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Heat-Trapping Microplastics Found to Play Role in Climate Change
Researchers found airborne microplastics absorb sunlight and warm the planet, with colored particles trapping about 16% as much heat as black carbon, they said.
- On Monday, a China-US research team published a study in Nature Climate Change revealing that airborne microplastics and nanoplastics absorb sunlight, contributing to atmospheric warming.
- Colored plastics, especially black, red, yellow, and blue, absorb around 75 times more light than pristine particles, acting like a "black T-shirt" as they age and darken in the atmosphere.
- Researchers found colored airborne plastics produce roughly 16% of the warming impact of black carbon, with effects notably pronounced in ocean hotspots like the Texas-sized Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
- Despite the findings, Professor Drew Shindell of Duke University cautioned that "we have limited data on exactly how many of these there are in the atmosphere."
- If confirmed by future research, scientists recommend updating climate models to classify microplastics as short-lived climate forcers, potentially enabling rapid but limited warming reduction strategies.
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22 Articles
22 Articles
Chinese and American researchers have measured for the first time the climate impact of plastics in the atmosphere. Colorful and black are the most worrying.
·Portugal
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Tiny colorful plastic particles float in the atmosphere – and absorb sunlight. A new study shows that their warming effect is surprisingly large.
·Germany
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Coverage Details
Total News Sources22
Leaning Left6Leaning Right4Center5Last UpdatedBias Distribution40% Left
Bias Distribution
- 40% of the sources lean Left
40% Left
L 40%
C 33%
R 27%
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