Out in the Pacific Ocean, between Hawaii and California, is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a swirl of plastic trash more than twice the size of Texas. As pieces of plastic tumble against each other, they break down into particles tiny enough to be borne aloft on the wind. Once in the air, they have a climate impact that could affect us all, according to new research.The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a significant source of airborne microplastics and nanoplastics, but there are many other places where tiny plastic particles can be whipped up into the skies, including from landfills, roadside litter and car tires.A team of scientists from China and the US have studied the makeup and behavior of these plastics, and found they are contributing to global heating, according to the study published Monday in the journal Nature.AdvertisementAdvertisementMost microplastics research has focused on their health and environmental dangers, but this report “reveals a long overlooked link between plastic pollution and climate change,” said Hongbo Fu, a study author and an atmospheric scientist at Fudan University in Shanghai.The scientists zoomed in on microplastics, usually the size of a pencil eraser or smaller, and nanoplastics, which are the tiniest particles, many times smaller than the width of a human hair. They analyzed color, size and chemistry to understand more about how they interact with sunlight.They wanted to know whether particles scattered sunlight back into space — meaning they would have a cooling influence on the planet — or whether they absorbed sunlight, which would have a warming impact.Previous research has suggested microplastics’ contribution to global warming was negligible, but analyses have often assumed particles were clear, the report scientists said. What they found was a rainbow of colors.AdvertisementAdvertisementColored plastics, especially red, yellow, blue and black, absorbed around 75 times more light than pristine, non-pigmented plastics, …
