第一章 环境危机与青少年责任:全球可持续发展背景下的环保行动 | Chapter 1 Environmental Crisis and Teenagers' Responsibility: Environmental Action under the Background of Global Sustainable Development
2023年夏季,北半球多地遭遇有气象记录以来最极端的高温天气:中国重庆的嘉陵江部分河段露出江底,欧洲葡萄牙的森林火灾过火面积相当于3个纽约市,印度新德里的气温连续多日突破45℃。对于2005年后出生的Z世代青少年而言,这类极端天气早已不是新闻联播里的遥远事件——你或许经历过40℃高温下体育课被迫取消的无奈,或许在短视频平台刷到过北极海冰面积较1980年缩减40%的科普视频,或许在周末逛超市时发现越来越多商品开始标注“可降解”“零塑”标签。这些碎片化的信息背后,是一场正在全球范围内加速蔓延的环境危机,而你们,正是这场危机中受影响最深远、也最有潜力成为系统性改变者的群体。
In the summer of 2023, many regions in the Northern Hemisphere experienced the most extreme high temperatures since meteorological records began: part of the Jialing River in Chongqing, China was exposed to the riverbed, the area of forest fires in Portugal, Europe was equivalent to 3 New York cities, and the temperature in New Delhi, India exceeded 45°C for many consecutive days. For Generation Z teenagers born after 2005, such extreme weather is no longer a distant event on the news: you may have experienced the helplessness of having PE classes cancelled in 40°C high temperatures, may have watched popular science videos on short video platforms that Arctic sea ice area has shrunk by 40% compared with 1980, and may have found that more and more products are marked with "degradable" and "plastic-free" labels when you go to the supermarket on weekends. Behind these fragmented messages is an environmental crisis that is accelerating globally, and you are the group that is most deeply affected by the crisis and have the most potential to become systematic changemakers.
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1.1 全球核心环境危机的现状与深层成因 | Current Situation and Deep-rooted Causes of Core Global Environmental Crises
当前全球面临的环境危机并非孤立存在,而是通过物质循环、能量流动相互关联的复合型危机,其中塑料污染、气候变化、生物多样性丧失是三大核心矛盾,其影响已经渗透到自然生态系统的每一个环节,以及人类社会的生产生活全链条。
The current global environmental crisis does not exist in isolation, but is a compound crisis interconnected through material cycles and energy flows. Among them, plastic pollution, climate change, and biodiversity loss are the three core contradictions, whose impacts have penetrated into every link of the natural ecosystem and the entire production and life chain of human society.
1.1.1 塑料污染:从海洋到人体的隐形入侵 | Plastic Pollution: Invisible Invasion from the Ocean to the Human Body
塑料污染是当前增长速度最快、渗透范围最广的环境问题之一。根据联合国环境规划署(United Nations Environment Programme, UNEP)2023年发布的《全球塑料展望》报告,全球每年塑料总产量已超过4.3亿吨,其中36%为一次性塑料制品;在所有被丢弃的塑料中,仅有9%被有效回收利用,12%被焚烧处理,剩余79%最终进入填埋场或自然生态系统,每年至少有1100万吨塑料垃圾流入海洋。
Plastic pollution is one of the fastest-growing and most pervasive environmental problems today. According to the Global Plastics Outlook released by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in 2023, the total global annual plastic production has exceeded 430 million tons, of which 36% are disposable plastic products; among all discarded plastics, only 9% are effectively recycled, 12% are incinerated, and the remaining 79% eventually enter landfills or natural ecosystems, with at least 11 million tons of plastic waste flowing into the ocean every year.
流入海洋的塑料会在洋流作用下聚集形成“垃圾带”(Garbage Patch),目前全球海洋中已确认的5个大型垃圾带中,位于太平洋的“大太平洋垃圾带”(Great Pacific Garbage Patch)面积已达160万平方公里,相当于3个法国或4个日本的国土面积。更值得警惕的是,塑料在自然环境中不会真正“消失”,而是会在紫外线、海浪作用下分解为直径小于5毫米的微塑料(Microplastics),并随着海水、大气、食物链进入所有生物的体内。2022年荷兰科学家发表在《环境科学与技术快报》的研究首次证实,微塑料已经出现在人类血液、肺部组织甚至胎盘中,一名普通人每周平均会摄入约5克微塑料,重量相当于一张信用卡。
Plastic waste flowing into the ocean will gather to form "garbage patches" under the action of ocean currents. Among the five large garbage patches confirmed in the global ocean, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in the Pacific Ocean has an area of 1.6 million square kilometers, equivalent to the land area of 3 France or 4 Japan. What is more worrying is that plastic will not truly "disappear" in the natural environment, but will decompose into microplastics with a diameter of less than 5 mm under the action of ultraviolet rays and waves, and enter the bodies of all organisms with seawater, atmosphere and food chain. A study published by Dutch scientists in *Environmental Science & Technology Letters* in 2022 confirmed for the first time that microplastics have appeared in human blood, lung tissue and even placenta, and an average person ingests about 5 grams of microplastics every week, which is equivalent to the weight of a credit card.
