Saving the Clean Ice World for the Future

As the most remote regions of the globe, the occurrence of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in the polar regions arouses global concern.Observations of transport processes of POPs among multiple media have also been carried out, and climate change will likely increase the total mass of all compounds in these region. 

In the Arctic and Antarctica, human activities have been reported to be the major cause of the accumulation of heavy metal contaminants. The mineral, facility construction, and fuel consumption since eighteen century have generated lead, iron, manganese and other heavy metals, which are found in the air, ice, and soil among polar regions.   

Plastic waste takes thousands of years to decompose, which is much longer in polar regions. The continuous break down of plastics, as a consequence of thermal, chemical and biological processes along with various environmental factors, results into small particles with the length of less than 5mm, which is called Microplastics.