Shutterstock
A new type of weather phenomenon is falling out of the atmosphere: Plastic rain. A study found at least 1,000 metric tons are falling on America’s parks and wilderness areas every year, and that’s only 6% of the US – which means the total amount falling on all the land and water is astronomical.
A survey was taken in 11 remote locations in the Western US and what the researchers discovered brought some very bad news. Over the course of the year, they found, that microplastic particles were traveling through the atmosphere in the same way as water. All totaled, the researchers concluded that over 1,000 metric tons of microplastics were raining down on US parks and wilderness areas every year.
The number of microplastics raining down on earth in national parks, in the West alone, such as the Grand Canyon, Joshua tree, and others, was equivalent to the amount of plastic contained in 120 plastic million water bottles. Their survey looked at eleven remote locations in the West, including the Bryce Canyon, Great Basin and Craters of the Moon National parks, and others, The Guardian reported.
The findings were published in the journal Science. The researchers collected rainwater in air samples for fourteen months.
What’s most alarming, is that the study only looked at 11 protected areas in the western United States. If you multiply those numbers by the entire square acreage of the United States, you come up with a number that is astronomical.
“We just did that for the area of protected areas in the West, which is only 6 percent of the total US area,” says lead author Janice Brahney, an environmental scientist at Utah State University. “The number was just so large, it’s shocking.”
While we worry about mesothelioma survival due to asbestos, or the dangers of other elements in our atmosphere, a study has yet to be done about how much microplastics could be harming us. How much are we breathing in? How much are we drinking in our water supply?
Generally speaking, the majority of microplastics are fragments from larger pieces of plastics. The problem is – plastics aren’t biodegradable. Plastic ends up in landfills and waste piles, eventually breaking down into smaller and smaller pieces, becoming microplastics. These microparticles make their way into the Earth’s atmosphere, deposited in soil and water systems.
By definition, microplastics are particles less than 5 millimeters long, Wired reported. They come largely from fragmented plastic bottles and microfibers that fray from clothing.
A number of studies have already highlighted the damage microplastics are causing to freshwater and ocean environments, even affecting deep-sea ecosystems. According to further research, microplastics are even being ejected out of the water and blown onto land by sea breezes.
