How seaweed could help turn the tide on plastic pollution     March 31, 2026

 

Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, wherever you are in this world. I'm Coy Wire. This is CNN 10.

 

I have your 10 minutes of news with stories from all around the globe today. But on this final day of the month, March 31st, let's kick it off with this. On this day, 137 years ago, the Eiffel Tower was officially completed.

 

The iconic landmark was built as the centerpiece of the 1889 Paris Exposition, a world's fair marking the centennial anniversary of the French Revolution. Construction took more than two years.

 

centennial [sɛnˈtɛnɪǝl] adj. 百年的；百年紀念的

 

The French feat of engineering stands more than 1,000 feet tall and contains roughly 18,000 individual pieces of iron weighing about 7,300 tons.

 

The tower stood as the tallest structure in the world for more than 40 years before being dethroned by the Chrysler Building in New York.

 

dethrone [dɪˈθron] v. 罢黜（君王等）；罢免

 

And get this, the tower was supposed to be temporary. The original plan was to dismantle it after 20 years, much to the relief of some Parisian elites who saw it as an eyesore.

 

dismantle [dɪsˈmæntḷ] v. 拆卸，拆開；解散

eyesore [ˈaɪsɔr] n. 看上去不顺眼的东西，难看的东西; 令人憎恶的东西，眼中钉

 

But science saved the day. The tower proved itself to be an indispensable asset for emerging radio transmission technology, and it's served as a vital antenna ever since.

 

indispensable [ˌɪndɪsˈpɛnsǝbḷ] adj. 必不可少的，必需的

 

These days, La Dame de Fer, or the Iron Lady, continues standing tall above the city of offering unparalleled views to nearly 7 million visitors from around the world each year.

 

I think it's really iconic, you know, like when you think about Paris, you think about that, about the Eiffel Tower. It's just a symbol of Paris. It's a symbol.

 

It represents France. It's one of the prestigious monuments, as you can see with the number of tourists around us.

 

prestigious [prɛsˈtɪdʒɪǝs] adj. 有名望的

 

The tower's history is as unique as its architecture.

 

Did you know it was originally painted red and it was even briefly yellow? Or did you know that it's taller in the summertime, when hot temperatures cause the iron to expand?

 

Speaking of metal, would you believe a notorious conman once sold the tower to scrap metal dealers? Not once, but twice. And get this, the tower even has a unique connection to France's most famous gift to the United States, the Statue of Liberty.

 

conman [ˈkɑnmæn] n.【口】（以赢得受骗人信任而骗取钱财的）骗子

 

The tower's namesake designer, Gustave Eiffel, was also the brains behind Liberty's intricate iron framework. I fell out of my chair when I learned that.

 

namesake [ˈnеmˌsеk] n. 同名物；以他人的名字取名的人

 

From lighting up the skyline when it first opened, to going dark for a global cause, the Eiffel Tower is once again taking center stage this time by switching off its lights for Earth Hour.

 

Earth Hour 地球一小时或称「世界关灯日」

 

In Paris, the landmark dimmed its iconic lights, joining cities around the world in a symbolic move to spotlight environmental challenges.

 

dim [dɪm] v. 变暗淡；变模糊

spotlight [ˈspɑtˌlaɪt] v. 使公众注意；使突出醒目

 

Earth Hour began in Sydney back in 2007, organized by the World Wildlife Fund. What started as a local initiative has grown into a global campaign, encouraging millions of people, businesses, and landmarks to turn off non-essential lights for one hour each year.

 

This year, the movement stretched across continents, including Greece's iconic Parthenon, and the Acropolis, the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, and in Hong Kong, nearly 4,000 buildings, including skyscrapers along Victoria Harbor, switched off for an hour.

 

Parthenon [ˈpɑrθǝˌnɑn] n. 希腊女神阿西娜的神庙

Acropolis 古希臘的雅典衛城

 

10-Second Trivia!What is the name of the process that heats and aerates cocoa and sugar to make chocolate?

 

aerate [ˈеǝˌrеt] v. 使..快速地暴露于空气中；使..通气；充注碳酸气于

 

Fermentation, conching, tempering, or refining?

 

conching [ˈkɑŋkɪŋ] n. 巧克力精炼; 精炼; 搅拌研磨

 

temper[ˈtɛmpɚ] v. 调和，捏和（黏土等）

 

If you said conching, you so smooth. It was accidentally invented in 1879 by Rodolphe Lindt, who discovered that mixing chocolate for a long time created the melt-in-your-mouth texture we expect today.

 

Did you hear about the 12 tons of KitKat chocolate bars that were stolen? Give me a break.

 

Swiss food giant Nestle says that they were stolen from a truck leaving its production site in Italy. We're talking more than 400,000 candy bars. The company reported the heist happened earlier this week.

 

heist [haɪst] n. 抢劫，拦劫

 

The vehicle and chocolate still nowhere to be found. But listen to this. Nestle said all of its products can be traced using a unique batch code assigned to individual bars.

 

So officials say the thieves could get caught if they try to resell the product. A company spokesperson said, quote, Whilst we appreciate the criminal's exceptional taste, the fact remains that cargo theft is an escalating issue for businesses of all sizes. Unquote.

 

The good news? The brand says there are no concerns for consumer safety and supply is not affected.

 

Well, now it is time for an encouraging update about the stranded humpbackwe told you about last week. Rescuers have been helping to free a stranded whale off the coast of Germany for 11 days now.

