Millions of Tonnes of Nanoplastics Are Polluting the Ocean (nature.com)
- Reference: 0178326468
- News link: https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/07/10/142250/millions-of-tonnes-of-nanoplastics-are-polluting-the-ocean
- Source link: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09218-1
These particles, smaller than one micrometer in diameter, behave differently from larger microplastics by remaining suspended throughout the water column rather than settling to the ocean floor. The nanoplastics can [2]pass through cell walls and enter the marine food web through phytoplankton, said Tony Walker, an environmental scientist at Dalhousie University. The world's oceans contain an estimated 3 million tonnes of floating plastic pollution when excluding nanoplastics.
[1] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09218-1
[2] https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-02162-0
What an Age to Live Through (Score:5, Interesting)
We're living in an age where we've advanced scientifically enough to see and study the damage we're doing, but we haven't evolved emotionally and mentally enough to escape the trap of the greed that is making us ignore the problems we're creating because the solutions may impact profits. It's a weird time to be a human. All the guilt of our entire species is coming to the fore, but we have none of the resources to deal with it in a healthy manner.
Re:What an Age to Live Through (Score:4, Interesting)
Actually I would say we have more than enough resources to deal with these issues if we wanted to but right now there is no political will to address this on the level that would be required. New laws, new regulations on industry and a fresh set of funding to address this is what would be needed.
We have the money, we have the people, we have the know-how to study and create action plans, we just don't want to do it and our voting reflects that. We found $200B for immigration enforcement, no problem there, jumped in both feet first, this is the issue the American public thinks is #1.
For example, why are there only 11 co-sponsors on this bill to reduce the amount of single-use items and all from one party?
[1]S.3127 - Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act of 2023 [congress.gov]
[1] https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/senate-bill/3127/cosponsors
Re: (Score:2)
> Actually I would say we have more than enough resources to deal with these issues if we wanted to but right now there is no political will to address this on the level that would be required. New laws, new regulations on industry and a fresh set of funding to address this is what would be needed.
> We have the money, we have the people, we have the know-how to study and create action plans, we just don't want to do it and our voting reflects that. We found $200B for immigration enforcement, no problem there, jumped in both feet first, this is the issue the American public thinks is #1.
> For example, why are there only 11 co-sponsors on this bill to reduce the amount of single-use items and all from one party?
> [1]S.3127 - Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act of 2023 [congress.gov]
I can't disagree. Instead of resources, I should have said will, political or otherwise. We're too locked in on greed.
[1] https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/senate-bill/3127/cosponsors
Re: (Score:2)
Yup, hard to solve a problem when 55% of your political class has a vested interest in it not being a problem at all, like whoever said the quote "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it."
Re: (Score:2)
> We have the money, we have the people, we have the know-how to study and create action plans, we just don't want to do it and our voting reflects that. We found $200B for immigration enforcement, no problem there, jumped in both feet first, this is the issue the American public thinks is #1.
To be fair, the American public has been consistently gaslit on critical issues for the last 60 years. They've also been indoctrinated into the kind of capitalism that has landed us where we are.
Sure, some of that is on the people who fell for the lies; but more of it is on the people who told the lies, over and over and over again.
Re: (Score:2)
That is fair and bridging this reality divide is probably the greatest political question of our time.
At the same time it's like the people who see masked goons raiding Home Depot parking lots and are saying "I didn't vote for that" and it's like "you absolutely did, they said they were going to do things exactly like this" and if you were concerned about plastics in the oceans well, were you concerned enough to vote against the "put more plastic in the ocean party"? The answer for most is "no" on that so i
Plastic size (Score:4, Interesting)
Most large-scale plastic you can actually see in the ocean and extract (e.g. in the big ocean cleanup project) is apparently from fishing gear. This is high grade plastic and valuable enough that they sell it to recyclers. It doesn't break down very quickly. Other forms of plastic that end up in the ocean don't stand up well to UV and saltwater and break down into microplastics and nanoplastics, and basically just stay in the environment and get ingested by organisms and eventually move up the food chain. You may worry about plastic cookware, but the food you're cooking is full of plastic too, and it's not really possible to filter it out.
Re: (Score:2)
The most buoyant plastics in use are polypropylene and those degrade in UV light and require a lot of maintenance and replacement or else they'll break at inopportune times and the fibers will turn into little needles that go into your hands. They're also not all that strong to begin with.
I suspect the high quality plastics you're talking about are nylon lines and nets which sink under normal conditions.
The sound you hear is the chik-chik of God's Zippo (Score:2)
Usually the best advice I can offer is to "burn it all down", but burning down the ocean presents some practical difficulties.
Re: (Score:2)
Could be.
> I establish My covenant with you; and all flesh shall never again be eliminated by the waters of a flood, nor shall there again be a flood to destroy the earth.
He did not say he won't burn it.
Time to ... (Score:2)
... call a plumber and have all that PEX plumbing removed and replaced with copper.
No, wait! Copper is bad too. Switch to lead.
tonnes (Score:2)
How much is that in tons?
Eventually some bacteria may evolve... (Score:2)
... to digest these substances. Unfortunately it'll probably be way past the time that the food chain and ecosystem has been poisoned by them.
Re: (Score:3)
Plastic pollution is shaping up to be a far more pervasive and serious problem than I think most people are appreciating. The effects though so far unconfirmed are probably being felt a lot more acutely than anything "climate related"
Its almost like climate and green energy are getting paid a bunch of lip service for the sake of using up all the oxygen around environmental protection, so the industry isnt forced to try and solve the real crisis they don't want to address.
Re: (Score:2)
27 million tons? Phooey.
"As of today, it’s estimated that over 9.2 billion metric tons of plastic have been manufactured – just over 1 ton for every person currently alive. The production rate is currently running at over 450 million tons a year. And when we no longer need or want something made of plastic – why, we just get rid of it. It’s so convenient. What could be simpler? The trouble is that plastic is far from being a wasting asset. On the contrary, it is all too permanent. It