Microplastics discovered deep in Arctic ice, highlighting growing threat of plastic pollution
- The discovery of tiny pieces of plastic in the remotest waters of the planet was described by a scientist as a ‘punch in the gut’
- The UN estimates that 100 million tonnes of plastic has been dumped in the oceans to date
Tiny pieces of plastic have been found in ice cores drilled in the Arctic by a US-led team of scientists, underscoring the threat the growing form of pollution poses to marine life in even the remotest waters on the planet.
“We had spent weeks looking out at what looks so much like pristine white sea ice floating out on the ocean,” said Jacob Strock, a graduate student researcher at the University of Rhode Island, who conducted an initial on-board analysis of the cores.
“When we look at it up close and we see that it’s all very, very visibly contaminated when you look at it with the right tools – it felt a little bit like a punch in the gut,” Strock said on Wednesday.
Strock and his colleagues found the material trapped in ice taken from Lancaster Sound, an isolated stretch of water in the Canadian Arctic, which they had assumed might be relatively sheltered from drifting plastic pollution.
