百科知識(shí)視頻之煎蛋小學(xué)堂27 大海里的塑料微粒

In many ways,plastic is the perfect material:we can make it strong and rigid enough to build spaceships and replace bones,or thin and flexible enough to makes shopping bags,that weigh as much as a nickel but carry up to 8 kilograms.

在很多方面，塑料都是完美材料，塑料可以非常牢固堅(jiān)硬，以制造航天飛船，替代骨骼，也可以很薄很堅(jiān)韌，以制造購(gòu)物袋，一塊薄鎳幣厚度的塑料袋就能支撐8公斤重量。

And unlike other materials,plastic doesn't rust or rot,it can last for centuries,even when we only need it to last a few seconds.We make tons of plastic precisely because it's cheap,durable and yet expendable.But the features of plastic that make it so useful to us have also transformed life in the oceans,where as much as 10% of our discarded plastic-millions of tons per year-ends up.

但是和其他材料不同的是，塑料保和省銹蝕也不會(huì)腐爛，即便我們有時(shí)只需要幾秒鐘，塑料卻能挺過(guò)好幾個(gè)世紀(jì)。人們大量生產(chǎn)塑料因?yàn)樗阋擞帜陀茫撬芰弦廊粚儆谙钠?。人們懂得利用塑料的特性，但也因?yàn)槿绱?，塑料改變了海洋生物，每年全?0%的廢棄塑料進(jìn)入海洋。

Big pieces of plastic are definitely bad news for marine animals like whales,albatross,and sea turtles which risk getting tangled in the debris or ingesting large pieces of it.Yet despite the publicity about huge garbage patches in the sea.most of the ocean's plastic isn't big,our castaway shopping bags and soda bottles get weakened by sunlight.and torn apart in the wind and the waves into little bits of plastic confetti.

對(duì)于鯨，信天翁和海龜?shù)群Ｑ笊飦?lái)說(shuō)，大塊塑料當(dāng)然不好，海洋生物可能被塑料纏住，或吞下大塊塑料。雖然媒體中出現(xiàn)在海中的都是大塊塑料，但是大多數(shù)海洋中的塑料并不大，購(gòu)物袋和汽水瓶會(huì)在陽(yáng)光下變薄 被海風(fēng)和海浪撕扯成為小塊碎渣。

On the micro-scale,though,it's still super durable the microorganisms that decompose ripped-up bits of wood and seaweed down into simpler organic compounds can't easily digest plastic.So while the plastic confetti gets broken into smaller pieces,it doesn't go away it just spreads out over time.

從微觀角度看，塑料依然無(wú)法被微生物分解 分解木頭和海藻的微生物無(wú)法輕易消化塑料。所以雖然塑料碎渣碎成更小顆粒，但并未消失 時(shí)間過(guò)去，塑料只是擴(kuò)散開(kāi)來(lái)。

Which is why we've found"microplastics"pretty much everywhere in the oceans,from the Arctic to the Antarctic,and from the seafloor to the surface.Unlike the easy-to-observe impacts of large plastic trash.the effects of microplastics are as subtle and difficult to trace as the fragments themselves:the durable fragments can serve as new real estate,on which small ocean creatures can grow and multiply;or choke slightly larger ocean creatures that think the plastics are food;or attract and collect toxic chemicals,which become introduced into the food chain if the particles are eaten;and probably a million other problems we haven't noticed yet.

這就是為什么幾乎全世界任何海洋中都發(fā)現(xiàn)了塑料微粒，從北極洲到南極洲 從海底到海面 和大塊塑料垃圾不同，塑料微粒的影響不易觀察，和微粒本身一樣，其造成的影響微妙且很難追蹤：耐性良好的碎片會(huì)成為生物新的棲息地 小型海洋生物在其上生長(zhǎng)繁殖。稍稍大些的海洋生物會(huì)認(rèn)為塑料是食物，如果吞下就造成阻塞。塑料也會(huì)吸附并積累有毒化學(xué)物質(zhì) 如果微粒被動(dòng)物吃下會(huì)進(jìn)入食物鏈。也許還有更多問(wèn)題，只是我們還未察覺(jué)到。

Because we've only recently started paying attention to all these microplastics in the oceans.But it's undeniable how much plastic trash we've introduced into marine ecosystems,and the wonderful durability of plastic guarantees it'll be an issue for years to come.it's possible we can decrease further impact by Switching to biodegradable plastics,dumping less plastic in the oceans,or cleaning up the patches of sea most strewn with plastic.

因?yàn)槲覀円仓皇莿倓傞_(kāi)始關(guān)注海洋中的塑料微粒問(wèn)題。人類向海洋生態(tài)系統(tǒng)傾倒塑料垃圾數(shù)量之巨不容置疑，塑料驚人的耐性肯定會(huì)在未來(lái)的日子里成為一項(xiàng)難題 但是我們可以改用生物降解塑料減少以后塑料造成的影響，減少向海洋傾倒的塑料量，或是清理堆滿塑料的海岸。

But until we do,the question is,will the oceans be plastic enough to deal with our favorite material?

不過(guò)在此之前，我們要問(wèn)海洋是否能夠適應(yīng)我們最喜歡的塑料?