It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Wednesday, March 12, 2025
UK’s wealthiest citizens may be rich with climate-positive potential
Key carbon contributors are poised for positive impact, but loath to let consumption culture go
Credit: Moorcroft et al., 2025, PLOS Climate, CC-BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
UK’s wealthiest citizens can invest in green tech, voice climate concerns and sow sustainable seeds among their networks to accelerate the country’s pursuit of net-zero carbon emissions, according to survey data published February 26, 2025 in the open-access journal PLOS Climate by Hettie Moorcroft from the University of Bath and colleagues. However, members of this population are unmotivated to sacrifice quality of life for carbon savings.
From 1990-2015, the world’s richest 10% produced more than 50% of global emissions — despite being the least affected by climate change. In the UK, the wealthiest households produce triple the poorest households’ emissions. Thus, researchers suggest a wealth-conscious approach is a fair, doable route to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
To reduce wealthy individuals’ disproportionate emissions, Moorcroft and colleagues examined the demographic’s responsibility, ability and desire to curb their carbon footprint. They launched a nationally representative online survey in April 2022. Forty-three wealthy participants and 993 non-wealthy participants took the survey and 16 wealthy participants were also interviewed.
Wealthy participants reported high consumption-based emissions relating to food, energy, shopping and transportation (e.g., flying frequently) but expressed low motivation to reduce consumption, preferring luxury, and the ability to keep up with social norms. However, the researchers identified three positive climate capabilities for this demographic: the means to invest in or purchase costly green technologies (e.g., electric vehicles); knowledge and a sense of urgency (if not culpability) about climate change and climate policy; and social and professional influence.
The researchers suggest galvanizing wealthy populations as climate action ambassadors; for example, normalizing EVs or rooftop solar. They also note that behavioral changes within wealthy communities will also be necessary to reach a net-zero carbon emission target: aligning carbon-conscious choices like train travel and local ecotourism with wellbeing rather than a lifestyle downgrade can help shift the social norm.
The authors add: “Despite high emissions, wealthy individuals could accelerate the transition to net zero in the UK.”
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In your coverage please use this URL to provide access to the freely available article in PLOS Climate: https://plos.io/4iidumB
Citation: Moorcroft H, Hampton S, Whitmarsh L (2025) Climate change and wealth: understanding and improving the carbon capability of the wealthiest people in the UK. PLOS Clim 4(3): e0000573. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000573
Author Countries: United Kingdom
Funding: This research has been enabled by funding from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) under grant references ES/V015133/1 (SH) and ES/S012257/1 (LW). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. SH receives a salary from ESRC.
Credit: Adapted from Environment & Health 2025, DOI:10.1021/envhealth.4c00210
Microplastics have been found almost everywhere that scientists have looked for them. Now, according to research published in the ACS partner journal Environment & Health, these bits of plastic — from 1 to 62 micrometers long — are present in the filtered solutions used for medical intravenous (IV) infusions. The researchers estimate that thousands of plastic particles could be delivered directly to a person’s bloodstream from a single 8.4-ounce (250-milliliter) bag of infusion fluid.
In clinical settings, IV infusions are packaged in individual plastic pouches and deliver water, electrolytes, nutrients or medicine to patients. The base of these infusions is a saline solution that contains filtered water and enough salt to match the content of human blood. Research from the 1970s suggests IV fluid bags can contain solid particles, but few scientists have followed up on what those particles are made of. Liwu Zhang, Ventsislav Kolev Valev and colleagues suspected that these particles could be microplastics that, upon infusion, would enter the recipient’s bloodstream and potentially cause negative health effects. So, they set out to analyze the types and amounts of particles in commercial IV fluid bags.
The team purchased two different brands of 8.4-ounce bags of IV saline solution. After the contents of each bag dripped into separate glass containers, the liquids were filtered to catch microscopic particles. Then the researchers counted a portion of the individual plastic fragments, using that amount to estimate the total number of microplastics in the entire pouch of IV liquid and to analyze the composition of the particles.
The researchers discovered that both brands of saline contained microplastic particles made from polypropylene — the same material as the bags — which suggests that the bags shed microplastics into the solutions. And they estimated that each bag of infusion fluid could deliver about 7,500 microplastics directly into the bloodstream. This figure rises to about 25,000 particles to treat dehydration or 52,500 for abdominal surgery, which can require multiple IV bags.
