University of Cádiz

If practices and public policies do not change, the mass of mismanaged plastic waste in the world will double to 121 million tonnes per year by 2050, according to a study published in Science. The article also assesses the potential impact of global measures, such as those envisaged by the forthcoming UN global treaty on plastic pollution, which begins its final negotiating session at the end of this month.

More than 52 million tonnes of plastic waste are emitted around the world every year, according to a study published in Nature that inventories plastic pollution in 50,702 cities. It concludes that littering is the largest source of plastic emissions in the global North, and uncollected waste is the largest source in the South.  

Chinese researchers have designed an asthma treatment based on CAR-T cells. A single injection of these cells, modified to attack the eosinophils themselves - a type of white blood cell that is activated by certain infections and allergies - achieved remission of the signs and symptoms of the disease for at least a year in mice. According to the authors, the technique will need to be tested in human clinical trials, but could be useful for treating both asthma and other types of allergies. The results are published in the journal Nature Immunology. 

An international team of researchers, with Spanish participation, has proposed in the journal Science a new mechanism to explain asthma attacks more fully. According to their hypothesis, the mechanical forces that occur during these episodes cause cells to accumulate in excess, leading to a process of elimination called "cell extrusion". As a result, the tissue is damaged, loses its barrier function and increases the risk of successive attacks. Inhibitors of this mechanism improved damage and inflammation in laboratory mice. 

Most so-called compostable plastics require specific conditions to degrade that are only obtainable in industrial settings, warns a study published in the journal PLoS One. Polylactic acid - a polymer obtained from natural renewable sources that is used as an alternative to petroleum-based plastics - takes more than a year to degrade in a marine environment, compared to 35 days for natural cellulose fibres, according to the analysis, which combines observations in waters off the coast of California (US) with laboratory measurements. 

The deadline passed and after two marathon nights of meetings, the delegations of the UN member states have managed to reach an agreement to make the so-called Oceans Treaty - or BBNJ Treaty, Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction - a reality. New York City has seen the fifth session of this conference bear fruit with an agreement on the wording of the text, seventeen years after the talks began and with negotiations stalled last August due to a lack of agreement. The Treaty aims to protect and regulate the use of areas beyond national jurisdiction, which account for more than 60% of the oceans, or almost half of the planet. Marine genetic resources and how to share these benefits has been one of the main stumbling blocks.

A study published in Science analyses the potential climate benefits of afforestation - both planting trees to create new forests and reforesting old ones - of the world's drylands. The authors show that the cooling effect of afforestation of this vast area would only amount to a decrease of about 1 % of projected greenhouse gas emissions in the business-as-usual and medium-emissions climate scenarios.