1y ago

‘Plastic air pollution’: Microplastics in clouds could be exacerbating climate change, study says

www.euronews.com Scientists in Japan find plastic in clouds for the first time

The presence of tiny plastics in clouds risks the contamination of ‘everything we eat and drink’, researchers say.

Microplastics have been discovered in clouds, where scientists say they could be contributing to climate change.

Researchers found several types of polymers and rubber in the water in cloud water surrounding Mount Fuji, Japan’s biggest mountain, and Mount Ōyama.

Their study, published in the journal Environmental Chemical Letters, joins a growing body of evidence showing that plastic pollution has infiltrated most ecosystems on Earth.

Fragments of plastic smaller than 5mm (around the size of a sesame seed) have been found in the furthest reaches of the planet and most intimate parts of the human body, including the blood, lungs, and placentas of pregnant women.

"To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to detect airborne microplastics in cloud water in both the free troposphere and atmospheric boundary layer,” the scientists wrote.

19 comments

So I guess buying a water filter for my tap at home isn’t going to save me.
- Nope, good news is nobody knows what the harm is, yet!
  https://archive.ph/QT6G5
  
  This is also the bad news.
  
  I thought I remember hearing something about plastic affecting men's testosterone is that not true?
- Some water filters actually increase the level of microplastics.

Condensation nuclei are tiny particles upon which water vapour condenses in the atmosphere, meaning they’re essential for the formation of clouds.
"Overall, our findings suggest that high-altitude microplastics could influence cloud formation and, in turn, might modify the climate," the scientists wrote.
How might it modify the climate? I thought cloud seeding was a proposed geoengineering technique to mitigate climate change?
- Yeah but if we do by accident everywhere on earth continuously, it probably isn't going to be like... a net positive.
  
  Probably not, but I asked how it works
  
  LOL Couldn’t have said it better
- Marine cloud seeding/brightening, aims to make clouds more reflective, to reflect sunlight back away from Earth. Not sure microplastics from tyre rubber are likely to have that effect.
- Geoengineering is modifying the climate, just doing so intentionally to get a desired effect, usually to counter other effects, so anything mimicking it is going to modify the climate almost by definition

This is the best summary I could come up with:
Their study, published in the journal Environmental Chemical Letters, joins a growing body of evidence showing that plastic pollution has infiltrated most ecosystems on Earth.
Fragments of plastic smaller than 5mm (around the size of a sesame seed) have been found in the furthest reaches of the planet and most intimate parts of the human body, including the blood, lungs, and placentas of pregnant women.
"To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to detect airborne microplastics in cloud water in both the free troposphere and atmospheric boundary layer,” the scientists wrote.
"Microplastics in the free troposphere are transported and contribute to global pollution,” says lead author of the research, Hiroshi Okochi of Waseda University.
"If the issue of 'plastic air pollution' is not addressed proactively, climate change and ecological risks may become a reality, causing irreversible and serious environmental damage in the future."
“This implies that microplastics may have become an essential component of clouds, contaminating nearly everything we eat and drink via 'plastic rainfall'," according to a statement about the study from Waseda University,
The original article contains 601 words, the summary contains 179 words. Saved 70%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

Anybody know of a way to reduce micropastic pollution from tires that isn't parking your car? It seems like an inevitable side effect of all tires.

19 comments