The researchers recommend keeping IV infusion bags away from ultraviolet light and heat to reduce microplastic shedding, and they say that micrometer-level filtration systems could be used to remove the particles during infusion.
While there are no clinical studies to date that have assessed the health risks of microplastics exposure, the researchers say their findings will help “provide a scientific basis for formulating appropriate policies and measures to mitigate the potential threats posed by microplastics to human health.”
The authors acknowledge funding from the National Natural Science Foundation of China.
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The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1876 and chartered by the U.S. Congress. ACS is committed to improving all lives through the transforming power of chemistry. Its mission is to advance scientific knowledge, empower a global community and champion scientific integrity, and its vision is a world built on science. The Society is a global leader in promoting excellence in science education and providing access to chemistry-related information and research through its multiple research solutions, peer-reviewed journals, scientific conferences, e-books and weekly news periodical Chemical & Engineering News. ACS journals are among the most cited, most trusted and most read within the scientific literature; however, ACS itself does not conduct chemical research. As a leader in scientific information solutions, its CAS division partners with global innovators to accelerate breakthroughs by curating, connecting and analyzing the world’s scientific knowledge. ACS’ main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.
Washington, D.C.—Microplastics are not just pollutants, but also highly complex materials that facilitate antimicrobial resistance, even without antibiotics, according to a new study. The findings were published in Applied and Environmental Microbiology, a journal of the American Society for Microbiology.
“Addressing plastic pollution isn’t just an environmental issue—it’s a critical public health priority in the fight against drug-resistant infections,” said lead study author Neila Gross, a Ph.D. candidate in the lab of Professor Muhammad Zaman at Boston University.
As global plastic use has surged, microplastic contamination has become widespread, with wastewater emerging as a major reservoir. At the same time, antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is rising globally, with environmental factors playing a key role. Microplastics are well known to harbor bacterial communities on their surfaces—the “plastisphere.”
In the new study, researchers sought to quantify AMR at clinically relevant levels and explore how microplastic characteristics influence AMR development. The researchers used different plastic types (polystyrene, such as the packing peanuts used for shipping; polyethylene, found in plastic zip-top bags; and polypropylene, which is found in crates, bottles and jars) and sizes (from half a millimeter to 10 micrometers—similar scale to a typical bacterium) and incubated them with Escherichia coli for 10 days. Every 2 days, the researchers checked the minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs), or how much antibiotic is required to kill an infection, for 4 widely used antibiotics to determine if the bacteria were growing in resistance or not.
The researchers found that microplastics, regardless of the tested size and concentration, facilitated multidrug resistance in 4 tested antibiotics (ampicillin, ciprofloxacin, doxycycline and streptomycin) in E. coli within 5-10 days of exposure.
The researchers demonstrated that microplastics alone can facilitate increased AMR development. “This means that microplastics substantially increase the risk of antibiotics becoming ineffective for a variety of high impact infections,” Gross said. Prior research primarily focused on antibiotic-driven resistance, without considering the role of environmental pollutants like microplastics. Studies with microplastics looked mostly at resistance factors such as antibiotic-resistant genes (ARGs) and biofilms, not the rate or magnitude of AMR via their minimum inhibitory concentration to different antibiotics.
The researchers found that resistance induced by microplastics and antibiotics was often significant, measurable and stable, even after antibiotics and microplastics were removed from the bacteria. Ultimately, this means that microplastic exposure may select for genotypic or phenotypic traits that maintain antimicrobial resistance, independent of antibiotic pressure.
“Our findings reveal that microplastics actively drive antimicrobial resistance development in E. coli, even in the absence of antibiotics, with resistance persisting beyond antibiotic and microplastic exposure,” Gross said. “This challenges the notion that microplastics are merely passive carriers of resistant bacteria and highlights their role as active hotspots for antimicrobial resistance evolution.” Given that polystyrene microplastics facilitated the highest levels of resistance, and that biofilm formation—known to enhance bacterial survival and drug resistance—was a key mechanism, the results underscore the urgent need to address microplastics pollution in antimicrobial resistance mitigation efforts.
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The American Society for Microbiology is one of the largest professional societies dedicated to the life sciences and is composed of over 37,000 scientists and health practitioners. ASM's mission is to promote and advance the microbial sciences.
ASM advances the microbial sciences through conferences, publications, certifications, educational opportunities and advocacy efforts. It enhances laboratory capacity around the globe through training and resources. It provides a network for scientists in academia, industry and clinical settings. Additionally, ASM promotes a deeper understanding of the microbial sciences to all audiences.
