我們每天都在做的10件破壞地球的事情(下)

g Antibacterial Soap

5.使用抗菌肥皂

There's been a lot of debate about just how effective antibacterial soaps are and whether or not they should even be marketed, but using them has been proven to have an impact on the environment.

關於抗菌肥皂是多麼有效及它們是否應該被買賣的爭論很多，但是使用它們已經被證實是對環境有影響的。

Johns Hopkins University Center for Water and Health has done a study on just what happens to all the antibacterial chemicals in your antibacterial soaps after they swirl down the drain. The Most commonly used chemicals are triclocarban and triclosan, and while most of those chemicals are removed from wastewater when they're run through a treatment plant, they have to go somewhere. That somewhere is sewage sludge, which is then recycled for agricultural use. From there, those chemicals are transferred into the ground and ultimately into surface water. When triclocarban degrades, it degrades into two chemicals—both carcinogens. When triclosan is run through a treatment plant to make drinking water, it doesn't exactly make safe drinking water. Instead, it makes other chemicals that can include chloroform. And those chemicals travel through the food chain in plants, animals, and ultimately humans. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found traces of the chemicals originating with antibacterial soap in 75 percent of urine samples tested, all taken from people over five years old. Triclosan has been shown to interfere with the basic biological systems of a number of animals, including rats and a range of amphibians. It interferes with thyroid function, and when it builds up in the body, it causes early puberty in young animals, infertility, obesity, and cancer. Triclosan collects in the body's fatty tissues, and since animals—and humans—are higher up on the food chain, that means we're consuming all the trace amounts found in lower animals and getting a massive dose of the stuff.

約翰霍普斯金大學水與健康中心做了一項調研，是關於抗菌肥皂沫漩渦般流進下水道之後，它的抗菌化學物質所發生的變化。抗菌香皂含有的最普遍的化學物質是三氯二苯脲和二氯苯氧氯酚，當廢水經過污水淨化廠處理後，大多數的化學物質都會被分離出來，然後與下水道沉澱下來的爛泥融合，之後這些污泥又會被農業循環利用。自此，那些化學物質又被轉移回了地面並最終進入地表水。當三氯二苯脲分解時，會分解成兩種化學物質——兩種都是致癌物質；當二氯苯氧氯酚經污水淨化廠處理以產生飲用水時，它製出的並不全是安全的飲用水，相反，它會製造出包含三氯甲烷在內的其他化學物。而那些化學物遊走於食物鏈中，經由植物，動物，最終進入人類體內。美國疾病控制和預防中心對五歲以上人口的尿樣進行測試後發現，75%的人口尿樣中含有抗菌肥皂所產生的化學物痕跡。二氯苯氧氯酚被證實幹擾了包含老鼠和大量兩棲動物在內的基礎生物系統。它使生物體內的甲狀腺功能紊亂，並且隨着在體內的積累，其會導致幼小動物青春期提早，不孕不育、肥胖和癌症。二氯苯氧氯酚集聚在體內脂肪組織不易分解，並且由於動物及人類高高立於食物鏈之上，那就意味着我們正在消耗吸收低等動物體內積累起來的全部二氯苯氧氯酚，最終我們體內便會存儲大量的此種化學物，並遭受其帶給我們的傷害。

ing The Family Cat

4.飼養貓咪

If you have an indoor cat, you probably go through a lot of cat litter. It's a pretty new invention, only around since 1947 when a Michigan woman asked Edward Lowe if he knew of an alternative to the sand or ash that she had been using. Lowe, who worked in the industrial absorbents business, gave her some clay—and the rest is history.

如果你養了一隻貓，那麼你一定用了很多貓砂。貓砂是一個很棒的發明，其起源可以追溯到1947年，當時一位密歇根州婦女向愛德華·勞詢問是否知道某種沙子或者灰可以用來清潔貓的糞便。勞當時在一家生產吸收劑的工廠工作，於是給了她一些粘土，之後的事便衆所周知了。

There is, of course, a big problem with that history. For decades, at least 75 percent of the different brands of cat litter available were made from bentonite clay. The clay is what gives the litter its scoopable quality. Considering America alone uses about 2 million tons of cat litter every year, that's a lot of clay the industry needs. So how do we get it? Strip mining. Lots and lots of strip mining. While that's bad no matter the angle, some people have had it incredibly bad. In 1989, Canada's Mineral Tenure Act was amended to include one of the key ingredients in cat litter—diatomaceous earth. That meant that suddenly, companies had the right of free entry onto people's land without a time limit to look for valuable minerals. Landowners in Canada have found their property strip mined for cat litter. Technically, landowners need to be compensated, but that process can take years. The Bepple family was one such victim, finding a plot of land they once used for grazing livestock and farming trees suddenly being strip mined for cat litter. There are tons of alternatives to clay litter on the market, from recycled paper litter to wood and plant-based litters. Those options aren't always widely available, though. In many cases, they can be incredibly costly.

