Plastic "siege" Arctic cities call for a global fight against plastic pollution

Gabrielsen was involved in a study in 1987 that looked at 40 seahorse samples, and the result was that only 3 seahorses had a few pieces of plastic in their stomachs. But when the experiment was conducted again in 2013, the results were completely opposite, with only 3 of the 40 seahorses having no plastic in their stomachs, and some samples had more than 200 pieces of plastic in their stomachs.

Despite its remoteness from industrial centers and agricultural areas, the Arctic faces a threat from global pollutants, and the derivative effects of climate change are altering the local ecology.

Even in remote areas such as Svalbard, Norway, it suffers from plastic pollution. Norwegian Environment Minister Ola Elvestuen told 21st Century Business Herald that "this is very disturbing and means that nowhere in the world can escape the effects of plastic." In Elvestuen's view, although the pollution generated by plastics is well known, the action against plastic pollution has not yet reached a large scale, "we must act", plastic in the ocean is a fast-growing global problem.

At the "Arctic Frontier" conference held in Tromsø, Norway in 2018, the Norwegian Polar Research Institute released a report called "Plastics in the European Arctic" (hereinafter referred to as the "Plastics Report"), and Geir W. Gabrielsen, one of the authors of the report, told the 21st Century Business Herald reporter that plastic waste and plastic products that have traveled long distances to the Arctic have gradually increased, "becoming invasive 'species' in the Arctic region", affecting the arctic ecological environment and species in multiple ways.

The plastics report also shows that in addition to the huge changes in the ecological environment in the Arctic caused by global warming, the impact of human activities on the ecological environment of the Arctic is very direct.

Plastic pollution is eroding the Arctic

In 2017, an article on how plastic pollution affects the marine ecological environment was widely forwarded in the WeChat circle of friends, which looked shocking, but it was factual and increasingly increasing.

Gabrielsen noted in the plastics report that plastics of various sizes can currently be found in the Arctic regions under the jurisdiction of Svalbard and Norway, and the amount of garbage per square kilometer in this area is about 194, the vast majority of which is plastic waste, and the total weight of this garbage during the reporting period is about 79,000 tons.

At the meeting to release the report, Gabrielsen showed a photo of a polar bear trapped in an abandoned old fishing net, "of course the polar bear was finally rescued", but this is a sad story, in 2009 the United Nations noted in a report that 130 species around the world are affected by plastic pollution, either stuck or contaminated by plastic, and by 2016, 800 species have been affected, and the situation is getting worse.

In Svalbard, plastic pollution comes mainly from vessels and fishing-related items, such as old fishing gear such as nets, yarns and ropes made from nylon, but there is also plastic pollution from around the world. Seals, seabirds, reindeer and polar bears are plagued by plastic pollution, which is abundant in Svalbard's waters and land, Gabrielsen said.

Gabrielsen, who worked in Svalbard for 36 years, has been taking more and more plastic in the stomachs of animal samples in his research experience, "for example, the surface of the food obtained by the seahorse is attached to small plastics, which enter the stomach of the seahorse, hinder the absorption of food, and eventually lead to the death of the hippocampus from starvation, in addition, some animals are entangled or trapped by plastic, and their lives are greatly affected." ”

Plastic pollution is more severe than expected, "and incredible changes have taken place," Gabrielsen said.

Oslo Paris Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Northeast Atlantic (5.580, 0.07, 1.27%)(OSPAR), a European legally binding agreement for the protection of the marine environment, is one of the ecological quality goals of the agreement that less than 10% of seahorses should have less than 0.1 grams of plastic in their stomachs, but this goal is being broken.

"We know that as many as 90 percent of seabirds have plastic in their stomachs, and 22.5 percent of seahorses have more than 0.1 grams of plastic in their stomachs," said ingenborg G. Hallanger, another author of the report.

