Scientists and theologians join to call for an end to plastic pollution

Chestnut Hill, Mass. (10/24/2024) Scientists and theologians are calling for an end to unethical and immoral “unchecked increases in plastic production,” they write in a Declaration produced during the conference "Joining Science and Theology to End Plastic Pollution, Protect Health, and Advance Social Justice" held recently at Boston College.

In addition to the approximately 85 researchers and faculty who attended the conference, the online petition attached to the Declaration has been signed by scores of additional people concerned about the growing implications of plastic production and pollution.

“Continuing increases in plastic production are responsible for damages that threaten all life on earth,” the Declaration concludes. “Those who advocate for unchecked growth in plastics must re-examine their behavior, embrace the reality that the earth is a shared inheritance - a gift from the Creator, and work toward a more equitable and sustainable future.”

The Declaration, "Our Shared Responsibility to End Plastic Pollution, Protect Human Health & Advance Social Justice for All", was adopted by the participants in the closing session of the Boston College conference.  

The Declaration was endorsed by religious leaders including His Holiness The Dalai Lama, Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, Rabbi Leonid Feldman, and The Rev. Mitchell Hescox, President Emeritus of the Evangelical Environmental Network.

The Declaration calls for a strong and legally binding UN Plastics Treaty, currently under negotiation, that protects human health and especially the health of vulnerable populations. Based on the latest research, two elements are central to a strong and legally binding treaty that will safeguard human health:

• An agreed-upon cap on global plastic production, which is currently on track to double by 2040 and triple by 2060
• Strict regulation of the thousands of chemicals in plastics, which include known human carcinogens, neurotoxicants, endocrine-disrupting chemicals, and hundreds more that have never been tested for toxicity. 

The Declaration is intended to convince the treaty negotiators to recognize that current patterns of plastic production cannot continue. “We urge the Negotiators to craft a Treaty that prioritizes human health, safeguards the environment, and advances human rights,” the document states.

“This conference was based on the recognition that the plastics crisis is more than an environmental challenge,” said one of the conference's lead organizers, Boston College Global Public Health and the Common Good Program Director Philip Landrigan, MD. “Like climate change, air pollution, biodiversity loss, and escalating inequality, the plastics crisis is also a social and ethical challenge.”

In addition to addressing a crucial global issue, the conference represented the latest milestone in Boston College initiatives and investments in scientific research and its use for the public good, as well as the expansion of the BC’s historical strengths that have made it one of the world’s top Catholic universities and leading theological centers.

External co-sponsors of the conference were Australia’s Minderoo Foundation, Centre Scientifique de Monaco, and MMHBO Fund at Schwab Charitable.

In one of the most extensive studies to date, The Minderoo Monaco Commission on Plastics and Human Health, anchored at Boston College, found that plastics harm human health at every stage of their life cycle – from extraction of the crude oil, fracked gas, and coal that are plastics’ principal feedstocks, through transport, manufacture, use, recycling, and on to disposal into the environment.

Plastics’ harms fall disproportionately on the poor, people of color, and marginalized communities. Groups at particularly high risk include employees in the fossil fuel and chemical industries, as well as people who live near such facilities and supply chains. More than 400 million tons of plastic are produced annually and output is projected to double in the next 16 years. Plastic waste can be found in nearly every environment.

Conference speakers included U.N. Environment Program Senior Economic Advisor Pusphpam Kumar, Monterey Bay Aquarium Chief Conservation and Science Officer Margaret Spring, and Africa epidemiologist Adetoun Mustapha, of Nigeria’s Lead City University.

In response to the worsening plastics crisis, the U.N. Environment Assembly voted in March 2022 to develop a Global Plastics Treaty. An Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee will hold their fifth and final meeting in Korea next month. 

Building on the scientific findings, the conference sought to bring moral clarity to the conversation on plastic pollution, Landrigan said.

The Declaration concludes: "Plastic is not an isolated problem. Like climate change, air pollution, and escalating inequality, the plastics crisis is a social and ethical challenge… We need to embrace a new approach that transforms our way of living in the world, our lifestyles, our relationship with the earth's resources, and generally how we look at humanity and all life. Such an approach is essential if we wish to leave a habitable planet for our children, our children’s children, and the generations yet to come.”