Ocean pollution has reached "unprecedented" levels, with more than 170 trillion plastic particles being discovered there.

(cnn) ⸻ The world's oceans are polluted by a "plastic smog" made up of 171 trillion plastic particles that if gathered would weigh around 2.3 million tons. A team of international scientists analyzed global data collected between 1979 and 2019 from nearly 12,000 sampling points in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans and the Mediterranean Sea and found a "rapid and unprecedented" increase in ocean plastic pollution since 2005. Without urgent policy action, the rate at which plastics enter the oceans could increase by around 2.6 times between now and 2040. Plastic waste end up in the oceans due to land, swept into rivers, and transported out to sea. Once plastic gets into the ocean, it doesn't decompose but instead tends to break down into tiny pieces. Marine life can get entangled in plastic or mistake it for food, and it can also leach toxic chemicals into the water. Plastic is also a huge climate problem, as fossil fuels are the raw ingredient for most plastics and they produce planet-heating pollution throughout their lifecycle.