7．“We started thinking about this post-9/11 and on the heels of Hurricane Katrina,” said Cary Fowler, president of the Global Crop Diversity Trust, a nonprofit group that runs the vault. “Everyone was saying, why didn’t anyone prepare for a hurricane before? We knew it was going to happen.

卡里·福勒是一家负责管理种子库的非营利性组织全球作物多样性托管会的总裁，他说：“我们是在‘9·11’事件之后、尤其是卡特里娜飓风之后，开始有这个构想的。” 他还说：“每个人都在问：为什么事先不作好迎接飓风的准备呢？我们明明知道会发生飓风的。”

8．“Well, we are losing biodiversity every day — it’s a kind of drip, drip, drip. It’s also inevitable. We need to do something about it.”

他指出：“喏，我们每天都在损失生物多样性——一点一滴地在损失。这种损失没有止步的迹象，我们必须为此做点什么。”

9．This week the urgency of the problem was underscored as wheat prices rose to record highs and wheat stores dropped to the lowest level in 35 years. A series of droughts and new diseases cut wheat production in many parts of the world. “The erosion of plants’ genetic resources is really going fast,” said Dr. Rony Swennen, head of the division of crop biotechnology at the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium, who has preserved half of the world’s 1,200 banana types. “We’re at a critical moment and if we don’t act fast, we’re going to lose a lot of plants that we may need.”

本周，由于小麦价格上升到最高纪录水平和小麦储存量下滑到35年来最低水平，更加突出了这个问题的紧迫性。由于一连串的干旱及新的疾病，世界很多地方的小麦产量下降。罗尼·斯文奈恩博士现任比利时鲁汶天主教大学作物生物技术部主任，他保存了世界上1200种香蕉种的一半以上。斯文奈恩博士说：“植物基因资源正在受到快速侵蚀。”他还指出：“我们正处于关键时刻，如果不迅速采取行动，我们将失去很多我们需要的植物物种。”

10．The United Nations International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources, ratified in 2004, created a formal global network for banking and sharing seeds, as well as for studying their genetic traits. Last year, its database received thousands of new seeds.

已于2004年获得批准的联合国国际植物基因资源条约创建了一个正式的全球网络，旨在对种子进行储存和共享并对其遗传特征进行研究。去年，有成千上万的新种子在其数据库安家落户。

11．A system of plant banks could be crucial in responding to climate crises since it could identify genetic material and plant strains better able to cope with a changed environment.

由于植物库系统能够识别出那些对环境变化适应能力较强的基因物质和植物种类，因而这种系统能在应对气候危机中发挥至关重要的作用。

12．Here at the Global Vault, hundreds of gray boxes containing seeds from places ranging from Syria to Mexico were moved this week into a freezing vault to be placed in suspended animation. They harbor a vast range of qualities, like the ability to withstand drier, warmer climate.

本周，数以百计的装有种子的灰色盒子从叙利亚、墨西哥等地运至全球种子地库，藏于这个冷冻库之中。储存在这里的种子具有很多特性，如能够抵御较为干燥和较为温暖的气候。