A recent research article[1] published in Nature has explored the impact airbourne microplastics contribute to climate change by trapping the energy given off by the sun within our planet’s atmosphere in a way that is very similar to greenhouse gasses.
This is an alarming issue, as unlike greenhouse gasses such as CO2, we do not have any effective means of scrubbing microplastics out of our atmosphere.
This issue is further compounded by the fact that we do not possess any way of preventing the process by which existing plastics inevitably break down into airbourne microplastics over time, outside of minimising the amount of plastic we produce; a conclusion supported by the researchers behind this new study:
“The microplastic ERF (Effective Radiative Forcing) is small. However, plastic production has increased rapidly over the past 70 years; without serious attempts to overhaul plastic production and waste-management practices, the abundance and ERF of airborne microplastics will continue to increase.”
This marks yet another reason for why reusing and recycling existing materials (plastics in particular) is absolutely crucial in the prevention of catastrophic climate change, and why we all must do what we can to minimise our dependence on new plastic products.
By Jakub Jozefowicz
References:
[1]: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03864-x
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