Microplastic-eating plankton may be worsening crisis in oceans, say scientists
A type of zooplankton found in marine and fresh water can ingest and break down microplastics, scientists have discovered. But rather than providing a solution to the threat plastics pose to aquatic life, the tiny creatures known as rotifers could be accelerating the risk by splitting the particles into thousands of smaller and potentially more dangerous nanoplastics.
Each rotifer, named from the Latin for “wheel-bearer” owing to the whirling wheel of cilia around their mouths, can create between 348,000 and 366,000 nanoplastics – particles smaller than one micrometer – each day.
The animals are microscopic, ubiquitous and abundant, with up to 23,000 individuals found living in one liter of water, in one location. The researchers, from a team led by the University of Massachusetts Amherst, calculated that in Poyang Lake, the largest lake in China, rotifers were creating 13.3 quadrillion of these plastic particles every day.
If rotifers can produce 13.3 quadrillion nanoparticles a day in Poyang Lake, then the amount created worldwide is immeasurably greater. Each microplastic could theoretically be broken down into 1,000,000,000,000,000 nanoplastic particles, which are then more easily spread.
theguardian.com/environment/20…docs.google.com/document/d/1cD…
Good to be on @bbcmtd Politics Midlands yesterday.
In North Herefordshire, people are telling me that after 13 years of Conservative chaos and mismanagement they want to make their voices heard. 🗳️
More people than ever before are planning to #VoteGreen. 💚
The Conservative Day is done. Their nonsensical Brexit project, the damage it has done, their asset stripping for personal gain and their criminal activities have sealed their fate. Nothing is going to change it.
I believe that mid next parliamentary term we will see the emergence of a centrist, non extremist party focused on managing for the nation and our people. We will implement proportional representation and we will see a more balanced, professional and far less self interested government of our nation. Hopefully the Tories will be discarded forever. Tory has become a very tarnished brand and label and rightfully so!
YIELD TO THE NIGHT (1956), also known as BLONDE SINNER, is a fascinating film about the prison system, starring Diana Dors and directed by J. Lee Thompson (CAPE FEAR). It's the first serious role for Dors, and she pulls it off beautifully. Grim, stylish, and harrowing.
A German mining engineer recently passed away. After his death it turned out that he has one of the biggest private books collections in Germany with a lot of rare books. Collection is over 70,000 books. He built book cases and shelves even in the ceiling. spiegel.de/wissenschaft/m…
On what puts working class people off the Green Party and she talks about ‘atunement’. Yes, I definitely found this very weird when I first joined and is a reason I do not replicate it in Peterborough Meetings.
Didn’t want to see my party dissed, but we have to take it.
The next Times environmental supplement will be about preparing young people for climate change and net zero. I'm interested in featuring ideas to adapt the curriculum, train young people for green jobs, help them deal with climate anxiety, and so on.Who should I be speaking to?
Over 30 Greenpeace activists have occupied parliament, bringing energy bills and reading out testimonies from people across the country just as @RishiSunak is announced as the new Prime Minister. He must deliver a proper windfall tax to insulate homes. #ChaosCostsLives
.@Jesse_Norman as my MP, please oppose measures in the #PublicOrderBill that:
Ban named people from protesting
Electronically tag protesters
Expand stop and search
Criminalise ‘locking on’
Please vote to protect the right to protest