科學怪魚與塑膠人 Frankenfish and Plastic People|貝塔語測
科學怪魚與塑膠人 Frankenfish and Plastic People

Facebook  Facebook  


Frankenfish and Plastic People

Every day humans create about a million tons of plastic. Every year about eight million tons of the stuff finds its way into the ocean, where it just kind of floats around until it washes ashore or something comes along and eats it. In fact, about 25% of fish sampled in one study were found to contain “human-made debris.” Eating these Frankenfish is one way of removing plastic from the ocean, but engineers and environmentalists have come up with more palatable alternatives.

The 21-year-old inventor Boyan Slat is a representative of one approach. His group is developing a high-tech system of autonomous floating collectors to physically remove plastic from the ocean. Critics have noted the formidable technical hurdles that must be overcome for this scheme to succeed, but more concerning are the social effects that such technological solutionism can have. If we believe that some young genius like Slat will come along with a quick technical fix for our environmental problems, we have little incentive to change our profligate behavior.


Translation

科學怪魚與塑膠人

每天人類製造大約一百萬公噸的塑膠。每年大約有八百萬公噸的塑膠類物品會跑到海洋裡,這些東西不是在海上漂流直到被沖上岸就是遇到某些生物然後被吃掉。事實上,在一項研究中所取樣的魚類當中就有百分之二十五體內含有『人造的殘骸』。把這些科學怪魚吃掉是消除海洋中的塑膠的一個辦法,但是工程師和環保人士們相出了一些較為可口的替代方案。  

二十一歲的發明家波洋斯勒特就代表了其中一個方式。他的小組正在研發一套具有自動漂浮收集機的高科技系統,這套系統可以直接移除海上的塑膠物。批評者已提到這個計劃若要成功所必須克服的高難度技術障礙,但是更令人憂心的是這種技術解決方案主義所可能引發的社會效應。如果我們相信會有像斯勒特這樣的青年英才出現並帶來快速解決我們環境問題的科技方法的話,那我們就不會有足夠的動機來改變我們肆意揮霍的行為。  

Boyan Slat. Image Credit: The Ocean Cleanup { Abridged Version}


Word Bank 

1.    ashore [əˋʃor] 【副】向岸;上岸;在岸上

2.    debris [dəˋbri] 【名】殘骸

3.    palatable [ˋpælətəb!] 【形】美味的

4.    alternative [ɔlˋtɝnətɪv] 【名】選擇;二擇一

5.    autonomous  [ɔˋtɑnəməs] 【形】自治的;自治權的;自主的

6.    formidable [ˋfɔrmɪdəb!] 【形】難以克服的;難對付的

7.    hurdle [ˋhɝd!] 【名】障礙;困難

8.    scheme [skim] 【名】計畫;方案

9.    solutionism [səˋluʃənɪzṃ] 【名】解決方案主義

10.  incentive [ɪnˋsɛntɪv] 【名】刺激;鼓勵;動機

11.  profligate [ˋprɑfləgɪt]【形】肆意揮霍的

.

你可能會有興趣

《聽讀完勝多益字彙
聽讀不死背,效率更加倍?! 螺旋式字彙表,打造單字聽讀能力

【高點登峰多益線上評測
英語力即評即測,立即下載享優惠☆彡