Microplastics may be weakening the ocean’s ability to fight climate change

Microplastics may be weakening the ocean’s ability to fight climate change

The ocean works quietly every day to protect life on Earth. It absorbs heat from the atmosphere, stores massive amounts of carbon dioxide and produces much of the oxygen humans breathe. Much of that work depends on organisms so small they cannot be seen with the naked eye. These microscopic marine algae, called phytoplankton, drift near the ocean’s sunlit surface. Despite their tiny size, they carry out nearly half of all photosynthesis on Earth…