South Pole 5. Plastics in Antarctica

Join us on "South Pole," where host Clark Marchese explores the unexpected presence of plastic in Antarctica. Today's guest, Dr. Clara Manno, a marine ecologist at the British Antarctic Survey, discusses the extensive pollution reaching even the most remote ecosystems. Learn about the various forms of plastic infiltrating the Antarctic environment, their pathways, and the profound impacts on local wildlife and ecological functions. This episode highlights the urgent need for global cooperation to tackle plastic pollution and preserve Antarctica's pristine nature. Tune in to uncover how interconnected our actions are with the health of remote ecosystems and what we can do to mitigate our environmental footprint.

Episode Guest: Dr. Clara Manno

More information about Dr. Clara Manno here. 

Browse Dr. Clara Manno’s’ publications on Google Scholar

More information about Plastic-AG here

Listen to Plastic Podcast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts

For More information about the United Nations Treaty on Plastic follow the Scientists’ Coalition for an Effective Plastics Treaty on Linkedin

Episode Transcript  and more information on the Pine Forest Media Website

Follow Pine Forest Media on Instagram @pineforestmedia

Hosted, produced, written, and edited by Clark Marchese 

Cover art and PFM logo by Laurel Wong. 

Theme music by Nela Ruiz

Transcript:

[00:00:09.340] - Clark

Hello, and welcome to South Pole, the podcast that explores everything Antarctica. I am your host, Clark Marchese, and today we are talking about Antartic Plastic, Plastic in Antarctica. Okay, plastic. So it's a big topic. Whatever you did today, you've probably touched or interacted with at least 20 things made of plastic so far. And it may not come to mind when you're thinking about Antarctica, but humans have really done a good job of covering the entire planet with plastic. So yes, lots of plastic has been found all over Antarctica. Now, Now, plastic is a relatively new invention in ecological history, and the types of plastic that we use all day, every day today, have only been around, really, for less than the last 100 years. When we invented it, there was actually hope that it would be a sustainable alternative to other raw materials, namely, ivory, but other animal-based materials as well, like tortoise shells. Certainly, when we invented it, we couldn't have imagined all of the environmental concerns it would bring about. Even when mass production started in the 1940s and '50s, We didn't have a strong grasp at all on how the future of plastic would unfold as far as the environment is concerned.

[00:01:35.670] - Clark

Now, we know differently, though. There are massive networks within the scientific community researching how plastic exists on this planet, the problems it's causing, and what we can do about it. And this applies to the field of Antarctica research as well. Lots of scientists are trying to understand how the introductions of plastic to this, what we might imagine as an untouched land, is going to impact the continent, the things that live there. And by now, I don't know if we know how connected we are to Antarctica. So what plastic in Antarctica is going to mean for all of us up here, too. Now, one of the researchers trying to get to the bottom of these questions is Dr. Clara Manno, who is the guest for today's episode. Dr. Clara Manno is a polar researcher who focuses on human-driven environmental stressors, one of which she spends a lot of time researching is plastic. She is a member of the Plastic and Polar Environments Action Group at the Scientific Committee of Antarctica Research. She also works with the British Antarctica Survey as a marine ecologist. Together, we spoke about how different types of plastic are making their way down to Antarctica, the ways Antarctica wildlife are interacting with plastic, and examples of how it's affecting their ability to perform their ecosystem functions.

[00:02:45.310] - Clark

We also talked about how plastic is altering the Southern Ocean and what impact that will have on both species and humanity alike. Now, it's not the most uplifting conversation we will ever have, but I hope that you enjoy it nonetheless, and that at least you perhaps learned something. I definitely know that I did. With that, let's go ahead and get started. All right. Welcome, Dr. Claro Mano. Thank you for taking the time to come on the show today. The first question I have is if you could just introduce yourself and tell us a bit about your research.

[00:03:25.750] - Dr. Clara Manno

Hi. Thank you, Clark. Thank you to invite me today. My name is Clara Manno, and I am a biological oceanographer, and I work in a British Atlantic survey in Cambridge. As you can guess from my accent, despite I work in Cambridge, I'm Italian, but I moved in Cambridge more than 10 years ago. My research interest is to investigate the impact of human drive and stressor that include, for example, climate change, but also pollution. I have a specific focus on Antarctica Ocean ecosystem.

[00:03:54.950] - Clark

Okay, amazing. Happy to have you with us. One question I think a lot of Antarctica researchers get probably every time they speak to someone is, Have you ever been to Antarctica? I'm going to add to your list of people who have ever asked me that question.

