Voice 1
Thank you for joining us for Spotlight. I’m Liz Waid.
Voice 2
And I’m Ruby Jones. Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand, no matter where in the world they live.
Voice 1
Today’s Spotlight is on plastic. This material is one of the most common in the world. People use it to hold things, to carry things, to make things, and much more. It seems like the perfect material. But could it be causing people harm? In today’s program we will look at the lasting effects of plastic waste.
Voice 2
Charles Moore lives in California, in the United States. He spends a lot of time near or on the ocean. He owns a boat. And he sails in it often. The ocean has always been a place of beauty to Charles. That is, until one day when he discovered something terribly ugly.
Voice 1
In the late 1990’s Charles found a large area of plastic waste in the northern Pacific Ocean. The waste was caught in the natural currents of the ocean. The currents there flow in a circle shape. So, the waste was trapped there. This area is part of the North Pacific gyre. There is a huge amount of waste in this slow moving area of water.
Voice 2
The first time Charles approached the area he was shocked. The first sign of the plastic waste was a long line of plastic bags. They floated like frightening spirits over the surface of the water. Next, he saw fishing nets, ropes and bottles, old oil containers, toys, and tires. The area of waste seemed to stretch forever. It was deeply saddening to Charles.
Voice 3
“There was nowhere I could go to avoid the plastic.”
Voice 1
That was about ten years ago. Since this time, Charles has visited the North Pacific gyre many times. And each time the area of waste grows. Today, the area of waste in the North Pacific gyre covers an area up to one point three million [1,300,000] square kilometers.
Voice 2
Finding waste is nothing new in the North Pacific gyre. For thousands of years the water currents have caught and carried many natural wastes like wood. In the past, natural wastes in the gyre have biodegraded. Waste is biodegraded when natural bacteria break the waste into smaller and smaller pieces. Plants and smaller animals use this broken down waste for food and energy.
Voice 1
But plastic waste is different. Plastic cannot biodegrade. Instead, it photodegrades. Sunlight breaks it down into smaller and smaller pieces. But these pieces remain plastic. Even the smallest plastic molecule is not natural. Living organisms cannot digest plastic - or process it as food. And the plastic may have even more frightening effects.
Voice 2
Plastics are a mix of different chemicals. These chemicals make plastic very useful to us. They let plastic bend and move easily. They help plastic products resist heat or oil. Chemicals make plastic everything people want it to be.
Voice 1
But, could these chemicals can also be harmful to people? Some food containers are made of plastic. The plastic contains chemicals. Scientists have tested these chemicals. Some of the chemicals cause liver problems and memory loss in animals. They also cause reproductive problems - they make the animals unable to have babies. If these chemicals from plastic cause this much damage in animals, what about people? Could enough of a chemical escape from a plastic container into the food to harm a person?
Voice 2
Marc Goldstein, a doctor in the United States has bad news. He says fertility rates are getting lower and lower. He says plastic may be the reason. He says unborn babies can even suffer the effects. Mothers pass on the chemicals through the food they eat and liquid they drink. This is especially bad because unborn babies are still forming. Other doctors blame chemicals in plastic for increased prostate cancer and breast cancer.
Voice 1
Every year people produce sixty billion [60,000,000,000] tonnes of plastic products. People use many of these plastic products only once. How do people get rid of the plastic after they use it? Recycling is a way to re-use already made plastic. But only a few kinds of plastic can be recycled. Some people may try to burn plastic to get rid of it. But this releases harmful gases. This is not a good answer to the problem. Some of this plastic waste ends up in rivers and in the sea. After a time, much of it goes to areas like the North Pacific gyre. Because this plastic cannot biodegrade, it lasts for hundreds of years.
Voice 2
People invented plastic less than two hundred [200] years ago. But Charles Moore shares a sad fact:
Voice 3
“Except for the small amount that has been destroyed - and it is a very small amount - every bit of plastic ever made still exists.”
Voice 1
Plastic waste sits in places like the North Pacific gyre. This and other gyres cover about twenty-five [25] percent of the earth’s surface. Even the very small broken down plastic particles still produce harmful chemicals. Some also escape from the water into the air. So people eat the particles, drink them, and breathe them in. Researchers say that the effects of these chemicals are beginning to show in people.
Voice 2
Many groups are trying to fix these problems. There are now some plastics that will naturally biodegrade. But it will take time for these to be used widely. Unfortunately, people may not have much time left.
Voice 1
Curtis Ebbesmeyer is a retired oceanographer. But he continues to study the ocean. The amount of plastic he finds on the beaches makes him sad and angry. He believes that things must change. Or, he says, the future will be very depressing. He says:
Voice 4
“If you could go ten thousand [10,000] years into the future and do an archaeological dig, you would find a little line of plastic... You might ask, ‘What happened to those people?’ Well, they ate their own plastic. They destroyed their genetic structure. And they were no longer able to have children. They did not last very long because they killed themselves with plastic.”
Voice 2
Curtis believes that the plastic waste he finds on the beach is a warning message. And he believes that people must start to listen, or there will be serious costs.
Voice 4
“Nature is writing to us, and she writes to us through the waste on the beach. The ocean is warning us. And if we do not listen, it is very easy for nature to get rid of us.”
Voice 1
What can we do - just normal people? Can we help to stop the dangers of plastic waste? If so, how? Write to us with your ideas. Our e-mail address is radio @ english . net.
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