The world-renowned marine scientist who first coined the term microplastics is urging major collective action to improve the fragile state of our global seas.
Professor Richard Thompson OBE is founder of the University of Plymouth’s International Marine Litter Research Unit, which has charted the distribution of microplastics from Arctic sea ice to the deep seas.
As director of the university’s Marine Institute, Professor Thompson is at the forefront of pioneering research into the causes and effects of marine litter and defined the word microplastics 20 years ago.
He and his team have demonstrated that just one plastic bag left on a beach can disintegrate into more than 1.75 million fragments. And he says it is likely that, although we only began mass-producing plastics around 60 years ago, all the conventional plastics we’ve produced since then currently remain on the planet unless they’ve been incinerated.
“At the University of Plymouth, here in Britain’s Ocean City, we know the futures of humanity and our oceans are inseparable and that urgent action is required to secure them both,” he explained.
The pioneering research on marine microplastics pollution, its impact on the environment and changing behaviour, by Prof Thompson and his team won the university the Queen’s Anniversary Prize in 2019.
He was also recently named as one of the most important influencers on global health in the past year, featured in TIME magazine’s TIME100 Health list.
“Our world is an ocean planet. Sea water covers around 70% of the earth’s surface and the health of the oceans is fundamental to our existence, supplying food, oxygen, minerals, energy, recreation and helping to regulate the climate we all rely on.
“Yet for centuries our species has taken these resources for granted, considering them to be inexhaustible. At the same time, we have threatened biodiversity by using the ocean as a place to dump rubbish of all types, shapes and sizes, right the way down to the tiny particles of microplastics I first found in my research two decades ago.
“Increasing levels of industrialisation have separated us as individuals from our oceans, leading us to believe the fish we eat and the rare metals that technology relies upon are simply things that appear in our supermarkets and gadgets, rather than appreciating where they come from. This cannot continue.
“Our message to the world is that – from individuals to corporations, governments and international bodies – we can all make a difference through our actions in treating the oceans with respect, instead of using them as a dumping ground. We urgently need to use nature’s sources more sustainably and responsibly.”
Plymouth is already leading the charge to protect the oceans through innovative work like Prof Thompson’s. The city’s National Marine Aquarium is run by the Ocean Conservation Trust and Plymouth Sound National Marine Park – the first of its kind in the UK – encourage greater prosperity and engagement with Britain’s marine environment.
Amanda Lumley, Chief Executive of Destination Plymouth, says, “We are incredibly excited about all the opportunities currently available in the city to support knowledge, awareness, and individual understanding of what’s required in order to conserve the Oceans, and we feel Plymouth is at the forefront of very important research.”
