塑料污染——“我们这一代人将被铭记”

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

一项新的研究发现，环境中的塑料含量每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.

化石记录中大量的塑料，将会让未来的科学家以为我们生活在一个新时代的初期——塑料时代。

"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.

“我们都在学校里学习石器时代、青铜时代和铁器时代——我们要被称为塑料时代吗?”加州大学圣地亚哥分校的研究负责人詹妮弗·布兰登问《卫报》。

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

“这是一件可怕的事情，我们这一代人将因此而被铭记。”

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.

她的研究小组分析了2010年从加利福尼亚州圣巴巴拉海岸的海底提取的沉积物的核心，这个地区没有氧气，海洋生物也没有接触到。里面的材料可以追溯到19世纪中期。

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.

他们发现，从1945年到2009年，塑料沉积量呈指数增长，大约每15年翻一番。布兰登博士说，随着塑料生产和世界人口的增长，2019年的样本没理由会有更好的消息。

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.

核心区塑料产量的增长，几乎完全反映了全球塑料年产量的指数级增长，大约每15年产量就翻一番——在20世纪70年代初的石油危机和2008年的全球金融危机之后，塑料产量略有下降。

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

“我希望我们的研究表明，这是一个非常严重的问题。”

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，每年都有足够的塑料瓶出售，如果把它们堆成一堆，它们将比世界上最高的建筑哈利法塔(burj khalifa)还要高。

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.

人类对地球生态系统的影响使地质学家提出，我们现在生活在一个新时代，即人类世。它的确切开始日期仍在争论中——一些人认为是工业革命的开始，另一些人认为是农业的开始，而一个广泛的建议把它缩小到一个特定的日子——1945年7月16日的第一次原子弹试验。

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

布兰登博士认为，第二次世界大战后塑料的繁荣，增加了后一种说法的分量。

"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.

研究称：“二战后塑性沉积的增加，可以作为沉积记录中人类世大加速的地质代表。”

It was published in journal Science Advances .

研究结果发表在《科学进展》杂志上。