But this victory over nature is short-lived, for it takes only a single disaster, like the Indian Ocean tsunami of late last year, or now the floods in New Orleans, to wipe out the toil and dreams of decades at a stroke.
表面上看來，科技的確為人們爭取了一時的輝煌勝利，但只要有一次大型天災，像是去年底東南亞大海嘯摧毀人煙稠密的海邊渡假勝地，或是這次美國水平面下的觀光大城紐奧良決堤氾濫，人們數十年的苦心謀劃，大自然就連本帶利地，一夕間奪回去了。