Uploaded August 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Human-Made Chemical & Plastic Toxicity are Enormous Yet Underestimated Risks to Society: New Report
Please donate to PaulBeckwith.net to support my research and videos connecting the dots on abrupt climate system mayhem.
The Stockholm Resilience Center in Sweden first introduced the concept of planetary boundaries in 2009. Of course, climate change and biodiversity loss have been among the largest risks, with the safe green zone boundary being exceeded from the start.
Website: stockholmresilience.org/research/planetary-boundaries.html
Good information on the concept of planetary boundaries can also be found here:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetary_boundaries
Comparing 2009, to 2015, and then to 2023 what sticks out like a sore thumb is the category called "Novel Entities". It did not even register in 2009 and in 2015, yet surged up in risk in 2023 to surpass all other risks.
What the heck is "Novel Entities". An alien invasion? Zombie attack?
Actually, it is chemical contaminants including plastics. Why is this such a huge risk, and why is it only being recognized now?
Recall my recent videos on nanoplastics in the human brain. Plastics are only on component of the chemical contaminants.
A week ago the Guardian published a hard hitting, informative article on chemical pollutants:
Title: Chemical pollution a threat comparable to climate change, scientists warn:
More than 100 million ‘novel entity’ chemicals are in circulation, with health impact not widely recognized
"Chemical pollution is “a threat to the thriving of humans and nature of a similar order as climate change” but decades behind global heating in terms of public awareness and action, a report has warned.
The industrial economy has created more than 100 million “novel entities”, or chemicals not found in nature, with somewhere between 40,000 and 350,000 in commercial use and production, the report says. But the environmental and human health effects of this widespread contamination of the biosphere are not widely appreciated, in spite of a growing body of evidence linking chemical toxicity with effects ranging from ADHD to infertility to cancer."
Link: theguardian.com/environment/2025/aug/06/chemical-pollution-threat-comparable-climate-change-scientists-warn-novel-entities
A few days prior to this chemical article, the Guardian published a very important article on plastics:
Title: World in $1.5tn ‘plastics crisis’ hitting health from infancy to old age, report warns:
Plastic production has increased more than 200 times since 1950 and hits health at every stage from extraction to disposal, says review in the Lancet
Link: theguardian.com/environment/2025/aug/03/world-in-15tn-plastics-crisis-hitting-health-from-infancy-to-old-age-report-warns
The Lancet article: "The Lancet Countdown on health and plastics abstract says:
"Plastics are a grave, growing, and under-recognized danger to human and planetary health. Plastics cause disease and death from infancy to old age and are responsible for health-related economic losses exceeding US$1·5 trillion annually. These impacts fall disproportionately upon low-income and at-risk populations. The principal driver of this crisis is accelerating growth in plastic production—from 2 megatonnes (Mt) in 1950, to 475 Mt in 2022 that is projected to be 1200 Mt by 2060. Plastic pollution has also worsened, and 8000 Mt of plastic waste now pollute the planet. Less than 10% of plastic is recycled. Yet, continued worsening of plastics' harms is not inevitable. Similar to air pollution and lead, plastics' harms can be mitigated cost-effectively by evidence-based, transparently tracked, effectively implemented, and adequately financed laws and policies. To address plastics' harms globally, UN member states unanimously resolved in 2022 to develop a comprehensive, legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, namely the Global Plastics Treaty covering the full lifecycle of plastic. Coincident with the expected finalization of this treaty, we are launching an independent, indicator-based global monitoring system: the Lancet Countdown on health and plastics. This Countdown will identify, track, and regularly report on a suite of geographically and temporally representative indicators that monitor progress toward reducing plastic exposures and mitigating plastics' harms to human and planetary health."
Link: thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(25)01447-3/abstract
New report on "Toxicity: The Invisible Tsunami; How pervasive toxicity threatens
human and planetary survival from Deep Science Ventures:
deepscienceventures.com/toxicity
Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment:
granthamfoundation.org
Please donate to PaulBeckwith.net to support my research and videos connecting the dots on abrupt climate system mayhem.