[00:04:07.970] - Dr. Clara Manno

Well, first of all, I've been very, very lucky. In fact, I got the privilege to participate to several Antarctica research my expedition, I think the total number is 11. The first time I was 20 years old, this was during my PhD student project, the project that bring me to Antarctica. Each time was a different project. I've been involved in many different projects, and the main aim of the project were to investigate the mechanism that regulated the capability of the ocean to uptake CO₂ from the atmosphere. Basically, we want to understand how marine ecosystem in general can drive this process, can make this process much more efficient. If we focus on my last research expedition in Antarctica, the main objective was to investigate the impact of microplastic pollution on this process. How the interaction of microplastic with the biota, so the ecosystem in general, can impact the ability of the ocean to uptake CO₂. In one sentence, we want to understand how microplastic can counteract the ability of the ocean to counteract climate change mitigation.

[00:05:17.690] - Clark

Okay, so that sounds super interesting, and we're definitely going to dig into that project as we go along. But in a general sense, to set the stage for this field, because I know there's a growing body of research looking at plastics in Antarctica, what broad-based questions do scientists have about plastics in Antarctica?

[00:05:34.150] - Dr. Clara Manno

The main problem is that plastic in general is a product of human activity. That means that if you have the presence of human, you have plastic, a different scale. That's why there is Antarctica plastic pollution at the moment, not just in Antarctica, but in general in the polar region. The research question that we want to understand is for Stator to investigate the extent of microplastic and the plastic fragment in general in this region, and also how this pollution interact with the whole marine ecosystem. We want to understand the behavior and the fate of plastic in that region.

[00:06:12.420] - Clark

Okay. Then in order to find that out, we have to know where the plastic is. Where do we see plastic pollution through Antarctica, both macroplastics and microplastics?

[00:06:24.310] - Dr. Clara Manno

Plastic have been found everywhere, unfortunately. That include land on the snow, in the fresh water, in the sea ice, and also from the surface of the ocean to the bottom of the sediment. In addition to that, the plastic have been found in most of the species that live in Antarctica. That include a very tiny organism such as zooplane, but also large organism such as seals and penguins.

[00:06:53.250] - Clark

Okay, so basically everywhere. Then I guess the next obvious question is, where is it coming from? What are the pathways ways through which plastic is ending up down there.

[00:07:02.300] - Dr. Clara Manno

Yeah. Okay. When we think about the sources, as I said, the source is straightly connected to the human presence in Antarctica or in general, human activity related to Antarctica. We can split the local source to the long range source. When we're talking about the local source, of course, this includes the ship traffic, but also activity on the land produced by research base and campsite. On the long range transport scale, there are so many different pathways of transport. This includes oceanic current, also atmospheric current, but also a vector of transport can be long travel distance animals. Overall, the point is that the Southern Ocean that is all around Antarctica is not a barrier to plastic pollution in general.

[00:07:50.940] - Clark

Okay. Can you tell me more about the long distance travel animals bringing plastic down? How does that work exactly?

[00:07:57.650] - Dr. Clara Manno

There are a lot of animals that travel a long distance from low latitude to Antarctica to feed themselves. Whale can be a good example, but also big birds do this. This can be a vector of transport just because the organism need to move from low latitude to high that you're looking for food.

[00:08:16.620] - Clark

Okay. Then at that point, they already have plastic inside them when they arrive?

[00:08:21.070] - Dr. Clara Manno

They can have a plastic attached to the body as well. They can have a plastic on the feather, for example, not necessarily inside because they ingest it.

[00:08:28.550] - Clark

Okay. Then let's start to talk about how plastic is actually interfering with the ecosystems. We have larger items of plastic that we can see with our eyes. They could be from fishing nets, they could be pollution from tourists. But then we have these smaller plastics, some of which we can see and others we can't, which are microplastics and nanoplastics. How are these different types of plastics impacting the Antarctica ecosystems?

[00:08:52.960] - Dr. Clara Manno

First at all, Atlantic ecosystem is a unique ecosystem. It's unique because most of the species that live in Antarctica, they were living there for millions and millions of years. That means that they are very well adapted to a stable environmental condition. It's very cold, but it's stable. In other words, that means that they're very sensitive to environmental perturbation. This include also pollution and specific plastic pollution. So all the species are very sensitive to plastic pollution compared to, for example, low latitude species. And talking about the microplastic, that's what we can see. Microplastic They can interact with the big organism, of course. The main reason is because they misnake big piece of plastic for food, so they can accidentally ingest that. Also, they can get trapped inside. And that's what What happened especially with penguins and seals, for example. But then when we have a large fragment of microplastic, they start to fragment. We have also microplastic. Microplastic are even more dangerous because they still interact with a large organism, of course. They can accumulate inside large organisms. But they are especially dangerous because they interact also with the very tiny organism. We mentioned first the zooplankton.

