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We've been building things out of wood for a long time and wood is a food source to plenty of organisms. If that was going to make civilization collapse, it wou
by Asooka 10y ago
We've been building things out of wood for a long time and wood is a food source to plenty of organisms. If that was going to make civilization collapse, it wouldn't have risen in the first place.
- castis 10y agoYes but wood has a pre-existing cycle already in place. Plastic hasn't existed for as long as wood has. If a new microbe or whatever evolves to feed on plastic and becomes widespread, it would certainly be a new experience for us.
- weberc2 10y agoI think material science has advanced enough that in 99% of cases, we could find some other suitable replacement (e.g., glass, aluminum, cloth, leather), albeit at a higher cost (although perhaps lower when you account for environmental impact). I'm guessing the remaining 1% of cases are in medicine or some other advanced science.
- nkrisc 10y agoI'm very well aware of that. I was thinking of a fictional scenario. Also, our modern electronics are not made of wood, many have plastic components.
- dogma1138 10y agoWhich can be replaced with glass, ceramics metal and carbon fiber. I can't think of a single component that uses plastics to function for any other reason than costs. Also you always have fluoropolymers to fall back on partially.
- nkrisc 10y agoIf all plastic was gone in the span of a week? Again, just an idea for a fictional scenario.
- Stanleyc23 10y ago>"If a single enzyme is responsible for this chemical process, its reproduction on a large scale using biotechnological methods should be achievable" If they're right about the enzyme then the threat is possible. It's different from organisms that eat wood because we are pretty good at mass producing stuff.
- gph 10y agoWe're pretty good at mass producing bombs. Hasn't ended civilization yet. Dropping a bunch of plastic eating enzymes won't be more effective...
- sqeaky 10y agoBombs aren't distributed by tiny self-reproducing nano-machines that outnumber humans a trillion to one. A bacteria making an enzyme that allows it to gain nutrition from plastic would certainly be an interesting problem for humanity. I cannot say if it would be doomsday level or a minor inconvenience, but neither can easily be disregarded because there is no precedent. Wood is not a good example because nature has had nearly a billion years to figure out an efficient way to reclaim the energy in wood and the closest it got is slow fungal process. This is why when we make wood structures we paint them or treat the wood with fungicides.