It is Our Duty to Protect the Life Forms That Cannot Defend Themselves

Recently, Elvis Genbo Xu gave his eight-year-old daughter a jump rope made of wood and rope instead of one of the trendy plastic toys popular among her classmates.

Because a wooden jump rope lasts longer than a cheap plastic toys.
Because the natural materials expose his daughter to fewer chemicals and contaminants.
And because, as Xu puts it, “the Earth needs us to take better care of the environment—so that all living beings can thrive in a healthy, toxin-free world.”

When you study ecotoxicology, you learn how important the wellbeing of all living organisms and their habitats is—from the tiniest single-celled bacterium wriggling through a flea’s intestine to the soft, leaf-covered soil of a deciduous forest, rich with fallen foliage, new shoots, and interwoven mycelium. And your own children are no exception.

The big problem

“It’s important to my wife and me that our children are environmentally aware. Of course, we can’t completely avoid exposing them to man-made chemicals, but we want them to be conscious of it—and to understand, scientifically, how serious the problem is,” he says.

The problem he refers to is that today, there is not a single patch of Earth untouched by human-made pollutants—chemicals, endocrine disruptors, microplastics, nanoplastics, pesticides, PFAS, pharmaceuticals, flame retardants, PCBs, accumulated heavy metals, etc.

These substances have been found at the bottom of deep ocean trenches, in the most desolate polar regions, the driest deserts, and the highest layers of the atmosphere. Microplastics, for instance, have been reported in drinking water, kitchen salt, and even the air we breathe.

The heavy responsibility

Realizing that his generation may be the first to face the fact that every square centimeter of our planet is polluted in some way, Xu feels a profound responsibility—as a citizen, a father, a teacher, and a scientist—to help find solutions.

“We scientists must take shared responsibility for acting and communicating the latest knowledge. It’s urgent—because we are producing and using more and more chemicals that contaminate all ecosystems, and will continue to do so for a long time. Pollution knows no borders,” he says.

“But I also feel a sense of awe. Because life—from bacteria, algae, and fish to mammals and humans—manages to persist despite these enormous threats.”

When facemasks became a ticking plastic bomb

Over the years, Xu has repeatedly drawn public attention—not only because his research concerns pollutants that many people worry about, but also because of his down-to-earth way of communicating complex science.

During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, when governments rushed to procure billions of disposable masks, Xu raised a warning flag about the environmental risk they posed. In his view, discarded masks were “a ticking plastic time bomb,” as many were not disposed of properly but instead fragmented into microplastics by wind and weather.

Together with colleague Zhiyong Jason Ren from Princeton University, Xu was concerned with the global impact: every minute, around the clock, the pandemic-stricken world was discarding three million masks.

Nobody can avoid ingesting microplastic

He shared this figure alongside a photo of discarded masks in a park in Odense—and the story went viral worldwide. It was a stark reminder that even during a pandemic, we don’t have carte blanche to ignore the environment. Read more in this popular science article (SDU link)

The year before, in collaboration with researchers from East China Normal University, Xu co-authored a scientific review showing that microplastics are now present everywhere—literally in drinking water, kitchen salt, and even the air we inhale.

The conclusion: no human on Earth can avoid ingesting microplastics. That story, too, made global headlines. Read more in this popular science article (SDU link)

Seeing the ocean for the first time

Xu and his family now live in Odense, far from his native Xinjiang, China’s remote northwestern province. An only child, he grew up with two geologist parents who spent months mapping the province’s rugged landscapes on horseback.

When their son was born, they traded long expeditions for more child-friendly journeys—including one to the sea, which Xu first experienced at age twelve. It left a lasting impression.

Back home in Xinjiang he had seen rivers and streams, but never such abundant marine life. On the shoreline, he discovered snails, crabs, starfish, mussels, and worms. Combined with his fascination for the mountains, animals, and plants of his home region, that seaside encounter sparked a lifelong interest in biology and the environment—eventually leading him to study marine biology at Ocean University of China and later a PhD in environmental sciences at the University of Hong Kong.

The Earths biodiversity is weakened

“During my studies, it became increasingly clear to me that environmental problems often stem from invisible chemical substances like micro- and nanoplastics, and hormone-disrupting compounds,” he explains.

To understand how all these pollutants interact, and how we can mitigate their effects, Xu has built expertise across diverse disciplines: molecular biology, chemistry, toxicology, bio-chem-imaging, omics, freshwater and marine biology, and risk assessment.

“We have to understand how these substances affect life at different levels. Each pollutant might exist only in small concentrations, but together they create chronic stress for living organisms. One consequence is a weakening of Earth’s biodiversity.”

The "One Health Approach"

Although it is necessary to focus first on how a single chemical affects a single species, Xu insists on a broader, systemic view.

“We tend to look at ourselves first—humans, then other mammals—and rank life that way. But ecotoxicology concerns all organisms on Earth. We can’t separate humans from the planet’s environment. We actually share genes with many other lifeforms, and our detoxification systems are similar to those of, say, snails. If nothing else, for practical reasons, we must adopt a holistic view. And personally, I think it’s also a matter of fairness—to the life forms that cannot defend themselves against the pollution we create. Think about it: if a river becomes polluted, we humans can build a drinking water plant and filter the water to make it safe to drink. The animals can’t. They have to drink it as it is.”

Among scientists, there is a concept known as The One Health Approach. The term was coined by veterinarian Calvin Schwabe in the 1980s, advocating for closer integration of research on human and animal diseases to prevent global zoonoses—diseases transmitted between animals and humans.

Microbial and planetary health

Today, the concept has expanded to include the environment and ecosystems, and is increasingly embraced by governments and agencies. In Europe, for instance, the European Environment Agency is working to implement this approach.
Read more (EEA link)

The One Health message—that we must care for our shared planet and help pull ourselves out of the environmental mess we’ve created—is one Xu takes to heart. He believes everyone should listen, and everyone can contribute.

Apparently, people are listening. In 2023, his students nominated him for—and he won—the Teaching Award at the Faculty of Science. In both 2024 and 2025, he appeared on Stanford University’s list of the world’s Top 2% Scientists, ranking among the most cited researchers globally. He received the Faculty’s Research Communication Award in 2021, and since joining SDU in 2020, he has answered readers’ questions in Ingeniøren, given “Science and Beer” talks, and been interviewed by numerous Danish and international media outlets.

The smart daughter

At home, his daughter accepts that she won’t get the cheap plastic toy.

“She’s smart. She understands when we tell her it’s not good for her body and not good for the earth.”

As readers of this article may have already sensed, Elvis Genbo Xu would like to leave you with the same message. Are you listening?