Scientific English

Scientific Translation
Oceans pollution

POLLUTION - These plastics are thrown into the sea

The product of human activity, plastic is the essential material of our everyday life.
We produce 100 million tonnes every year. This profusion becomes a real problem.

In 1492, Christopher Columbus discovered America. Five hundred years later,

Captain Charles Moore finds himself by chance in the middle of a new continent
floating in the Pacific Ocean. “Land” on which it is impossible to land and walk. But
who would want it? Because it is indeed a gigantic accumulation of plastic waste!

In 2007, a new expedition confirms the discovery: located 1,000 kilometres from
San Francisco, on an area nearly six times that of France, this litter pile consists of
about 750,000 pieces of plastic per square kilometre. Called «Great Pacific Waste
Plate», this area concentrates billions of debris of all sizes on a thickness of 10 to 30
meters: a very unappetizing soup!

All the contaminated oceans?

For 50 years, this plastic waste has been fragmented by the waves, then trapped by
the sea currents, before accumulating in this region under the effect of what is called
the «North Pacific Whirlpool». The five oceans of the planet have such vortex zones.
And the bad surprises follow: in February 2010, the Sea Education Association
reveals the existence of a similar waste plate in the Atlantic Ocean. Covering a
surface equivalent to France and England together, it is about ten metres thick.

In July 2010, the MED expedition (Mediterranean in danger) carried out a series of
samples in the upper layer of the Mediterranean Sea. The first estimates are confirmed
by the IFREMER: the first fifteen centimetres of this sea would contain hundreds,
even thousands of tons of plastic. Visible on the surface, this pollution is also a
“bottom” problem.
 An impact on life

Last discovered in January 2011, the foundation of Charles Moore (Algalita)

collects tens of thousands of pieces of plastic per square kilometer in the Antarctic
Ocean! As the first link in the marine food chain, plankton feed the smallest
organisms, which in turn will be eaten by the largest. These can eventually end up on
our plates. But according to the Algalita Foundation, on average there is six times
more plastic than plankton on these «new continents»! For the animal world, it’s hard
to tell the difference. So it is estimated that at least one third of the fish in its waters
swallow massively plastic particles, not to mention the tens of thousands of seabirds
that die every year, the stomach filled with these indigestible materials.

With this appalling record, the only option to clean up the oceans seems
impractical. Nevertheless, since 2009, the American project Kaisei brings together
teams of scientists, sailors and ocean enthusiasts around a common goal: to find a way
to recover floating plastics and ensure their recycling. It could even be a fuel source...
Hopefully it’s not yet a new (plastic) bottle thrown to the sea.

Scientific team of Vulcania, La Montagne Centre France, Magdimanche, 27/11/11

__________________________

The world is committed to the planet

With the increase in pollution in the world, it becomes essential to protect the
environment in our everyday lives. Indeed, the consequences of pollution are
multiple: toxic products contaminating the land and water, health problems, natural
disasters, etc. To limit these risks, less polluting alternatives have been created and
facilitate our “ecolo” everyday life. Let’s see together the possibilities that already
exist!

In recent years, we have seen many environmental actions take place. Among them
is the invention of Boyanslat, a Dutch student. The young man invented a robot
capable of cleaning the oceans. Robot technology would clean half of the oceans in
ten years! If this ambitious idea works, plastic will disappear from the seas and the
maritime ecosystem will be preserved.

In France, associations are also fighting to protect nature. In 2017, the first «house
of zero waste» was installed in the eighteenth arrondissement of Paris, just at the foot
of the Sacred Heart. This space sells reusable items such as glass bottles to replace the
usual plastic bottles.

There are also information workshops on recycling and ecological consumption. In

the long term, the goal of the “house” is for people to pay more attention to their
waste: try to reduce it, sort it… and why not also try to avoid them by buying products
with less packaging!

Taking action to protect the environment is easy! Everyone can do it! Indeed,
simple habits can already have positive consequences for the planet. For example, we
see that more and more motorists decide to carpool, that is, they share their car with
another person. Thus, they also save money! In the big cities, we notice that people
travel more frequently thanks to public transport: bus, metro, train...

To conclude, many small gestures can help to become “ecolo”: turn off the light
when leaving a room, drink tap water instead of bottled water, sort your waste… Just
think about it!

Source: P. Tauziat, EIF-FEL Network.