Plastic pollution is changing entire Earth system, scientists find

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By Sandra Laville, The Guardian. 

Excerpt: Pollution is affecting the climate, biodiversity, ecosystems, ocean acidification and human health, according to analysis. Plastic pollution is changing the processes of the entire Earth system, exacerbating climate change, biodiversity loss, ocean acidification, and the use of freshwater and land, according to scientific analysis. Plastic must not be treated as a waste problem alone, the authors said, but as a product that poses harm to ecosystems and human health. ...Microplastics are now everywhere, from the top of Mount Everest to the Mariana Trench, the deepest point on earth. ...“It’s necessary to consider the full life cycle of plastics, starting from the extraction of fossil fuel and the primary plastic polymer production” said the article’s lead author, Patricia Villarrubia-Gómez, at Stockholm Resilience Centre.... 

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