"The planet will be here for a long, long, LONG time after we’re gone, and it will heal itself, it will cleanse itself, ’cause that’s what it does. It’s a self-correcting system. The air and the water will recover, the earth will be renewed. And if it’s true that plastic is not degradable, well, the planet will simply incorporate plastic into a new paradigm: the earth plus plastic. The earth doesn’t share our prejudice toward plastic. Plastic came out of the earth. The earth probably sees plastic as just another one of its children. Could be the only reason the earth allowed us to be spawned from it in the first place. It wanted plastic for itself. Didn’t know how to make it. Needed us. Could be the answer to our age-old egocentric philosophical question, “Why are we here?”
Yeah, yeah, funny for a bit, really stupid when people preach this unironically. Nobody cares about Earth-as-a-rock. There are ~infinite rocks in space. What people actually care about is Earth-as-a-habitat-for-life. And Earth is already more than halfway through its lifespan. It took us billions of years to get here, in one or two billion more it will be uninhabitable. If we hit the reset button now, before becoming spacefaring, that it's for life, forever. Maybe that doesn't matter to you if you're a nihilist and just don't give a fuck about life in general, but you're pretty dense if you can't see why normal people find the idea upsetting.
We are increasingly finding bacteria and fungi that eat various plastics. Not just lab-grown, but actual organically evolved bacteria eating PLA and the like
That said, I doubt this will become apocalyptic. Wood is highly biodegradable, yet even untreated wood will last decades if you keep it dry and away from soil. Microorganisms eating plastic will make it less weather-resistant and maybe worse food packaging, but it won't kill all use of plastic
We already make car wiring insulation out of soya-based plastic, which is highly biodegradable and palatable to micro- and macro-organisms of all sorts.
Which is why so many modern cars have weird electrical faults and fires.
Reminds me of the classic George Carlin bit:
"The planet will be here for a long, long, LONG time after we’re gone, and it will heal itself, it will cleanse itself, ’cause that’s what it does. It’s a self-correcting system. The air and the water will recover, the earth will be renewed. And if it’s true that plastic is not degradable, well, the planet will simply incorporate plastic into a new paradigm: the earth plus plastic. The earth doesn’t share our prejudice toward plastic. Plastic came out of the earth. The earth probably sees plastic as just another one of its children. Could be the only reason the earth allowed us to be spawned from it in the first place. It wanted plastic for itself. Didn’t know how to make it. Needed us. Could be the answer to our age-old egocentric philosophical question, “Why are we here?”
Yeah, yeah, funny for a bit, really stupid when people preach this unironically. Nobody cares about Earth-as-a-rock. There are ~infinite rocks in space. What people actually care about is Earth-as-a-habitat-for-life. And Earth is already more than halfway through its lifespan. It took us billions of years to get here, in one or two billion more it will be uninhabitable. If we hit the reset button now, before becoming spacefaring, that it's for life, forever. Maybe that doesn't matter to you if you're a nihilist and just don't give a fuck about life in general, but you're pretty dense if you can't see why normal people find the idea upsetting.
"Saving the Planet" (George Carlin)
https://youtu.be/7W33HRc1A6c?si=HqyW8mys0uNBuFdW&t=147
Humorous, but not inaccurate about what climate change means to primates. =3
The planet is fine; the people are fucked!
In the cycle of life everything becomes a rock.
Plastic also visibly in rocks on the beach: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5UoVDxjG1g
https://www.science.org/content/article/rocks-made-plastic-f...
And invisibly in trees: https://www.waldwissen.net/en/forest-ecology/climate-and-env...
Pick your favorite Disney movie, the beautiful nature in it is now infused with plastic.
Plastic is a source of energy. I am sure that we need to gameplan for a post-plastic world in the future after some bacteria/fungi learn to eat it
We are increasingly finding bacteria and fungi that eat various plastics. Not just lab-grown, but actual organically evolved bacteria eating PLA and the like
That said, I doubt this will become apocalyptic. Wood is highly biodegradable, yet even untreated wood will last decades if you keep it dry and away from soil. Microorganisms eating plastic will make it less weather-resistant and maybe worse food packaging, but it won't kill all use of plastic
We already make car wiring insulation out of soya-based plastic, which is highly biodegradable and palatable to micro- and macro-organisms of all sorts.
Which is why so many modern cars have weird electrical faults and fires.
It's our own K-T layer
"The Plastocene – Plastic in the sedimentary record"
https://blogs.egu.eu/divisions/ssp/2019/01/09/the-plastocene...
This has been known for decades already. In the historical records we'll be known as the plastic age
The article says it's already being called the plasticene.