
Two groups of researchers have found microplastics in Arctic ice and snow, Reuters reported Wednesday.
A U.S.-led team discovered microplastics in ice core samples taken on an 18-day icebreaker expedition through the Northwest Passage this summer. Meanwhile, German and Swiss scientists found plastic pieces in snow samples taken from the Arctic, the Swiss Alps and Germany.
"It felt a little bit like a punch in the gut," University of Rhode Island graduate student Jacob Strock, who participated in the Northwest Passage expedition, told Reuters of finding plastic in the ice.
Plastic on Ice
The ice-core samples were taken by the Northwest Passage Project, a National-Science-Foundation-funded trip aboard the icebreaker Oden from July 18 to Aug. 4. The primary purpose of the expedition was to understand the impact of the climate crisis on the region, but researchers tested the ice for plastic pollution too.
Plastic has been found in Arctic sea ice before, but this summer's expedition marks the first time that researchers have observed it in ice in the Northwest Passage, the crossing through the Canadian Arctic Archipelago between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, The University of Rhode Island said.
Scientists took 18 ice cores that were as long as two meters (approximately 6.5 feet), Reuters reported. They took the samples from Canada's Lancaster Sound, which they thought would be better protected from microplastic pollution. They were wrong.
"We thought we would need quite a bit of ice to find the plastics. So we started with an entire core of ice in order to concentrate it down to see how much plastic it contained," expedition chief scientist Brice Loose told The University of Rhode Island. "As it turned out, there was so much plastic that you could look at it with your naked eye and see all of the beads, fibers and filaments just sitting there in the bottom of the containers."
The findings lend further weight to the idea that ice tends to concentrate plastics as it concentrates nutrients and algae. There is concern that the amount of plastic in the ice could impact its structure and the way it absorbs sunlight, as well as the microscopic organisms that live within it.
Plastic Snow
Another study published in Science Advances Wednesday set out to assess how ice might end up in the Arctic by looking at snow. In order to test if plastic was being transported through the atmosphere and then deposited with snowfall, researchers, mostly from the German Alfred Wegener Institute, looked at snow from the Arctic's Fram Strait, the Swiss Alps and Germany. While they found more plastic in the European locations, they were surprised by how much they found in the Arctic: up to 14,400 particles of plastic per liter, according to Reuters.
#Microplastic drifting down with the snow: In the Alps and the Arctic, #AWI scientists confirm the presence of plastic in snow.https://t.co/0Qb7wGNYH0
— AWI Media (@AWI_Media) August 15, 2019
(📸: Kajetan Deja) pic.twitter.com/z7C0nrczG5
"We expected to find some contamination but to find this many microplastics was a real shock," lead scientist Dr. Melanie Bergmann told BBC News. "It's readily apparent that the majority of the microplastic in the snow comes from the air."
For Lili, who works at a dog sledding center in the Norwegian Arctic, the findings were dispiriting.
"It makes me incredibly sad. We've got plastics in the sea-ice. We've got plastics in the ocean and on the beaches. Now plastic in snow," Lili told BBC News. "Up here we see the beauty of it every day, and to see that it's changing so much and being tainted— it hurts."
#Plastic Contaminants Found in Eggs of Some of the World's Most Isolated Birds https://t.co/ImI8Q0RuNQ @PlasticPollutes @PlasticOceans
— EcoWatch (@EcoWatch) February 22, 2019
Butterflies across the U.S. West are disappearing, and now researchers say the climate crisis is largely to blame.
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California faces another "critically dry year" according to state officials, and a destructive wildfire season looms on its horizon. But in a state that welcomes innovation, water efficacy approaches and drought management could replenish California, increasingly threatened by the climate's new extremes.
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Trending
Wisdom the mōlī, or Laysan albatross, is the oldest wild bird known to science at the age of at least 70. She is also, as of February 1, a new mother.
<div id="dadb2" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="aa2ad8cb566c9b4b6d2df2693669f6f9"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1357796504740761602" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">🚨Cute baby alert! Wisdom's chick has hatched!!! 🐣😍 Wisdom, a mōlī (Laysan albatross) and world’s oldest known, ban… https://t.co/Nco050ztBA</div> — USFWS Pacific Region (@USFWS Pacific Region)<a href="https://twitter.com/USFWSPacific/statuses/1357796504740761602">1612558888.0</a></blockquote></div>
The Science Behind Frozen Wind Turbines – and How to Keep Them Spinning Through the Winter
By Hui Hu
Winter is supposed to be the best season for wind power – the winds are stronger, and since air density increases as the temperature drops, more force is pushing on the blades. But winter also comes with a problem: freezing weather.
