Papers

61,005 results
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Article Tier 2

Bridging the gap: a review on the interaction between (micro)plastics and climate change

This review examined the two-way relationship between climate change and microplastic pollution. Researchers found that climate-driven changes like rising temperatures, altered weather patterns, and ocean acidification can accelerate microplastic breakdown and redistribute particles across ecosystems, while plastic production and degradation processes themselves contribute to greenhouse gas emissions, creating a reinforcing cycle.

2025 Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A Mathematical Physical and Engineering Sciences 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Climate change and microplastics: a two-way interaction

This review characterises the bidirectional relationship between microplastics and climate change: plastics production and degradation generate greenhouse gases, while rising temperatures and changing precipitation alter MP distribution and toxicity in ecosystems. It calls for integrated strategies that address both plastic pollution and climate change.

2025 Emerging Contaminants and Environmental Health 2 citations
Article Tier 2

Plastic Pollution and Climate Change: Double Trouble

This accessible review explains how plastics and climate change reinforce each other — plastic production emits greenhouse gases, warming accelerates microplastic release from the environment, and microplastics themselves disrupt ecosystems that regulate climate — calling for integrated policy solutions.

2025 Frontiers for Young Minds
Article Tier 2

Microplastics and climate change: the global impacts of a tiny driver

This review explores the connections between microplastic pollution and climate change, two environmental crises that are more intertwined than they might appear. Researchers found that microplastics disrupt ocean carbon sequestration by affecting plankton, may accelerate ice cap melting by reducing surface reflectivity, and can influence greenhouse gas emissions from both water and soil. The study argues that addressing microplastic pollution should be considered an integral part of comprehensive climate change strategies.

2024 The Science of The Total Environment 35 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics and Climate Change

This chapter examines the mutually reinforcing relationship between microplastics and climate change, noting that climate change accelerates plastic degradation and dispersal while plastics contribute an estimated 3.3% of global greenhouse gas emissions across their lifecycle. The authors discuss how climate-driven processes alter microplastic fate and transport, and argue that managing both issues requires understanding their complex interdependencies.

2024 Advances in environmental engineering and green technologies book series
Article Tier 2

Climate change and microplastic pollution in aquatic ecosystems: ecological and societal consequences

This review examines how climate change amplifies the ecological and societal impacts of microplastic pollution in aquatic ecosystems. The study suggests that rising temperatures, extreme weather events, and altered precipitation patterns accelerate plastic fragmentation and dispersal, creating compounding effects on water quality, biodiversity, and coastal communities.

2026 Frontiers in Science
Meta Analysis Tier 1

The Interplay Between Climate Warming Driven by Greenhouse Gas Emissions and the Ecotoxicological Effects of Microplastics: Insights From a Meta‐Analysis

This meta-analysis pools data from multiple studies to explore how climate change and microplastic pollution interact and worsen each other's environmental effects. The findings suggest that warming temperatures may increase the toxicity and breakdown of microplastics, potentially amplifying health and ecological risks as the climate continues to change.

2025 Global Change Biology 5 citations
Article Tier 2

Role of Microplastics in Global Warming and Climate Change: A Review

This review examines how microplastics contribute to climate change through multiple pathways, including disrupting ocean carbon capture by phytoplankton, releasing greenhouse gases from soil, and potentially influencing cloud formation in the atmosphere. Researchers found that climate-driven extreme weather events also redistribute microplastics, creating a feedback loop that worsens both problems. The study makes the case that microplastic pollution and climate change should be addressed as interconnected challenges.

2024 Water Air & Soil Pollution 38 citations
Article Tier 2

Emerging challenges of microplastic impacts to ecological health and climate change

This review examines how microplastics contribute not only to environmental pollution but also to climate change by altering microbial processes, disrupting biogeochemical cycles, and promoting greenhouse gas release. Researchers found that microplastics affect carbon cycling, phytoplankton photosynthesis, and atmospheric processes in ways that may exacerbate global warming. The study highlights significant knowledge gaps in understanding the mechanisms linking microplastic pollution to greenhouse gas emissions.

2025 Marine Pollution Bulletin 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Research progress on the interaction between climate change and marine microplastic pollution

This review examines the two-way relationship between climate change and marine microplastic pollution, finding that rising ocean temperatures, acidification, and hypoxia can accelerate plastic fragmentation and alter how microplastics are distributed and ingested by marine life. Conversely, microplastics may affect carbon cycling and plankton productivity in ways that feed back into climate dynamics. The findings highlight that microplastic risks cannot be assessed in isolation from the broader context of a changing ocean.

2024 Scientia Sinica Chimica 2 citations
Review Tier 2

Climate Change and Plastic Pollution: A Review of Their Connections

This review explores the interconnections between climate change and plastic pollution, showing that the two crises influence each other through mechanisms including plastic production from fossil fuels, photodegradation of plastics accelerated by warming, and microplastics affecting atmospheric processes.

