塑料污染——“我們這一代人將被銘記”

塑料污染——“我們這一代人將被銘記”

The amount of plastic ending up in the environment doubles every 15 years, a new study has found.

一項新的研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，環(huán)境中的塑料含量每15年翻一番。

It's led to suggestions the sheer amount of plastic in the fossil record will lead future scientists to say we're living in the early stages of a new era - the plastic age.

化石記錄中大量的塑料，將會讓未來的科學(xué)家以為我們生活在一個新時代的初期——塑料時代。

"We all learn in school about the stone age, the Bronze Age and Iron Age - is this going to be known as the Plastic Age?" study leader Jennifer Brandon of the University of California, San Diego asked the Guardian.

“我們都在學(xué)校里學(xué)習(xí)石器時代、青銅時代和鐵器時代——我們要被稱為塑料時代嗎?”加州大學(xué)圣地亞哥分校的研究負(fù)責(zé)人詹妮弗·布蘭登問《衛(wèi)報》。

"It is a scary thing that this is what our generation will be remembered for."

“這是一件可怕的事情，我們這一代人將因此而被銘記。”

Her team analysed a 2010 core of sediment taken from the seafloor off the coast of Santa Barbara, California, in an area devoid of oxygen so untouched by marine life. It contained material dating back to the mid-1800s.

她的研究小組分析了2010年從加利福尼亞州圣巴巴拉海岸的海底提取的沉積物的核心，這個地區(qū)沒有氧氣，海洋生物也沒有接觸到。里面的材料可以追溯到19世紀(jì)中期。

They found an "exponential increase in plastic deposition from 1945 to 2009", doubling about every 15 years. With plastic production and the world's population only increasing since then, Dr Brandon said there was no reason to think a 2019 sample would have better news.

他們發(fā)現(xiàn)，從1945年到2009年，塑料沉積量呈指數(shù)增長，大約每15年翻一番。布蘭登博士說，隨著塑料生產(chǎn)和世界人口的增長，2019年的樣本沒理由會有更好的消息。

The rise in plastic in the core almost exactly mirrored the world's exponentially rising annual plastic production, which has also doubled every 15 years or so - with slight drops in the wake of the early 1970s oil crisis and the 2008 global financial crisis.

核心區(qū)塑料產(chǎn)量的增長，幾乎完全反映了全球塑料年產(chǎn)量的指數(shù)級增長，大約每15年產(chǎn)量就翻一番——在20世紀(jì)70年代初的石油危機和2008年的全球金融危機之后，塑料產(chǎn)量略有下降。

"I hope our study shows this is a very serious problem."

“我希望我們的研究表明，這是一個非常嚴(yán)重的問題。”

Our World In Data

For example, enough plastic bottles are sold every year that if they were dumped in a pile, they'd be higher than the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building.

例如，每年都有足夠的塑料瓶出售，如果把它們堆成一堆，它們將比世界上最高的建筑哈利法塔(burj khalifa)還要高。

Humanity's effect on the Earth's ecosystem has led geologists to propose we're now living in a new age, the Anthropocene. Its exact start date is still being debated - some suggest the start of the Industrial Revolution, others the beginning of agriculture, while a popular proposal narrows it down to a specific day - the first atomic bomb test on July 16, 1945.

人類對地球生態(tài)系統(tǒng)的影響使地質(zhì)學(xué)家提出，我們現(xiàn)在生活在一個新時代，即人類世。它的確切開始日期仍在爭論中——一些人認(rèn)為是工業(yè)革命的開始，另一些人認(rèn)為是農(nóng)業(yè)的開始，而一個廣泛的建議把它縮小到一個特定的日子——1945年7月16日的第一次原子彈試驗。

Dr Brandon suggests the boom in plastics following World War II adds weight to this latter suggestion.

布蘭登博士認(rèn)為，第二次世界大戰(zhàn)后塑料的繁榮，增加了后一種說法的分量。

"This increase in plastic deposition in the post–World War II years can be used as a geological proxy for the Great Acceleration of the Anthropocene in the sedimentary record," the study says.

研究稱：“二戰(zhàn)后塑性沉積的增加，可以作為沉積記錄中人類世大加速的地質(zhì)代表。”

It was published in journal Science Advances .

研究結(jié)果發(fā)表在《科學(xué)進(jìn)展》雜志上。