我們每天都在做的10件破壞地球的事情(上)

It's no secret that our planet is in a pretty dire condition. Extinction rates have been estimated to be about 1,000 times higher than they should be, and that's all due to human influence—and interference. With around 20,000 species at risk for extinction and countless others that we haven't even discovered yet also dying, scientists are rushing to figure out what we can do about it. Some have suggested the sixth great mass extinction is looming on the horizon, and the problem is a massive one. It's so big that there are things that you do every day that are helping to bring about the end of the world, and chances are that you might not even know it.

我們的地球正處於危在旦夕之境地，這已不是個祕密了。據估計，現代環境下的生物滅絕率，是其自然條件下滅絕率的1000倍之高，而這一切的始作俑者，正是人類的影響和干涉。目前，大約兩萬種生物瀕臨滅絕，其他無數尚未爲人類所發現的物種亦面臨滅絕，科學家們正夜以繼日地研究着我們可以做哪些事來補救。有人提出，第六次“物種大滅絕時代”已緩步逼近，而這一問題已十分嚴峻。事實上，問題在於，你每天都做會加速地球毀滅的事情，而很可能你對此毫無覺察。

g Disposable Chopsticks

10.使用一次性筷子

Chances are good that you don't even think about environmental impact when you pull a pair of wooden chopsticks out with your order of takeout, but those chopsticks are having a devastating impact on China's forests. China produces a whopping 80 billion disposable chopsticks every year. The vast majority are used—and thrown away—in China itself. A mind-blowing number, 80 billion is enough to blanket Beijing's Tiananmen Square in at least 360 layers of chopsticks.

當你從所訂的打包餐點中拿出一雙木製筷子的時候，你很有可能都不會想到它對環境所產生的影響，但是這些筷子的確會對中國的林木造成毀滅性的打擊。中國每年都會生產高達800億雙的一次性筷子，而其中的絕大多數都被使用並丟棄在了國內。一個令人瞠目結舌的數字是，800億雙筷子足以鋪滿北京天安門廣場至少360層。

That kind of production takes 20 million trees, and not just any trees. Twenty-year-old trees. The impact of that is exactly as bad as you'd think. China suffers from a major deforestation problem for no reason other than chopsticks. It's also not helped by the fact that demand for disposable wooden chopsticks is increasing dramatically, up from 57 billion in 2009. That's resulted in China ranking somewhere around 139th place when it comes to per capita forest coverage with less than a quarter of the world's average. The problem has gotten so bad that China is now imposing restrictions on the production of chopsticks, limiting quantities companies can produce and increasing the taxes imposed on purchases. They're also starting a big push to introduce the idea of carrying reusable chopsticks in a bid to aid in the recovery of the nation's forests. By 2020, they hope to add 40 million hectares of trees, but that can only happen if they can alleviate some of the stress placed on the environment by chopsticks.

這些筷子的製成需要2000萬棵至少20年樹齡的樹木。它的影響，正如你所想象的那樣惡劣。由於使用一次性筷子，中國正在苦苦承受着巨大的濫砍濫伐所致的土地荒漠化問題，並且由於人們對一次性木製筷子的需求從2009年的570億開始急遽增長，這一因素的惡劣影響如今有增無減。這導致了中國人均植被覆蓋面積還不足世界平均水平的四分之一，在排名榜上只位列139名前後。這一問題已經如此嚴峻，以致於中國政府目前正對筷子的生產量施加限制，控制能夠生產一次性筷子的公司數量和提高一次性筷子的購買賦稅。同時，他們也開始竭盡全力地鼓勵人們使用可重複利用的筷子，以拯救這個國家的林木危機。到2020年，他們希望能增加4000萬公頃的植被覆蓋。但是，除非能夠減輕一些木製筷子施予環境的沉重壓力，否則這一夙願便難以成真。

h Control Is Working On Fish, Too

9.計劃生育殃及魚類

Know anyone who's on the pill? They're also spreading pregnancy prevention to marine wildlife, and that's a problem.

你知道有誰在服用避孕藥嗎？他們也在將節育的影響擴大至海洋野生物，而這成了一個大問題。

In 2014, researchers at the University of New Brunswick released the results of a study that had been going on for several decades. They were looking at wastewater treatment and its impact on freshwater ecosystems, and they found that even trace amounts of estrogen in the environment can wipe out entire species. In 2001, a small amount of estrogen, one of the active ingredients in birth control pills and hormone therapy treatments, was introduced into a freshwater lake research facility in Ontario. The impact was almost immediate. Male fish first began producing egg proteins and then producing eggs. Even tiny trace amounts were enough to feminize the male fish, which led to a complete crash of the ecosystem. The insect populations normally kept in check by the fish suddenly skyrocketed. As the minnow population plummeted, so did the population of the lake trout that fed on them. It's not just happening in research facilities, either. Calgary's Red Deer and Oldman rivers have been hit by the same problem. The cause has been traced back to the release of improperly treated wastewater that contains hormones from hormone therapy drugs and birth control pills. Hormones that aren't absorbed or used end up in the sewer system after they cycle through the human body. In areas where that sewer water is dumped into lakes and rivers, the average fish population is about 85 percent female, a stark contrast to the normal 55 percent. Fish exposed to the hormones not only lose the ability to reproduce, but their accidental hormone treatment impacts eggs at the development stage as well.

