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Microplastics are so pervasive that they're even found in human breastmilk now. Maybe it's fatalistic, but what is the point of worrying about this on an indivi

Microplastics are so pervasive that they're even found in human breastmilk now. Maybe it's fatalistic, but what is the point of worrying about this on an individual level beyond limiting use of certain plastic products? And it's not just microplastics - we're seeing other news about "forever chemicals," hormones in our food, the global drop of average male sperm production by 50% (!!!), etc. At a certain point, apathy sets in. If this is our generation's mesothelioma, so be it.

lnsru 4y ago
I am absolutely with you. Total apathy. I can’t do anything. My 100% waste goes to local recycling system. I pick up thrash when I am in the nature and bring home. Even left by others. I avoid synthetic clothing and wear only when I really need it. And still micro plastic in the air everywhere. How is this happening!?
- Jarwain 4y ago
  Tire and break pad wear produce quite a lot of microplastics. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412022005451 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016041202...
- maeil 4y ago
  Youre probably already aware but unless you live in a very unique locality with an extremely expensive recycling system, very little of the plastic you put in the system actually gets recycled. Current consumption and wealth levels are not sustainable but reducing consumption is completely antithetical to the capitalist and consumerist society of present day. Buying less stuff, going on fewer vacations, driving less, eating less varied food. Unthinkable to almost everyone, including the overwhelming majority of those who actually recognize the problems and what's at stake, let alone those simply claiming that they do for social brownie points.
  - lnsru 4y ago
    I really hate low quality objects from plastic. Cheap toys for example… They are made in seconds, transported around globe, used for minutes, then break and get disposed. Think about plastic cars with breaking axles or not working water pistols. Even expensive nerf gun from big brand is gone after few months. While some of these are easy to disassemble, other have electronics inside. I agree, that flying and car driving are bad, but that can’t be really avoided. Importing plastic trash like mentioned toys should be forbidden EU wide. And don’t get me started about food packaging. Every 100 gram of food comes with at least 5 gram of plastic packaging. Sadly I must eat sometimes and can’t do anything about packaging.
fleddr 4y ago
I do think there's a limit to how much doom and gloom an individual can productively handle and I suppose this also applies to society as a whole. People seem to accept that it's all downhill from here, and sometimes even cynically applaud it. Like with the male sperm story. It's catastrophic and accelerating, yet got near-zero attention. The few responses to it seem to celebrate it. Humanity lacks a story for the future. It can't just be "it's going to get so much worse" nor can it be "if we try really hard, we may slow down the decline, but a decline it will be". Those stories just aren't good enough. Nobody invests in a sinking ship.
- peytoncasper 4y ago
  "People seem to accept that it's all downhill from here" Strange, I know plenty of people that do see an upside, including myself. It's a choice to believe things can and will get better. Unless you have a crystal ball, we're both choosing to believe in an unknown future. So choosing to believe it will get worse is no different from believing it will get better. Although one is arguably better for mental health.
  - fleddr 4y ago
    You make an excellent point, there's a major oversight in my original post. The distortion lens of media and social media is a thing. The real world and its people are vastly different from what one might read online. Yet an increasing amount of people barely interact with the real world and real people, hence they internalize the doom and gloom as if it is reality.
- Der_Einzige 4y ago
  The real story is the massive increase in LGBT identification across the youth. I strongly believe that a large component of this is biological due to hormonal changes.
  - threadweaver34 4y ago
    It's important we understand what's going on for the future of the species, but the research is political suicide.
Traubenfuchs 4y ago
We are doomed. The only conscious choice is not having more children to live on this dying planet. I see this is a fact. All our efforts to "save the climate" or ban some especially dangerous chemicals are lipstick on the pig.
- Empact 4y ago
  Congratulations on being the first person in human history to call the end times correctly. Again and again we’ve shown we can make these transitions, including surviving a major ice age. While there’s good reason to worry, as lack of worry denotes foolhardiness, despair is both self-defeating and counterfactual to the whole of human history. This time it may well be different, but if it is, then your attitude is guaranteed to lead to failure, as we will then not take the necessary steps to secure the future. My money is on a technological solution overall, but there are many things regular people can meaningfully do, such as driving less, giving up one or more cars, or choosing to build or renovate toward highly insulated, potentially net carbon sequestering house as with the passive house standard, switch to heat pump based a/c and water heating, and voluntarily contributing to carbon sequestration efforts such as through YC alum Wren https://www.wren.co/join/Empact https://www.wren.co/join/Empact If you think that’s not enough, and perhaps you’re right, what lever do we need to press to make change? It is our responsibility as the current generation to identify and press that lever to secure the future for our descendants. Politically, my money is on the Citizen’s Climate Lobby effort to bring about a carbon tax, and the American Conservation Coalition for its effort to raise the prospect of environmental policy in the Republican sphere. If enough people vote on this issue alone[1], as the second amendment and abortion communities have effectively done over the past forty years, then we have a chance to shift policy in the direction of conservation/protection. For me that means: a carbon tax to reduce demand, unleashing zero-carbon sources like nuclear to further out-compete the fossil fuel plants, while also embracing efficient infrastructure like pipelines to efficiently convey that supply we continue to use. On this last point, remember that the demand is constrained via a carbon tax. The world needs our earnest efforts. You can keep your despair.[2] [1] particularly in the primaries, as most house districts are now non-competitive between the parties [2] Incidentally, I think the hysteria on the left is also counterproductive, as “the sky is falling” only reaches so many people before it discredits the speaker, and the goal should of convincing the middle does not require them to be terrified - IMO the easiest way to do that is to make the behavior high-status and motivate people that way, e.g. see Tesla, solar panels, etc.
mlindner 4y ago
The male sperm issue isn’t from environmental issues, it’s psychological/societal. When you repeatedly tell men that their natural state is “toxic masculinity” you’ll of course drive down sperm counts through depression and self hatred.
- WillDaSilva 4y ago
  What evidence do you have to support this claim?
- Auracle 4y ago
  It’s also happening to dogs. I guess we need to stop telling them about their toxic masculinity too.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
guilhas 4y ago
Funny those micro plastics were only found in the human body after 2021, after a lot of people were injected with mRNA vaccines containing polymers

