources that now power the technosphere are mostly fossil fuels, stores that, once depleted, will never be renewed. The end result of this linear process is air pollution and the threat of global warming. Thus, In the technosphere Contentgoods are converted, Iinearly, into waste: crops into seware uranium intoradioactive residues: fossil fuels into carbon dioxide. In the technosphere, the end of the line is always waste, an assault on the cyclical processes that sustain the ecosphere.
与生态圈相反，技术圈是由线性流程决定的。农作物和以它们为生的动物被人食用；而它们的废物被冲进下水道，经处置后成分发生了改变但数量没有变化，然后残余部分作为废物被倒入河流或海洋中，因此这部分废物便打乱了自然水域生态系统。铀经开采后被加工成用于生产能源的原子燃料，然后变成放射性极强的核废料。为防止污染环境，这些核废料必须被认真保管长达数千年。但迄今为止，保管工作一直效果不佳。现在技术圈运作的能源主要是矿物燃料，一旦用完，永不再生。线性流程的最终后果就是空气污染和全球变暖的威胁。所以，在技术圈中，物质被直线性地转化为废物：农作物转化为污物；铀成为放射性残余物；矿物燃料成为二氧化碳。在技术圈中，直线末段永远是废物，是对维持生态圈循环流程的一种侵害。
The third informal law of ecology is "Nature knows best." The ecosystem is consistent with itself: its numerous components are compatible with eachother and with the whole. Such a harmonious structure is the outcome of a very long period of trial and error-the 5 billion years of biological evolution. The biological sector of the ecosphere-the biosphere is composed of living things that have survived this test because of their finely tuned adaptationto the particular ecological niche that they occupy. Left to their own devices, ecosystems are conservative; the rate of evolution is very slow, and temporary changes, such as an overpopulation of rabbits, for example, are quickly readjusted by the wolves.
第三条非正式的生态规律即“自然深知一切”。生态系统内部和谐；许多成分间相容并共存于一体。经过50亿年这一相当长时期生物进化的反复尝试，终于成就了如此和谐的结构。生态圈的生物部分——生物圈——由经受过考验而存活下来的生物构成。它们经过准确的调整后能适应自身居住的特殊生态小环境。若生态小环境保持其自身的方式，它们将几乎保持不变，进化速度十分缓慢。即使有暂时的变化，比如说兔子的激增，也会很快被狼群重新调整过来。
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