2023 Tropical Environment Biology and Technology 27 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastic pollution as an environmental risk exacerbating the greenhouse effect and climate change: a review

Researchers reviewed how microplastics contribute to climate change by releasing greenhouse gases as they degrade, disrupting plant photosynthesis, and altering soil microbial communities that regulate carbon and methane emissions. The review reveals a troubling feedback loop: microplastics worsen global warming, and rising temperatures cause more microplastics to be resuspended from sediments, further intensifying environmental contamination.

2024 Carbon Research 79 citations
Article Tier 2

Plastic pollution amplified by a warming climate

Researchers examined the connection between climate change and plastic pollution, finding that rising temperatures accelerate plastic degradation and microplastic generation, meaning that as the planet warms, the microplastic problem is likely to get worse faster.

2024 Nature Communications 75 citations
Article Tier 2

Addressing climate change mitigation: Implications for the sustainable alternatives to plastics

This review examines the two-way relationship between plastic pollution and climate change, noting that microplastics both result from and may contribute to greenhouse gas emissions across the plastic lifecycle. It argues that sustainable alternatives to plastics must be evaluated holistically — considering climate impact alongside pollution reduction — to avoid trading one problem for another.

2024 Cambridge Prisms Plastics 2 citations
Article Tier 2

Relationship between climate change and environmental microplastics: a one health vision for the platysphere health

This review examines the two-way relationship between climate change and microplastic pollution: plastic production generates greenhouse gases, while extreme weather events spread microplastics further into the environment. The study uses a One Health framework to argue that addressing microplastic pollution and climate change together is essential for protecting human, animal, and environmental health.

2024 One Health Advances 25 citations
Article Tier 2

The Correlation Between Plastic and Climate Change

This review chapter explores the underappreciated connection between plastic pollution and climate change, showing that plastics contribute greenhouse gases throughout their lifecycle. The plastic crisis and climate crisis are intertwined problems that need coordinated solutions.

2023
Article Tier 2

Role of soil microplastic pollution in climate change

This review examined the bidirectional relationship between soil microplastic pollution and climate change, exploring how microplastics affect soil carbon cycling, greenhouse gas emissions, and how climate factors influence microplastic behavior in soils.

2023 The Science of The Total Environment 56 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics and Climate Change in Africa

This review examines microplastic pollution and climate change interactions across African contexts, highlighting how plastic waste mismanagement compounds climate vulnerability in African ecosystems and discussing region-specific mitigation strategies.

2025 International Journal of Big Data Mining for Global Warming
Article Tier 2

Emerging Challenges from Plastics-Driven Climate Change

This review examines how the plastic life cycle — from fossil fuel extraction through manufacturing to disposal — generates substantial greenhouse gas emissions, while environmental microplastics disrupt ecosystems and reduce ocean carbon sequestration, creating a bidirectional link between plastic pollution and climate change.

2025 Preprints.org
Article Tier 2

The Crucial Nexus of Microplastics on Ecosystem and Climate Change: Types, Source, Impacts, and Transport

This review summarizes the current understanding of microplastic types, sources, environmental impacts, and transport pathways across ecosystems. It highlights that microplastics not only harm organisms through ingestion and physical damage but may also influence climate change by affecting soil carbon storage and ocean processes. The review emphasizes that microplastic pollution is a global challenge requiring coordinated solutions across waste management, policy, and consumer behavior.

2024 Water Air & Soil Pollution 18 citations
Article Tier 2

Navigating the nexus: climate dynamics and microplastics pollution in coastal ecosystems

This review examines how climate change and microplastic pollution interact in coastal ecosystems, finding that rising sea levels, ocean acidification, and stronger storms are spreading microplastics further and faster into marine environments. These climate-driven changes also accelerate plastic breakdown into smaller, more dangerous particles that are more easily absorbed by marine life. The combination of worsening climate conditions and increasing plastic pollution poses a growing threat to both coastal ecosystems and the millions of people who depend on them for food.

2024 Environmental Research 13 citations
Article Tier 2

Research progress in ecotoxicology of climate change coupled with marine pollutions

This review examined how rising ocean temperatures and acidification from climate change interact with marine pollutants including microplastics, finding that combined stressors often produce worse effects than either alone. The research underscores that plastic pollution cannot be addressed in isolation from the broader context of global climate change.

2017 Chinese Science Bulletin (Chinese Version) 2 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics and their Impact on the Marine Environment

This review examines how plastic debris in the ocean degrades into microplastics and affects marine ecosystems. The authors discuss how surface plastics reduce heat absorption and how degrading plastics release greenhouse gases, potentially contributing to climate change. The review also highlights the role of ocean plastic in altering marine food webs and threatening biodiversity.

2023 2 citations
Article Tier 2

Fate of microplastics under the influence of climate change

This paper discusses how climate change is reshaping the fate of microplastics in the environment through mechanisms like melting ice releasing stored particles, increased rainfall washing debris into waterways, and stronger winds redistributing contamination. Researchers found that rising temperatures also accelerate the chemical breakdown of microplastics, potentially releasing additional harmful substances. The study frames microplastic pollution within the broader context of planetary boundaries, suggesting the two environmental crises are deeply interconnected.

2023 iScience 139 citations