PLASTIC IN CLOUDS MUST JOLT PLANET TO ACTION

THE only material that can be called truly omnipresent is plastic. Malleable and maleficent, it is everywhere and not going away anytime soon. It makes our lives easier, but is the planet's biggest curse too.

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A study published recently has tracked the alarming heights plastic appears to have scaled a group of Japanese scientists found microplastics in clouds for the first time. The researchers took cloud water samples from Japan's highest peak, Mount Fuji, and Mount Oyama outside Tokyo last year and arrived at the fascinating and disturbing understanding. The report, published in the journal Environmental Chemistry Letters, revealed that at least nine varieties of microplastics including polyethylene, polypropylene and polycarbonate had been found in the cloud water samples. A rubber compound was detected, too. We know of the burden of plastic on Earth's surface; this study is the