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Scientists find ‘plastic rocks’ on remote island
- melling 4y agoWhat’s so disturbing now? We’ve been polluting the planet with plastic for half a century. How bad does it need to get? https://www.democracynow.org/2023/3/13/east_palestine_plastics https://www.democracynow.org/2023/3/13/east_palestine_plasti... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pacific_garbage_patch https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pacific_garbage_patch
- 1970-01-01 4y agoWhat also floats in water? Bread Apples *Very small rocks*
- apengwin 4y agoI'm just playing games. I know it's plastic rock
- mrmb 4y agoNext up on the playlist, plastic beach (Gorillaz, 2010)
- Traubenfuchs 4y agoGiven enough time, nature will evolve towards a more plastic accepting genome. Hopefully it will be fast enough!
- JohnFen 4y agoAs George Carlin once said, for all we know, humans are nature's way of manufacturing plastic.
- Traubenfuchs 4y agoNow I imagine a group of aliens evolved on a level that we are no more than bacteria to them observing us, marvelling over our lifeforms ability to produce plastic. "First alien life form synthesising plastic from their ancestors liquified dead remains discovered.", their tabloids tell them.
- satvikpendem 4y agoTrees did not decompose for millions of years and just piled up, since there were no fungi or bacteria that evolved to decompose wood. I'd rather not wait millions of years to see plastic decompose. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carboniferous#Rocks_and_coal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carboniferous#Rocks_and_coal
- philipkglass 4y agoThere are already organisms that feed on plastic, albeit slowly. See this fascinating 2013 article for an introduction: "Life in the “Plastisphere”: Microbial Communities on Plastic Marine Debris" https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/branco2014/files/2014/08/Zettler-2013-Plastisphere.pdf https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/branco2014/files/2014/... Plastics also break down to simpler hydrocarbons and carbon dioxide with prolonged exposure to sunlight. Unfortunately, these gaseous small molecules are greenhouse gases, but they don't persist for millions of years. "Production of methane and ethylene from plastic in the environment" https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0200574 https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal...
- Traubenfuchs 4y agoIts slowness is what I really hate about evolution. With sufficient energy, humans can make almost every environment habitable. Corals, butterflies and fish really need to step up their game. "Aeiouuu!!! The seas temperature increased by 2 degrees celsius over 50 years -I guess I will just surrender and die." just doesn't cut it in 2023 anymore. Bad attitude.
- enlyth 4y agoThe amount of plastic we use is sad. When I go to the grocery store, the apples are wrapped in plastic, broccoli wrapped in plastic, baked goods are in plastic, plastic everything. Why do they do this? I'm going to wash the produce when I get home, I don't need a plastic wrapper on my broccoli just to throw it out immediately and then was the vegetable anyway.
- njarboe 4y agoThis is not done at every grocery store. It can preserve freshness and prevent some types of damage during shipping and handling (getting dirty, etc.)
- enlyth 4y agoTrue not in every store, but at least in the UK I see it in most stores, for a large selection of produce. I found an article stating that it actually increases food waste: https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/business/ulstergrocer/retail/plastic-packaging-on-fruit-and-veg-increases-waste/41380453.html https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/business/ulstergrocer/ret... Obviously I cannot verify these claims, but it seems like could be one of many easy wins to reduce our plastic consumption. And getting dirty should be expected, these things come from the ground most of the time, that's why you wash your vegetables at home before eating them.
- sebazzz 4y agoBy now brocolli and fish are also wrapping plastic. Which themselves are wrapped in plastic.
- micromacrofoot 4y agoPlastic is cheap, durable, and water-resistant, that's really all there is to it. When individual items are all packaged like this you can cut corners in a lot of other places. Until there's an equally cheap equally effective alternative plastic will be used unless we regulate against it, it's simply too convenient.
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- lettergram 4y agostuff like this makes me question how accurate our general model of the world is. If plastic rocks can form (plastic being <100yrs old) how rapidly does geography change? I have a farm and the land will change FEET in elevation from year to year. We have a lot of rain, but it’s hard to wrap my head that geography move slowly when my hillside has changed so rapidly.
- stonemetal12 4y ago>the land will change FEET in elevation from year to year As far as I am aware that is not natural, people are pumping water out of the ground fast enough to make the of elevation change. If it were naturally occurring it would take hundreds of years of drought to do that.
- lettergram 4y agoLol quite an assumption there. Definitely not human, this is common amongst neighbors too
- Feuilles_Mortes 4y agoWelcome to the world of the plastic beach
- nicolashahn 4y agoSpicy take, but isn't this kind of a blessing in disguise? Plastic in this form wouldn't be disturbing the ecosystem as much. This is better than microplastics being found in fish or choking turtles.
- c54 4y agoJust like rocks become sand, these will erode into microplastics
- cronix 4y agoNo because a lot of microplastics start out as larger pieces that degrade over time > Microplastics come from a variety of sources, including from larger plastic debris that degrades into smaller and smaller pieces. https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/microplastics.html https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/microplastics.html
- jsnell 4y agoDiscussed last week: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35180230 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35180230
- krunck 4y agoThere is no process to 'lithify' bits of plastic in place on a beach. This is probably the result of someone partially burning/melting a pile of plastic(nets) on the beach. The resulting slag washed into the ocean , broke up, and became rounded 'rocks' by wave action.
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- schiffern 4y ago>There is no process You just described a process to make plastic that looks like igneous rocks, which seems to be all the paper is claiming. The abstract mentions "plastic debris forms are rock synthetic equivalents in which humans act as depositional and post-depositional agents," so I suspect the authors are thinking the same thing. I can't see the full text however.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]