At the bottom of the world, where few humans have ever set foot, an unwelcome visitor has arrived.
At the bottom of the world, where few humans have ever set foot, an unwelcome visitor has arrived. Antarctica – the vast, frozen wilderness of ice and snow – is no longer untouched by humanity’s most persistent pollutant: plastic.
The continent we often imagine as Earth’s last unspoiled frontier now bears the invisible fingerprints of our throwaway culture. Researchers have documented microscopic fragments of plastics, not just in Antarctica’s snow and surrounding waters, but deep in the Southern Ocean and within the bodies of the marine life that calls these frigid waters home.
“Part of the challenge is that plastic is not just one type of pollutant,” explains Emily Rowlands, a marine ecologist at British Antarctic Survey. “It’s a whole suite of different polymers that have different impacts on animals when they’re ingested, and they can all interact differently in the environment.”
Read more at: British Antarctic Survey
Dr Emily Rowlands out on sea ice near the RRS Sir David Attenborough for sampling work. (Photo Credit: British Antarctic Survey)