在2014年，新不倫瑞克大學的研究人員公佈了一項已經進行了數十年的研究成果：他們觀察了廢水的處理過程和其對淡水生態系統的影響，並且發現，即使環境中微量的雌性激素都會摧毀整個海洋物種。雌性激素是避孕藥品和激素治療法的有效成分之一。2001年，研究人員引進了微量的雌激素於安大略湖的一家淡水湖研究基地內。其影響幾乎是立竿見影的。雄性魚類破天荒地開始分泌卵蛋白質，然後竟開始產卵。只需極其微小的量，就能促使雄性魚類雌性化，這對生態系統造成了巨大、猛烈的衝擊。由於魚類數目的暴漲，昆蟲的數量通常受到了很大抑制。而鰷魚數目的驟然減少，也使得以此爲食物的湖鱒魚同其厄運。這樣的情況並不只是發生在此研究基地內。卡爾加里的紅鹿河和老人河也遭遇了同樣的問題。其原因已被追溯到對含有激素治療藥物和避孕藥品中的殘留激素的廢水處理不當和大量排放。那些經過人體的新陳代謝而未被完全吸收和利用的激素物質會殘留於下水道管道內。在一些地區，污水被傾倒而最終匯入了湖泊與河流，這些地區雌性魚類的平均比例達到了大約85％，與正常水平的55％形成了鮮明的對比。那些暴露在激素物質中的魚類不僅會喪失繁殖能力，而且它們所意外遭受的“激素療法”也會影響孵化階段魚卵的發育與生長。

s On Prozac

8.服用百憂解危及鳥類

Record numbers of people are taking antidepressant drugs like Prozac. While many of them might be concerned primarily about feeling different, they should also be concerned about what they're doing to the environment.

據統計，現在許多人都在服用像百憂解這樣的抗抑鬱藥物。可能他們主要關心的只是藥物能夠帶給他們不一樣的感覺，卻極少有人去考慮這樣做對環境的傷害。

According to a study from the University of York, the amount of antidepressants (specifically Prozac) that are found in the environment can be potentially devastating to birds. They started by measuring the amount of Prozac that made its way into the earthworms that were feeding on sewage and wastewater. The dose was small, only about 3 to 5 percent of an average human dose. They then fed the Prozac-laced worms to a group of 24 starlings and recorded their behavior for the next six months. The birds began to show the same side effects to the drug that are reported in humans. They lost interest in food and stopped eating. They also lost interest in starlings of the opposite sex. The two main side effects have dual impacts; their loss of interest in food makes them weaker and less likely to make it through winter months, and their loss of libido has the potential to severely impact breeding numbers. The birds didn't seem to have any of the good effects of Prozac. Their general mood and disposition remained the same. Just how widespread an impact this could have on the world's bird populations isn't known, but it's thought that it might have something to do with the decline in the starling population over the last few decades—to the tune of about 50 million birds.

英國約克大學的一項研究表明：環境中殘留的抗抑鬱藥物（尤其是百憂解）對鳥類潛在着一種致命性威脅。百憂解殘留藥物隨着下水道進入污水和污物中，污水經蚯蚓食用後，抗抑鬱藥物又殘留在它們體內。首先他們測量了蚯蚓體內的藥物劑量，研究結果發現其只佔人均服用量的3-5%；然後，他們用這些體內含有殘留藥物的蚯蚓餵食了24只椋鳥並記錄了這羣鳥在之後六個月的行爲表現。藥物對人類產生的副作用對於鳥類同樣適用：它們開始對食物和異性喪失興趣並不再吃食以及求偶。這兩種主要副作用又進而產生了雙重危害：食慾下降使它們身體越來越弱，以致很難熬過寒冬；性慾下降又強烈衝擊着其繁殖能力，以致鳥類數量大幅減少。百憂解並沒有讓鳥類情緒更興奮，反而對其有百害而無一利。抗抑鬱藥物對世界上鳥類的影響有多麼廣泛，我們不得而知，但最近幾十年中大約有共計五千萬椋鳥數量的下降很可能和人類服用抗抑鬱藥物有關。

g Straws

7.使用吸管

Chances are good that if you get a cold drink at any restaurant, you'll be handed a straw, too. We curse the people working the drive-through when we're halfway down the block and realize we don't have one, but straws are having a pretty devastating impact on our planet.

