Plastic in clouds must jolt planet to action
The only material that can be called truly omnipresent is plastic. Malleable and maleficent, it is everywhere and not going away anytime soon. It makes our lives easier, but is the planet’s biggest curse too. A study published recently has tracked the alarming heights plastic appears to have scaled—a group of Japanese scientists found microplastics in clouds for the first time. The researchers took cloud water samples from Japan’s highest peak, Mount Fuji, and Mount Oyama outside Tokyo last year and arrived at the fascinating and disturbing understanding.
The report, published in the journal Environmental Chemistry Letters, revealed that at least nine varieties of microplastics including polyethylene, polypropylene and polycarbonate had been found in the cloud water samples. A rubber compound was detected, too. We know of the burden of plastic on Earth’s surface; this study is the first to detect airborne microplastics in the free troposphere.
According to the UN Environment Programme, at least 430 million tonnes of plastic is produced every year and two-thirds of it ends up as waste, eventually going into the land, river systems and oceans, throttling their ecosystems. It is found in the digestive tracts of deep-sea marine species as well as in the wombs of pregnant women. This recent study found seven to thirteen pieces of microplastics measuring seven to ninety-four micrometres in a litre of cloud water.
“Our finding suggests that high-altitude microplastics influence cloud formation and, in turn, might modify the climate,” says the report. This changes our understanding in two fundamental ways. First, that plastics went to the free troposphere from the oceans. Second, these microplastics may have formed the ‘condensation nuclei’ of clouds, which means we may have plastics in rainwater.
The new study must act as a wake-up call. The Supreme Court banned single-use plastic last year. Earlier, some states used the model Plastic Waste Management Rules 2016 (amended in 2021) to restrict usage. Sikkim stood out by banning plastic carry-bags of any thickness. Yet, overall success has been limited. Much of it has to do with the pushback from producers. India must take a fresh look at its extended producer responsibility plan, strengthen plastic segregation in every municipal and rural body, seek better alternatives, and upgrade recycling technology. The Swachhata Hi Seva campaign would do well to take up the fight against plastic pollution.