Anonymousabout 5 hours ago
A May 2026 study in Nature Climate Change finds that colored microplastics and nanoplastics suspended in the atmosphere produce a global mean radiative forcing of 0.039 W/m², equivalent to 16.2% of black carbon's warming effect — with regional hotspots over ocean garbage patches reaching nearly five times the local black carbon forcing. The findings raise questions about an overlooked climate feedback loop tied to the 450 million tonnes of plastic produced annually, though significant scientific debate remains about whether current concentrations are climatically meaningful.