"We find ourselves surrounded by and breathing in this plastic, a material that endures for an eternity," remarked Littlejohn. "I don't think the general public has truly grasped the extent of how alarming this situation is."
Two years ago, at a United Nations summit in Kenya, governments agreed to create a legally binding international treaty by the end of 2024 to combat plastic pollution.
Espen Barth Eide, the president of the UN gathering, warned that plastic pollution "has become an epidemic."
The next round of negotiations for this treaty is scheduled later this month in Canada, and activists are advocating for a strong agreement that limits the use of single-use plastics and brings about significant changes.
"To witness a place so pristine and untouched by mankind and then discover it has been polluted by plastics so small they are invisible was truly awful to me," said Graham Bartram, a vexillologist who designed an unofficial flag used informally to represent the continent since the 1990s – no single country claims ownership of the frozen continent – and who has now redesigned the flag to depict the plastic pollution.
"I don't believe plastics are inherently evil; they can be very useful, but we must use them sensibly," added Bartram.
"I hope the flag encourages people to think about what we are doing to the planet. Let's face it: we only have one planet, and there's no backup plan of moving to another one next door."