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Sooner or later it is likely that microbes which can digest plastics but are currently extremely rare, will multiply, become common and evolve since we are maki
by strainer 7y ago
Sooner or later it is likely that microbes which can digest plastics but are currently extremely rare, will multiply, become common and evolve since we are making plastic pollution increasingly common throughout soils and seas.
What will be the timescale and effect of a new category of microbes on earthly micro-flora? In soils, in foodchains and within our own guts ? This uncertainty presents an unpredictable biohazard. An intelligent population having noticed its accidental emissions would try to limit and reduce them in scale for its own and future generations biological security.
- chrisco255 7y agoPlastics are not so abundant in the oceans or soils to support some kind of biological takeover, assuming such microbes could evolve. This is sensationalist speculation. https://vinylverified.com/blog/2019/5/17/vinyl-verified-responds-to-flawed-irresponsible-australian-ocean-water-study?gclid=CjwKCAjwlujnBRBlEiwAuWx4LZMx0PQcMa7riLyemMH0nAR11geomQ6pTnnnDcP03iCYwu2KQ2FmqhoCcCQQAvD_BwE https://vinylverified.com/blog/2019/5/17/vinyl-verified-resp...
- aliteralrobot 7y agoThis article doesn’t provide evidence for your claim that plastics are not so abundant in the oceans, it only points out that a specific study that relied on a false premise (that PVC is a high percentage or is well-represented in ocean plastics) is flawed. It makes almost no mention of the abundance of actual ocean plastics. Did you link the wrong article or something?
- chrisco255 7y agoYou're the one with the extraordinary claim so you should be providing extraordinary evidence.