Overview
- The peer-reviewed analysis, published Monday in Nature Climate Change, concludes that microplastics and nanoplastics in the air have a net warming effect.
- Lab tests show color and size drive the heat impact, with pigmented particles absorbing about 75 times more light than clear plastics and smaller nanoplastics absorbing more per mass.
- Using those optical measurements in climate models, the team estimates a global effect roughly 16% as strong as black carbon, and a coauthor pegs today’s share of overall warming near 2%.
- Models point to regional hotspots over ocean garbage patches such as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, where the local warming from airborne plastics can exceed soot by up to about fivefold.
- Experts and authors say big gaps remain on how many particles are aloft and where they sit in the atmosphere, calling for targeted observations and for climate models to include plastics once validated.