落基山脈下著塑料雨

落基山脈下著塑料雨

A hard rain is falling on the Rocky Mountains.

落基山脈正在下大雨。

It's the kind that brings an even harder reality home to many Americans: Plastic has permeated every facet of our planet. Even the clouds.

對許多美國人來說，這是一個更加殘酷的現(xiàn)實:塑料已經(jīng)滲透到我們星球的每一個角落。即使是云。

Researchers set out to measure nitrogen levels in rainwater. But it was the plastic that grabbed their attention. (Photo: Claudine Van Massenhove/Shutterstock)

A study from scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey has found that 90 percent of rainwater samples from eight different locations along the Rockies contained plastics.

美國地質調查局的科學家進行的一項研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，落基山脈沿線八個不同地點的雨水樣本中，90%含有塑料。

Even more surprising, some of those sites are hardly frequented by humans at all.

更令人驚訝的是，其中一些地點幾乎沒有人經(jīng)常光顧。

In fact, one such site, dubbed "CO98" by researchers, is perched high in the mountains at 10,400 feet above sea level.

事實上，這樣一個被研究人員稱為“CO98”的地方，坐落在海拔10400英尺的高山上。

So how did microplastics find their way to those lofty heights?

那么微塑料是如何達到如此高的高度的呢?

Blame it on the rain. Or, more precisely, on tiny plastic particles that are shed into the atmosphere before hitching a ride back down on a raindrop.

都怪下雨。或者，更準確地說，是那些在搭上雨滴的順風車返回大氣層之前被拋入大氣的微小塑料顆粒。

The study, which focused mostly on sites between Denver and Boulder, Colorado, suggests there's more plastic falling from skies over urban areas. But from there, the sky's the limit.

這項研究主要集中在丹佛和科羅拉多州博爾德之間的地區(qū)，研究表明城市上空的塑料垃圾更多。但從那里開始，天空就是極限。

"More plastic fibres were observed in samples from urban sites than from remote, mountainous sites," researchers note in the paper.

研究人員在論文中指出:“城市地區(qū)的塑料纖維樣本比偏遠山區(qū)的多。”

"However, frequent observation of plastic fibres in washout samples from the remote site CO98 at Loch Vale in Rocky Mountain National Park suggests that wet deposition of plastic is ubiquitous and not just an urban condition."

“然而，在落基山國家公園洛克谷CO98偏遠地區(qū)的洗脫樣品中，對塑料纖維的頻繁觀察表明，塑料的濕沉降是普遍存在的，而不僅僅是一種城市狀況。”

Of course, it isn't exactly pelting down on the Rockies. The microplastics found in rainwater are invisible to the naked eye, with researchers having to magnify samples 20 times to see them.

當然，它并不是在向落基山脈俯沖。雨水中發(fā)現(xiàn)的微塑料是肉眼看不到的，研究人員必須將樣本放大20倍才能看到它們。

But what a rainbow those microscopes revealed.

但是顯微鏡顯示出的彩虹是多么美麗啊。

They found plastic strands in vibrant colors from purple to silver to red. Blue, they say, was the most common.

他們發(fā)現(xiàn)塑料鏈的顏色從紫色到銀色再到紅色。他們說，藍色是最常見的。

The microscopic strands came in a variety of unnatural colors. (Photo: USGS)

The findings were startling enough to derail the research team's original intent to analyze rainwater for evidence of nitrogen pollution — a habitat-killing contamination often caused by agricultural practices.

這些發(fā)現(xiàn)令人震驚，足以打亂研究小組分析雨水中氮污染的初衷。氮污染是一種經(jīng)常由農業(yè)活動造成的致人死亡的污染。

But the presence of plastic in their samples pointed to a much wider habitat under threat: our own.

但他們樣本中塑料的存在表明，面臨威脅的棲息地范圍更廣:我們自己的棲息地。

According to a recent study from Canada's University of Victoria, humans inadvertently eat 50,000 particles of microplastic every year — enough, one might argue, for it to claim a spot on the USDA's food pyramid.

根據(jù)加拿大維多利亞大學最近的一項研究，人類每年無意中吃掉5萬個塑料微粒——有人可能會說，這足以讓它在美國農業(yè)部的食物金字塔上占有一席之地。

The new study suggests we're not just eating and breathing plastic. We're soaking in it, too.

新的研究表明，我們不只是吃和呼吸塑料。我們也沉浸其中。

"I think the most important result that we can share with the American public is that there's more plastic out there than meets the eye," one of the researchers and USGS research chemist Gregory Wetherbee tells The Guardian. "It's in the rain, it's in the snow. It's a part of our environment now."

“我認為，我們能與美國公眾分享的最重要的結果是，塑料比我們看到的要多，”研究人員之一、美國地質調查局研究化學家格雷戈里·韋瑟比告訴《衛(wèi)報》。“在雨里，在雪里。它現(xiàn)在是我們環(huán)境的一部分。”