當然，後來這引起了一個很大的問題。幾十年來，至少有75%不同品牌的貓砂都由膨潤土所制。這種粘土可以使貓砂和糞便凝結。試想一下，目前僅美國每年就要使用200萬噸的貓砂，那麼生產貓砂的工廠每年會需要多少粘土？那麼我們是怎麼得到這些粘土的呢？通過露天開採，非常頻繁的露天開採。無論從哪個角度來看露天開採對於環境的傷害都是巨大的，但還是有人樂此不疲地開採粘土。1989年，加拿大的礦產法案修訂就包含了對硅藻土（貓砂的關鍵製作原料之一）的開採。這就意味着，公司有權利無時間限制地進入人們的土地上尋找需求的礦產。加拿大的地主們在其擁有的土地上發現了很多貓砂的材料礦產資源。從技術上來看，這些地主們應該得到補償，但是這個過程可能會花費很多年。Bepple家族便是這樣的受害者之一，他們本來是找到了一塊土地用於放牧和種植樹木，但是卻突然被別人開採做貓砂了。現在，市場上已經有很多材料可以替代粘土，從再生紙到木材和植物，應有盡有。但是這些材料並沒有得到普及。並且在很多情況下，這些材料都非常昂貴。

ng Farm-Raised Fish

3.吃養殖魚

If there's anything that seems like it's an eco-friendly dinner choice, it's farm-raised fish. You're not removing fish from the open ocean, you're not putting other animals in danger, and you're not even adding to emissions given off from fishing boats. But farm-raised fish come with their own set of problems, and they're definitely not the eco-friendly choice you'd think.

在日常生活中，如果有什麼看似是環保的選擇的話，那麼食用養殖魚就是其中一種。如果你食用養殖魚，就不用去公海區捕魚，也不會讓其他動物處於危險中，甚至你也不需要使用漁船，這樣就不會產生漁船排放的污染物。但是養殖魚也會存在一些自身問題，事實證明這根本不是一種環保的做法。

Shrimp aquaculture has resulted in the large-scale degradation of coastal areas, the destruction of wetlands, and salinization of freshwater areas and drinking water. Salmon farming relies on the release of fish food and nutrients into the water, which always results in wasted feed and a huge amount of fish droppings in the water. That's normally not a problem, but when a lot of fish are farmed in a small area, it's too much for the ecosystem to handle naturally. Extra waste products end up sinking to the bottom where they react with the medicines and other nutrients used to keep the fish healthy along with antifoulant agents used to keep nets clean. That means fish farms are a breeding ground for sea lice, which are as disgusting as they sound. More chemicals are used to control the sea lice, which end up killing the other marine life that was supposed to be in the area in the first place. There's also the very, very good chance that nonnative species of farmed fish are going to escape. That's introducing an invasive species to an ecosystem not prepared to handle it, and that means a whole other set of problems. Like many other environmental problems, there's absolutely no easy answer. Environmental agencies are now looking for ways to improve husbandry practices worldwide.

魚蝦養殖會導致沿海地區大規模退化、溼地遭到破壞以及淡水和飲用水鹽鹼化。養殖鮭魚的話需要在水中投放魚食和營養，這樣就會導致飼料的浪費及大量的魚屎堆積。這看似並不是多大的問題，但是當很多的魚被養殖在一個很小的區域時，生態系統的自我調節能力便會超過限度，最終導致生態失衡。額外的廢棄物最終沉入水底堆積起來，養殖人員還會使用藥品和其他營養物質來保障魚蝦的健康，甚至會使用一些去污劑來保持漁網的整潔，而水底的廢棄物又會和這些藥品、營養物質以及去污劑發生化學反應。這就意味着養殖場也成爲了海蝨的滋生地，聽起來就非常的令人噁心。而人們也會使用越來越多的化學物質來控制海蝨的生長，最終還可能殺死原本應該存活在這一區域的其他水生生物。當然目前還有一種很好的機會去引進外來物種的養殖魚。然而當生態系統還沒有準備好如何調節的時候，這就意味着又會帶來一系列新的問題。類似於很多其他生態問題，這一問題也很難得到解決。目前環境保護機構正在全球範圍內尋找方法來改善這種問題。

ng Soy

2.吃大豆

Turning to soy products has long been heralded as the healthier, more eco-friendly, and certainly more cow-friendly alternative to dairy products. Unfortunately, recent studies have shown that the environmental impact of soybean production is pretty devastating, too.

