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Thursday, June 07, 2018, 17:48
Greenpeace: More proof of plastic proliferation in Antarctica
By Reuters
Thursday, June 07, 2018, 17:48 By Reuters

A screengrab made on July 14, 2017 from a video released by the British Antarctic Survey shows the rift in the Larsen C Ice Shelf, on the Antartic Peninsula, in Feb 2017. Observations from Feb 2017 show the growing crack in the ice shelf which suggests that an iceberg with an area of more than 5,000 km² is likely to calve soon. (STRINGER / BRITISH ANTARCTIC SURVEY / AFP)

OSLO - Plastic waste and toxic chemicals found in remote parts of the Antarctic this year add to evidence that pollution is spreading to the ends of the Earth, environmental group Greenpeace said on Thursday. 

Microplastics - tiny bits of plastic from the breakdown of everything from shopping bags to car tyres - were detected in nine of 17 water samples collected off the Antarctic peninsula by a Greenpeace vessel in early 2018, it said. 

Results show that even the most remote habitats of the Antarctic are contaminated with microplastic waste

Frida Bengtsson, Protect the Antarctic campaign, Greenpeace 

And seven of nine snow samples taken on land in Antarctica found chemicals known as PFAs (polyfluorinated alkylated substances), which are used in industrial products and can harm wildlife. 

"We may think of the Antarctic as a remote and pristine wilderness," Frida Bengtsson of Greenpeace's Protect the Antarctic campaign said in a statement about the findings. 

"But from pollution and climate change to industrial krill fishing, humanity's footprint is clear," she said. "These results show that even the most remote habitats of the Antarctic are contaminated with microplastic waste and persistent hazardous chemicals." 

The United Nations' environment agency says plastic pollution has been detected from the Arctic to Antarctica and in remote places including the Mariana Trench, the deepest part of the world's oceans in the Pacific. 

On Tuesday, it said that less than a 10th of all the plastic ever made has been recycled, and governments should consider banning or taxing single-use bags or food containers to stem a tide of pollution. 

Crossing oceans

Last year researchers at the University of Hull and the British Antarctic Survey found that levels of microplastic in Antarctica were five times higher than expected only counting local sources such as research stations and ships. 

That means that the pollution is crossing the Southern Ocean, often considered as a barrier to man-made pollution. Scientists say the long-term impacts on marine life are unknown. 

At the other end of the world, researchers in Germany reported in April that sea ice floating on the Arctic Ocean contains large amounts of plastic waste, which could be released as the ice thins because of global warming. 

A photo taken on Sept 11, 2012 shows containers with plastic waste on the Martin-de-Vivies base on the Amsterdam island, part of the French Southern and Antartic Lands. The Amsterdam island forms one of the five districts of the territory of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands. Its base, the Martin-de-Vivies research station, the only settlement on the island, is the capital of the territory and is home to about 30 (non-permanent) inhabitants involved in biological, meteorological and geomagnetic studies. (SOPHIE LAUTIER / AFP)

"Plastic stays around for hundreds of years," said author Ilka Peeken of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research. 

In trying to understand the spread of pollution, she told Reuters that new areas for research could include how far tiny bits of plastic are getting blown on winds to the Arctic and how much is swept by ocean currents.

READ MORE: Protecting Antarctica is a priority

In this undated handout photo released on March 9, 2018 a single krill swims at the Australian Antarctic Division's (AAD) krill aquarium in Hobart, Tasmania. Krill could prove to be a secret weapon in the fight against the growing threat of plastic pollution in the world's oceans as new research shows the tiny zooplankton physically break down microplastics. (ROB KING / AUSTRALIAN ANTARCTIC DIVISION / AFP)

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