Plastic snow falls from the sky.
When you think of the Arctic (北冰洋), you may imagine an icy land of white snow. And some people may imagine it as the last really clean place left on Earth. In fact, we have polluted the deepest oceans with plastic rubbish, and now, CNN says, "It's the Arctic's turn."
German scientists have recently found microplastics in Arctic snow. Microplastics are pieces of plastic smaller than 5 millimeters. Sadly, the scientists found 1,800 pieces of microplastics per liter (升) of snow. That may cause terrible air pollution.
How is plastic pollution reaching the Arctic? According to scientists, "It's clear that most of the microplastics in the snow come from the air. They fall off plastic objects and are moved by the wind. They mix with ice in the air and fall to the ground as snow."
Are they bad for us? We do know that our bodies cannot take in "large" pieces of microplastics. However, if the plastics are small enough, they can find ways into our bodies and stay there for a long time, which can be bad for our health.
Microplastics have also been found in rivers and oceans around the world. Research has found that they flow over long distances and into our oceans, damaging ecosystems (生态环境) along the way. When we wash clothes with plastic fibers (纤维), they start in our wastewater. The wastewater then flows into rivers and out to sea. They are eaten by sea animals there. If people then eat these animals, it means that we're eating the plastic as well.
① Wastewater flows into rivers and seas.
② People eat animals in the sea.
③ People wash clothes with plastic fibers.
④ Microplastics are eaten by sea animals.
