美国有线新闻 CNN 清理海洋塑料垃圾（在线收听）

The North Pacific gyre is our next stop. It`s a giant clockwise rotating current between Asia and North America, and it`s home to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. This has been characterized as an ocean of plastic. It`s the largest accumulation of garbage in the sea. People are responsible for causing it and some are taking on the responsibility of trying to clean it up.

下则新闻我们来关注北太平洋环流。它是亚洲和北美之间的一个巨大的顺时针旋转洋流，同时也是“太平洋垃圾带”的所在地。这里还被定性为“塑料的海洋”。这是海洋中最大的垃圾堆。是人类造就了它，不过现在有人承担起了清理它的责任。

In the middle of the North Pacific Ocean, the nearest coastline more than a thousand miles away, the evidence of human activity is visible from every angle. This is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a swirling sop of manmade litter. And the solution to cleaning it up is the brainchild of 22-year-old Dutch inventor Boyan Slat.

在北太平洋中部，离我们最近的海岸线有一千多英里远，然而从各个角度都能看到人类活动在那里留下的证据。那就是巨大的太平洋垃圾带，一个旋流中的人造垃圾带。清理它的方案来自22岁的荷兰发明家博伊安?斯莱特的创意。

Right now, trillions of pieces of plastic have accumulated in this large offshore garbage patches, damages ecosystems and economic problem as well, about $13 billion per year of damage. These pieces of plastic, they attract chemicals and those chemicals then get transported into the food chain through the plastic, which also includes as humans.

现在，数以万亿计的塑料垃圾已经积聚在这个巨大的海洋垃圾带中，破坏生态系统的同时还引发经济问题——每年它都会造成约130亿美元的经济损失。这些塑料会吸引化学物质，然后这些化学物质会通过塑料进入食物链，而它的影响也会波及人类。

I do think the major challenge humankind face in this century is in the avenue sustainability.

我认为本世纪人类面临的主要挑战是可持续发展之路。

Four years ago, at just 19 years old, Slat founded the Ocean Cleanup.

四年前，Slat才19岁，那时他就创建了“海洋清理”项目。

We need to clean up what`s already out there. It doesn`t go away by itself.

我们需要清理那些已经存在的垃圾。它不会自行消失。

Single use items are particular issue. Although recycling has become more popular and accessible in recent years, only 14 percent of global plastic packaging is collected for recycling, according to the World`s Economic Forum.

一次性物品是个特殊问题。据世界经济论坛数据显示，尽管近年来循环利用已经变得更加流行和普及，但全球只有14%的塑料包装做到了回收利用。

In May 2017, Slat and a team of 65 scientists and engineers unveiled their latest project, this floating barriers sits in the water, trapping plastic while water flows beneath.

2017年5月，Slat和一个由65名科学家和工程师组成的团队公布了他们的最新项目，这些漂浮的障碍物坐落在水里，水在下面流动的同时将塑料带进其中。

Instead of going after the plastic, we let the plastic come to us, that we could then take it out of the water and bring it to land for recycling.

我们不去捞捕塑料，而是让塑料来找我们，然后我们再把它从水里捞出来，把它带到陆地上进行循环利用。

These lessons were learned after the first model spent two months in the North Sea back in 2016, with rather mixed results.

2016年第一个模型在北海试用了两个月后，我们得到了这些经验教训，当时的试用结果喜忧参半。

At the Dutch organization`s headquarters, oceanographer Julia Reisser leads the research into what kinds of items find their way into our seas.

在荷兰组织的总部，海洋学家茱莉亚·赖瑟尔领导了一项研究，研究哪些物品能进入海洋。

What we have here is a collection of different types of plastic. They are mostly fragments coming out of the breakdown of plastics, like single use plastic like plastic lids and bottles, as well as fishing gear that`s lost or discarded at sea.

目前我们搜集到的就是一堆不同类型的塑料。它们大多是塑料分解后形成的碎片，比如一次性的塑料盖和塑料瓶，以及在海上丢失或被丢弃的渔具。

Experts are predicting that in a few decades, we might have more plastic than fish in our oceans. In some areas of the ocean, that`s already the case. For instance, on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, when we put out our trawls into the water, we got more plastic than fish.

专家预测，几十年后，海洋里的塑料制品可能会比鱼还多。在海洋的某些区域，情况已经如此。例如，在太平洋垃圾带，我们把拖网放下水，捞上来的塑料比鱼都多。

Plastic breaks down into tiny particles, like this called microplastics.

塑料被分解成微小的颗粒，被称为塑料微粒。

Fish, birds and other sea life mistake them for food. Those animals are then eaten by humans and the effect on our food chain is not really clear.

鱼、鸟和其他海洋生物会将其误食。随后，这些动物被人类吃掉，这对食物链会产生何种影响目前尚不清楚。

Boyan Slat and the Ocean Cleanup believe that their innovations can clean up to half the Great Pacific Garbage Patch within five years, plus twice as quick as their previous estimates.

博伊安·斯莱特和海洋清理组织认为，他们的发明可以在5年内清除掉太平洋垃圾带的一半垃圾，比之前的估计要快两倍。

And thanks to this improvement, we will also be able to start the cleanup within 12 months, instead of waiting for 2020.

多亏了这一改进，使得我们能够在12个月内开始清理工作，而不必非等到2020年。

Bold claims from the young entrepreneur, but it is a welcome thought for the 3 billion people that WWF say rely on fish, as well as seafood as their main source of protein.

这位年轻企业家此言论相当大胆，但对于世界自然基金会所称的依赖鱼类为食的30亿人来说，以及以食用海鲜作为主要的蛋白质来源的人来说，这是一个可喜的想法。