[00:10:07.890] - Dr. Clara Manno

Zooplankton are very small, but they are very abundant as well. Actually, the biomasse of zooplankton is higher than the biomass of a human being.

[00:10:17.060] - Clark

When we're talking about biomasse, that basically means if you took all the humans in the world and you put them on a scale, and then we took all the zooplankton in the world and we put it on a different scale, zooplankton will weigh more than us humans. So All of us humans together weigh around 500 million metric tons, and the zooplankton altogether weigh about 1 billion. So basically twice as much. That's pretty crazy.

[00:10:39.260] - Dr. Clara Manno

So that means that it's a significant amount of biomasse. They are significant inside the ecosystem. They are the base of food chain. That means that if there is an impact on zooplankton, this can be a cascading effect on the whole ecosystem in Antarctica.

[00:10:52.900] - Clark

We've talked about the terms bio-magnification and bio-accumulation on the show before. So quickly, basically, this is when organisms organisms accumulate toxins in their bodies through interaction with them in the environment. And when they are eaten by predators, the predators eat all of the toxins that were in the prey and also the prey's prey. So toxins build along the food chain, and that's why such a problem that all of these toxins are being absorbed by the small organisms at the base of the food chain.

[00:11:20.580] - Dr. Clara Manno

In terms of nanoplastic, that is another step of fragmentation. Nanoplastic can be even more dangerous because it's so small that can pass to the membrane cell. So that means that can generate, that can trigger toxicity. A toxicity can have as a final effect mortality. So we know that there is a lot of physiological disruption already because we perform a lot of incubation experiment when they expose organism to microplastic and nanoplastic. This can generate egg malformation, for example, reducing swimming behavior. That means that organism are not able to escape to predator and long term sublital effect. So that will end up in the decrease of population at the large scale level.

[00:12:04.290] - Clark

Okay, so egg malformation, reducing swimming behavior, and eventually, decrease of population. Yikes. Are we seeing any significant decrease in population yet in the data on account of plastics?

[00:12:16.680] - Dr. Clara Manno

We don't, and that's because the plastic pollution is still a relatively new global issue. Now, it's a recent topic that the science are going to start to investigate. We don't have a long data set yet. We have long data set in term of accumulation of microplastic on the beach around some coastal region in Antarctica. We know that there is an increase of microplastic, for example, inside the organism. But this trend doesn't tell us anything about the impact. The impact is something that we need to study more into the deep, and we need also long term study to understand potential adaptation, flexibility, and potential resilient of some species to this impact.

[00:12:59.970] - Clark

Okay, so I guess we just need to do the research and wait for the research. But it seems like zooplankton are an area of particular concern. Can you explain to us what is their role in the ecosystem? Why they're so important to the ecosystem?

[00:13:14.450] - Dr. Clara Manno

If we We're going to focus on the keystone species of zooplankton in Antarctica, we're talking about Antarctica krill, for example. That can be a very good example because at the moment, there is a lot of study of microplastic and anoplastic impact on Antarctica krill. Antarctica krill is fundamental for so many reasons, not just for fishery. It's important ecosystem because it's a bridge between low-level and high-level food chain. That means that if something happened to krill population, this is going to be a a steady effort to the high level of the food chain because it's a food source of big predator, such as penguins, and seals, and whales. Also, it's part of the food source of a lot of commercial fish. That's why it's very relevant.

[00:14:00.240] - Clark

A Keystone species is one that is very important to an ecosystem. So important, in fact, that if they were to cease to exist, the ecosystem would change dramatically, if not completely fall apart. Krill are a Keystone species in Antarctica, and we will be doing an episode all about Krill in the next couple of weeks. Be sure you are subscribed to the show so you do not miss it in your feed.

[00:14:22.740] - Dr. Clara Manno

It's very relevant also because it have a very important role in the carbon cycle. In fact, Krill can produce a large amount of feces. These feces are rich in carbon. They can sink very quick from the surface to the bottom of the ocean. In a way, this process promote the ability of the ocean to uptake CO₂ and then eventually sequestered and store carbon into the deep ocean.

[00:14:47.970] - Clark

Oh, wow. I did not know that.

