Triple Planetary Crisis

An interdisciplinary group of UFZ scientists has teamed up to assess the negative impacts of plastics and associated chemicals on the triple planetary crisis of environmental pollution, climate change and biodiversity loss. Plastics are part of the pollution crisis, threatening ecosystems and human health. They also impact climate change and accelerate biodiversity loss; in this, they aggravate the triple planetary crisis. First, we analyzed the scientific state-of-the-art to identify critical knowledge gaps regarding the life cycle, release, fate, exposure, hazard and governance of plastics and associated chemicals, as well as links to climate change and biodiversity loss. Based on the outcome, we derive key research needs for a comprehensive hazard assessment of plastics and associated chemicals to follow up on in the future. By this, we aim at developing recommendations for the largely missing regulation of plastic additives and in-use plastics. Our holistic perspective bridges disciplinary expertise from natural and social sciences to achieve effective plastic governance and risk management of plastics and associated chemicals that protect the Earth, its ecosystems and human health from the plastics crisis.

Project(s):
P-LEACH
PlasticsFatE
Helmholtz POF IV Topic 9 “Healthy Planet- towards a non-toxic environment”; Topic 5 “Landscapes of the future – preserving biological diversity, water resources, and ecosystems”

German Research Foundation - project number 530364326

Contributing scientists:

Christian Schmidt
Dana Kühnel
Dušan Materić
Jessica Stubenrauch
Kristin Schubert
Anran Luo
Katrin Wendt-Potthoff
Annika Jahnke


State of knowledge on the role of plastic pollution in the triple planetary crisis. State of knowledge on the role of plastic pollution in the triple planetary crisis.


Publications:

[1] Schmidt, C., Kühnel, D., Materić, D., Stubenrauch, J., Schubert, K., Luo, A., Wendt-Potthoff, K., Jahnke, A. (2024) A multidisciplinary perspective on the role of plastic pollution in the triple planetary crisis.
Environ. Int. 193 , art. 109059 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2024.109059
[2] Schmidt, C., Kühnel, D., Materić, D., Stubenrauch, J., Schubert, K., Luo, A., Wendt-Potthoff, K., Jahnke, A. (2024) Supporting data of the Short communication: A multidisciplinary perspective on the role of plastic pollution in the triple planetary crisis [Dataset]. Zenodo https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12794921