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Along the banks of the Mississippi River right before it spills out past New Orleans into the sea lies Cancer Alley.
密西西比河流过新奥尔良，进入大海之前的一段是癌症带。
An 85-mile strip of shoreline where residents are contracting cancer at astronomical rates.
一条85英里长的海岸线上，沿线居民正以惊人的速度罹患癌症。
But this isn't a phenomenon based in genetics or some cruel twist of fate.
但这个现象并不是因为遗传因素或是一些残酷的命运转折。
Cancer Alley is the product of environmental pollution.
癌症带是环境污染的产物。
And today were going to figure out exactly where this pollution is coming from.
今天，我们要弄清楚这种污染到底来自何方。
This is the story of plastics, the harm they cause, the industries that create them, and how that 85-mile strip of Mississippi shoreline and other areas like it are suffering because of them.
这是一个关于塑料的故事，关于它们造成的危害和产生塑料的上下游产业，以及密西西比河85英里长的海岸线和其他类似地区人民如何因为此遭受痛苦的故事。
If you walk into your kitchen, pretty much everything, in some way or another, has encountered plastic.
如果你走进你的厨房，几乎所有的东西都曾以某种方式接触过塑料。
The plastic bags you stuff into a drawer, your favorite cup and even the package keeping those blueberries fresh.
你塞进抽屉的塑料袋，你最喜欢的杯子，甚至盛放蓝莓的保鲜袋。
But despite plastics ubiquity, we often forget where it comes from.
但是，尽管塑料无处不在，我们常常忘记它的出处。
Indeed, when it comes to plastic our efforts seem to be much more focused on what happens after we use it than before we use it.
事实上，当涉及塑料时，我们的努力似乎更多地集中在使用之后，而非使用之前。
So first, let's understand how plastic gets made. It all starts here or here.
因此，首先，让我们了解塑料的生产过程。一切由此发生。
That's right, plastics are basically just fossil fuels in solid form.
确实如此，塑料只是固体形式的化石燃料。
In fact, 99% of plastics are made from chemicals rooted in fossil fuels.
事实上，99%的塑料来自化石燃料及其提炼产物。
The plastic creation process begins with crude oil, coal, or natural gas, which is then refined and distilled or cracked into usable chemical compounds such as Ethylene or Benzene.
塑料的创造过程从原油、煤或天然气开始，然后被提炼和蒸馏或裂解成可用的化合物，如乙烯或苯。
Of course there are certain plastics that are the product of recycled goods, but I'll get into recycling later.
当然，也有一些塑料是回收品的产物，我稍后会说到回收利用。
The key thing here is that the plastic that we use so heavily is really the same as the petroleum we put in our cars or the natural gas we use to heat our homes,
这里的关键是，我们大量使用的塑料实际上与用于汽车的石油或用来取暖的天然气来源相同。
which is one of the reasons why the fossil fuel industry loves plastics.
这就是化石燃料行业喜欢塑料的原因之一。
With the compounding economic, pandemic, and environmental crises bearing down on the fossil fuel industry, Big Oil seems to be in trouble.
随着经济、流行病和环境危机对化石燃料行业的影响越来越大，大石油公司们似乎四面楚歌。
BP reported losses of $5.7 billion in 2020, while ExxonMobil lost a staggering $22.4 billion.
英国石油公司在2020年报告中公布其损失高达57亿美元，而埃克森美孚公司的损失达到了惊人的224亿美元。
It was truly a crushing year for the fossil fuel industry, and yet oil and gas executives still seem optimistic.
对于化石燃料行业来说，这确实是损失惨重的一年，然而高管们似乎仍然很乐观。
Exxon says it hopes to grow by 4% each year, and part of their scheme to achieve that growth involves, plastics.
埃克森公司说它希望每年增长4%，而他们实现这一增长的计划的一部分涉及一个词：塑料。
Indeed, plastic seems to be the fossil fuel industry's escape plan from the transition to a zero carbon world.
事实上，塑料似乎是化石燃料行业向零碳世界过渡的逃脱计划。
We are now witnessing Big Oil pour resources into many new plastic factories.
大石油公司将资源投入到新的塑料工厂。
North of Corpus Christi, Texas, ExxonMobil secured hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks to build a natural gas distillation or cracking site to produce plastics.
在得克萨斯州科珀斯克里斯蒂北部，埃克森美孚公司获得了数亿美元的税收减免，以建立一个天然气蒸馏和裂解基地生产塑料。
Shell has also put its faith in plastics, investing in a multi-billion dollar ethane cracking factory on the Ohio River in Pennsylvania, which, when finished, will churn out 1.6 billion metric tons of plastic pellets every year.
壳牌公司也对塑料信心满满，在宾夕法尼亚州的俄亥俄河上投资了一个价值数十亿美元的乙烷裂解工厂，该工厂建成后每年将生产16亿吨塑料颗粒。
Chevron's building a new plant, and so is Total.
雪佛龙公司正在建设一个新工厂，道达尔公司也是。
All told, the fossil fuel industry has announced 349 chemical and plastic projects since 2010.
总的来说，自2010年以来，化石燃料行业宣布开启349个化学和塑料项目。
Greenpeace Executive Director, Annie Leonard, explains this obsession with plastic in a PBS Frontline report: single-use plastic is their plan B.
绿色和平组织执行主任安妮·伦纳德在PBS前线的报告中解释了大公司们对塑料的痴迷。因为一次性塑料是他们的第二方案。
They're not going to be able to continue to drill that oil and gas and burn it for energy anymore.
他们再也不能继续钻探石油和天然气并将其作为能源燃烧了。
So this is their lifeline. They are going to double down on single-use plastic like we have never seen.
所以塑料是他们的生命线。他们将以闻所未闻的力度加倍使用一次性塑料。
And all of this new plastic infrastructure means increased production and ultimately a barrage of emissions, because alongside the physical pollution of plastics littered in our waterways and immediate environments, plastic is causing a colossal greenhouse gas problem.
所有这些新的塑料基础设施意味着生产总量增加和最终排放增多，因为除了在我们的水道和直接环境中丢弃的塑料造成的物理污染外，塑料造成了巨大的温室气体问题。
Back in Cancer Alley, despite community organizing and some small victories, things are looking worse.
在癌症谷，尽管有社区组织的反抗并取得了一些微小的胜利，情况看起来更糟了。
Yet another plastic factory is trying to make its way through the permitting process, which considering the region and country's history of complete disregard for the health and well-being of the low-income communities of color that live in the area, the construction of this heavily polluting factory comes as no surprise.
然而，另一家塑料厂正试图通过走程序拿到许可证，考虑到该地区和该国家曾经完全无视居住在该地区的低收入有色人种社区的健康和福祉的历史，建造这个严重污染环境的工厂并不令人惊讶。
