新闻周刊:岛屿正被塑料垃圾淹没(1)

TECH & SCIENCE

来源于《技术与科学》版块

REMOTE, BARELY INHABITED ISLANDS ARE DROWNING IN MILLIONS OF PIECES OF PLASTIC TRASH, SCIENTISTS DISCOVER

科学家发现，偏远、人烟稀少的岛屿正被数百万块塑料垃圾淹没

BY KASHMIRA GANDER

作者：克什米拉·甘德

Almost 1 million shoes and hundreds of thousands of toothbrushes are among the millions of pieces of plastic waste that have washed up on the beaches of a remote island in the Indian Ocean, a study claims.

一项研究称，在印度洋一个偏远岛屿的海滩上，有数百万块塑料垃圾被冲上海滩，其中包括近100万双鞋和数十万把牙刷。

Scientists who surveyed the sparsely¹ populated Cocos (Keeling) Islands, an Australian territory in the Indian Ocean, estimate it is dotted with 414 million pieces of plastic weighing up to 262 tons. The research was published in the journal Scientific Reports.

科学家们调查了人口稀少的科科斯(基林)群岛，这是澳大利亚在印度洋的领土，他们估计该岛上散布着4.14亿片重达262吨的塑料碎片。这项研究发表在《科学报告》杂志上。

The researchers documented the number of microdebris—measuring between 2 and 5 millimeters—and larger pieces, like wood, metal and plastic, on 25 beaches in 2017. The detritus³ littering the islands included approximately 977,000 shoes and 373,000 toothbrushes. Other disposable items, such as straws and plastic bags, were found to make up around a quarter of the total debris². And some 93 percent of all pieces were buried up to 10 centimeters (3.9 inches) under the sand.

研究人员记录了2017年25个海滩上的微碎片(测量范围在2到5毫米之间)和更大的碎片(如木头、金属和塑料)的数量。散落在岛上的碎石包括大约97.7万双鞋子和37.3万支牙刷。散落在岛上的碎石包括大约97.7万双鞋子和37.3万支牙刷。其他一次性物品，如吸管和塑料袋，被发现约占总垃圾的四分之一。其中93%的碎片被埋在10厘米(3.9英寸)深的沙子下。

"Small, buried items pose considerable challenges for wildlife, and volunteers charged with the task of cleaning-up, thus preventing new items from entering the ocean remains⁴ key to addressing this issue," the authors warned.

“小型掩埋物品对野生动物构成了相当大的挑战，负责清理工作的志愿者因此防止新物品进入海洋仍然是解决这一问题的关键”作者如此警告。

1 sparsely   

adv.稀疏地；稀少地；不足地；贫乏地

参考例句：

• Relative to the size, the city is sparsely populated. 与其面积相比，这个城市的人口是稀少的。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The ground was sparsely covered with grass. 地面上稀疏地覆盖草丛。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 debris   

n.瓦砾堆，废墟，碎片

参考例句：

• After the bombing there was a lot of debris everywhere.轰炸之后到处瓦砾成堆。
• Bacteria sticks to food debris in the teeth,causing decay.细菌附着在牙缝中的食物残渣上，导致蛀牙。

3 detritus   

n.碎石

参考例句：

• Detritus usually consists of gravel, sand and clay.岩屑通常是由砂砾，沙和粘土组成的。
• A channel is no sooner cut than it chokes in its own detritus.一个河道刚被切割了不久，很快又被它自己的碎屑物质所充塞。

4 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。