《国家地理》在近日推出6月刊，封面极为震撼，充满隐喻：乍看之下是冰山，实则是浸泡在海水中的一个塑料袋。

封面上写着：

18 billion pounds of plastic ends up in the ocean each year. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

每年，180亿磅（约800万吨）塑料被投入海洋，而这只是冰山一角。

这期杂志也宣告《国家地理》最新环保活动，“要地球还是要塑料”（ Planet or Plastic?）的启动。

National Geographic magazine has just launched an informative and shockingly revealing campaign calledPlanet or Plastic?, which is aimed at raising awareness about the global plastic crisis and reducing the amount of single-use plastic that enters the world's oceans.

《国家地理》杂志启动了一个名为“要地球还是要塑料？”的活动，揭露了很多令人震撼的真相。这一活动旨在提高全球塑料危机意识，减少不断扔进海里的一次性塑料。

要地球还是要塑料？

人类随意丢弃的塑料，很大一部分最终进入海洋，《国家地理》称：

Some estimates suggest this plastic could remain in marine environments for 450 years or longer, and the problem is only getting worse.

一些科学家估计，塑料在海洋环境中将存在450年，甚至更长，而这只是问题的开始。

《国家地理》杂志拍摄了一系列照片，展示塑料对地球所带来的危害，令人触目惊心。一起来看看。

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The photographer freed this stork from a plastic bag at a landfill in Spain. One bag can kill more than once: Carcasses decay, but plastic lasts and can choke or trap again.

摄影师将鹳从西班牙一个垃圾场的塑料袋里解救了出来。一个塑料袋带来的杀戮不止一次：尸体可以腐烂，但塑料袋却一直存在，一次次困住动物，令它们窒息。

landfill n. 垃圾填埋地；垃圾堆

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An old plastic fishing net snares a loggerhead turtle in the Mediterranean off Spain. The turtle could stretch its neck above water to breathe but would have died had the photographer not freed it.

在西班牙临近地中海海域，一张旧塑料渔网困住了一只红海龟。这只海龟可以把脖子伸到水面上呼吸，但是如果摄影师没有解救它，可能它就要死了。

snare vt. 捕捉

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On Okinawa, Japan, a hermit crab resorts to a plastic bottle cap to protect its soft abdomen. Beach goers collect the shells the crabs normally use, and they leave trash behind.

在日本冲绳，一只寄居蟹利用塑料水瓶盖来保护自己柔软的腹部。沙滩上的游客捡走了那些寄居蟹通常居住的贝壳，却留下了很多垃圾。

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To ride currents, seahorses clutch drifting seagrass or other natural debris. In the polluted waters off the Indonesian island of Sumbawa, this seahorse latched onto a plastic cotton swab—“a photo I wish didn’t exist,” says photographer Justin Hofman.

海马会抓住漂浮的水草或其他自然残骸以在水流中游动。在印度尼西亚松巴哇岛附近遭受污染的海域里，这只海马抓住了一根棉签。“这是一张我并不希望存在的照片，”摄影师Justin Hofman这样说道。

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Around the world, nearly a million plastic beverage bottles are sold every minute.

全世界大概每分钟售出100万个塑料饮料瓶。

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Some 700 species of marine animals have been reported so far to have eaten or become entangled in plastic.

据报道，至今大概有700种海洋生物吃掉过塑料或者被塑料困住过。

By 2050, virtually every seabird species on the planet will be eating plastic.

到2050年，地球上几乎每种海鸟都会吃塑料。

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Under a bridge on a branch of the Buriganga River in Bangladesh, a family removes labels from plastic bottles, sorting green from clear ones to sell to a scrap dealer. Waste pickers here average around $100 a month.

这张照片摄于孟加拉布里甘加河支流的桥下，一家人正在撕去塑料瓶子上的标签，从透明的瓶子里分出绿色的瓶子，然后卖给废品商。拾荒者们每个月大概能赚100美元。

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The largest market for plastics today is packaging materials. That trash now accounts for nearly half of all plastic waste generated globally—most of it never gets recycled.

现在塑料制品最大的市场就是包装材料。包装垃圾约占如今全球产生的塑料垃圾的一半，而大部分的塑料制品都没有得到回收。

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Plastic bottles choke the Cibeles fountain, outside city hall in central Madrid. An art collective called Luzinterruptus filled this and two other Madrid fountains with 60,000 discarded bottles last fall as a way of calling attention to the environmental impact of disposable plastics.

马德里中部市政厅外面的西北莱斯喷泉里堆满了塑料瓶子。艺术团体Luzinterruptus在去年秋天用6万个被丢弃的瓶子填满了西贝塞斯喷泉，还有其他两个喷泉，希望大家重视一次性塑料制品对环境所产生影响。

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As of 2015, more than 6.9 billion tons of plastic waste had been generated. Around 9 percent of that was recycled, 12 percent was incinerated, and 79 percent accumulated in landfills or environment.

