Cloudy Skies Microplastics may literally be changing the weather.
In a press release, Penn State says that its environmental researchers have found evidence that microplastics may help in the formation of the ice crystals around which rain droplets form, essentially “seeding” clouds unintentionally.
Translation: with microplastics changing the way rain forms, they may well be changing weather patterns too.
Heavy Rain Microplastics keep being detected everywhere scientists look, from the penises of living humans to buried archeological treasure.
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They might be contributing to both fewer and worse rainstorms.
overcast skies.
It is possible that microplastics are actually altering the weather.
Penn State’s environmental researchers have discovered evidence that microplastics may inadvertently “seed” clouds by aiding in the formation of the ice crystals that raindrops form around, according to a press release.
In this new lab-based study, which was published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology: Air, Penn State researchers placed four different types of microplastics—low-density polyethylene (LDPE), polypropylene (PP), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), and polyethylene terephthalate (PET)—into tiny droplets of water and let them cool gradually to observe how they affected the freezing process.
The results showed that rain-producing ice crystals can form at warmer temperatures with microplastics than without them. The droplets containing microplastics produced ice crystals that were nine to eighteen degrees Fahrenheit warmer than those without.
It is possible that microplastics are altering weather patterns by altering the way rain forms.
A lot of rain.
Microplastics continue to be found everywhere scientists search, from buried archaeological treasure to the penises of living humans. We may learn more about these dangerous particles and their apparent pervasiveness thanks to this new study.
The senior author of the new paper, Miriam Freedman, a chemistry professor at Penn State, stated, “In the last 20 years of studying microplastics, researchers have been discovering that they are everywhere, so this is another piece of that puzzle.”.
According to Freedman, atmospheric microplastics have the potential to increase precipitation or decrease it.
“You are distributing the available water among many more aerosol particles, like microplastics, in a polluted environment, you are forming smaller droplets around each of those particles,” the professor said. More droplets mean less rain, but since droplets only rain when they are big enough, you build up more water in the cloud before the droplets are big enough to fall, which means you get more rain when it does fall. “.”.
Even though this study is not the first to suggest that microplastics are present in the clouds, it provides more proof than ever before that they might be negatively influencing the weather.
We’ve been able to demonstrate that microplastics can initiate the process of cloud formation, so it’s now evident that we need to have a better understanding of how they’re interacting with our climate system,” Freedman stated. “..”.
More about microplastics: Young People Are Probably Getting Cancer from Microplastics.
