microplastics
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Microbes May Be Evolving to Eat Plastic
Researchers looked at samples taken from oceans and soils around the world and found a vast number of enzymes that can degrade 10 different kinds of plastic.
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Baby Turtles Are Eating a Disturbing Amount of Plastic
Researchers probing the bellies of marine sea turtles from two oceans found an overwhelming amount of plastic in the reptiles’ stomachs. Performing autopsies on stranded and bycaught specimens of five different species of sea turtles, the research team found hundreds of bits of plastic in several dozen turtles — evidence of the ubiquitousness of human…
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Plastic Is Creating an Environmental Justice Crisis
There’s growing awareness that plastics are an environmental disaster for marine and terrestrial ecosystems alike. A new United Nations report published Tuesday shows they’re also a huge problem for human beings — and that they don’t affect us all equally.
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We Estimate There Are Up To 14 Million Tonnes of Microplastics on the Seafloor
Nowhere, it seems, is immune from plastic pollution: plastic has been reported in the high Arctic oceans, in the sea ice around Antarctica and even in the world’s deepest waters of the Mariana Trench. But just how bad is the problem? Our new research provides the first global estimate of microplastics on the seafloor —…