截至2015年，全球生产了超过69亿吨塑料废物。其中只有9%的塑料得到了回收利用，12%被焚烧，而剩下的79%就堆在垃圾场或我们的周遭环境中。

incinerate vt. 焚化；烧成灰

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Just after dawn in Kalyan, on the outskirts of Mumbai, India, trash pickers looking for plastics begin their daily rounds at the dump, joined by a flock of birds. The woman carrying the red cloth lives at the landfill.

印度孟买郊区卡延的黎明时分，捡拾塑料制品的拾荒者在垃圾堆旁边开始了他们日常的工作，一群鸟儿在附近盘旋。那个拿着红布的女人就住在垃圾场。

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After sheets of clear plastic trash have been washed in the Buriganga River, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Noorjahan spreads them out to dry, turning them regularly— while also tending to her son, Momo. The plastic will eventually be sold to a recycler.

用布里甘加河水冲洗过透明塑料垃圾后，孟加拉达卡的Noorjahan把它们铺平晾晒，还要不停翻面，同时她还要照顾自己的儿子Momo。最后她会把这些塑料卖给回收商。

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Trucks full of plastic bottles pull into a recycling facility in Valenzuela, Philippines. The bottles were plucked from the streets of metropolitan Manila by waste pickers, who sell them to scrap dealers, who bring them here.

装满塑料瓶子的卡车不断驶入位于菲律宾瓦伦祖拉市的一家废品回收站。这些瓶子由拾荒者在马尼拉城市的街道上收集而来，再卖给废品回收商，废品回收商们把塑料瓶带到了这里。

塑料的一生

塑料诞生于19世纪末，人们对塑料的生产和使用从上世纪50年代开始爆发式增长。

1955年，美国《生活》（Life）杂志刊登的一张图片，一个美国家庭在庆祝“用完即弃的生活方式”（Throwaway Living）的到来。

《国家地理》用一张图告诉我们，从1950年到2015年，塑料的增幅有多么惊人：

A lifetime of plastic

塑料的一生

2015年，共有4.48亿吨塑料被生产

The first plastics made from fossil fuels are just over a century old.

人类用化石燃料制成第一个塑料不过是一个世纪前的事。

They came into widespread use after World War II and are found today in everything from cars to medical devices to food packaging.

二战后塑料开始被广泛运用到各领域，如今，从汽车到医疗设备再到食品包装，塑料的身影无处不在。

Their useful lifetime varies. Once disposed of, they break down

into smaller fragments that linger for centuries.

塑料的使用寿命各不相同，但一旦被丢弃，它们就分解为碎片，这些碎片几个世纪都不会降解。

研究称，从塑料被发明至今，人类共生产了92亿吨塑料，这相当于2.5万个帝国大厦的重量总和。

We have 9.2 billion tons of plastic to deal with. Of that, more than 6.9 billion tons have become waste. And of that waste, a staggering 6.3 billion tons never made it to a recycling bin — a figure that stunned the scientists who crunched the numbers in 2017.

目前有92亿吨塑料存在于地球上，其中超过69亿吨已经成为垃圾。而这些垃圾中，有巨大的63亿吨从未被回收处理——科学家在2017年算出这一数据时，都震惊了。

全世界在行动

亡羊补牢，犹未迟也。近年来，全世界都已经开始重视起塑料垃圾问题。

一些国际大公司正在采取行动。

Coca-Cola announced a goal to “collect and recycle the equivalent of” 100 percent of its packaging by 2030.

可口可乐宣布将于2030年前实现百分百回收其包装。

It and other multinationals, including PepsiCo, Amcor, and Unilever, have pledged to convert to 100 percent reusable, recyclable, or compostable packaging by 2025.

该公司和其他一些跨国公司，如百事、包装公司Amcor、联合利华等，承诺到2025年前转为使用100%可重复利用、可回收或可分解的包装。

许多有志之士也贡献出个人力量，为改变地球生态做努力。

英国单人游艇环球女航海家Ellen MacArthur创建了一个基金，推广“循环经济”（circular economy）。在她设想的这种经济中，包括塑料在内的所有材料都设计为可重复使用或可回收的，而不是用完即被丢弃。

Ellen MacArthur

荷兰23岁的少年Boyan Slat和他的小伙伴们誓言将清理北太平洋最大的海上垃圾场。

Boyan Slat

他成立了工作室，筹集了3000万美元，正在研发建造一个清理海洋垃圾的机器。

《国家地理》杂志也从自身做起，承诺从6月这期开始，发行时取消塑料包装，改用纸质包装。

你打算做些什么呢？或许你会问：自己小小的努力真的会有帮助么？

《国家地理》早已准备好了答案：

Every change, no matter how futile it may seem, helps at some level.

每一个改变，无论它看起来多么徒劳，也会在某种程度上有所帮助。

答应双语君，一起减少塑料的使用吧，即使是微小的努力，积累起来，也会形成巨大的进步。

Will you take the pledge?

你愿意作出承诺吗？