Beat Plastic Pollution

Japan said on Tuesday that it had decided to    1    (gradual) release tons of treated wastewater from the ruined Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant (福岛第一核电站) into the ocean,    2     (describe) it as the best solution to dealing with the leftovers (残留物) from the Fukushima nuclear accident, one of the    3    (serious) in the world.

The    4    (decide) ends years of debate over how to deal with the water,    5    is enough to fill more than 500 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

“The Japanese government ignores concerns and strong opposition both at home and abroad. Such an    6    (responsilble)act not only directly harms the interests of the people in Japan’s neighbouring countries, but    7    threatens the global marine environment and international public health security,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said.

Greenpeace(绿色和平组织)criticized Japan’s plan and said there are other solutions that should    8    (censider). “    9    than using the best available technology to store and process the water    10    the long term, they have chosen the cheapest solution, damping the water into the Pactfie Ocean.”

3 . Rising sea levels and the potential impacts to huge coastal populations worldwide rank near the top of concerns when it comes to outcome from an intensifying climate emergency. But a lesser-known danger poses an equal or arguably more upcoming threat to millions around the world living at much higher altitudes: flooding from glacial lakes.

With average temperatures rising around the world in recent decades, a number of these lakes high above population centers in South America and Asia have become swollen and unstable as the reserves of snow and ice that feed them melt ever quicker.

For the first time, an international team of researchers has quantified this threat. It reports in a study published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications that 1.5 million people are in the path of potential floods from these bloated bodies of water.

“Understanding which areas face the greatest danger from glacial flooding will allow for more targeted and effective risk management actions, which in turn will help minimize loss of life and damage to infrastructure downstream,” co-author Rachel Carr, head of physical geography at Newcastle University, said in a statement.

A 1941 GLOF from Lake Palcacocha there killed thousands in the town of Huaraz below and largely inspired the beginning of research into the phenomenon. Dams and other infrastructure were put in place to ease off the threat from the lake in the 1970s, but its volume is now over 30 times greater, requiring new modifications to safely release water pressure. Other dangerous lakes nearby threaten smaller towns, where almost no mitigations (缓解方法) are in place to reduce the threat.

Lead researcher Caroline Taylor from Newcastle says the researchers also found that understanding the danger requires more than just counting lakes and measuring their volume. “Instead, it is the number of people, their closeness to a glacial lake and importantly, their ability to cope with a flood that determines the potential danger from a glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF) event.”

7 . The following is a QUIZ(自测) from a magazine.

10 . Microplastics are tiny bits or threads of plastic, often too small to be seen. In recent years, microplastics have been found almost everywhere, from the North pole to Antarctica, from the top of Mount Qomolangma to the deepest point in the sea.

In a recent study led by a group called Ocean Wise, researchers made four trips across the Arctic Ocean. They took 71 samples from between 10 and 26 feet below the ocean’s surface, and 26 more samples from more than 0.6 miles below. They found microplastics in all but one, with an average of about 40 microplastic particles in every cubic meter. To identify the particles they found, the scientists used a tool based on infrared (红外的) light. Over 92% of the microplastics found were small threads, called microfibers. About 73% of these fibers were made of a plastic known as polyester(聚酯), which exactly matched polyester used in clothing.

The study also found far more microfibers near the Atlantic side of the Arctic Ocean than near the Pacific side. The fibers on the Atlantic side were also newer. The team believes this suggests that the fibers come from Europe and North America. Peter Ross, who led the research, said, “With these polyester fibers, we’ve created a cloud throughout the world’s oceans.”

Most samples were taken from an ocean layer where lots of sea life finds food. The scientists believe this means that many kinds of sea life, from the smallest to the largest, are likely to be affected by the pollution.

So how do these microfibers get into the sea? They break off when clothes are washed and emptied by washing machines into underground pipes. One recent study suggested that laundry from the US and Canada carries around 7,716,000 pounds of plastic microfibers into the sea every year.