{"id":36305,"date":"2026-06-05T10:24:42","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T08:24:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=36305"},"modified":"2026-06-05T10:30:22","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T08:30:22","slug":"plastic-pollution-engulfs-marine-ecosystems","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/plastic-pollution-engulfs-marine-ecosystems\/","title":{"rendered":"Plastic pollution engulfs marine ecosystems"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\"><span data-olk-copy-source=\"MessageBody\">Each year, tens of millions of tons of plastic waste enter the world&#8217;s oceans, breaking down into trillions of microplastic particles now spread across marine ecosystems.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Scientists warn the pollution is causing severe environmental damage, including wildlife entanglement, toxic ingestion and habitat loss, and is now affecting more than 4 000 marine species.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Doctor Ian Butler, a scientist at the University of Queensland and editor of the latest World Ocean Assessment, has been speaking to United Nations News about the scale of the crisis.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Butler stated the limits of biodegradable alternatives, and reducing plastic production may be key to addressing the problem.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">&#8211;Channel Africa&#8211;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":36306,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[78,26],"class_list":["post-36305","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"Millions of tons of plastic waste enter the world's oceans","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/36305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/36305\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36307,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/36305\/revisions\/36307"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=36305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}