Over 300 BILLION pieces of plastic now POLLUTE the Arctic Ocean as humankind accelerates destruction of life everywhere

Saturday, December 1, 2018
By Paul Martin

by: Rhonda Johansson
NaturalNews.com
Saturday, December 01, 2018

Around 300 billion pieces of plastic (or around 150 millions tons of waste) pollute the Arctic Ocean, concludes an international team of researchers after assessing the levels of plastic waste found east of Greenland and in the Barents Sea off Norway and Russia. Despite the relative isolation of these areas, the researchers say that man-made pollution has reached dangerous levels. Their report, which appears in Science Advances, labels these zones as “polar graveyards” and warns of the potential hazards these hot spots may have. In particular: the toxins in these plastic pieces can leak into the water, altering life forms and natural pH levels. Wildlife may also swallow the plastic or get entangled.

“The total load of floating plastic for the ice-free waters of the Arctic Ocean was estimated to range from around 100 to 1,200 tons, with 400 tons composed of an estimated 300 billion plastic items as a mid-range estimate,” the study reads. “The fragmentation and typology of the plastic suggested an abundant presence of aged debris that originated from distant sources.”

The team suggests that it is likely the waste was swept north by ocean currents; the Arctic becoming the “dead end” for waste dumped in the Atlantic Ocean off Europe and the United States. This would explain the confusing fact that a sparsely populated region could produce higher than expected waste. The authors write on Daily Mail, “The northeastern Atlantic sector of the Arctic Ocean appeared as a dead end for the surface transport of plastic pollution.”

Researchers came to their conclusion after sampling 42 Arctic sites through the 2013 Tara Oceans circumpolar expedition. Their survey found hundreds of thousands of tiny bits of plastic in the northeastern Atlantic region. These pieces were evidently old and appeared to have originated from various places in Europe and North America.

Lead author, Andres Cozar of the University of Cadiz in Spain says, “Ninety-nine percent of the floating plastic in the Arctic was confined in the Greenland and Barents Seas….the plastic pollution in the rest of the Arctic Polar Circle was low or absent.” Cozar surmises that marine plastic pollution may become more prevalent in the Arctic as societies continue to dump waste in the ocean.

The potential ecological implications

The Rest…HERE

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