[00:14:50.020] - Dr. Clara Manno

It's part of this process that is very important for the mitigation of climate change. Say that, what is the interaction with the microplastic and nanoplastic? Krill is a filter feeding. That means that can get in a large amount, a large volume of particle. It is to increase the chance of interaction with microplastic or nanoplastic. Another important feature of Crile is that Crile need to live very close or in relation with ice, a lot of studies have shown now that ice is a sink of microplastic. So microplastic gets accumulated in the ice. So again, there is an increase of potential exposure of microplastic to Crile.

[00:15:29.720] - Clark

Wait, Do we know why ice is a sink for microplastics?

[00:15:33.360] - Dr. Clara Manno

One of the reasons is just that ice take a lot of time to get generated. The first layer of ice is generated on the surface, and on the surface of the water, you have a lot of microplastic. There's a continuous process in the formation of ice and the release of microplastic on the surface. That's one of the main reasons.

[00:15:52.060] - Clark

Okay. Then are we seeing any ways in which the consumption or the absorption of microplastics from these Keystone species is affecting their ability to perform their ecosystem functions?

[00:16:02.730] - Dr. Clara Manno

Crile, in this context, have been studied a lot with a laboratory experiment and also with an in-situ investigation. In terms of a laboratory experiment, it's clear that Crile has many other zooplank that are affecting, as I said before, in terms of new recruitment of organism. There is an impact of egg production and larval deformation, for example.

[00:16:25.400] - Clark

Okay, quickly, recruitment refers to the process of new organisms being added a population, mostly referring to the birth of new little ones, but it can also refer to survival past certain stages of development, reaching sexual maturity, where their DNA enters the gene pool, or even the integration of two populations.

[00:16:43.790] - Dr. Clara Manno

Also, they can get impact in the way they move. They can vertical migrate, for example, and in a way, this impact their ability to escape predator. It's not a direct impact, but it's a sublateral impact. Another important aspect is Also that, as we said, Crile is very important because contribute to the carbon export, because it is a large, rich carbon feces. When Crile ingest the microplastic, this microplastic pass through their faces. We have a of feces with microplastic inside. Most of microplastic have a low density, respect to feces. That means that impact the ability of feces sink very quick in the water column. Eventually, this decrease the chance that these feces reach the bottom of the ocean, and in turn impact the ability of feces to contribute to the carbon export from the surface to the deep ocean.

[00:17:37.100] - Clark

Okay, so it sounds like microplastics in the Southern Ocean have an impact on the organisms within the ocean, but they can also interfere with or even alter ocean chemistry through criofeces, if I understand correctly?

[00:17:50.490] - Dr. Clara Manno

The principle is what we call the biological carbon pump. So the CO₂ is uptake by phytoplankton. They do photosynthesis, they convert the CO₂ in carbon. And Then in this process, the zooplankton become an important player because zooplankton feed on phytoplankton. So again, there is a conversion of carbon in the zooplankton biomas. And then zooplankton move up and down because of vertical migration. Then they produce also fishes, and all these push, pump carbon to the deep ocean. The way this process can be affected can be a different way. Of course, also the change in the biochemistry can impact this process because again, the change in the biochemistry of the ocean can impact the ability for the ocean to develop. We need to think about, for example, on the fact that in the Arctic Ocean, pollution is not just the main stress. The Atlantic Ocean is already under trade by other climatic stressor, such as, for example, global warming and ocean classification. Ocean classification impact organism in so many different way. Ocean classification means that the carbon chemistry of the water change, change the PH, change the carbon ion that are present in the system, it is affect the energetic budget of the organism.

[00:19:10.540] - Clark

Wow. So the microplastic impacts the organism, which impacts the ocean chemistry, which in turn impacts the organism. Again, biogeochemistry, that also sounds like a fun vocab word. It's an interdisciplinary field combining aspects of biology, geology, and chemistry together to understand how natural processes like this influence the Earth's chemical environment.

[00:19:34.500] - Dr. Clara Manno

The organisms that are much more affected are the organisms that need carbonate to build their shell. But that's not always the case. We know that also Creel and Copeport can get impacted by the change in the carbon chemistry. Now, the point is that when you have one issue to deal with, can be complicated, but a little bit complicated. But think about that in Antarctica, all the organisms need to deal with a lot of issues. They need deal with a lot of stress. They have a global warming, ocean certification, and now also plastic. That's why an important aspect is to try to put all this impact together and figure out what is the cumulative or additive effect of all the stress that human activity generate.

