Another Plastic Problem |

Another Plastic Problem

By now, we all know that plastic is bad for the environment. Besides the damage to marine life who mistake it for food, the chemicals that can be released into soil and groundwater (and then move up the food chain), a 2018 study shows that when plastics are exposed to sunlight, they release greenhouse gasses.

Two of the gasses that contribute to climate change, methane and ethylene, are released when certain plastic items exposed to sunlight. Each piece of plastic releases only a small amount of these gasses; the problem is in the enormous amounts of plastic we go through on a regular basis. The scale of plastic production and waste means they could still contribute to climate-changing greenhouse gas emissions over time.

The main author of the study, Dr. Sarah-Jeanne Royer, wasn’t looking for greenhouse gas emissions. She set out to measure the methane produced by biological organisms in sea water. Imagine her surprise when she realized that the plastic bottles holding the samples released more gas than the samples themselves!

Dr. Royer tested over half a dozen types of plastic in her study, all used in food packaging, construction, and other plastic good. One of the types she tested was polyethylene, which is used in (among other things) plastic bags and is the most used and discarded single-use plastic in the world. Any guesses which type emitted the largest amounts of the greenhouse gasses? Bingo—polyethylene.

Part of the problem is that as the plastic is exposed to sunlight and it starts to break down, it cracks and exposes more area to the sun, which leads to a vicious cycle of pollution. After being exposed to sunlight for 212 days, the polyethylene emitted 176 times the methane that it had at the start of the experiment. Once this plastic had been exposed to the sun, it continued to emit gases, even in darkness.

Source:

https://www.ecowatch.com/plastic-waste-could-contribute-to-climate-change-2592101036.html

Curriculum Reference Links

Earth and Space / Sustainability / 7: Students should be able to illustrate how earth processes and human factors influence the Earth’s climate, evaluate effects of climate change and initiatives that attempt to address those effects

10 Fun Facts: The Hab

1. Aquarius is the the world’s only permanent undersea research station.

2. Most missions last about two or three weeks.

3. Fabien Cousteau, grandson of Jacques Cousteau, beat his grandfather’s record month-long underwater expedition by spending 31 days on the Aquarius Reef Base in 2014.

4. The lab is used by NASA, the US Navy, and researchers and educators from around the globe for training and research.

5. The internet connection is better in the Hab than at many places above the water.

6. You have to swim underneath the facility in order to enter it.

7. Crew members are called aquanauts (NOT aquaNUTS!)

8. In 1994, a crew of scientists and divers had to evacuate Aquarius and climb up a rescue line to the surface in 15-foot seas after one of the habitat’s generators caught fire.

9. Aquarius was featured in the comic strip Sherman’s Lagoon in 2012.

10. The Hab was originally built in Texas.

10 Fun Facts: Coral

1. Reefs usually grow up on the east shore of land masses.

2. Parts of a coral reef can be harvested to make medications to treat cancers and other illnesses.

3. A coral reef isn’t a single organism; it’s actually a community of life that lives and thrives in one location.

4. Only about one percent of the world’s oceans contain coral reefs. That’s about the size of France.

5. Coral reefs are the largest biological structures on earth.

6. Corals are related to jellyfish and anemones.

7. There are over 2,500 species of corals. About 1,000 are the hard corals that build coral reefs.

8. Reefs grow where there are stronger wave patterns and currents to deliver food and nutrients.

9. The Great Barrier Reef is 500,000 years old.

10. Most coral reefs grow just about two centimeters per year.

10. Most coral reefs grow just about two centimeters per year.

10 Fun Facts: Invasive Species

1. To be considered invasive, a species must adapt to a new area easily. It must reproduce quickly. It must harm property, the economy, or the native plants and animals of the region.

2. Some invasive species are introduced accidentally, but others are brought deliberately.

3. Ship ballast water transports between 3,000 and 7,000 foreign species daily around the globe.

4. The total loss to the world economy as a result of invasive non-native species has been estimated at 5% of annual production

5. Invasive species have contributed to 40% of the animal extinctions that have occurred in the last 400 years.

6. Rodents are some of the worst invasive species.

7. There are an estimated 50,000 wild ring-necked parakeets in parks across London and southeast England.

8. Black and Norway rats annually consume stored grains and destroy other property valued over $19 billion.

9. Northern Pacific seastars reproduce very quickly. In one area where they were introduced, their population reached an estimated 12 million seastars in just two years.

10. Starlings were introduced to New York in the late 1800s, as part of an attempt to bring animals that were mentioned in Shakespeare‘s work to America.

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