the attitude with arnie arnesen the wed edition Dec 3
Arnie Arnesen
opening thoughts:the shooting of two WV National Guard member and plastic pollution ... a day devoted to climate change
by Frontiers. https://phys.org/news/2025-11-plastic-pollution-worsened-climate-stemmed.html
Climate change conditions turn plastics into more mobile, persistent, and hazardous pollutants. This is done by speeding up plastic breakdown into microplastics—microscopic fragments of plastic—spreading them considerable distances, and increasing exposure and impact within the environment.This is set to worsen as both plastic manufacturing and climate effects increase. Global annual plastic production rose 200-fold between 1950 and 2023. A new review published in Frontiers in Scienis calling for urgent action to avoid irreversible ecological damage by stemming the tide of microplastics entering the environment. The authors, from Imperial College London, urge eliminating non-essential single-use plastics (which account for 35% of production), limiting virgin plastic production, and creating international standards for making plastics reusable and recyclable. "Plastic pollution and the climate are co-crises that intensify each other. They also have origins—and solutions—in common," said lead author Prof Frank Kelly, from Imperial's School of Public Health. "We urgently need a coordinated international approach to stop end-of-life plastics from building up in the environment."
Joint crises
The researchers conducted a comprehensive review of existing evidence that highlights how the climate crisis worsens the impact of plastic pollution. Rising temperatures, humidity, and UV exposure all boost the breakdown of plastics. Furthermore, extreme storms, floods, and winds can increase fragmentation as well as dispersal of plastic waste—with six billion tons and rising—into landfill, aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, atmospheric environments, and food webs.There are growing concerns about the persistence, spread, and accumulation of microplastics that can disturb nutrient cycles in aquatic ecosystems, reduce soil health, and crop yields. They also adversely affect feeding, reproduction, and the behavior of organisms that are capable of ingesting them, should levels exceed safe thresholds. Microplastics can also act as Trojan horses to transfer other contaminants like metals, pesticides, and PFAS forever chemicals. Climatic conditions may also enhance the adherence and transfer of these contaminants, as well as the leaching of hazardous chemicals such as flame retardants or plasticizers. There is also historical plastic to consider. When ice forms in the sea, it takes up microplastics and concentrates them, removing them from the water. However, as sea ice melts under warming conditions, this process could reverse and become a major additional source of plastic release."There's a chance that microplastics—already in every corner of the planet—will have a greater impact on certain species over time. Both the climate crisis and plastic pollution, which come from society's over-reliance on fossil fuels, could combine to worsen an already stressed environment in the near future," said co-author Dr. Stephanie Wright from Imperial's School of Public Health.
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