[00:20:17.590] - Clark

Okay, so I just want to make sure that I understand this correctly. There's two major potential issues when it comes to how plastic is altering the ocean's relationship with carbon. The first is that it affects the ocean's ability to act as a carbon sink and therefore has a negative impact on our climate systems. The second is that it contributes to ocean acidification, which has a host of effects on the ocean ecosystem. And micro-nanoplastics are influencing both of these processes.

[00:20:46.620] - Dr. Clara Manno

Micro-plastic nanoplastic pollution is an anthropogenic stressor. Ocean acidification is an anthropogenic stressor in term of climate change. Both of these stressor can act at the same time. So the fact that they act at the same time, generate an extra stress on the organism. The organism, specifically, zooplankton, they are fundamental for the carbon export. If they get impacted, this will in turn influence the bit of the ocean to transport carbon to the deep ocean. Wow.

[00:21:17.880] - Clark

Then what do we do about this? Do you have any thoughts on how we can mitigate the impacts of plastics on Antarctica?

[00:21:26.230] - Dr. Clara Manno

Of course, that's the question of $1 million. Of course, there's It's important to gather more and more information because so far, a lot of mechanisms are still poor understood. It's not clear where are the main hotspot of plastic in general in the Antarctica. Also, it's not clear how they interact with the older King Stone species. Some of the species are not studied yet, for example. First of all, it will be fundamental to increase global cooperation. This is because we need to build a framework for developing a plastic footprint of Atlantic action. In the Antarctica, there is not just research, there is also fishery, there is tourism. We need to find a way to cooperate together to generate a zero plastic waste culture in all the activities that are related to Antarctica. This is the only way to proceed. That's the first step.

[00:22:18.720] - Clark

Okay. You just mentioned that there are some species that are still not studied. I'm wondering, what else do we still not know about plastics in Antarctica? What other major research gaps do we have?

[00:22:29.490] - Dr. Clara Manno

Yeah, One of the major research gap is that we don't have a huge coverage in term of geographical region, also temporal data about the plastic pollution presence. Now, we don't know the extent of plastic pollution in Antarctica. The main reason is that it's very hard to collect data in Antarctica, still a very remote place, and we also want to preserve that. First of all, we should try to increase the amount of data that we have on Antarctica microplastic abundance or Antarctica microplastic abundance. Then we also need to understand, as we discussed before, the potential additive impact of plastic with other environmental stressor. It's the understanding so far is very, very poor. This will help you to identify toxicity threshold because maybe toxicity threshold are much more lower than what we think. So even if we don't have a huge amount of microplastic in Antarctica, since Antarctica is already We're really under stress because of climate change, the threshold to microplastic pollution can be lower that we expect or what we can expect in the lower latitude, for example. As I said, this is a very important step because we need to understand with the long term analysis, so we need the monitoring process.

[00:23:45.850] - Dr. Clara Manno

When the toring process are going to give us information about adaptation strategy and the capacity for resilience to the impact of microplastic.

[00:23:55.130] - Clark

Okay, so any future researchers out there, I hope you were listening to this because it sounds like we have our work cut out for us. Now, we're going to start to round out the end of the episode, and I want to ask if there's anything that we didn't talk about today that you think we must mention in a conversation about plastics in Antarctica.

[00:24:12.290] - Dr. Clara Manno

We touched everything, but I want just to highlight one more time again that in Antarctica, it's a very special place. It's critically important that the impact of plastic pollution in the Southern Ocean, in general in Antarctica, is set in a global context. Plastic in Antarctica is a global issue. It's not a regional issue. That means that what happened in Antarctica doesn't stay all in Antarctica and vice versa. Probably this is a message that need to become stronger and come back to the discussion of collaboration. International collaboration with all the countries that are connected to Antarctica need to become much more strong.

[00:24:50.130] - Clark

Yes, that does seem to be a recurring theme. The next question is, what's your favorite thing about Antarctica?

[00:24:56.060] - Dr. Clara Manno

I was always fascinating about Antarctica because I was I'm intrigued about the fact that despite the soil remote, so isolated, still play a fundamental role for the Earth, the Earth, the Earth, the Earth, the Earth, the Earth, the Earth, the Earth, the Earth, the Earth, the Earth, the Earth, the Earth, the Earth, the Earth, the Earth, and for the global ocean circulation. For me, this region represented the way nature is balanced and the way nature Keep the planet to work, basically.