> 【电子版侧边栏提示 | Digital Edition Sidebar Tip】 > 小知识:你每天使用的塑料文具、外卖餐盒、奶茶杯,平均需要200-400年才能完全降解,而你的寿命只有不到100年,你丢弃的塑料很可能会被你的后代甚至更远的后代看到。 > Fun fact: The plastic stationery, takeout lunch boxes and milk tea cups you use every day take 200-400 years to completely degrade, while your life span is less than 100 years, and the plastic you throw away is likely to be seen by your descendants or even more distant descendants.
塑料污染的成因并非仅仅是公众的消费习惯问题,其根源在于全球塑料产业的线性生产模式:石油公司作为塑料上游原料的核心供应方,过去20年投入超过2000亿美元建设新的塑料生产设施,预计到2050年塑料产量将再翻一番;同时,全球仅有不到20个国家出台了针对一次性塑料的全国性禁令,大量塑料垃圾从发达国家出口到发展中国家处理,进一步加剧了全球污染的不平等。对于青少年而言,日常接触到的塑料污染场景无处不在:学校门口的小吃店使用的一次性餐盒、文具店里的塑料包装文具、快递盒里的缓冲泡沫,都是塑料污染的来源,同时也都是青少年可以介入改变的切口。
The cause of plastic pollution is not just a problem of public consumption habits, but lies in the linear production model of the global plastics industry: as the core supplier of upstream raw materials for plastics, oil companies have invested more than $200 billion in building new plastics production facilities in the past 20 years, and plastic production is expected to double again by 2050; at the same time, less than 20 countries in the world have introduced national bans on disposable plastics, and a large amount of plastic waste is exported from developed countries to developing countries for disposal, further exacerbating the inequality of global pollution. For teenagers, the scenes of plastic pollution they come into contact with are everywhere: disposable lunch boxes used by snack shops at the school gate, plastic-wrapped stationery in stationery stores, and cushioning foam in courier boxes are all sources of plastic pollution, and they are also all entry points that teenagers can intervene and change.
1.1.2 气候变化:1.5℃临界点的倒计时危机 | Climate Change: The Countdown Crisis of the 1.5°C Threshold
气候变化是当前全球面临的最紧迫、影响范围最广的系统性环境危机。根据政府间气候变化专门委员会(Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC)2023年发布的第六次评估报告(AR6),全球平均气温已较工业化前水平升高1.1℃,这一升温几乎完全由人类活动排放的温室气体导致:过去100年,大气中二氧化碳浓度从280ppm升高至420ppm,为200万年来的最高值。
Climate change is the most urgent and wide-ranging systemic environmental crisis facing the world today. According to the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2023, the global average temperature has risen by 1.1°C compared with the pre-industrial level, and this warming is almost entirely caused by greenhouse gases emitted by human activities: in the past 100 years, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has risen from 280ppm to 420ppm, the highest level in 2 million years.
IPCC明确指出,全球升温必须控制在工业化前水平的1.5℃以内,才能避免不可逆的气候灾难:如果升温突破1.5℃,全球将有14%的人口面临每年至少一次极端高温风险,70%-90%的珊瑚礁会完全消失,北极夏季海冰会完全融化,极端暴雨、干旱、台风的频率将增加30%以上。而按照当前各国的减排承诺,全球升温将在2030-2050年间突破1.5℃临界点,届时即使大幅减排,也无法避免大部分气候灾难的发生。
The IPCC clearly pointed out that global warming must be controlled within 1.5°C of the pre-industrial level to avoid irreversible climate disasters: if the warming exceeds 1.5°C, 14% of the global population will face the risk of at least one extreme high temperature every year, 70%-90% of coral reefs will completely disappear, Arctic summer sea ice will completely melt, and the frequency of extreme rainstorms, droughts and typhoons will increase by more than 30%. According to the current emission reduction commitments of all countries, global warming will break through the 1.5°C threshold between 2030 and 2050, and most climate disasters will be unavoidable even if emissions are greatly reduced at that time.
气候变化的影响早已从遥远的极地、热带雨林延伸到青少年的日常生活:2022年长江流域的极端干旱导致多地水电发电量不足,部分城市不得不对工业用电、商业用电进行限电,很多青少年的暑假课外班被迫停课;2023年华北地区的极端暴雨导致多地 school 停课,很多青少年的家被淹,不得不转移。更长期的隐忧是,气候变化将导致粮食减产、水资源短缺、传染病传播风险上升,Z世代青少年将成为第一代完整经历气候灾难影响的人群。
The impact of climate change has long extended from the distant poles and tropical rainforests to the daily lives of teenagers: the extreme drought in the Yangtze River Basin in 2022 led to insuffi