The plastic crises and climate changed are intrinsically linked. The history of the fossil fuel industry is that of plastic production, and in many ways, plastic being such an excellent material – cheap, light, strong, non permeable has fuelled our culture and expectation around consumable items, fast. This article by Sabrina Imbler, the New York Times, explores an important way that Microplastics are effecting climate regulation in the ocean and the role of microplastics in marine snow. Microplastics are travelling in the water column and have been found in the deepest part of the ocean and in the creatures that inhabit it.
‘Every year, tens of millions of tons of plastic enter Earth’s oceans. Scientists initially assumed that the material was destined to float in garbage patches and gyres, but surface surveys have accounted for only about one percent of the ocean’s estimated plastic. A recent model found that 99.8 percent of plastic that entered the ocean since 1950 had sunk below the first few hundred feet of the ocean. Scientists have found 10,000 times more microplastics on the seafloor than in contaminated surface waters.’
So, how are microplastics and climate change linked?
In an experiment by Dr Galgani, the environments with more microplastics produce more organic carbon. Microbes colonise the Microplastics and as they move up and down the water column seed the deep ocean with carbon. This could ‘alter the ocean’s biological pump, which helps regulate the climate.’
Installing Pure Ionic Water System removes the need to buy single use plastic bottles and contributing to the ‘tens of millions’ statistic of plastic entering the ocean. Furthermore, the system filters microplastics out of water, so they are no longer being drunk by you, or going back into the environment.
