Scientists have warned that chemical pollution which cuts across the planet now threatens the stability of global ecosystems upon which humanity depends.
The scientists say that apart from plastics, over 350,000 synthetic chemicals including pesticides, industrial compounds and antibioticsare of particularly high concern.
“Currently, plastic pollution is found from the summit of Mount Everest to the deepest oceans, and some toxic chemicals, such as PCBs, are long-lasting and widespread,” they said.
The scientists who undertook a study reported that chemical pollution has crossed a “planetary boundary”, the point at which human-made changes to the Earth push it outside the stable environment of the last 10,000 years.
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Patricia Villarrubia-Gómez, a PhD candidate and research assistant at the Stockholm Resilience Centre (SRC), who was part of the study team, said that there had been a fiftyfold increase in the production of chemicals since 1950 and this is projected to triple again by 2050.
She explained that the pace that societies were producing and releasing new chemicals into the environment was not consistent with staying within a safe operating space for humanity.
The scientists also found that chemical pollution threatens Earth’s systems by damaging the biological and physical processes that underpin all life.
“For example, pesticides wipe out many non-target insects, which are fundamental to all ecosystems and, therefore, to the provision of clean air, water and food,” they said.
Reacting to the findings of the study, Dr Sarah Cornell, who is an associate professor and principal researcher at SRC, said that for a long time, people have known that chemical pollution is a bad thing. But they haven’t been thinking about it at the global level.
“This work brings chemical pollution, especially plastics, into the story of how people are changing the planet,” she said.