[00:25:17.630] - Clark

Yeah, that is very true about Antarctica. Now, we've talked about a couple of things today, things that could be a little bit anxiety-inducing. This next question is a step towards ending on a note of optimism or positivity. Is there any good news that's come out recently in your field of research that you can share with us?

[00:25:37.810] - Dr. Clara Manno

I agree that positive is important. It's important to keep a positive message. However, the presence of plastic in Antarctica and the potential impact on the ecosystem is alarming. That means that so far there is not a good news about it. We just discover the top of the iceberg in term of issue, potential impact of plastic in Antarctica. However, since we need to have a positive approach, one of the positive aspect is that there is more and more awareness about the issue of plastic pollution in Antarctica and in general in the polar region. Then this awareness, something that is to a different level, this including scientists, all Antarctica operator, policymakers, and also general public. I truly believe that the awareness is a general help to make better choice and also is a way to move forward effective solution and strategy. We really in order to increase awareness, and that's the way we're moving at the moment. We say that this is a positive move.

[00:26:37.840] - Clark

Yeah, I think that's definitely true. I mean, plastic is gaining a lot of attention in recent years. It was even the theme of this year's 2024 Earth Day. And all this movement has brought about negotiations for a global treaty to address plastic pollution and even production. Side note for anyone who is curious about plastic and wants to learn more, Pine Forest Media has another podcast series all about plastic and it exists on our planet. So it's called Plastic Podcast, and you can find it wherever you stream. But I think that this Plastic Treaty is giving a lot of researchers a lot of hope, and it was made possible on account of the awareness that you just mentioned. And the last question I have for you today is, where can people find you and follow your work?

[00:27:18.030] - Dr. Clara Manno

As I said, I work to British Atlantic Survey. If you just go to the British Atlantic Survey web page, and then you write my name down, you will see everything that I'm doing. Also, I want to stress on the fact that this is not just my work, but this is a huge team work. Everything that we do in Antarctica is because there is a huge effort of a lot of people that work together, not just scientists. But everybody have a small piece in the puzzle to make this possible.

[00:27:49.620] - Clark

Okay. Well, I will include links to that in the episode description. This is the part where I say thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me today. Thank you for teaching me about plastics in Antarctica And also thank you for your very important research in this space.

[00:28:03.150] - Dr. Clara Manno

Thank you so much again to invite me.

[00:28:16.710] - Clark

Okay, a major thank you to Dr. Clara Manno. Now, you thought I wasn't going to say it, but I'm going to say it again. Here I go. I'm saying it now. This is yet another episode where we learn how connected we are to Antarctica and how our actions up here do make their way down there. Now, last week, when we were talking about ice shelves, the only thing that we can do to solve that issue is to be good climate stewards in a general sense and implement broad to add wide-ranging policies to cut emissions. But with plastics, there is actually something more concrete and specific and timely that we can do. I'm not talking about ditching your plastic straw. This plastics treaty is actually a really big deal. It is being negotiated at the United Nations right now and will hopefully be signed by the end of this year, 2024. I'll put some information about it in the episode description, but it's a really rare opportunity to be able to address an environmental issue at such a large scale. The good news is that it seems like it will heavily address production of plastic, so we can turn off the tap, as it were.

[00:29:21.370] - Clark

Now, if you are very interested in this episode on plastic, you might check out Plastic Podcast, which is another Pine Forest Media series. We talk about plastic in a bunch of contexts around the world. Plastic in the ocean, plastic in the soil, plastic in human health, plastic policy, plastic protest, plastic art. We talk about the treaty as well and the things that need to be included in it. If you're interested in plastic, that really is the place for you to go. You can search for that wherever you stream, and I'll put a link in the episode description as well so you can find it easily. All right, thank you to all of you who have made it this far, and we'll talk soon. You've been listening to South Pole. You can find more information about this week's guest and links to their work in the episode description. The cover art for the show was done by Laurel Wong, and the music you're listening to was done by Nila Ruiz. I am your host, Clark Markezi, and this episode was produced and engineered by me. So if you found it interesting, send it to someone you know.

[00:30:26.850] - Clark

South Pole is part of a larger network of sciencey podcast called Pine Pineforest Media. We've got one on plastic, one on drinking water, and a couple of new ones coming out soon. You can find more information about us in the episode description or on our website at pineforestpods. Com. We are also on Instagram and TikTok at Pine Forest Media. If you love the show and want to support science communication like this, a five-star rating across platforms and a review on Apple podcast is one of the best things you can do to help us reach more people and for the entire network to grow. All right, thank you to all of you who have made it this far, and we'll talk soon.