與乳製品相比，豆製品長期被視爲更加健康，更加環保以及更佳的畜牧業友好型產品。不幸的是，近期的研究表明豆製品對環境的影響同樣是毀滅性的。

Soybeans aren't just used in products like milk substitutes. They're also being used for non-consumables like soap and candles. And we're not the only ones eating soy, either; about 80 percent of the world's soy production goes into livestock feed. There's a huge demand for soy. As it grows in popularity, more space is needed to grow the beans. Since 2008, deforestation in Brazil has been on a steady decrease, a direct result of a ban implemented in order to counteract deforestation. The need for the ban comes on the heels of Greenpeace's numbers, which indicated that about 1.2 million hectares of soy was planted in Brazil's rain forest in 2005 alone. In addition to the usual impacts of things like pesticides and water use, there's a huge human rights issue that's grown up around the development of soy, too. The Brazilian government keeps a list of farms that have been caught using slave labor, and soy farms throughout the Amazon basin have been found guilty of luring people there with work, then seizing their documents and forcing them into slavery. There's also the rather shady practice of land-grabbing, leading to countless families being kicked off land that's deemed more valuable for farming than for living.

大豆不僅僅作爲牛奶的替代品供食用。他們也同樣地像肥皂和蠟燭那樣作爲非消耗品在使用。而且，不僅僅我們人類食用大豆，世界上百分之八十的豆類製品成爲了家畜的食物。隨着人口的增長，對大豆的需求也隨之增加，更多的空間需要用於種植大豆。從2008年開始，巴西頒佈並實施法令以防止濫砍濫伐，自此亂砍濫伐的現象已逐漸得到控制。此禁令頒佈前不久，綠色和平組織的一份數據顯示，在僅2005年這一年中，便有大約120萬公頃的巴西熱帶雨林被開伐用於種植大豆。隨着大豆種植的發展，除了諸如殺蟲劑以及水的使用等對環境的影響，還有大量的人權問題隨之誕生。巴西政府掌控着大量的農田，而這些農田採取的是奴隸耕作方式。遍及亞馬遜盆地上的大豆種植田農田主已被查明罪行累累：首先誘拐人民到這裏工作，然後扣押下他們的證件，最後迫使他們淪爲奴隸。這還有更爲陰暗的是土地的掠奪導致無數的家庭被迫離開他們的土地。這讓人覺得農田的種植比人民的生活更爲重要，更有價值。

Finishing Your Dinner

1.剩飯剩菜

Most of us grew up hearing that we'd better clean our plates, but it's a bigger problem than our parents probably ever realized. Every year, global food waste amounts to about 1.3 billion tons, and that's such a big number that it's impossible to imagine. It's costing us about $750 billion annually, and the environmental waste is just as staggering.

我們中的大多數人在成長的過程中都會聽到父母的諄諄教導：誰知盤中餐，粒粒皆辛苦。但是也許連我們的父母都沒法意識到浪費糧食這一問題的嚴重性：每年全球食物的浪費數量高達13億噸，這是一個難以想象的大數字。我們每年都要爲此花費掉7500億美元，而環境廢物排放量依舊是驚人的。

Three times the annual flow of the Volga River is wasted on producing food that gets thrown away, yielding 3.3 billion tons of greenhouse gases. About 28 percent of our agricultural land is used to produce waste food. Clearing more and more land is putting countless plants and animals at risk. Meanwhile, about 870 million people are starving. A lot of the waste comes at the processing levels, but consumer waste is also incredibly high. Fruits and vegetables are often thrown away for being misshapen, not necessarily spoiled. There's a lot of food that's thrown away at the best-by date regardless of whether the food has spoiled. Many consumers think that the sell-by date and the best-by dates are the same, but that's just not the case. While plans are in place for reducing waste like packaging food in smaller containers and offering lower prices for less-than-perfect foods, there's still a long, long way to go.

每年三倍於伏爾加河流量的水浪費在生產而又被丟棄的食物中，同時伴有33億噸的溫室氣體排放，大約有28%的農用土地被用於生產浪費掉的糧食，掠奪越來越多的土地正使得無數的動植物生存受到威脅。與此同時，大約有8.7億的人仍處於飢餓狀態。雖然生產階段會產生很多浪費，但是消費者的浪費也是難以置信的高。蔬菜水果經常由於其畸形而不是因爲變質而被丟棄。很多的食品在臨近有效食用期時被丟棄而不管它們到底是不是過期變質了。很多的消費者認爲保質期和有效食用期是一樣的，但是這不是一回事。雖然人們已形成了很多減少浪費的計劃，比方說把食物包裝在一個更加小的飯盒中以及以更低的價格來處理一些不是最佳食用期的食物，但是，真正做到杜絕浪費，我們仍舊還有一段很長的路要走。

審校：淺芷湄 編輯：Lion 來源：前十網