Plastics and the Triple Planetary Crisis

The United Nations and its Environment Programme recognize that we are facing a Triple Planetary Crisis, with irrefutable evidence for the impacts of human activities on the planet. We face the unprecedented threats of anthropogenic climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution driven by unsustainable production and consumption of energy, chemicals, materials, products, and technologies. Each of these crises drives profound biophysical changes to the planet and poses threats to the rights of nature, and human rights, health, and wellbeing. Combined, these three compounding contributors render the planet less hospitable and more unpredictable. Interactions between the three crises risk initiating synergistic knock-on mechanisms that hasten and exacerbate impacts.