Plastics Report researchers believe there is a lot of knowledge about the problem of plastic pollution that needs to be studied in order to better understand how this affects the Arctic and the species that live there. The researchers wrote in the report, "We urgently need to address many of the gaps in our understanding of plastics in the Arctic environment and Arctic species, and we need to better understand how plastics affect our Arctic environment and the species that live here." ”

Jakob Thyrring, a postdoctoral fellow at the Arctic Research Centre at Aarhus University in Denmark, also highlighted this in his recent report, which shows that less than 10 percent of all research on climate change is conducted in the Arctic. Thyrring writes: "We clearly need to further study the impacts of climate change in this sensitive region of the planet to protect these fragile and unique Arctic ecosystems." ”

Call on the world to pay attention to plastic pollution

The growth of plastic waste cannot be reduced in the short term or because of the continuous growth of production.

The World Economic Forum (WEF) pointed out in a report that the global plastics industry produced about 325 million tons of plastics in 2015, and the amount of plastic wasted in the ocean during the reporting period was about 8 million to 13 million tons, and WEF expects this number to increase three to four times by 2050.

In addition, the Trade Organization American Chemistry Council also noted at the end of 2017 that fossil fuel companies, including Exxon and Shell Chemical, have invested more than $180 billion in the production of plastic products, and the production of plastic materials is expected to increase by 40% over the next decade.

"This means that if plastic pollution continues to grow at the current rate, it will be a huge problem." Gabrielsen said.

Speaking to 21st Century Business Herald at the Arctic Frontier conference, Elvestuen told 21st Century Business Herald that researchers have found a lot of plastic in the Arctic Ocean, 2500 meters down in the ocean west of Svalbard and deep ocean depths beyond Lisbon, "which is very disturbing because we know that plastic in the ocean is a fast-growing global problem." ”

Researchers such as Gabrielsen also said in the plastics report that the high levels of microplastics found in ice and sediments in the Arctic suggest that marine litter reduction actions are needed on a global scale, which is very important.

Dorte Herzke, a senior researcher at the Norwegian Institute of Atmospheric Research (NILU), notes in the latest Arctic Environmental Monitoring Programme (AMAP) report that plastics are released into the environment through a range of different activities. Industrial activities such as commercial fishing, the use of plastic abrasives and the spillage of plastic particles may be major sources of plastic in the ocean, with domestic applications such as washing microfiber garments, mismanaged waste and municipal sewage also contributing to pollution. This is also borne out by the results of the Norwegian Polar Research Institute, which, in its report, noted that most of the fishing gear in the pollutants on Svalbard is known to come from ships, especially from fishing fleets.

In addition, the AMAP report states that washing microfiber laundry also produces microplastic particles, and anything associated with wastewater will have an impact, which contains plastic pollution of wastewater and other pollutants, along with ocean currents into the Arctic, "converge" in the Arctic.

"You might throw something into the ocean in Florida and think, 'Hey, I threw it away,' and it's going to end up rushing to our shore." Bo Eide, environmental adviser to the Tronmsøe Parliament, said that in fact, the plastics would quickly break down into small pieces or even fibrous shapes, and "the whole coastline would be like a factory where plastics break down into microplastics."

Bo Eide points out that we once hailed the Arctic as a "pure, untouchable place," but only when we come to the area and walk along the coastline do we find it, which is completely different from what we thought.

Herzke wrote in the study that as more and more people live in the Arctic, more and more plastic products are being used, and global warming is causing damage to human buildings and releasing a decade-old plastic debris left in the sea ice, plastic pollution in the Arctic sea is bound to increase in the future.

People living in the Arctic are taking action to protect the Arctic ecology. Elvestuen told the 21st Century Business Herald that he will do more things with the city government of Tronmsø, one of which is to seek solutions to plastic pollution, hoping to make Tronsøe the first plastic-free city in Norway.

Kristin Røymo, mayor of Tronmsø, also said in an interview with 21st Century Business Herald that this new plastic-free initiative is not only aimed at locals, but also hopes that tourists from all over the world will understand this and protect the city like locals. Røymo noted that Norwegians have been taught from childhood to sort and manage garbage, recycle waste and so on, and as Arctic cities like Tronsøe have more tourists, the government will make plans for them to learn how to protect the city like a local.