A new laboratory study published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology: Air shows that microplastics may influence weather. Penn State researchers placed four different types of microplastics – specifically: low-density polyethylene (LDPE), polypropylene (PP), polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) – in small droplets of water, allowing them to cool slowly to see how they affect the freezing process – describes the website Futurism.com.
Microplastics affect the weather
Droplets from microplastics produced ice crystals at a higher temperature than those without them, proving that rain-producing ice crystals can form at higher temperatures temperatures with these inorganic particles than without them. This means that microplastics change the way rain forms. They can also change weather patterns.
Heavy rain due to microplastics
“Over the last two decades of research on microplastics, scientists have discovered that they are everywhere, so this is another piece of the puzzle,” said Penn State chemistry professor Miriam Freedman. She added that microplastics in the atmosphere can both reduce and increase rainfall.
While this is not the first study to implicate the presence of microplastics in clouds, this study provides more evidence than ever that they can change the weather for the worse. “It’s clear that we need to better understand how they interact with our climate system,” Freedman said, “and we were able to show that cloud formation can be triggered by microplastics.”
