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The same household chemicals (especially at 120 degrees C) would kill all life. They are effectively forever in the environment.
by freemint 4y ago
The same household chemicals (especially at 120 degrees C) would kill all life. They are effectively forever in the environment.
- cityofdelusion 4y agoWell, on human timescales, yes. They will eventually subduct into the mantle and be vaporized.
- rob_c 4y agoYes, extracting contaminated materials from an environment and decontaminating them would removing life because it's destructive. That's what cleaning this stuff up involves. I'm all for "environmentally damaging" or someother name but "forever chemicals" is just a bad name for this that is going to get picked up on by people. I'm not suggesting burn so much co2 that the planet gets to 120C, although it'd have less human problems at that point.
- paulmd 4y agoPumping high-strength lye heated to 40-120C into the environment (soil and water supply) in large enough quantities to neutralize PFOA over large areas is right up there with alt.pave.the.earth in terms of practicality and environmentalism. some serious HackerNews brain right there, just needs an app and I can get my bingo. There aren't many chemicals that won't be destroyed in those conditions, the lye will just rip hydrogen off most molecules, but, it'll also do it to, you know, pretty much everything else too. You ever see a chemical burn before? Literally this, but imagine a solution of the lye that's hot to make it even more reactive... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvtUrjfnSnA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvtUrjfnSnA
- rob_c2 4y agoWhy are you assuming I'm promoting insanity? Remove the contaminated material from nature first then return it. Cleaned. I'm not saying we should dump more chemicals because of chemicals. This is a depressingly stupid conversation.