lnsru 4y ago

I am absolutely with you. Total apathy. I can’t do anything. My 100% waste goes to local recycling system. I pick up thrash when I am in the nature and bring home. Even left by others. I avoid synthetic clothing and wear only when I really need it. And still micro plastic in the air everywhere. How is this happening!?

Jarwain 4y ago
Tire and break pad wear produce quite a lot of microplastics. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412022005451 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016041202...
maeil 4y ago
Youre probably already aware but unless you live in a very unique locality with an extremely expensive recycling system, very little of the plastic you put in the system actually gets recycled. Current consumption and wealth levels are not sustainable but reducing consumption is completely antithetical to the capitalist and consumerist society of present day. Buying less stuff, going on fewer vacations, driving less, eating less varied food. Unthinkable to almost everyone, including the overwhelming majority of those who actually recognize the problems and what's at stake, let alone those simply claiming that they do for social brownie points.
- lnsru 4y ago
  I really hate low quality objects from plastic. Cheap toys for example… They are made in seconds, transported around globe, used for minutes, then break and get disposed. Think about plastic cars with breaking axles or not working water pistols. Even expensive nerf gun from big brand is gone after few months. While some of these are easy to disassemble, other have electronics inside. I agree, that flying and car driving are bad, but that can’t be really avoided. Importing plastic trash like mentioned toys should be forbidden EU wide. And don’t get me started about food packaging. Every 100 gram of food comes with at least 5 gram of plastic packaging. Sadly I must eat sometimes and can’t do anything about packaging.

