A PLANETARY CRISIS: Plastic pollution is everywhere in the global ocean, and levels have grown exponentially and harms marine life through entanglement, ingestion, smothering and chemical leaching
The UN calls it a ‘planetary crisis’.1 From the poles to the remotest islands, from the surface of the sea to the deepest ocean trench, the marine plastic pollution problem has grown exponentially, plastic pollution is now ubiquitous and is projected to increase even if current corporate and government commitments are met. Global and systemic actions are needed urgently in response.
Plastic pollution is now found everywhere in the ocean, and almost every marine species is likely to have encountered it. According to a conservative assessment of current research, a total of 2,141 species have so far been found to encounter plastic pollution in their natural environments.
