美国有线新闻 CNN 2013-03-14

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What's happening now is that North Korea says that truce is invalid⁴; it's backing out of it, what does that mean? we don't really know yet. We know that North Korea is angry about new punishments from the United Nations over the North's controversial nuclear program. We know North Koreais angry about military drills that the U.S.and South Korea are running right now. After the announcement about the truce, South Korea try calling the North on a hotline that's set up between the two. The North didn't answer.

Next today, we're moving over to Japan as that nation remembers a tragic⁵ anniversary this week. Monday was filled withceremonies, services and a moment of silent. Exactly two years ago when earthquake struck, it was the largest one ever to hit the Island Nation. Andthe quake created tsunami⁶, a giant ocean wave, the two combined to cause massive amounts of damage, nearly 16,000 people died. The tsunami led to ameltdown at the Fukushima-Daichi nuclear power plant. Crews have been working on the plant ever since, but officials say it can take as much as 40 years tocompletely clean up the area and decontaminate it. The effects of the quake and tsunami spread far beyond Japan.This animation⁷ shows how huge amounts of debris⁸ were pulled out into the Pacific Ocean. Kyung Lah explains why some of it is showing up.

Slamming the shores of one of Hawaii's most remote beaches, debris, big and small,covering every inch of the Kamilo Beach coastline, theforeign markings tell where some of it comes from.

"These are definitely from Japan, this is some type of pickle⁹, and that's definitely Japanese."

Hawaii Wildlife Fund's Megan Lam son has seen debris from Japan hit at a growing rates since fall. Like a refrigerator with Japanese on the temperature dial, large buoys¹⁰, even an intact fishing boat from Japan. Sucked into the Pacific on that horrifying¹¹ day two years ago, traveling through the Pacific, volunteers like HWF had been fighting the already big problem of marine¹² debris. Only made worse to the 1.5 million tons of floating tsunamidebris.

It's disheartening to come out here and see all these marine debris in this area that's otherwise so remote, debris that'swashing up from other countries.

So the debris is washing up onshore, it's also collecting out in the water. The areas outlined in red are called gyres,these are currents out in the ocean, and because of way they work, things that float into them kind of get trapped there. That includes debris from the Japan tsunami,scientists are finding that trash, especially plastic inside fish and birds out in the Pacific.

We're going to look at the impact on wildlife,but heads up to teachers. This report involves some shots of dissection¹³, so you probably want to preview it before showing it to your class, once again, hereis Kyung Lah.

Look at what's inside this albatross of seabird, found dead, plastics filled its body.

"So little fat."

David Hyrenbach's teams are researching the alarming rate of debris in the birds.

"So here you see."

"Wow, it is filled with plastic."

"Yes"

This is the stomach of a two months old albatross.

"Is that part of a drain?"

"Maybe, oh, it's a brush, look at that, you see."

About 80% of the baby birds stomach is indigestible plastic, that this, by its parents who confused it for food.Morally, this is terrible, how is this possible, right? I mean, majestic,far-ranging beautiful birds, right? In a pristine¹⁴ place of the North Pacific and then you open them up and this is, you know, what you find.

Hyrenbach says every single bird he's opened up had some sort of plastic, some larger ones, like these toys, and lighters¹⁵ in the adult bird.

A disaster still in the making, now widening its reach.

Environmental activists¹⁶ here say that there is nothing they can do about the tsunami debris, they can just clean up the beaches, but there is something that consumers can do to help them out. They see plastic bottle caps or plastic water bottles that we use around the world,consumers can simply use less plastic.

Kyung Lah, CNN, Hawaii.

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