Radio report for Deutschlandfunk's Forschung aktuell, the science show on German national public radio.
26.11.2024 | Deutschlandfunk | Forschung aktuell | 4 min.
There are a lot of different claims about plastic in the environment in the media, but many of them are not really substantiated. We have fact-checked ten common claims and turned them into a quiz. Try it out! With the Plastic Mythbusters web quiz, visitors can test their plastic knowledge. Which statements circulating virally in […]
This year, 2024, is the crucial year for the plastics treaty negotiations. If you haven’t heard about them, the United Nations are working on an international, legally binding agreement to end plastic pollution. It’s been called the most important environmental deal since the Paris climate accord. Many countries want it to be an ambitious agreement […]
This is the playlist for all following the negotiations towards a global plastics treaty. It contains a series of conversations, features and shorts. The #PlasticsTreaty shorts bring you short, snackable input while the negotiations are ongoing. This is an interactive format – you can contribute too (more info here).
Zum Plastik in der Umwelt finden sich in den Medien eine Menge verschiedener Angaben, doch viele davon sind nicht wirklich fundiert. Wir haben acht häufige Behauptungen einem Faktencheck unterzogen und in ein Quiz verwandelt. Probiert es aus! Das englischsprachige Web-Quiz Plastic Mythbusters eröffnet einen spielerischen Zugang: Mit dem Tool können Besucher*innen ihr Plastikwissen testen. Welche […]
This claim is certainly false. Some of these so-called “bioplastics” are biobased (made from renewable resources) but not actually biodegradable. Other materials known as “bioplastics” are biodegradable but require very specific conditions to disappear quickly – conditions that are not often found in nature. If biodegradable plastics end up in the wrong place, then they […]
This claim is certainly false. It misrepresents the state of scientific research. While it’s true that plastics have been found in the human body and that microplastics can be ingested or inhaled, the average quantity of plastic which enters the human body is unclear. Scientific estimates still differ widely, but there is no doubt that […]
This claim is certainly false, and very far from reality. Only a small percentage of plastic waste is recycled and turned into material for new products. The majority of plastic waste is landfilled, incinerated (burnt), or ends up in the environment. This is one of the reasons why the current level of plastics consumption is […]
This claim is certainly false. There are no “plastic islands” in the ocean which are the size of continents or even countries. While there’s no doubt that plastic pollutes the oceans – just as it does rivers, lakes, the soil, and the air – plastic on the ocean’s surface is not concentrated enough to form […]
This claim is uncertain. We could find no credible scientific source to back it up. The percentage of land- and sea-based plastic inputs into the ocean has not yet been calculated on a global level and therefore remains unknown. Scientific studies show that the ratio of land- versus ocean-based plastics can differ widely depending on […]
You may read this claim frequently, but it is probably false. Such claims misquote the results of research published in 2017. In that study, scientists estimated how much plastic enters the sea from rivers around the world. Ten of these river systems carried most of the plastic, but plastic also reaches the sea in other […]
This is true – microplastics have indeed been identified in drinking water. But knowledge of the scope and the impacts on human health is scarce. More research is needed to fully understand both the occurrence of micro- and nanoplastics in drinking water and their impacts on human health.
This claim is highly speculative, and probably false. We do not know how much plastic is currently in the ocean, and there is no scientific estimate of how much plastic will be in the ocean by 2050. It is also unclear how many fish will inhabit the ocean by 2050.
Im SCHIRN PODCAST zur Ausstellung PLASTIC WORLD tauchen wir in die Welt der Kunststoffe ein – eine Welt voller unglaublicher Möglichkeiten, aber auch problematischer Nebenwirkungen. In den drei Folgen spreche ich mit Plastikexpert*innen aus verschiedenen Disziplinen, darunter Kuratorin Martina Weinhart, Bodenökologe Matthias Rillig, Tiefseeökologin Melanie Bergmann, Biologe Martin Wagner und Politikwissenschaftler Per-Olof Busch. Hörer*innen erhalten dadurch einen fundierten Einblick in aktuelle wissenschaftliche Diskurse rund um Kunststoffe. Umgesetzt vom SCHIRN MAG mit der Kommunikationsagentur Ahnen&Enkel, wo ich jetzt arbeite. Mit Illustrationen von Moritz Wienert.
We dove into the PLASTIC WORLD – a world full of incredible possibilities, but also problematic side effects. Meet plastics experts from various disciplines in this three-part series in German language on the SCHIRN podcast, including art exhibition curator Martina Weinhart, soil ecologist Matthias Rillig, deep-sea ecologist Melanie Bergmann, eco toxicologist Martin Wagner and political […]
Great to see our audio podcast mini-series »Life in the Soil« continues to be useful! It was a joy to make in collaboration with the awesome people at the Rillig lab at Freie Universität Berlin. The BBC just featured some of our audio interviews in their new four-part series on soil biodiversity, »The Understory: Life in the Soil«. Scrub to minute 15 to hear more from Matthias Rillig and Katie Field on the fascinating world of mycorrhizal fungi. And if you'd like to hear more from the two, you can find our full episode from 2020 here:
Plastikkügelchen in den Fischmägen, Kunststoffabfälle im Meer: Das ist seit Jahrzehnten bekannt. Warum hat es so lange gedauert, bis das Problem von Politik und Öffentlichkeit ernst genommen wurde? Für dieses Radiofeature - eine gekürzte deutsche Fassung der einstündigen Folge des englischsprachigen Podcasts "Plastisphere" - habe ich mich über ein Jahr lang auf die Suche nach den Wissenschaftler:innen gemacht, die das Problem schon in den 1960er und 1970er Jahren erkannten. Was erlebten sie damals, und wieso verfolgten sie das Problem nicht weiter? Die Geschichten, die die Forscher:innen von damals erzählen, illustrieren, welche Rolle der Druck der Industrie, der Zeitgeist und die Interessen der Wissenschaftler:innen spielten. So entsteht das Bild einer verpassten Chance vor einem halben Jahrhundert, als das Plastikproblem gerade erst begann. Was lässt sich aus dieser Geschichte lernen, um in Zukunft nicht wieder soviel Zeit vergehen zu lassen?
Beitrag hören oder lesen: Deutschlandfunk Kultur.
Das Konzept der planetaren Belastungsgrenzen definiert neun Dimensionen, die für die Gesundheit und Überlebensfähigkeit unserer menschlichen Zivilisation entscheidend sind. Einige dieser Grenzen haben wir bereits überschritten. Wie kommen wir zurück in den sicheren Bereich? Eine neunteilige Artikel-Serie der Helmholtz-Klima-Initiative zum Erdüberlastungstag 2022, in Zusammenarbeit mit Thomas Krautwig und Forschenden der Helmholtz-Zentren. Zur Hauptseite der Serie>
Ahead of the negotiations for a new global Plastics Treaty, I teamed up with group of scientists and co-authored two letters published in the journal Science calling for a cap on production and the full inclusion of chemicals. You can find our letters here (production cap) and here (chemicals). I also co-authored a letter to the journal Science of The Total Environment calling for a ban of cigarette filters, which are among the top polluting items found on beaches around the world. You can read it here (cigarette filters).