4 ms·
Hopefully, in the timescale of 10,000 years, we'll have refined plastic eating bacteria and the like to get rid of microplastics. It makes more sense to worry a
by thomasahle 7y ago
Hopefully, in the timescale of 10,000 years, we'll have refined plastic eating bacteria and the like to get rid of microplastics. It makes more sense to worry about a 20-100 years timescale.
- gdfasfklshg4 7y agoOnce we have plastic eating bacteria plastics will serve no useful purpose. Imagine your laptop rotting...
- dTal 7y agoThat's unlikely. Microorganisms break down wood too, and we build houses out of it! Typically all you need to do to keep microorganisms from eating something is keep it dry. We tend to do that for laptops anyway.
- gdfasfklshg4 7y agoAnd plastic food packaging?
- dTal 7y agoShould probably be abolished anyway. But as long as the outside was dry, and the inside didn't have plastic-eating organisms, then it would still work. Besides, the assertion wasn't that plastic would still be useful for everything. It just wouldn't be useless.
- mrob 7y agoBacteria evolve fast, and hydrocarbon-metabolizing bacteria are already known, e.g.: https://aem.asm.org/content/77/22/7962 https://aem.asm.org/content/77/22/7962 I expect they'll be common well before 10,000 years. It's certainly an easier problem than getting CO2 out of the atmosphere.
- gdfasfklshg4 7y agoHow is hoping that whole new species evolve and spread without changing ecosystems even remotely an easy problem?
- funnybeam 7y agoBecause those species already exist and we are changing the ecosystem (by introducing micro-plastics everywhere)?
- gdfasfklshg4 7y agoMy point is that changing ecosystems will have unforeseen consequences...