fleddr 4y ago

I do think there's a limit to how much doom and gloom an individual can productively handle and I suppose this also applies to society as a whole. People seem to accept that it's all downhill from here, and sometimes even cynically applaud it. Like with the male sperm story. It's catastrophic and accelerating, yet got near-zero attention. The few responses to it seem to celebrate it. Humanity lacks a story for the future. It can't just be "it's going to get so much worse" nor can it be "if we try really hard, we may slow down the decline, but a decline it will be". Those stories just aren't good enough. Nobody invests in a sinking ship.

peytoncasper 4y ago
"People seem to accept that it's all downhill from here" Strange, I know plenty of people that do see an upside, including myself. It's a choice to believe things can and will get better. Unless you have a crystal ball, we're both choosing to believe in an unknown future. So choosing to believe it will get worse is no different from believing it will get better. Although one is arguably better for mental health.
- fleddr 4y ago
  You make an excellent point, there's a major oversight in my original post. The distortion lens of media and social media is a thing. The real world and its people are vastly different from what one might read online. Yet an increasing amount of people barely interact with the real world and real people, hence they internalize the doom and gloom as if it is reality.
Der_Einzige 4y ago
The real story is the massive increase in LGBT identification across the youth. I strongly believe that a large component of this is biological due to hormonal changes.
- threadweaver34 4y ago
  It's important we understand what's going on for the future of the species, but the research is political suicide.

Traubenfuchs 4y ago

We are doomed. The only conscious choice is not having more children to live on this dying planet. I see this is a fact. All our efforts to "save the climate" or ban some especially dangerous chemicals are lipstick on the pig.

Empact 4y ago
Congratulations on being the first person in human history to call the end times correctly. Again and again we’ve shown we can make these transitions, including surviving a major ice age. While there’s good reason to worry, as lack of worry denotes foolhardiness, despair is both self-defeating and counterfactual to the whole of human history. This time it may well be different, but if it is, then your attitude is guaranteed to lead to failure, as we will then not take the necessary steps to secure the future. My money is on a technological solution overall, but there are many things regular people can meaningfully do, such as driving less, giving up one or more cars, or choosing to build or renovate toward highly insulated, potentially net carbon sequestering house as with the passive house standard, switch to heat pump based a/c and water heating, and voluntarily contributing to carbon sequestration efforts such as through YC alum Wren https://www.wren.co/join/Empact https://www.wren.co/join/Empact If you think that’s not enough, and perhaps you’re right, what lever do we need to press to make change? It is our responsibility as the current generation to identify and press that lever to secure the future for our descendants. Politically, my money is on the Citizen’s Climate Lobby effort to bring about a carbon tax, and the American Conservation Coalition for its effort to raise the prospect of environmental policy in the Republican sphere. If enough people vote on this issue alone[1], as the second amendment and abortion communities have effectively done over the past forty years, then we have a chance to shift policy in the direction of conservation/protection. For me that means: a carbon tax to reduce demand, unleashing zero-carbon sources like nuclear to further out-compete the fossil fuel plants, while also embracing efficient infrastructure like pipelines to efficiently convey that supply we continue to use. On this last point, remember that the demand is constrained via a carbon tax. The world needs our earnest efforts. You can keep your despair.[2] [1] particularly in the primaries, as most house districts are now non-competitive between the parties [2] Incidentally, I think the hysteria on the left is also counterproductive, as “the sky is falling” only reaches so many people before it discredits the speaker, and the goal should of convincing the middle does not require them to be terrified - IMO the easiest way to do that is to make the behavior high-status and motivate people that way, e.g. see Tesla, solar panels, etc.

mlindner 4y ago

The male sperm issue isn’t from environmental issues, it’s psychological/societal. When you repeatedly tell men that their natural state is “toxic masculinity” you’ll of course drive down sperm counts through depression and self hatred.

WillDaSilva 4y ago
What evidence do you have to support this claim?
Auracle 4y ago
It’s also happening to dogs. I guess we need to stop telling them about their toxic masculinity too.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

guilhas 4y ago

Funny those micro plastics were only found in the human body after 2021, after a lot of people were injected with mRNA vaccines containing polymers