Plastic pollution and climate change have commonly been treated as two separate issues and sometimes are even seen as competing. Here we present an alternative view that these two issues are fundamentally linked. Primarily, we explore how plastic contributes to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the beginning to the end of its life cycle. Secondly, we show that more extreme weather and floods associated with climate change, will exacerbate the spread of plastic in the natural environment. Finally, both issues occur throughout the marine environment, and we show that ecosystems and species can be particularly vulnerable to both, such as coral reefs that face disease spread through plastic pollution and climate-driven increased global bleaching events. A Web of Science search showed climate change and plastic pollution studies in the ocean are often siloed, with only 0.4% of the articles examining both stressors simultaneously. We also identified a lack of regional and industry-specific life cycle analysis data for comparisons in relative GHG contributions by materials and products. Overall, we suggest that rather than debate over the relative importance of climate change or marine plastic pollution, a more productive course would be to determine the linking factors between the two and identify solutions to combat both crises.

塑料污染和气候变化通常被视为两个独立的问题，有时甚至被视为相互竞争。在这里，我们提出另一种观点，即这两个问题在根本上是相互关联的。首先，我们探索塑料如何从其生命周期的开始到结束导致温室气体 (GHG) 排放。其次，我们表明，与气候变化相关的更多极端天气和洪水将加剧塑料在自然环境中的传播。最后，这两个问题都发生在整个海洋环境中，我们表明生态系统和物种可能特别容易受到这两者的影响，例如珊瑚礁面临通过塑料污染传播的疾病和气候驱动的全球白化事件增加。Web of Science 搜索显示，海洋中的气候变化和塑料污染研究通常是孤立的，只有 0.4% 的文章同时研究了这两种压力因素。我们还发现缺乏区域和行业特定的生命周期分析数据来比较材料和产品的相对温室气体贡献。总的来说，我们建议与其争论气候变化或海洋塑料污染的相对重要性，不如确定两者之间的联系因素，并确定应对这两种危机的解决方案。