To highlight the severity of the problem plastic poses, the team pointed to past research showing an estimated 14 million tons of plastic polluted the oceans in 2010 because it was not disposed of and dealt with properly. Almost half of the plastic made in the last six decades was produced in the past 13 years, they wrote, and around 40 percent of plastic products ended up being disposed of in the same year they were created. Another study indicated there were more pieces of plastic in the ocean than stars in the Milky Way.
為了強調(diào)塑料污染問題的嚴(yán)重性，研究小組指出，過去的研究顯示，2010年估計有1400萬噸塑料污染了海洋，因為它們沒有得到妥善處理。他們寫道，過去60年里生產(chǎn)的塑料幾乎有一半是在過去的13年里生產(chǎn)的，大約40%的塑料產(chǎn)品在它們被生產(chǎn)出來的同一年就被丟棄了。另一項研究表明，海洋中的塑料碎片比銀河系中的恒星還要多。
"Unfortunately, unless drastic steps are taken, the numbers and challenges will only grow, with the quantity of waste entering the ocean predicted to increase ten-fold by 2025," the authors warned in their paper.
“不幸的是，除非采取嚴(yán)厲的措施，否則海洋垃圾的數(shù)量和挑戰(zhàn)只會增加，預(yù)計到2025年進入海洋的垃圾數(shù)量將增加10倍，”作者在文章中警告說。
As the researchers collected samples down to a depth of 10 centimeters on the beach, and were unable to access some debris "hot spots," the estimate is likely to be conservative, explained Jennifer Lavers, the lead author of the study and a research scientist at the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies at the University of Tasmania, in Australia.
正如研究者們收集樣本到10厘米的深度在沙灘上,和無法訪問一些碎片“熱點”,估計可能是保守,珍妮弗·賴維斯解釋說, 珍妮弗·賴維斯是該研究的第一作者和澳大利亞塔斯馬尼亞大學(xué)研究海洋和南極研究所的科學(xué)家。
Lavers explained in a statement that only a few hundred people live on the islands, and so the sheer volume of plastic present there reflects how the material moves around the oceans.
拉弗斯在一份聲明中解釋說，島上只有幾百人居住，所以島上塑料的體積反映了海洋中塑料的運動方式。
"Islands such as these are like canaries in a coal mine and it's increasingly urgent that we act on the warnings they are giving us," said Lavers. "Plastic pollution is now ubiquitous in our oceans, and remote islands are an ideal place to get an objective view of the volume of plastic debris now circling the globe."
“像這樣的島嶼就像煤礦里的金絲雀，我們越來越迫切地需要根據(jù)它們發(fā)出的警告采取行動，”賴維斯說?！八芰衔廴粳F(xiàn)在在我們的海洋中無處不在，偏遠的島嶼是一個理想的地方，可以客觀地看到目前環(huán)繞全球的塑料碎片的體積?！?/p>
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