Comparing rime ice and glaze ice shows how each changes the texture of the blade. Gao, Liu and Hu, 2021, CC BY-ND
Ice buildup changes air flow around the turbine blade, which can slow it down. The top photos show ice forming after 10 minutes at different temperatures in the Wind Research Tunnel. The lower measurements show airflow separation as ice accumulates. Icing Research Tunnel of Iowa State University, CC BY-ND
How ice builds up on the tips of turbine blades. Gao, Liu and Hu, 2021, CC BY-ND
While traditional investment in the ocean technology sector has been tentative, growth in Israeli maritime innovations has been exponential in the last few years, and environmental concern has come to the forefront.
theDOCK aims to innovate the Israeli maritime sector. Pexels
<p>The UN hopes that new investments in ocean science and technology will help turn the tide for the oceans. As such, this year kicked off the <a href="https://www.oceandecade.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030)</a> to galvanize massive support for the blue economy.</p><p>According to the World Bank, the blue economy is the "sustainable use of ocean resources for economic growth, improved livelihoods, and jobs while preserving the health of ocean ecosystem," <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412019338255#b0245" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Science Direct</a> reported. It represents this new sector for investments and innovations that work in tandem with the oceans rather than in exploitation of them.</p><p>As recently as Aug. 2020, <a href="https://www.reutersevents.com/sustainability/esg-investors-slow-make-waves-25tn-ocean-economy" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Reuters</a> noted that ESG Investors, those looking to invest in opportunities that have a positive impact in environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues, have been interested in "blue finance" but slow to invest.</p><p>"It is a hugely under-invested economic opportunity that is crucial to the way we have to address living on one planet," Simon Dent, director of blue investments at Mirova Natural Capital, told Reuters.</p><p>Even with slow investment, the blue economy is still expected to expand at twice the rate of the mainstream economy by 2030, Reuters reported. It already contributes $2.5tn a year in economic output, the report noted.</p><p>Current, upward <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/-innovation-blue-economy-2646147405.html" target="_self">shifts in blue economy investments are being driven by innovation</a>, a trend the UN hopes will continue globally for the benefit of all oceans and people.</p><p>In Israel, this push has successfully translated into investment in and innovation of global ports, shipping, logistics and offshore sectors. The "Startup Nation," as Israel is often called, has seen its maritime tech ecosystem grow "significantly" in recent years and expects that growth to "accelerate dramatically," <a href="https://itrade.gov.il/belgium-english/how-israel-is-becoming-a-port-of-call-for-maritime-innovation/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">iTrade</a> reported.</p><p>Driving this wave of momentum has been rising Israeli venture capital hub <a href="https://www.thedockinnovation.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">theDOCK</a>. Founded by Israeli Navy veterans in 2017, theDOCK works with early-stage companies in the maritime space to bring their solutions to market. The hub's pioneering efforts ignited Israel's maritime technology sector, and now, with their new fund, theDOCK is motivating these high-tech solutions to also address ESG criteria.</p><p>"While ESG has always been on theDOCK's agenda, this theme has become even more of a priority," Nir Gartzman, theDOCK's managing partner, told EcoWatch. "80 percent of the startups in our portfolio (for theDOCK's Navigator II fund) will have a primary or secondary contribution to environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria."</p><p>In a company presentation, theDOCK called contribution to the ESG agenda a "hot discussion topic" for traditional players in the space and their boards, many of whom are looking to adopt new technologies with a positive impact on the planet. The focus is on reducing carbon emissions and protecting the environment, the presentation outlines. As such, theDOCK also explicitly screens candidate investments by ESG criteria as well.</p><p>Within the maritime space, environmental innovations could include measures like increased fuel and energy efficiency, better monitoring of potential pollution sources, improved waste and air emissions management and processing of marine debris/trash into reusable materials, theDOCK's presentation noted.</p>theDOCK team includes (left to right) Michal Hendel-Sufa, Head of Alliances, Noa Schuman, CMO, Nir Gartzman, Co-Founder & Managing Partner, and Hannan Carmeli, Co-Founder & Managing Partner. Dudu Koren
<p>theDOCK's own portfolio includes companies like Orca AI, which uses an intelligent collision avoidance system to reduce the probability of oil or fuel spills, AiDock, which eliminates the use of paper by automating the customs clearance process, and DockTech, which uses depth "crowdsourcing" data to map riverbeds in real-time and optimize cargo loading, thereby reducing trips and fuel usage while also avoiding groundings.</p><p>"Oceans are a big opportunity primarily because they are just that – big!" theDOCK's Chief Marketing Officer Noa Schuman summarized. "As such, the magnitude of their criticality to the global ecosystem, the magnitude of pollution risk and the steps needed to overcome those challenges – are all huge."</p><p>There is hope that this wave of interest and investment in environmentally-positive maritime technologies will accelerate the blue economy and ESG investing even further, in Israel and beyond.</p>- 14 Countries Commit to Ocean Sustainability Initiative - EcoWatch ›
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