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Picture the Arctic.
Does it bring to mind images
of a pristine icy wilderness?
Pure white icebergs, smog-free skies,
and clear blue ocean waters?
Well, don’t forget some of the world’s
worst microplastic pollution.
Despite being surrounded
by some of the least densely
populated countries on Earth,
the Arctic Ocean somehow ended up
with one of the highest concentrations
of microplastics
we’ve ever measured.
Which begs some important questions, like:
How did all that plastic get there
in the first place?
And what do we do about it?
So let’s dive in
and learn how microplastics are traveling
around the planet to make one of
the most isolated areas on Earth
one of the most polluted.
[Intro music]
It’s pretty hard to avoid plastic these days.
We’re pumping out plastic pollution at an alarming rate,
with 19 million metric tons of the stuff finding its way
from land into the ocean annually…
And we’re not just talking
about plastic bags and straws
that get gobbled up by sea turtles,
although that’s terrible, too.
One particular type of plastic pollution,
largely invisible to the naked eye,
is spreading across the globe: microplastics.
Microplastics are essentially anything smaller
than 5 mm in diameter. And although we’re intentionally
adding microplastics to products
like exfoliating face washes and toothpastes,
we’ve accidentally create them, too.
For example,
every time we do a load of laundry
that contains synthetic fabric,.
small pieces of that fabric break off
and pollute the water heading down the drain.
Even large plastic waste
turns into microplastic pieces over time.
Not surprisingly, a huge portion of ocean litter
can be traced back to fisheries.
This is often from derelict gear
that is intentionally dumped.
But what starts out as big chunks
of netting and other debris
breaks down into tiny terrors.
As plastic becomes degraded
by exposure to sunlight, temperature fluctuations,
and physical forces like crashing waves,
microplastics are created.
And they’re accumulating
in the environment around the world.
Given that microplastics are typically
the result of plastic waste breaking down,
you might think that microplastic pollution
would be highest where there
are the most people.
But the Arctic rips a hole right through that logic.
Researchers across multiple studies found microplastics
in abundance around this polar region.
And we're not just talking about
some plastic discovered here and there.
The Arctic has some of the highest concentrations
of microplastics in the world!
One study from 2020 found
more than a thousand pieces
of microplastics per cubic meter
in the Arctic water column.
And if that’s not bad enough,
several other studies
have found extremely high
concentrations of microplastics
trapped in the ice too,
with one study finding up to 12 million particles
per cubic meter in some areas!. That’s right, ice.
These tiny plastic bits aren’t just floating around in the water,
but the Arctic sea ice itself
is becoming a frigid storage facility
of this disastrous debris. And it gets worse.
Microplastics have actually been found
down to 1000 meters
below the surface of the ocean.
Shockingly high concentrations
were even discovered within deep sea sediments!
And given that we only know
where 1% of the millions of tons of plastics
that make their way into oceans
each year actually ends up,
we can now point to the bottom of the ocean
as a major collection zone.
The wild thing
is that a number of different types of microplastics
have been found in the Arctic,
not just the kind you’d expect,
like broken up bits of abandoned fishing gear.
That sent a red flag to researchers
that this isn’t simply big ocean plastic waste
drifting around and breaking apart
in the northern waters.
Plastic is clearly arriving
from distant sources.
There are still a lot of mysteries
surrounding how these plastics
are accumulating in massive quantities
in such a remote location,
but we do have a few ideas about how they’re getting there.
Now, as expected, a fair bit of the pollution
is not only from ships and industry
in Arctic waters,
but also the nearest inhabited areas,
like Greenland.
This tracks,
especially given that remote communities
tend to have poor waste management options
to work with.
But given that
Arctic pollution is so high
and population density is very low,
this alone doesn’t account
for the sheer quantity and diversity of plastic
in that area.
Researchers think a lot of it
comes from much farther away,
brought to the Arctic by way of ocean currents,
floating rafts of ice,
and even precipitation.
To try and understand
where all this plastic was coming from,
researchers used satellite images
and sea ice motion
to track the movements of water.
They also took ice cores to figure out
when these plastics became embedded in the ice,
and where the ice originally formed.
Now it’s hard to come to strong conclusions
about the origins of a lot of these plastics,
they’re so widely used in various products,
meaning they can’t be tied to any one industry or location.
That said, using models and accumulated data,
they were able to figure out
some of the most likely pathways.
For one, plastics are traveling
from the Pacific Ocean via currents
that move through the Bering Sea,
and that’s in addition to Atlantic currents
that bring North American
and European pollution up into Arctic waters
from the opposite direction.
Microplastics are also likely traveling via rivers,
most notably from Siberia,
that weave through densely populated areas,
picking up micropollutants along the way
before eventually reaching the ocean.
Given that about 10% of the world’s river discharge
ends up in the Arctic,
that’s a huge volume of water
for urban waste
to hitchhike north in.
To put it simply, this seems to be a case of,
all roads lead to the Arctic.
And we have very good reason
to be concerned with this build up
of microplastics in the Arctic,
remote or not.
Being so tiny, microplastics don’t just get widely distributed
in the environment,
but also within the living things
that call these spaces home.
They’ve been found in a wide range of organisms,
from seabirds to fish to marine worms.
Although we don’t fully understand
the health impacts that come along
with accumulating plastics inside of you,
it's hard to imagine it’s good.
Even if we don’t have all the answers
for how the plastic is getting to the Arctic,
solutions have been proposed.
Given that plastic doesn’t exactly care about borders,
researchers have pointed out the need
for local and global action,
from improved waste management worldwide
to stricter regulations around Arctic fishery practices..
There’s also a bright future for technologies
that help us with plastic-free living,
including biodegradable fishing nets.
There’s no one perfect and easy solution,
but these kinds of changes could definitely
help us move in the right direction.
Whether you’re in an urban center
or a remote icy landscape,
one thing is for certain:
The plastics you use are breaking down
into tiny pieces and getting,
well, everywhere.
Luckily,
it doesn’t have to be that way.
If we produce less and reuse more,
we can stop the flow of this invisible menace.
Maybe one day,
the Arctic really will be that pristine wilderness
many people imagine.
Now, there are a lot of ways
that you can help take care of the environment,
like using less gas.
Now, electric vehicles are great in theory,
but are they worth the money?
You can discover the answer thanks to brilliant.
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[ OUTRO ]