Journal
Applied and Environmental Microbiology
Plastic recycling gets a breath of fresh air
Scientists break down plastic using a simple, inexpensive catalyst and air
Harnessing moisture from air, Northwestern University chemists have developed a simple new method for breaking down plastic waste.
The non-toxic, environmentally friendly, solvent-free process first uses an inexpensive catalyst to break apart the bonds in polyethylene terephthalate (PET), the most common plastic in the polyester family. Then, the researchers merely expose the broken pieces to ambient air. Leveraging the trace amounts of moisture in air, the broken-down PET is converted into monomers — the crucial building blocks for plastics. From there, the researchers envision the monomers could be recycled into new PET products or other, more valuable materials.
Safer, cleaner, cheaper and more sustainable than current plastic recycling methods, the new technique offers a promising path toward creating a circular economy for plastics.
The study was recently published in Green Chemistry, a journal published by the Royal Society of Chemistry.
“The U.S. is the number one plastic polluter per capita, and we only recycle 5% of those plastics,” said Northwestern’s Yosi Kratish, the study’s co-corresponding author. “There is a dire need for better technologies that can process different types of plastic waste. Most of the technologies that we have today melt down plastic bottles and downcycle them into lower-quality products. What’s particularly exciting about our research is that we harnessed moisture from air to break down the plastics, achieving an exceptionally clean and selective process. By recovering the monomers, which are the basic building blocks of PET, we can recycle or even upcycle them into more valuable materials.”
“Our study offers a sustainable and efficient solution to one of the world’s most pressing environmental challenges: plastic waste,” said Naveen Malik, the study’s first author. “Unlike traditional recycling methods, which often produce harmful byproducts like waste salts and require significant energy or chemical inputs, our approach uses a solvent-free process that relies on trace moisture from ambient air. This makes it not only environmentally friendly but also highly practical for real-world applications.”
An expert in plastic recycling, Kratish is a research assistant professor of chemistry at Northwestern’s Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences. Kratish co-led the study with Tobin J. Marks, the Charles E. and Emma H. Morrison Professor of Chemistry at Weinberg and a professor of materials science and engineering at Northwestern’s McCormick School of Engineering. At the time of the research, Malik was an postdoctoral fellow in Marks’ laboratory; now he is a research assistant professor at the SRM Institute of Science and Technology in India.
The plastic problem
Commonly used in food packaging and beverage bottles, PET plastics represent 12% of total plastics used globally. Because it does not break down easily, PET is a major contributor to plastic pollution. After use, it either ends up in landfills or, over time, degrades into tiny microplastics or nanoplastics, which often end up in wastewater and waterways.
Finding new ways to recycle plastic is a hot topic in research. But current methods to break down plastics require harsh conditions, including extremely high temperatures, intense energy and solvents, which generate toxic byproducts. The catalysts used in these reactions also are often expensive (like platinum and palladium) or toxic, creating even more harmful waste. Then, after the reaction is performed, researchers have to separate the recycled materials from the solvents, which can be a time-consuming and energy-intensive process.
In previous work, Marks’ group at Northwestern became the first to develop catalytic processes that do not require solvents. In the new study, the team again devised a solvent-free process.
“Using solvents has many disadvantages,” Kratish said. “They can be expensive, and you have to heat them up to high temperatures. Then, after the reaction, you are left with a soup of materials that you have to sort to recover the monomers. Instead of using solvents, we used water vapor from air. It’s a much more elegant way to tackle plastic recycling issues.”
An ‘elegant’ solution
To conduct the new study, the researchers used a molybdenum catalyst and activated carbon — both of which are inexpensive, abundant and non-toxic materials. To initiate the process, the researchers added PET to the catalyst and activated carbon and then heated up the mixture. Polyester plastics are large molecules with repeating units, which are linked together with chemical bonds. After a short period of time, the chemical bonds within the plastic broke apart.
Next, the researchers exposed the material to air. With the tiny bit of moisture from air, the material turned into terephthalic acid (TPA) — the highly valuable precursor to polyesters. The only byproduct was acetaldehyde, a valuable, easy-to-remove industrial chemical.
“Air contains a significant amount of moisture, making it a readily available and sustainable resource for chemical reactions,” Malik said. “On average, even in relatively dry conditions, the atmosphere holds about 10,000 to15,000 cubic kilometers of water. Leveraging air moisture allows us to eliminate bulk solvents, reduce energy input and avoid the use of aggressive chemicals, making the process cleaner and more environmentally friendly.”
