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Double Retired
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01 Oct 2023, 3:40 pm

It seems unfair to give give all of the gloom-and-doom attention to climate change when there are other global threats to humanity out there...like microplastics.

"How harmful are microplastics?"
"Microplastics found in fresh Antarctic snow"
"Japanese scientists find microplastics are present in clouds"

and now...

"Scientists Find Microplastics in Cave Sealed Off From All Humans"

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A cave that's been closed off to human visitors for 30 years has been found to contain high concentrations of microplastics — and that should worry you.


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blitzkrieg
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01 Oct 2023, 3:41 pm

I think microplastics in food is the most worrying thing?



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01 Oct 2023, 4:05 pm

Dont eat the air , or breathe the food ...Its bad for yah... :skull: ........ :D


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blitzkrieg
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01 Oct 2023, 4:08 pm

Jakki wrote:
Dont eat the air , or breathe the food ...Its bad for yah... :skull: ........ :D


:lol:



DanielW
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01 Oct 2023, 4:14 pm

What's the point of worrying about something one has no control over? Trying to remediate micro-plastics or even climate change...anything the individual can do is like re-arranging deck chairs on the Titanic. Its too little too late.



goldfish21
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01 Oct 2023, 4:16 pm

"Given how ubiquitous plastics are, it'll be a difficult trend to reverse. One solution according to Hasenmueller is that society as a whole should ditch synthetic clothing."

Yep.

Some synthetic clothing is more comfortable/better performing than natural textiles.. buuuut, I'd rather the textiles industry figured out how to utilize natural fibres to achieve similar/close enough results than further destroy the planet with microplastics.

At least I use clothing for a very long time vs. throw it out and buy more frequently.


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goldfish21
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01 Oct 2023, 4:18 pm

DanielW wrote:
What's the point of worrying about something one has no control over? Trying to remediate micro-plastics or even climate change...anything the individual can do is like re-arranging deck chairs on the Titanic. Its too little too late.

If everyone has that attitude nothing improves. If everyone does what they can within their control, multiplied over Billions of people, big differences can be made.

We still need governments and the biggest corporations on the planet to do their part, though.. something like 100 companies cause Most of the pollution. Big picture stuff like the largest ships burning ridiculous amounts of bunker fuel to criss cross the oceans - crap like that needs to stop vs. expecting Everyone to stop driving cars for a similar benefit. Better yet, do both.. but certainly don't excuse the biggest contributors.


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KitLily
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01 Oct 2023, 4:22 pm

blitzkrieg wrote:
I think microplastics in food is the most worrying thing?


Yes and if they are in food they will be in our blood and brains. I think this could be an explanation for the crazy ideas flooding the world right now. Brains are very sensitive things.


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DanielW
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01 Oct 2023, 4:29 pm

The general public will have to find a new thing to get rid of so they can feel better - like plastic grocery bags and plastic straws. All while turning a blind eye to the basic facts - that 90+% of the plastics that end up illegally dumped in the oceans and roughly the same amount of Carbon Dioxide Emissions are caused by the same handful of multi-national corporations and not the individual.



QuantumChemist
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01 Oct 2023, 11:10 pm

There have been quite a few environmental studies that have shown that waste plastics are starting to become part of the geochemical top layer of Earth. One study I read found it in volcanic rocks that form from lava reaching the ocean. The plastics from the ocean water melt into the rock as it cools. It changes the chemical makeup of the rock. You could consider them almost a different mineral now.

Along those lines, this process also increases exposure leading to adaptation for living species. A few bacteria have developed that can digest certain plastics, reducing them down into much smaller organic chemicals (i.e. not microplastics). There is also a type of clam/oyster that can break down polymers in the ocean. Unfortunately, some plastics come from toxic compounds (like styrene or phenol), so they can reform those as the carbon bonds break apart in the backbone chain. Just because something can break plastic down does not always mean it can make it into something harmless to other living things.

Parts of the environment will adapt to plastics, some will not. Whether or not humans do is another question for another time.



blitzkrieg
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02 Oct 2023, 12:18 am

KitLily wrote:
blitzkrieg wrote:
I think microplastics in food is the most worrying thing?


Yes and if they are in food they will be in our blood and brains. I think this could be an explanation for the crazy ideas flooding the world right now. Brains are very sensitive things.


That's a good point, KitLily. I imagine the microplastics can indeed affect the brain! :o



naturalplastic
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02 Oct 2023, 2:35 am

QuantumChemist wrote:
There have been quite a few environmental studies that have shown that waste plastics are starting to become part of the geochemical top layer of Earth. One study I read found it in volcanic rocks that form from lava reaching the ocean. The plastics from the ocean water melt into the rock as it cools. It changes the chemical makeup of the rock. You could consider them almost a different mineral now.