無論在哪家餐廳，如果你買一杯冷飲，很可能就要用上一根吸管。當我們買冷飲後，走到半路才發現餐廳工作人員忘了給吸管，在默默咒罵他們的疏忽的同時，不要忘了，吸管對地球有着極其毀滅性的影響。

Every day, the United States alone uses about 500 million drinking straws. For a visual, that means we could fill 46,400 school buses with straws every year. In the last 25 years, about six million of those have been picked up on beaches across the country during annual cleanups. Those are just part of the sum that ends up on the beach, and according to the Ocean Conservancy, drinking straws rank in the top 10 types of trash found floating in the ocean. Straws are light, easily picked up by wind and water currents, and made from a polypropylene plastic that doesn't disintegrate or dissolve. These millions of straws are around forever, making up a huge part of the estimated 12 to 24 tons of plastic that ends up ingested by fish and other marine wildlife every year. And that includes about one million seabirds that die after eating plastics. One of the most common items found in autopsies? The drinking straws that come attached to juice boxes.

單單美國一個國家平均每天就會用掉大約5億支吸管，這些吸管每年都能填滿整整四萬六千四百輛校車了！在過去的25年中，美國每年都可以在海灘上清掃出大約600萬支吸管，而這還不包括除海灘外的其他地方。海洋保護協會表示，吸管已經成爲十大海洋漂浮垃圾之一。吸管由不易分解或溶解的聚丙烯塑料製成，重量輕致使其極易隨風飄走，或是被水流捲去。這樣，成千上萬的吸管就永遠留在了地球上，預計每年大約有12到24噸的塑料最終被魚類和其他海洋生物所攝取。其中，每年大約有一百萬只海鳥就是死於食用塑料。屍檢發現，這種附帶在果汁盒子裏的吸管便是罪魁禍首。

ng Frog

6.吃青蛙

Far from exclusively a fancy French entree, frog is such a popular food that it has become a huge global industry. Bullfrogs are typically raised on farms in South America. They are then either used there for food or shipped overseas. Japan and the United States are two of the biggest consumers of frogs, with more than five million imported into the US alone each year. That's proving fatal for countless amphibians—and not just those being eaten.

青蛙遠不止是法國特有的一道菜，其以獨特的風味廣受人們喜愛，養殖青蛙已成爲一項巨大的全球性產業。南美農場裏的特色養殖產業就是牛蛙。然後它們會被當地用作食物或是被船隻運往海外。日本和美國是最大的兩個牛蛙消費國，每年單是出口到美國的牛蛙就有五百多萬只。這對於不計其數的兩棲動物——不僅僅是那些被食用的——來說是致命的。

Many of the bullfrogs shipped out of South America are infected with chytrid fungus. The fungus is completely harmless to humans. The North American bullfrog is highly resistant to it, making them the ideal carrier for the fungal disease that can infect toads, salamanders, and other types of frogs. The fungus that's being spread by the live food trade is different than one that's being blamed for most of the recent die-offs. It's thought that the strain is not only being spread, but that it's being hybridized into a new, extremely virulent strain. There are a few different strains of the fungus, and researchers from the University of Michigan have been able to track which frogs are carrying which strains into which countries. They've also been able to trace which strains of the fungus can reproduce with other strains, leading to more and more different varieties of deadly fungus. The consequences of the fungus and its ability to hybridize create the potential to unleash an epidemic across the globe.

許多被海運出南美的牛蛙都感染了壺菌黴菌。這種黴菌對人類是完全無害的。北美的牛蛙對這種黴菌有極高的抵抗力，這使它們成爲這種黴菌疾病的理想攜帶者。蟾蜍、火蜥蜴和其他種類的青蛙卻難逃被感染的厄運。這種寄居在活着的生物體內並利用其貿易運輸而傳播的黴菌不同於以往引起大部分物種死亡的黴菌類型。據認爲，這種菌株不僅僅被傳播，還會混合變異成一種新型的，極具毒性的菌株。黴菌菌株分爲一些不同的種類，來自密歇根大學的調查者們已能追蹤到哪種青蛙攜帶着哪種菌株去了哪些國家。他們也已能夠查探到哪種黴菌菌株可以和其它菌株雜交併再生出越來越多不同種類的致死菌株。這些黴菌及它們的雜交性能很有可能引起一場全球性的流行性傳染病。

審校：淺芷湄 編輯：Lion 來源：前十網