Human-Made Chemical & Plastic Toxicity are Enormous Yet Underestimated Risks to Society: New Report
Please donate to PaulBeckwith.net to support my research and videos connecting the dots on abrupt climate system mayhem.
The Stockholm Resilience Center in Sweden first introduced the concept of planetary boundaries in 2009. Of course, climate change and biodiversity loss have been among the largest risks, with the safe green zone boundary being exceeded from the start.
Website: stockholmresilience.org/research/planetary-boundaries.html
Good information on the concept of planetary boundaries can also be found here:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetary_boundaries
Comparing 2009, to 2015, and then to 2023 what sticks out like a sore thumb is the category called "Novel Entities". It did not even register in 2009 and in 2015, yet surged up in risk in 2023 to surpass all other risks.
What the heck is "Novel Entities". An alien invasion? Zombie attack?
Actually, it is chemical contaminants including plastics. Why is this such a huge risk, and why is it only being recognized now?
Recall my recent videos on nanoplastics in the human brain. Plastics are only on component of the chemical contaminants.
A week ago the Guardian published a hard hitting, informative article on chemical pollutants:
Title: Chemical pollution a threat comparable to climate change, scientists warn:
More than 100 million ‘novel entity’ chemicals are in circulation, with health impact not widely recognized
"Chemical pollution is “a threat to the thriving of humans and nature of a similar order as climate change” but decades behind global heating in terms of public awareness and action, a report has warned.
The industrial economy has created more than 100 million “novel entities”, or chemicals not found in nature, with somewhere between 40,000 and 350,000 in commercial use and production, the report says. But the environmental and human health effects of this widespread contamination of the biosphere are not widely appreciated, in spite of a growing body of evidence linking chemical toxicity with effects ranging from ADHD to infertility to cancer."
Link: theguardian.com/environment/2025/aug/06/chemical-pollution-threat-comparable-climate-change-scientists-warn-novel-entities
A few days prior to this chemical article, the Guardian published a very important article on plastics:
Title: World in $1.5tn ‘plastics crisis’ hitting health from infancy to old age, report warns:
Plastic production has increased more than 200 times since 1950 and hits health at every stage from extraction to disposal, says review in the Lancet
Link: theguardian.com/environment/2025/aug/03/world-in-15tn-plastics-crisis-hitting-health-from-infancy-to-old-age-report-warns
The Lancet article: "The Lancet Countdown on health and plastics abstract says:
"Plastics are a grave, growing, and under-recognized danger to human and planetary health. Plastics cause disease and death from infancy to old age and are responsible for health-related economic losses exceeding US$1·5 trillion annually. These impacts fall disproportionately upon low-income and at-risk populations. The principal driver of this crisis is accelerating growth in plastic production—from 2 megatonnes (Mt) in 1950, to 475 Mt in 2022 that is projected to be 1200 Mt by 2060. Plastic pollution has also worsened, and 8000 Mt of plastic waste now pollute the planet. Less than 10% of plastic is recycled. Yet, continued worsening of plastics' harms is not inevitable. Similar to air pollution and lead, plastics' harms can be mitigated cost-effectively by evidence-based, transparently tracked, effectively implemented, and adequately financed laws and policies. To address plastics' harms globally, UN member states unanimously resolved in 2022 to develop a comprehensive, legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, namely the Global Plastics Treaty covering the full lifecycle of plastic. Coincident with the expected finalization of this treaty, we are launching an independent, indicator-based global monitoring system: the Lancet Countdown on health and plastics. This Countdown will identify, track, and regularly report on a suite of geographically and temporally representative indicators that monitor progress toward reducing plastic exposures and mitigating plastics' harms to human and planetary health."
Link: thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(25)01447-3/abstract
New report on "Toxicity: The Invisible Tsunami; How pervasive toxicity threatens
human and planetary survival from Deep Science Ventures:
deepscienceventures.com/toxicity
Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment:
granthamfoundation.org
Please donate to PaulBeckwith.net to support my research and videos connecting the dots on abrupt climate system mayhem.