 

And as of this taping, they're more hopeful he will swim free. According to one aquatic wildlife expert, the whale, now nicknamed Timmy, has been pushed to deeper waters where it can hopefully swim to safety.

 

He is not stranded on the sandbank.

 

sandbank [ˈsændˌbæŋk] n. 沙洲；沙丘

 

He is in water deep enough for him to swim away from. And so the animal is being left in peace for now. And we naturally hope that he is simply gathering his strength there and will be able to swim away on his own.

 

And then hopefully eventually find his way out of the Baltic Sea.

 

Humpback whales are not native to the Baltic Sea. And conservationists say the human influence often plays a role in whale strandings around the world.

 

Plastic pollution keeps piling up every day. About 2,000 garbage trucks worth of plastic ends up in oceans, rivers, and lakes around the world, according to the U.N. Environment Program.

 

Now one company in Wales is looking to turn the tide with seaweed-based packaging to replace single-use plastic, showing how something from the ocean itself could help protect it.

 

turn the tide 扭转局势; 扭转乾坤; 力挽狂澜

 

CNN's Leroy Aben has the story.

 

How do you take this seaweed and turn it into this biodegradable packaging and tackle the scourge of plastics in our oceans?

 

scourge [skɝdʒ] n. 苦难的根源；灾祸

 

I was born in Fiji in the middle of the South Pacific, where plastics in the ocean are a huge issue. And I've always asked myself, surely there must be an alternative to this.

 

And while researching that question, I came across this company called Plancy in Wales. So I've decided to go check them out.

 

My journey begins here, on the rugged coastline of Wales.

 

This is where Plancy is using seaweed to create truly biodegradable alternatives to single-use plastics. It starts at seaweed farms like Câr-y-Môr.

 

We'll go out to the farm and harvest the seaweed and then bring it straight back here.

 

And it gets spun around and the solid seaweed gets separated from the liquid. And the liquid is our seaweed biostimulant, which is being used in agriculture on farms. Like fertilizer? Yeah, like fertilizer.

 

biostimulant 生物刺激素

 

And then the solid bit that's left over, so our byproduct, is what Plancy will use to make their plastic products. Smells quite tasty. It's lovely. You can eat this.

 

Plancy then brings the seaweed to this innovation centre for processing.

 

This is where it all starts. So the seaweed that you've just seen at the farm, this kind of gets dried and chopped up and flaked. And this is where it starts in our process.

 

flake [flеk] v. 使成薄片

 

So today we've processed around 20 kilos of seaweed, but this should yield, in terms of the wet product, we get about 40 to 50 kilos of dry polymer powder.

 

yield [jild] v. 產生（效果，收益等）

 

They'll turn this into film. We should have enough film to do 120,000 of these solid capsules.

 

For Plancy, seaweed is a natural fit.

 

natural fit 天作之合; 絕配

 

So the seaweed actually lends itself very well to material innovation. It has a very rich chemical structure. It's full of sugars and polysaccharides, so it lends itself very well to biomaterials.

 

lend [lɛnd] v. 适合

polysaccharide [ˌpɑlɪˈsækǝˌraɪd] n.【化】多醣（类）

 

Most people don't realize that these are made from a synthetic polymer, which is petroleum-based. Now, while they do dissolve, they don't ever really, truly disappear. They create liquid microplastics.

 

polymer [ˈpɑlɪmɚ] n. 【化】聚合物

microplastics [ˈmaɪkroˌplæstɪks] n. 微塑料，塑料微粒

 

Our film and our polymer is a natural polymer, and it doesn't leave behind any microplastics.

 

Plancy is already working with major brands, proving this can work at scale. So seaweed is kind of like a wonder material.

 

You can eat it, you can use it as fertiliser, and now it appears you can use it as an alternative to plastic. The question is, why aren't we using it more?

 

Today's story, getting a 10 out of 10, is stir-upping something special. In the middle of South London, between train tracks and city streets, a riding school is giving kids a chance to connect with horses, many of them for the first time.

 

At the Ebony Horse Club in a neighborhood in Brixton, each week about 160 kids are the main event, learning to ride, groom and care for horses free of charge.

 

groom [ɡrum] n. 照料（马等）; 使整洁；梳理

 

Hey, it's all part of a program focused on supporting local youth. Teachers say it behooves the kids to participate because riding helps build their confidence, and they learn to stay present in the moment.

 

behoove [bɪˈhuv] v. 适合; 对……有此必要

 

So when I tried it, it was actually great, and I had fun.

 

It's a different kind of classroom where these young riders are learning more than just how to stay in the saddle.

 

All right, superstars, a couple of shout-outs today.

 

This first one goes to Miss Stewart and Miss Sanchez, aka Stanchez, at Fifth Street Elementary in Decatur, Georgia. They sent us these DIY stickers, and I have to tell you, I've been putting them on people's backs all around the office, and I don't think they've noticed yet. That's a good thing.

 

Thank you for helping us spread the love.

 

And a very special shout-out goes to Mr. Powers at Manistique Middle and High School in Manistique, Michigan. Retiring after 45 years as an educator, your students want you to know how much you mean to them.

 

Think of how many former students can say the same. Salute to you, sir.

 

Tomorrow is Your Word Wednesday, so submit your unique vocabulary word and definition in the comments section of our latest post on Instagram, @CNN10.

 

@Coywire, and we will choose a winner to work into tomorrow's show. Make it a remarkable, marvelous, magnificent day. I'm Coy Wire, and we are CNN10.