英媒呼籲：中國人放棄筷子用刀叉吧！
It is a battle that has divided East and West for centuries: Are chopsticks superior to the knife and fork? Now the debate may finally be decided, on environmental grounds.
筷子好用還是刀叉好用？這是幾個世紀以來東方和西方一直有爭議的一個話題。而現在從環保角度出發，這場曠日持久的辯論似乎終於可以塵埃落定了。
With 1.4 billion people ploughing through 80 billion pairs of throwaway chopsticks each year, China has admitted its forests can no longer provide enough cutlery for its dinner tables.
每天，14億的中國人會使用到800億雙一次性筷子，中國也承認因爲本國的森林資源已經無法爲人們的餐桌提供足夠的筷子了。
"We must change our consumption habits and encourage people to carry their own tableware," said Bo Guangxin, the chairman of Jilin Forestry Industry Group, to his fellow delegates at the National People's Congress.
吉林森林工業集團的董事長柏廣新日前在兩會期間建議：“我們應該改變消費習慣，鼓勵人們出門吃飯時也自己帶餐具。”
Pointing out that only 4,000 chopsticks can be carved from a 20-year-old tree, he even went so far as to suggest that restaurants offered metal knives and forks instead. If Mr Bo's suggestion is widely adopted, it would be a dark moment in the chopstick's 4,000-year history.
他指出，一顆20年樹齡的樹木只能生產出4000雙筷子。他甚至還建議，餐館應該直接使用金屬製的刀叉代替筷子。如果柏廣新的建議被廣泛採用，中國4000多年的筷子歷史可能就會遭遇“黑暗時刻”。
It was Da Yu, the founder of the Xia dynasty, who is said to have first used two sticks to eat his food in roughly 2100 BC.
筷子的起源大約在公元前2100年，夏朝的開國之君大禹據說是第一個使用兩隻棍子來吃飯的人。
It was an invention born of urgency. In his rush to reach a flood zone, Da Yu did not want to wait for his meat in his wok to cool, instead seizing a pair of twigs and wolfing down his meal.
筷子的誕生是因爲時間緊迫，當時大禹趕着去治水，沒時間等自己的食物涼下來，就直接拿起兩根小細枝狼吞虎嚥吃完了飯。
Chopsticks quickly became popular around Asia. However Chinese chopsticks are longer than their Korean and Japanese counterparts in order to reach the communal dishes in the centre of the table. Koreans also often use metal chopsticks because of their love of barbecue.
筷子很快在亞洲地區流行起來，不過中國人使用的筷子比韓國人和日本人使用的要長，因爲需要夾到桌子中間的公菜。韓國人因爲愛吃燒烤，所以也經常使用金屬製的筷子。
The fork, meanwhile, is said to have been invented by the Romans, but did not become common in northern Europe until the 18th century.
而叉子則據說是由羅馬人發明的，直到18實際纔在北歐地區常用起來。
Today, however, China is chopping down 20 million mature trees a year to feed its disposable chopstick habit, according to Mr Bo.
而根據柏廣新的說法，如今中國每年要砍掉2000萬顆成熟樹木，來滿足人們使用一次性筷子的習慣。
Nor can China find enough wood in its own forests. China is now the world's largest importer of wood and even imports chopsticks from America, where a company in Georgia realised that the state's native gum wood would be perfectly suited to make the utensil.
而中國的森林裏如今已經沒有足夠的木材來供應這樣的需求。中國現在是世界上最大的木材進口國，甚至還需要從美國進口筷子。喬治亞州的一家公司表示，當地的原聲膠木材很適合製成筷子。
A previous estimate from China's state forestry administration, based on statistics from 2004 to 2009, put the yearly total at 57 billion disposable chopsticks, a much lower sum.
基於2004年到2009年的數據，中國國家林業局此前作出估計，中國每年的一次性筷子消費可能會達到570億雙，這個數據比實際數據要低得多。
