Microplastics Are Filling the Skies. Will They Affect the Climate? – Yale Environment 360

Micro Plastics in Arctic Snow (by Felton Davis CC BY 2.0 via Flickr).

Recent studies reveal that tiny pieces of plastic are constantly lofted into the atmosphere. These particles can travel thousands of miles and affect the formation of clouds, which means they have the potential to impact temperature, rainfall, and even climate change.

Plastic has become an obvious pollutant over recent decades, choking turtles and seabirds, clogging up our landfills and waterways. But in just the past few years, a less-obvious problem has emerged…

The way of water: Can anything be done to save our disappearing beaches? – WA Today

Freemantle Beach, Australia (by Graeme Churchard CC BY 2.0 via Fliickr).

South Beach is a far cry from those wide-open ultra-Aussie surf destinations such as Scarborough and Trigg (the bit in front of Wilson Park is barely a kilometre long)…So you can imagine my shock when I recently popped down for a jog and a swim to discover that a good chunk of the white stuff that was so fundamental to my experience of Fremantle had disappeared…