海洋垃圾污染及其治理的历史演变

A Historical Account of Marine Garbage Pollution and Its Remedies

海洋垃圾是海洋污染物的一种。自古以来,人类社会一直将海洋视作废弃物倾倒或排放的场所。但海洋垃圾造成海洋污染是工业社会发展以后的现象。以美国为例,自19世纪下半叶开始,海洋垃圾成为危害海洋生物和海岸带居民的一种环境问题。海洋垃圾污染及其治理大致经历了三个历史阶段,即:19世纪下半叶至1930年代,1970年代至1990年代和21世纪开始至今。在这个过程中,海洋垃圾的种类从简单到复杂,数量从少到多;其危害从局部逐步扩展到全球。美国地方政府、联邦政府以及民间在各个时期采取了多种措施予以应对,取得了一定的效果。同时,海洋"无限"的观念逐步被质疑和抛弃,保护海洋环境的思想渐入人心。但是,1970年代以来形成的海洋塑料垃圾问题并没有得到遏制,反而逐步恶化,形成了大洋上的"垃圾洲"。这说明,只要以过度生产和过度消费为基础的社会经济发展模式继续,海洋垃圾问题就难以得到彻底解决。

Marine garbage is one kind of marine pollutants. Since ancient times,human society has been treating the sea as a sink for its wastes. However,it is after the industrial time that marine garbage started to become a kind of ocean pollution. For example,since the second half of the 19th century,marine garbage has become an environmental problem threatening marine wildlife and coastal inhabitants in the United States of America. The marine garbage pollution and its remedies can be divided roughly into three periods. The first one is from the second half of the 19th century to the 1930s. The second one is from the 1970s to the 1990s. And the last one is from the beginning of the 21st century to the present. During these periods,marine garbage has changed dramatically in quality and quantity; its negative impact has become more serious and expanded widely. The local governments and federal government as well as the citizens of USA have taken many measures to tackle this problem and achieved some significant results. More importantly,pollution treatment has changed the old illusion that the ocean was ＂unlimited＂,and the marine protection has become more popular. However,marine garbage pollution,especially in the form of plastic pollution has not stopped since the 1970s but become more serious with the ＂Garbage Continent＂ emerging on the Oceans. This reflects that unless the current socio-economical development model,which is based on over-production and over-consumption,could come to an end,the crisis of marine garbage pollution will not be solved thoroughly.