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Not to mention what the bacteria produce as a byproduct of digestion. Do they excrete C02? That would acidify and carbonate ocean water. Do they consume 02 as p
by daveslash 4y ago
Not to mention what the bacteria produce as a byproduct of digestion. Do they excrete C02? That would acidify and carbonate ocean water. Do they consume 02 as part of their digestive process? That'd suck oxygen out of the water.... Yes-- I would agree with - be vary wary indeed.
- dylan604 4y agoIf they are carbonating the ocean water, then that'll go just fine with all of the "mountains" of sea grass sugars from the recent post on the subject. We're well on our way to making the oceans into soda water. Yet another example of the prophecies Idiocracy foretold.
- TedDoesntTalk 4y agoHow will we add the caramel color?
- omginternets 4y agoOil spills.
- sdenton4 4y agoBoil the ocean. Then the mountains of sugar will turn to caramel naturally, providing the desired color.
- speed_spread 4y agoI thought vaporizing oceans was only when trying to communicate with whales from space.
- goldenkey 4y agoThat's what the floating teapot is for. Every whale loves a cup of Earl Grey.
- eyelidlessness 4y agoBut notably, not every bowl of petunias. “Oh no, not again.”
- trophycase 4y agoCO2 would probably be one of the better byproducts
- unchocked 4y agoYou are exactly mentioning it, and the concern is ridiculous as almost every non-plant thing excretes CO2 and breathes oxygen.
- SpectralTheory 4y agoWell, local unfettered growth can definitely cause local environmental problems. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eutrophication https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eutrophication
- daveslash 4y agoYeah. Although I didn't explicitly state it, this is what I was implying. For example, could plastic-eating-bacteria "super bloom" in a plastic rich localized area of the ocean - suck up all the oxygen with it's bloom and kill off competing species of fish, plankton, etc... causing food chain disruptions? Could a localized super bloom acidify a localized coral reef with the C02 byproduct? I'm no ecologist or scientist, so I am not saying that it necessarily would happen, but we should think through these things as a matter of due-diligence before proposing that we toss this stuff in the ocean at scale.
- rswail 4y agoWhat makes you think that the researchers would not also be investigating for unexpected and potentially dangerous side effects before "toss[ing] this stuff in the ocean at scale"?
- dclowd9901 4y agoAnd, you know, for better or worse, we really rely on plastic for, well, pretty much everything. If we can no longer trust it to do things like safely transport medicine, we’re gonna be in real trouble.
- hinkley 4y agoMedicine, and food of all kinds, but especially shelf-stable foods, the sort that are really handy after a natural disaster.
- trashtester 4y agoFirst of all, anything that is reasonably dry usually stays reasonably safe against bacteria. Unless the bacteria learns to combine oxygen with the hydrogen from the hydrocarbons to form their source of humidity, I think these should be relatively stable, still. And we still have the option to store things in metal containers, like cans if we need that extra durability. But under humid conditions, if bacteria become able to consume plastic the way they can consume organic matter, I would be even more concerned about regular grocery wrapping. Not only could the wrapping break, one could also get half-digested toxic materials into the food itself.
- folli 4y agoHow about good ol' recyclable and washable and sterilizable glasswares?
- dottedmag 4y agoSure. These are, 10-100x more expensive per use? Making the medicine available only to top 1% of population sounds like a good deal.
- wongarsu 4y agoHere in Europe water costs a couple cents more in a glass bottle than in a plastic bottle. Is packaging really a major cost driver for medicine?
- snek_case 4y agoIt almost certainly consumes O2 and excretes CO2, which might actually be worse than just letting the carbon be trapped in plastic in a landfill.
- danuker 4y agoIndeed. And humanity is not even benefiting from the energy released, as is the case in an incinerator generating electricity or heat.
- jsiaajdsdaa 4y ago#justMakeAnotherOrganismThatEatsTheByproducts
- quixoticelixer- 4y agoThere is not enough plastic in the ocean to cause any significant effect on oxygen levels if it all combusted.