This story was originally published by Grist. Sign up for Grist’s weekly newsletter here. Diplomats from around the world concluded nine days of talks in Geneva — plus a marathon overnight session that lasted into the early hours of Friday — with no agreement on a global plastics treaty. During a closing plenary that started […]
You Don’t Want to Know Where Scientists Just Found 27 Million Tons of Plastic
Despite the hundreds of millions of metric tons of plastic floating in our oceans—not to mention the microplastics in our saliva, blood, breast milk, and semen—researchers have been unable to account for all the plastic ever produced. A new study has just tracked down a large portion of it. Researchers from the Royal Netherlands Institute for […]
Chewing Gum Releases Thousands of Microplastics Into Our Saliva, Researchers Find
In just the last couple of years, scientists have found microplastics in disturbing places, from beneath Arctic ice to human blood, testicles, and even brains. In fact, plastic is so widespread that it has triggered a new geological epoch. Now, researchers have added chewing gum to the growing list of products that expose humans to […]
Plastic Triggered a New Geological Epoch—and the Evidence May Be in Bird Nests
Plastic may have started a new geological era on our planet, sometimes called the Anthropocene. Hundreds and even thousands of years from now, scientists may date sediment layers by finding bits of old plastic, similar to how today’s archaeologists date excavations by the art styles of ancient pottery. In fact, this has already begun: Researchers […]
Plastic Triggered a New Geological Epoch—and the Evidence May Be in Bird Nests
Plastic may have started a new geological era on our planet, sometimes called the Anthropocene. Hundreds and even thousands of years from now, scientists may date sediment layers by finding bits of old plastic, similar to how today’s archaeologists date excavations by the art styles of ancient pottery. In fact, this has already begun: Researchers […]