1st Environmental Dialogue: How Dangerous Is Microplastics?

Floating bags, bottles washed ashore, pulverised plastic in bodies of water and on beaches: Our plastic waste accumulates as flotsam or in the form of tiny plastic particles (i.e. microplastics) on the banks of our rivers, in sediments and in the oceans. Researchers are trying to understand the dimension of this environmental problem. Is plastic flotsam just an aesthetic issue or a real danger? Is microplastics a vehicle for pollutants and pathogens? How should politics and society react to these dangers? And do we have solutions without plastic?

Panel discussion

• Ulrike Felt,Professor of Science and Technology Studies at the University of Vienna and Head of the Research Platform “Responsible Research and Innovation in Academic Practice”
• Gunnar Gerdts,Coordinator of the joint EU project JPI Oceans – Microplastic: BASEMAN, Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, Helgoland, Germany
• Gerhard J. Herndl, Professor of Biological Oceanography at the University of Vienna, Wittgenstein Award laureate and member of the scientific advisory board of the The Ocean Cleanup initiative
• Thilo Hofmann, Professor of Environmental Geosciences at the University of Vienna and Director of the Environment and Climate Research Hub
• Wilhelm Vogel, Head of the Surface Waters Department, Umweltbundesamt GmbH
• Moderator: Birgit Dalheimer, science editor Ö1 radio