Plastic pollution has entered the fossil record, research shows
Source: The Guardian
After bronze and iron, welcome to the plastic age, say scientists
Plastic pollution has entered the fossil record, research shows
Damian Carrington Environment editor
@dpcarrington
Wed 4 Sep 2019 19.00 BST
Plastic pollution is being deposited into the fossil record, research has found, with contamination increasing exponentially since 1945.
Scientists suggest the plastic layers could be used to mark the start of the Anthropocene, the proposed geological epoch in which human activities have come to dominate the planet. They say after the bronze and iron ages, the current period may become known as the plastic age.
The study, the first detailed analysis of the rise in plastic pollution in sediments, examined annual layers off the coast of California back to 1834. They discovered the plastic in the layers mirrors precisely the exponential rise in plastic production over the past 70 years.
Most of the plastic particles were fibres from synthetic fabrics used in clothes, indicating that plastics are flowing freely into the ocean through waste water.
“Our love of plastic is being left behind in our fossil record,” said Jennifer Brandon, at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego, who led the study. “It is bad for the animals that live at the bottom of the ocean: coral reefs, mussels, oysters and so on. But the fact that it is getting into our fossil record is more of an existential question.
-snip-
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/sep/04/plastic-pollution-fossil-record
______________________________________________________________________
Related: Multidecadal increase in plastic particles in coastal ocean sediments (Science Advances)