“It worked perfectly,” Kratish said. “When we added extra water, it stopped working because it was too much water. It’s a fine balance. But it turns out the amount of water in air was just the right amount.”
Endless advantages
The resulting process is fast and effective. In just four hours, 94% of the possible TPA was recovered. The catalyst also is durable and recyclable, meaning it can be used time and time again without losing effectiveness. And the method works with mixed plastics, selectively recycling only polyesters. With its selective nature, the process bypasses the need to sort the plastics before applying the catalyst — a major economic advantage for the recycling industry.
When the team tested the process on real-world materials like plastic bottles, shirts and mixed plastic waste, it proved just as effective. It even broke down colored plastics into pure, colorless TPA.
Next, the researchers plan to increase the scale of the process for industrial use. By optimizing the process for large-scale applications, the researchers aim to ensure it can handle vast quantities of plastic waste.
“Our technology has the potential to significantly reduce plastic pollution, lower the environmental footprint of plastics and contribute to a circular economy where materials are reused rather than discarded,” Malik said. “It’s a tangible step toward a cleaner, greener future, and it demonstrates how innovative chemistry can address global challenges in a way that aligns with nature.”
The study, “Thermodynamically leveraged solventless aerobic deconstruction of polyethylene-terephthalate plastics over a single-site molybdenum-dioxo catalyst,” was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy (award number DE-SC0024448).
Researchers at the Texas A&M Gastrointestinal Laboratory (GI Lab) have discovered signs that can be used to identify dogs with a high risk of gastrointestinal disease — which causes more than 10% of all new visits to a veterinarian — before they develop symptoms.
That team will now use this discovery — published in theJournal of Veterinary Internal Medicine — to research whether specific dietary interventions can help prevent at-risk dogs from developing GI disease, which may be lifesaving for breeds that are prone to diseases with a high mortality rate.
Soft-coated wheaten terriers, for example, often develop a disease called protein-losing enteropathy (PLE), which causes the intestines to stop functioning normally, sometimes leading to death in less than six months after diagnosis.
Other breeds that are prone to GI disease are German shepherds, Yorkshire terriers and Staffordshire bull terriers.
“Sometimes, dogs that are predisposed to GI disease can go their whole lives without having any clinical signs. For others, signs develop after some kind of stressor in the gut, like an unbalanced diet or having to take antibiotics, triggers the GI disease to develop,” said Dr. Katie Tolbert, a board-certified veterinary nutritionist, small animal internist and associate professor in the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences’ (VMBS) Department of Small Animal Clinical Sciences.
“In this study, we found that certain biomarkers start to show up before symptoms are present, and we think this can help us identify dogs before they actually have the disease,” she said.
Importantly, the researchers found multiple signs that indicate a high risk of disease — not just one.
“There are all sorts of things going on in the gut that turn out to be markers for high risk,” Tolbert said. “Some dogs may have inflammation, while others have leaky guts. Any of these signs can contribute to the development of GI disease if enough changes are present.”
Tolbert and her collaborators have received funding to conduct a new study to see if diet changes can help prevent or slow down the development of GI disease in soft-coated wheaten terriers.
“As a nutritionist, I’m hopeful that diet can be a benign intervention to reverse the condition in these dogs,” Tolbert said. “At the GI Lab, we’re also working toward the development of new diagnostics that we hope will make pre-clinical detection more widely available.”
By Courtney Price, Texas A&M University College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences
Pre-clinical enteropathy in healthy soft-coated wheaten terriers
COI Statement
L. Grubb is the CEO and founder of TriviumVet and S. Fitzgerald is the Head of Clinical Affairs at TriviumVet. M. K. Tolbert is a member of the TriviumVet scientific advisory board. M. K. Tolbert, C. H. Sung, M. Hong, J Steiner, and J Suchodolski are employed by the Gastrointestinal Laboratory at Texas A&M University, which provides assays for intestinal function, microbiota, and fecal fatty acid, sterol, and bile acid analysis on a fee-for-service basis. This is a case-controlled study in which multiple quantitative and qualitative variables were measured. Data were analyzed by independent, statisticians blinded to the results. Intestinal permeability data were measured by an independent laboratory blinded to the results. The lactulose: galactose intestinal permeability testing methodology described is subject to patent protection filed by TriviumVet.
