求翻译:全球十大环境问题

1、气候变暖 ：climate warming

2、臭氧层破坏：ozone depletion

3、生物多样性减少：biodiversity decrease

4、酸雨蔓延：acid rain spread

5、森林锐减 ：forest plummeted

6、土地荒漠化：land desertification

7、大气污染 ：air pollution

8、水体污染：water pollution

9、海洋污染：Marine pollution

10、固体废物污染：solid waste pollution

The patient's condition is serious Symptoms are multiple His breath is noxious He has a fever, higher than ever before Efforts to bring it down are not working Poison has been found in body fluids When symptoms are treated in one area, more pop up in other body parts If this were a usual patient, doctors would be inclined to declare the multiple sicknesses as chronic and terminal Not knowing what else to do, they would just take steps to make the patient as comfortable as possible until the end came

HOWEVER, this is not a human patient It is our home—the earth The above scenario well illustrates what is happening to our planet Dirty air, global warming, polluted waters, and toxic wastes are just a few of the maladies of our very ill earth Like the doctors mentioned above, the experts are in a quandary as to what to do

The media regularly call attention to earth's poor health with such headlines and captions as: "Blast fishing turns seabeds into killing fields" A "Billion Asians Could Be Parched in 24 Years" "Forty million tons of toxic trash a year trades globally" "Nearly two thirds of the 1,800 wells in Japan are contaminated with poisons" "Ozone Hole Over Antarctic Is Back and Bigger"

Some people become accustomed to frequent news of danger to the environment, perhaps even thinking, 'That is not of great concern as long as it does not affect me' However, whether we realize it or not, the wholesale destruction of the earth's environment affects the vast majority of people Since contamination of our planet is now so pervasive, it likely already affects more than one aspect of our lives Thus, all should be concerned about the health and preservation of our home After all, where else would we live

Just how widespread is the problem How sick is the earth How are people's lives affected Let us take a look at just a few factors that help us to understand why our earth is not just mildly indisposed but, instead, seriously ill

THE OCEANS: Large sections of ocean are overfished A report by the United Nations Environment Programme says that "70 percent of marine fisheries are so exploited that reproduction cannot or can just barely keep up" For example, populations of cod, hake, haddock, and flounder in the North Atlantic fell by as much as 95 percent between 1989 and 1994 If this continues, what will it mean for millions who depend on the sea as a major source of their food

Additionally, each year an estimated 20 million to 40 million tons of sea life are caught and thrown back into the ocean—usually wounded or dead Why They are caught along with target fish but are not wanted

FORESTS: Deforestation has many negative sides to it Loss of trees results in a reduction in the earth's capacity to absorb carbon dioxide, and this is said to be a cause of global warming Certain species of plants, the potential source of lifesaving medicines, will disappear Nevertheless, forest destruction continues unabated In fact, the rate of destruction has increased in recent years Some authorities feel that if this persists, tropical forests could disappear in about 20 years

TOXIC WASTES: Dumping of harmful materials both on land and in the sea is a serious problem that has the potential for bringing great harm to millions Radioactive wastes, heavy metals, and by-products of plastics are among elements that can cause abnormalities, sickness, or death in humans and animals

CHEMICALS: During the past 100 years, close to 100,000 new chemicals have come into use These chemicals find their way into our air, soil, water, and food Relatively few of them have been tested for their health effects on humans However, of the ones that have, a significant number have been found to be carcinogenic or to cause disease in other ways

There are many more threats to our environment: air pollution, untreated sewage, acid rain, lack of clean water The few already mentioned suffice to show that the earth is really sick Can the patient be saved, or is the battle already lost

A fast-growing front in the battle against climate change is focused on developing green technologies aimed at reducing humankind’s carbon footprint, but many scientists say simply reducing emissions is no longer enough We have to find new ways to suck carbon out of the atmosphere A Maine start-up is looking to raise a sinkable carbon-capturing forest in the open ocean

正文

I’m Teresa Carey, and this is  Scientific American ’s 60-Second Science

“In a few weeks, these tanks will be full of little baby oysters, the size of a piece of quinoa But right now, they’re still in the larval stage”

Adam Baske strolls through a warehouse on the coast of Harpswell, Maine Surrounding him are trays of oysters with water circulating between them in small tubes In another room stands rows of eight-foot-tall tanks of algae growing at different stages The algae will be food for the oysters If you’ve never seen a shellfish hatchery, this one looks pretty typical But it’s not This year, they’re planning to harvest something new—atmospheric carbon

His company, called  Running Tide Technologies , plans to grow vast quantities of seaweed in drifting ocean mini-farms—farms that the company plans to sink to the bottom of the ocean

“So this is basically taking the emissions of our fossil-fuel burning, locking them back up into the structure of the kelp and sending it back to the bottom of the ocean, where, you know, it’s at least locked up for hundreds to thousands of years because of the great pressure and the slow movement of the water in the deep ocean”

Kelp, like other plants, uses photosynthesis to extract carbon dioxide from the atmosphere  Colette Feehan , a marine ecologist at Montclair State University, who does not work with Running Tide Technologies, says that kelp is a no-brainer when it comes to carbon sequestration

“The productivity of kelp forests has been found to be comparable to tropical rain forests, meaning that they put on a great deal of biomass, and that biomass is stored carbon”

It can do this because it grows fast (about a foot per month) It also quickly sinks to the seafloor Once there, it degrades very slowly

Trees, on the other hand, store carbon but ultimately release it back to the atmosphere when they die and decompose Kelp can stay effectively buried, its carbon entombed by the crushing pressure and lack of oxygen, for hundreds, maybe thousands of years 

“As a climate change mitigation strategy, there’s mounting evidence that this is a good approach These forests aren’t taking up land that would otherwise be used for agriculture or housing So there’s really no negative side to growing kelp forests”

How it works is that Running Tide Technologies hangs a kelp mini-farm tube from a biodegradable buoy, which they set adrift in the ocean currents Over several months, the kelp absorbs carbon, growing longer and heavier until it sinks to the bottom, taking the stored carbon with it They are still experimenting with buoy’s material—trying out glass, cellulose and other materials

Baske is Running Tide Technologies head of business development He says the project is still in its early stages, with about 1,600 buoys This year they are focused on assessing the project’s impact—looking for problems like whale entanglement and evaluating the feasibility with sensors and trackers In the future, they are aiming for millions of micro-farms, sponging up billions of tons of carbon, which they plan to sell in the carbon offset market

“Some of the biggest companies in the world already have net-zero commitments—are hungry for permanent, verifiable carbon offsets And that doesn’t mean they have net-zero emissions It means they’re offsetting their emissions while they’re also reducing their emissions”

Shopify, an e-commerce company for online stores, will be one of the first companies to buy carbon offsets from Running Tide Technologies

“This can be one of the many solutions we need to employ to have a chance in this fight You know, we need to mobilize the troops for this war And if we don’t build the infrastructure and the knowledge base to give us a fighting chance, then we might as well give up now”

Running Tide Technologies is drawing from the strong fishing tradition on the Maine coast—and casting a net for carbon

“Very few people on the planet have an appreciation for the scale of our oceans: 70 percent of our planet It’s just such an incomprehensible number, I think, for a lot of people The opportunity to put that surface area to work in helping us solve the biggest challenge facing humanity—I can’t think of a more inspiring or motivating mission”

Thanks for listening For  Scientific American’ s 60-Second Science, I’m Teresa Carey

原文地址： wwwscientificamericancom

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