英文の意訳をお願いしたいです
翻訳機をつかうとなんだか変な風になってしまうのですが・・・
環境問題の話です
Using classic archaeology techniques, researchers found that human bones from the last decades before the civilization’s collapse showed signs of severe malnutrition. Sever thinks that the root cause of the downfall of the Maya was a chronic food and water shortage, due to some combination of natural drought and deforestation by humans.
Today, the rain forest is again falling under the axe. About half of the original forest has been destroyed in the last 40 years, cut down by farmers practicing “slash and burn” agriculture. By 2020, only 2% to 16% of the original rain forest will remain if current rates of destruction continue.
It seems that modern people are repeating some of the Maya’s mistakes. But Sever thinks disaster can be averted (). Sever and co-worker Dan Irwin have been looking at satellite photos and, in them, Sever spotted signs of ancient drainage and irrigation canals in swamp-like areas (which they call bajos<バホスと読むらしいです>, the Spanish word for “lowlands”) near the Mayan ruins. Sever suspects that these ancient canals were part of a system devised by the Maya to manage water in the bajos so that they could farm this land.
Could today’s farmers take a lesson from the Maya and sow their seeds in the bajos, which make up 40% of the landscape? It’s an interesting idea. Sever and his colleagues are now considering planting test crops of corn in areas in the bajos with suitable soil, with irrigation and drainage canals inspired by the Maya. A message from 900 A.D.: it’s never too late to learn from your ancestors.
よろしくお願いします！<(_ _)>
