百科知识视频之煎蛋小学堂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，塑料可以非常牢固坚硬，以制造航天飞船，替代骨骼，也可以很薄很坚韧，以制造购物袋，一块薄镍币厚度的塑料袋就能支撑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，塑料保和省锈蚀也不会腐烂，即便我们有时只需要几秒钟，塑料却能挺过好几个世纪。人们大量生产塑料因为它便宜又耐用，但是塑料依然属于消耗品。人们懂得利用塑料的特性，但也因为如此，塑料改变了海洋生物，每年全球10%的废弃塑料进入海洋。

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.

对于鲸，信天翁和海龟等海洋生物来说，大块塑料当然不好，海洋生物可能被塑料缠住，或吞下大块塑料。虽然媒体中出现在海中的都是大块塑料，但是大多数海洋中的塑料并不大，购物袋和汽水瓶会在阳光下变薄 被海风和海浪撕扯成为小块碎渣。

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.

从微观角度看，塑料依然无法被微生物分解 分解木头和海藻的微生物无法轻易消化塑料。所以虽然塑料碎渣碎成更小颗粒，但并未消失 时间过去，塑料只是扩散开来。

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.

这就是为什么几乎全世界任何海洋中都发现了塑料微粒，从北极洲到南极洲 从海底到海面 和大块塑料垃圾不同，塑料微粒的影响不易观察，和微粒本身一样，其造成的影响微妙且很难追踪：耐性良好的碎片会成为生物新的栖息地 小型海洋生物在其上生长繁殖。稍稍大些的海洋生物会认为塑料是食物，如果吞下就造成阻塞。塑料也会吸附并积累有毒化学物质 如果微粒被动物吃下会进入食物链。也许还有更多问题，只是我们还未察觉到。

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.

因为我们也只是刚刚开始关注海洋中的塑料微粒问题。人类向海洋生态系统倾倒塑料垃圾数量之巨不容置疑，塑料惊人的耐性肯定会在未来的日子里成为一项难题 但是我们可以改用生物降解塑料减少以后塑料造成的影响，减少向海洋倾倒的塑料量，或是清理堆满塑料的海岸。

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

不过在此之前，我们要问海洋是否能够适应我们最喜欢的塑料?