落基山脉下着塑料雨

落基山脉下着塑料雨

A hard rain is falling on the Rocky Mountains.

落基山脉正在下大雨。

It's the kind that brings an even harder reality home to many Americans: Plastic has permeated every facet of our planet. Even the clouds.

对许多美国人来说，这是一个更加残酷的现实:塑料已经渗透到我们星球的每一个角落。即使是云。

Researchers set out to measure nitrogen levels in rainwater. But it was the plastic that grabbed their attention. (Photo: Claudine Van Massenhove/Shutterstock)

A study from scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey has found that 90 percent of rainwater samples from eight different locations along the Rockies contained plastics.

美国地质调查局的科学家进行的一项研究发现，落基山脉沿线八个不同地点的雨水样本中，90%含有塑料。

Even more surprising, some of those sites are hardly frequented by humans at all.

更令人惊讶的是，其中一些地点几乎没有人经常光顾。

In fact, one such site, dubbed "CO98" by researchers, is perched high in the mountains at 10,400 feet above sea level.

事实上，这样一个被研究人员称为“CO98”的地方，坐落在海拔10400英尺的高山上。

So how did microplastics find their way to those lofty heights?

那么微塑料是如何达到如此高的高度的呢?

Blame it on the rain. Or, more precisely, on tiny plastic particles that are shed into the atmosphere before hitching a ride back down on a raindrop.

都怪下雨。或者，更准确地说，是那些在搭上雨滴的顺风车返回大气层之前被抛入大气的微小塑料颗粒。

The study, which focused mostly on sites between Denver and Boulder, Colorado, suggests there's more plastic falling from skies over urban areas. But from there, the sky's the limit.

这项研究主要集中在丹佛和科罗拉多州博尔德之间的地区，研究表明城市上空的塑料垃圾更多。但从那里开始，天空就是极限。

"More plastic fibres were observed in samples from urban sites than from remote, mountainous sites," researchers note in the paper.

研究人员在论文中指出:“城市地区的塑料纤维样本比偏远山区的多。”

"However, frequent observation of plastic fibres in washout samples from the remote site CO98 at Loch Vale in Rocky Mountain National Park suggests that wet deposition of plastic is ubiquitous and not just an urban condition."

“然而，在落基山国家公园洛克谷CO98偏远地区的洗脱样品中，对塑料纤维的频繁观察表明，塑料的湿沉降是普遍存在的，而不仅仅是一种城市状况。”

Of course, it isn't exactly pelting down on the Rockies. The microplastics found in rainwater are invisible to the naked eye, with researchers having to magnify samples 20 times to see them.

当然，它并不是在向落基山脉俯冲。雨水中发现的微塑料是肉眼看不到的，研究人员必须将样本放大20倍才能看到它们。

But what a rainbow those microscopes revealed.

但是显微镜显示出的彩虹是多么美丽啊。

They found plastic strands in vibrant colors from purple to silver to red. Blue, they say, was the most common.

他们发现塑料链的颜色从紫色到银色再到红色。他们说，蓝色是最常见的。

The microscopic strands came in a variety of unnatural colors. (Photo: USGS)

The findings were startling enough to derail the research team's original intent to analyze rainwater for evidence of nitrogen pollution — a habitat-killing contamination often caused by agricultural practices.

这些发现令人震惊，足以打乱研究小组分析雨水中氮污染的初衷。氮污染是一种经常由农业活动造成的致人死亡的污染。

But the presence of plastic in their samples pointed to a much wider habitat under threat: our own.

但他们样本中塑料的存在表明，面临威胁的栖息地范围更广:我们自己的栖息地。

According to a recent study from Canada's University of Victoria, humans inadvertently eat 50,000 particles of microplastic every year — enough, one might argue, for it to claim a spot on the USDA's food pyramid.

根据加拿大维多利亚大学最近的一项研究，人类每年无意中吃掉5万个塑料微粒——有人可能会说，这足以让它在美国农业部的食物金字塔上占有一席之地。

The new study suggests we're not just eating and breathing plastic. We're soaking in it, too.

新的研究表明，我们不只是吃和呼吸塑料。我们也沉浸其中。

"I think the most important result that we can share with the American public is that there's more plastic out there than meets the eye," one of the researchers and USGS research chemist Gregory Wetherbee tells The Guardian. "It's in the rain, it's in the snow. It's a part of our environment now."

“我认为，我们能与美国公众分享的最重要的结果是，塑料比我们看到的要多，”研究人员之一、美国地质调查局研究化学家格雷戈里·韦瑟比告诉《卫报》。“在雨里，在雪里。它现在是我们环境的一部分。”