The history of the universe

Our Universe was created about 13.8 billion years ago in the Big Bang. At first, it was very simple, consisting of little more than hydrogen and helium and lots of energy. There were no stars or galaxies, no planets and certainly no living creatures. Then, gradually, more complex things appeared.
我们的宇宙产生于大约138亿年前的大爆炸。起初，它非常简单，仅由氢和氦以及大量能量组成。没有恒星或星系，没有行星，当然也没有生物。然后，渐渐的，更复杂的事物出现了。

The first stars and galaxies probably appeared within about 200 million years of the Big Bang. As big stars lived and died, they blew up and created new elements. Those new elements allowed the creation of new materials such as the dust and ice and rocks and minerals from which planets are made.
第一批恒星和星系可能出现在宇宙大爆炸后的大约 2 亿年内。随着大恒星的生灭，它们爆炸并产生了新元素。这些新元素产生了新的物质，如尘埃、冰、岩石和矿物，行星就是由这些物质构成的。

Our Sun and solar system appeared about 4.5 billion years ago, and by 4 billion years ago, it's likely that life had emerged on Earth. Life evolved and diversified but most of it consisted of tiny, single-celled organisms until, about 1 billion years ago, the first many-celled organisms appeared. From about five hundred million years ago, big creatures became much more common, from trilobites to trees to tyrannosaurus rex.
我们的太阳和太阳系大约在45亿年前出现，到40亿年前，地球上很可能已经出现了生命。生命不断进化和多样化，但其中大部分由微小的单细胞生物组成，直到大约10亿年前，第一批多细胞生物出现。从大约五亿年前开始，从三叶虫到树木再到霸王龙，大型生物变得更加普遍。

The first humans evolved very recently, just about 200,000 years ago. Though it wasn't obvious at the time, the appearance of humans turned out to be hugely important because humans were able to share ideas and information better than any other species that ever existed. Using that ability, our ancestors gradually built up stores of information that allowed them to control their environments more and more powerfully.
第一批人类进化得非常晚，大约20万年前。尽管当时并不明显，但人类的出现被证明是非常重要的，因为人类能够比任何其他物种更好地分享思想和信息。利用这种能力，我们的祖先逐渐建立起信息储存库，使他们能够越来越有力地掌控环境。

The process accelerated until, in just the last 100 years, we have become so powerful that what we do in the next few decades will determine the future of the oceans, the climate, and of most other species on Earth, including our own descendants. Many scholars believe that this represents a new geological epoch. The Anthropocene. In the last 50 years, we humans have begun to control energy and resources on such a vast scale that we are transforming the land, the seas and the atmosphere of the Earth.
这个过程不断加速，直到在过去的短短 100 年里，我们变得如此强大，以至于我们在未来几十年的所作所为将决定海洋、气候和地球上大多数其他物种（包括我们自己的后代）的未来。许多学者认为，这代表了一个新的地质时代。人类世。在过去的 50 年里，我们人类开始大规模地控制能源和资源，我们正在改变地球的陆地、海洋和大气。

So, planet Earth is at a turning point in its history. Humans, now the dominant species, will either lead the biosphere towards a flourishing future, or to catastrophe. Perhaps triggered by nuclear wars that could ruin swathes of the planet in just a few hours, or caused more slowly by the continued release of greenhouse gases until the land is flooded and global climates are too hot to grow enough food.  This is a very, very big deal. Never before has a single species determined the future of the entire biosphere.
因此，地球正处于其历史的转折点。人类，这个现在占主导地位的物种，要么带领生物圈走向繁荣的未来，要么走向灾难。也许核战争会在几小时内毁掉地球上的大片土地，也许温室气体的持续释放会导致更缓慢的灾难，直到土地被淹没，以及全球气候太热，无法种植足够的食物。  这是一个非常非常大的问题。在此之前，从来没有一个物种能决定整个生物圈的未来。

The good news is that we understand the science, and we already have many of the technologies needed to build a sustainable future. What's missing now is the political technology. How can governments and peoples be encouraged to see the challenges that they all share, rather than simply defending their own local and immediate interests? Only by collaboration can we avoid the many dangers we face today. Can we steer planet Earth towards a prosperous future in which humans and all the other organisms on which we depend can flourish for thousands, even perhaps, for millions of years into the future?
好消息是，我们了解科学，我们已经拥有了许多建立可持续未来所需的技术。现在缺少的是政治技术。怎样才能鼓励政府和人民看到他们共同面临的挑战，而不仅仅是捍卫自己的地方和眼前利益？只有通过合作，我们才能避免我们今天面临的许多风险。我们能否引导地球走向一个繁荣的未来，使人类和我们赖以生存的所有其他生物在未来几千年，甚至几百万年里都能繁荣昌盛?

词汇表
Big Bang 宇宙起源的大爆炸(学说)
hydrogen and helium 氢和氦：为宇宙最早元素，为恒星核聚变之源。
galaxy, star and planet 星系，恒星，行星
single-celled organisms 单细胞生物：包括细菌、藻类和原生动物等。
blow up 爆炸，爆发
trilobite [古生物] 三叶虫
tyrannosaurus rex 暴龙，霸王龙
stores of information 信息库，信息存储
geological epoch 地质时代：通常是数百万年到数千万年的时间跨度，用于描述地球历史上的重要事件和生物演化。
Anthropocene 人类世：人类自工业革命以来的活动对环境的影响可成立一个新地质时代的理论
on a vast scale 大幅度地，大规模地
dominant species   优势物种：通常对其他物种具有主导影响力或占据更多的生物量。
biosphere 生物界，生物圈
flourishing/prosperous 繁荣昌盛的，蓬勃发展的
catastrophe 大灾难，打灾祸
swathes of   大片的，大量的
immediate interests 切身利益，眼前利益


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