Judith Enck is a former regional administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, appointed by President Barack Obama, and the founder of Beyond Plastics, an organization dedicated to eradicating plastic pollution worldwide. She joins Mongabay’s podcast to discuss how governments can implement policies to turn off the tap on plastic pollution, which harms human health and devastates our ecological systems — solutions she outlines in her new book with co-author Adam Mahoney, The Problem with Plastic: How We Can Save Ourselves and Our Planet Before It’s Too Late. “We now have all of this evidence. We have no choice but to act. Because who’s going to stand by and let us turn the ocean into a watery landfill? Who’s going to stand by and read health study after health study about microplastics in our brains and breast milk and testicles? Not taking action is not an option,” she says. Microplastics — the tiny particles of plastic that break down from larger pieces in the environment — are now so ubiquitous that they have penetrated deep into the human body, crossing the blood-brain barrier and leaching potentially thousands of toxic chemicals into humans’ vital organs. They have been found in the deepest part of the ocean and near the summit of Mount Everest. These plastic bits are also harming wildlife, with potentially unforeseen, devastating consequences. Micro- and nanoplastics (even smaller particles than microplastics) are now impacting phytoplankton, which are vital to marine food chains, storing carbon and making oxygen. “This is…This article was originally published on Mongabay

From Conservation news via This RSS Feed.