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。

　　筷子好用还是刀叉好用?这是几个世纪以来东方和西方一直有争议的一个话题。而现在从环保角度出发，这场旷日持久的辩论似乎终于可以尘埃落定了。

　　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。

　　每年，14亿的中国人会使用到800亿双一次性筷子，中国也承认因为本国的森林资源已经无法为人们的餐桌提供足够的筷子了。

　　"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。

　　吉林森林工业集团的董事长柏广新日前在两会期间建议：“我们应该改变消费习惯，鼓励人们出门吃饭时也自己带餐具。”

　　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，一颗20年树龄的树木只能生产出4000双筷子。他甚至还建议，餐馆应该直接使用金属制的刀叉代替筷子。如果柏广新的建议被广泛采用，中国4000多年的筷子历史可能就会遭遇“黑暗时刻”。

　　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。

　　筷子的起源大约在公元前2100年，夏朝的开国之君大禹据说是第一个使用两只棍子来吃饭的人。

　　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。

　　筷子的诞生是因为时间紧迫，当时大禹赶着去治水，没时间等自己的食物凉下来，就直接拿起两根小细枝狼吞虎咽吃完了饭。

　　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。

　　筷子很快在亚洲地区流行起来，不过中国人使用的筷子比韩国人和日本人使用的要长，因为需要夹到桌子中间的公菜。韩国人因为爱吃烧烤，所以也经常使用金属制的筷子。

　　The fork, meanwhile, is said to have been invented by the Romans, but did not become common in northern Europe until the 18th century。

　　而叉子则据说是由罗马人发明的，直到18世纪才在北欧地区常用起来。

　　Today, however, China is chopping down 20 million mature trees a year to feed its disposable chopstick habit, according to Mr Bo。

　　而根据柏广新的说法，如今中国每年要砍掉2000万颗成熟树木，来满足人们使用一次性筷子的习惯。

　　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。

　　而中国的森林里如今已经没有足够的木材来供应这样的需求。中国现在是世界上最大的木材进口国，甚至还需要从美国进口筷子。乔治亚州的一家公司表示，当地的原声胶木材很适合制成筷子。

　　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。

　　基于2004年到2009年的数据，中国国家林业局此前作出估计，中国每年的一次性筷子消费可能会达到570亿双，这个数据比实际数据要低得多。