Microplastics might be affecting our weather, making it rain differently than before, according to a recent study by researchers at Penn State University. The tiny plastic particles, found everywhere from oceans to our bodies, could also be “seeding” clouds, helping ice crystals form in the sky.
The Penn State research team, whose findings were published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology: Air, conducted lab experiments to understand how microplastics influence cloud formation.
They placed four types of common microplastics – low density polyethylene (LDPE), polypropylene (PP), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) – into water droplets and cooled them down slowly.
They observed that when these microplastic particles were present, ice crystals formed at warmer temperatures than in droplets without any plastic. In other words, the microplastics made ice formation easier, even at higher temperatures than usual. These ice crystals are essential for rain, and with the help of microplastics, they’re forming more easily.
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Miriam Freedman, a chemistry professor at Penn State and the lead researcher, explained that this discovery helps complete the picture of where microplastics are turning up and how they’re affecting our environment.
Interestingly, Freedman said microplastics in the atmosphere might affect rainfall in two opposing ways – they could both reduce rain and, at times, make it more intense. In polluted air filled with particles like microplastics, the water in clouds has to spread across many small particles. This causes smaller droplets to form, which means less rain overall. But when these smaller droplets finally combine into larger ones, the rain that does fall might come down heavier than usual.
While this isn’t the first study to propose that microplastics might be present in the clouds, this one presents some of the strongest evidence yet that they may influence our weather patterns. With pollution spreading microplastics worldwide, these tiny bits of plastic could be altering our climate in ways scientists are only beginning to understand.
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