The Marine Debris Nexus: Plastic, Climate Change, Biodiversity, and Human Health

Efforts to establish global environmental governance related to marine debris, including revamping UNCLOS, establishing new marine areas beyond national jurisdiction ( ABNJ) regimes, and even promulgating a global treaty committing states to reduce plastic usage and waste, are proliferating as we face the stark reality that plastic presence in marine ecosystems present a variety of increasing threats at the ecosystem level. The observational science is incontrovertible, and policy has been playing catch-up for well over two decades now. A recent flourish of counter-plastic policy, mostly focused on single-use products from bags to beauty products, is welcome.2 Yet the topic is often treated in isolation, as if plastic – and, by extension, the political and cultural narratives shaping the related discourse -- floats above the other problems it encounters, exacerbates, and deepens.