Dumped plastic gets more toxic
Plastic waste dumped in the oceans could be a devastating long-term pollution threat to the food chain.
Studies suggest billions of microscopic plastic fragments drifting underwater are concentrating toxins like DDT.
Marine biologist at Plymouth University have investigated how plastic degrades in the water and how tiny marine organisms, such as barnacles and sand-hoppers, respond.
concentrated toxins
Dr Richard Thompson said “We know that plastics in the marine environment will accumulate and concentrate toxic chemicals from the surrounding seawater and you can get concentrations several thousand times greater than in the surrounding water on the surface of the plastic.
“Now there’s the potential for those chemicals to be released to those marine organisms if they then eat the plastic.”
Research on stretches of shoreline has shown that, at the microscopic level, plastic pollution is far worse than feared.
physical dangers
Most attention has focused on dangers that visible items of plastic waste pose to seabirds and other wildlife. Some of the world’s most valuable and endangered species live on the Pacific island of Midway and they all are at risk from choking, starving or drowning in the plastic drifting in the ocean.
For instance, there are nearly two million Laysan albatrosses and every single one contains some quantity of plastic. About one-third of all their chicks die, many as the result of being mistakenly fed plastic by their parents. [more]
Wildlife there should benefits from double protection - in a wildlife refuge inside a newly declared Marine National Monument. But that doesn’t remove the massive dump of cheap plastic products designed to be robust and long-lasting from the oceans in the first place.
plastic beachsand
On average, one-quarter of the total weight of the sandy material gathered at the high tide mark on shorelines, may be composed of plastic particles. And because it is so durable, it will still be there when our grandchildren want to play on beaches. Some estimates suggest it will last 1000 years -
so today’s throw-aways would be polluting humanity in 33 generation’s time!
I asked Richard Thompson and he replied:
“Plastics are incredibly durable. As we’ve only been mass producing plastics for around 50 years its still too early to say how long they will persist in the environment. Some say 100’s other say 1000s
At the present rate of accumulation,
we have to wonder if there will be any room for humankind in amongst the global dump.
Douglas Adams’ idea of the Shoe Event Horizon described how people could manufacture so much stuff that it squeezed people off the planet.
Could this be the future of humankind?
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