Along those lines, this process also increases exposure leading to adaptation for living species. A few bacteria have developed that can digest certain plastics, reducing them down into much smaller organic chemicals (i.e. not microplastics). There is also a type of clam/oyster that can break down polymers in the ocean. Unfortunately, some plastics come from toxic compounds (like styrene or phenol), so they can reform those as the carbon bonds break apart in the backbone chain. Just because something can break plastic down does not always mean it can make it into something harmless to other living things.

Parts of the environment will adapt to plastics, some will not. Whether or not humans do is another question for another time.

So...

The dinosaurs, and the plants they ate, and lived among ...got buried in the earth's crust...got fossilized...and became petroleum. Then a hundred million years later ...these ground dwelling apes (humans)that now live on the earth's surface began pumping this fossilized plant liquid out of the ground...and used it to make artificial solid material for stuff they use (plastic).

So humans are now a geological force that...takes fossilized plant material from deep in the earth's crust...and redistributes it as 'fossilized' human artifacts on top of the earth's crust?

I am just "thinking aloud" trying to conceptualize this. :D



KitLily
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02 Oct 2023, 5:49 am

blitzkrieg wrote:
KitLily wrote:
Yes and if they are in food they will be in our blood and brains. I think this could be an explanation for the crazy ideas flooding the world right now. Brains are very sensitive things.


That's a good point, KitLily. I imagine the microplastics can indeed affect the brain! :o


Yes. There are so many studies on the brain proving that the slightest thing can affect human brains, they are SO complex and intricate.


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QuantumChemist
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02 Oct 2023, 7:47 am

naturalplastic wrote:
So...

The dinosaurs, and the plants they ate, and lived among ...got buried in the earth's crust...got fossilized...and became petroleum. Then a hundred million years later ...these ground dwelling apes (humans)that now live on the earth's surface began pumping this fossilized plant liquid out of the ground...and used it to make artificial solid material for stuff they use (plastic).

So humans are now a geological force that...takes fossilized plant material from deep in the earth's crust...and redistributes it as 'fossilized' human artifacts on top of the earth's crust?

I am just "thinking aloud" trying to conceptualize this. :D


:lol:

I thought that I might add that the mineralization of plastics likely does not just happen at the surface of the Earth exposed to air. It very well could be happening at the bottom of the oceans where geothermal vents come into contact with plastic waste that has settled out. Due to the lack of available atmospheric gases in the reaction, the end products might not be the same as on dry land. Someday in the future (if humans survive), geologists may have to dig through the new plastic-enhanced minerals to reach the original pre-plastic era rocks.



QuantumChemist
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02 Oct 2023, 7:52 am

KitLily wrote:
blitzkrieg wrote:
KitLily wrote:
Yes and if they are in food they will be in our blood and brains. I think this could be an explanation for the crazy ideas flooding the world right now. Brains are very sensitive things.


That's a good point, KitLily. I imagine the microplastics can indeed affect the brain! :o


Yes. There are so many studies on the brain proving that the slightest thing can affect human brains, they are SO complex and intricate.


That bit of information gave me some ideas that can be very useful in one of my projects involving metalloplastics. Thank you.



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02 Oct 2023, 6:55 pm

QuantumChemist wrote:
naturalplastic wrote:
So...

The dinosaurs, and the plants they ate, and lived among ...got buried in the earth's crust...got fossilized...and became petroleum. Then a hundred million years later ...these ground dwelling apes (humans)that now live on the earth's surface began pumping this fossilized plant liquid out of the ground...and used it to make artificial solid material for stuff they use (plastic).

So humans are now a geological force that...takes fossilized plant material from deep in the earth's crust...and redistributes it as 'fossilized' human artifacts on top of the earth's crust?

I am just "thinking aloud" trying to conceptualize this. :D


:lol:

I thought that I might add that the mineralization of plastics likely does not just happen at the surface of the Earth exposed to air. It very well could be happening at the bottom of the oceans where geothermal vents come into contact with plastic waste that has settled out. Due to the lack of available atmospheric gases in the reaction, the end products might not be the same as on dry land. Someday in the future (if humans survive), geologists may have to dig through the new plastic-enhanced minerals to reach the original pre-plastic era rocks.

Millions of years from now future creatures will do geology and dig down and find that thin layer of plastic everywhere at that strata laid down in our time and be puzzled by it. And they will wonder just what "life in plastic" was like.

My message to these future beings is...it was fantastic!


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