"The planet will be here for a long, long, LONG time after we’re gone, and it will heal itself, it will cleanse itself, ’cause that’s what it does. It’s a self-correcting system. The air and the water will recover, the earth will be renewed. And if it’s true that plastic is not degradable, well, the planet will simply incorporate plastic into a new paradigm: the earth plus plastic. The earth doesn’t share our prejudice toward plastic. Plastic came out of the earth. The earth probably sees plastic as just another one of its children. Could be the only reason the earth allowed us to be spawned from it in the first place. It wanted plastic for itself. Didn’t know how to make it. Needed us. Could be the answer to our age-old egocentric philosophical question, “Why are we here?”
> It’s a self-correcting system. The air and the water will recover, the earth will be renewed.
Sadly this really isn't the case, and there are a lot of things we can do that will permanently fuck the planet. It can't be certain that we will kill ourselves off before we cross some tipping point that will eventually turn the Earth into just another lifeless rock in our solar system.
That seems pretty arrogant that a hundred million years or more won’t restart life back on Earth. But I also might just be ignorant. What could we do to end all life on earth and prevent future life from forming?
Well there are some well-described scenarios of what could've happened to a hypothetical ancient life on Mars. There's some evidence suggestion methane-producing microbes may have lived on Mars 3.7 to 4.1 billion years ago that may have lead to the CO2 and hydrogen being replaced with methane, stripping away the planet's protection and leading to rapid glaciation and total extinction.
I really don't know what to make of stuff like this, because on one hand, it's repulsive that human waste products end up everywhere, but on the other, it feels like a lot of the discourse around microplastics is emotion-based. Nature mostly doesn't care, right? In a very similar way, trees have some amount of sand / silica in them, and in certain exotic species, it's high enough to cause problems in woodworking, but we're not grossed out about that. I'm sure there's also some amount of it in every human, where it doesn't cause any problems unless it happens to be precisely the wrong size and in precisely the wrong place (in which case, silicosis).
Like, I'm not working for the pro-microplastics lobby, but it's hard to calibrate how concerned I should be about stories that basically just say "we found ppm- or ppb-levels of mostly-inert material in X".
We are increasingly finding bacteria and fungi that eat various plastics. Not just lab-grown, but actual organically evolved bacteria eating PLA and the like
That said, I doubt this will become apocalyptic. Wood is highly biodegradable, yet even untreated wood will last decades if you keep it dry and away from soil. Microorganisms eating plastic will make it less weather-resistant and maybe worse food packaging, but it won't kill all use of plastic
We already make car wiring insulation out of soya-based plastic, which is highly biodegradable and palatable to micro- and macro-organisms of all sorts.
Which is why so many modern cars have weird electrical faults and fires.
I can attest that the soya-based wiring can be a nightmare in some locales. A family member bought a new Acura in the 2010s and the car was a constant target of the local rat population that would climb into the engine bay and fill up on wiring insulation like it was gummy candy. He had the wiring harnesses replaced several times but ultimately gave up and sold it after the final repair.
It seems like they could incorporate capsaicin and other deterrents into the polymers, but that probably isn't pleasant for individuals involved in the production process.
Reminds me of the classic George Carlin bit:
"The planet will be here for a long, long, LONG time after we’re gone, and it will heal itself, it will cleanse itself, ’cause that’s what it does. It’s a self-correcting system. The air and the water will recover, the earth will be renewed. And if it’s true that plastic is not degradable, well, the planet will simply incorporate plastic into a new paradigm: the earth plus plastic. The earth doesn’t share our prejudice toward plastic. Plastic came out of the earth. The earth probably sees plastic as just another one of its children. Could be the only reason the earth allowed us to be spawned from it in the first place. It wanted plastic for itself. Didn’t know how to make it. Needed us. Could be the answer to our age-old egocentric philosophical question, “Why are we here?”
> It’s a self-correcting system. The air and the water will recover, the earth will be renewed.
Sadly this really isn't the case, and there are a lot of things we can do that will permanently fuck the planet. It can't be certain that we will kill ourselves off before we cross some tipping point that will eventually turn the Earth into just another lifeless rock in our solar system.
That seems pretty arrogant that a hundred million years or more won’t restart life back on Earth. But I also might just be ignorant. What could we do to end all life on earth and prevent future life from forming?
Well there are some well-described scenarios of what could've happened to a hypothetical ancient life on Mars. There's some evidence suggestion methane-producing microbes may have lived on Mars 3.7 to 4.1 billion years ago that may have lead to the CO2 and hydrogen being replaced with methane, stripping away the planet's protection and leading to rapid glaciation and total extinction.
Indeed earth has itself had a few close calls with total extinction https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medea_hypothesis
99.5% of life may have died during the Great Oxidation Event. 96% of all marine life may have died during the Permian–Triassic extinction event
TBH it's no short of a miracle that we're still here.
Yes, and this era of comedy is thankfully over. Carlin became quite preachy in his later years. He has way better material.
"Saving the Planet" (George Carlin)
https://youtu.be/7W33HRc1A6c?si=HqyW8mys0uNBuFdW&t=147
Humorous, but not inaccurate about what climate change means to primates. =3
The planet is fine; the people are fucked!
I think its inevitable that something (either from humans or nature) will figure out how to digest plastic. Similar to the Devonian Wood Crisis.
In the cycle of life everything becomes a rock.
Plastic also visibly in rocks on the beach: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5UoVDxjG1g
https://www.science.org/content/article/rocks-made-plastic-f...
And invisibly in trees: https://www.waldwissen.net/en/forest-ecology/climate-and-env...
Pick your favorite Disney movie, the beautiful nature in it is now infused with plastic.
I really don't know what to make of stuff like this, because on one hand, it's repulsive that human waste products end up everywhere, but on the other, it feels like a lot of the discourse around microplastics is emotion-based. Nature mostly doesn't care, right? In a very similar way, trees have some amount of sand / silica in them, and in certain exotic species, it's high enough to cause problems in woodworking, but we're not grossed out about that. I'm sure there's also some amount of it in every human, where it doesn't cause any problems unless it happens to be precisely the wrong size and in precisely the wrong place (in which case, silicosis).
Like, I'm not working for the pro-microplastics lobby, but it's hard to calibrate how concerned I should be about stories that basically just say "we found ppm- or ppb-levels of mostly-inert material in X".
Plastic is a source of energy. I am sure that we need to gameplan for a post-plastic world in the future after some bacteria/fungi learn to eat it
We are increasingly finding bacteria and fungi that eat various plastics. Not just lab-grown, but actual organically evolved bacteria eating PLA and the like
That said, I doubt this will become apocalyptic. Wood is highly biodegradable, yet even untreated wood will last decades if you keep it dry and away from soil. Microorganisms eating plastic will make it less weather-resistant and maybe worse food packaging, but it won't kill all use of plastic
We already make car wiring insulation out of soya-based plastic, which is highly biodegradable and palatable to micro- and macro-organisms of all sorts.
Which is why so many modern cars have weird electrical faults and fires.
I can attest that the soya-based wiring can be a nightmare in some locales. A family member bought a new Acura in the 2010s and the car was a constant target of the local rat population that would climb into the engine bay and fill up on wiring insulation like it was gummy candy. He had the wiring harnesses replaced several times but ultimately gave up and sold it after the final repair.
It seems like they could incorporate capsaicin and other deterrents into the polymers, but that probably isn't pleasant for individuals involved in the production process.
It's our own K-T layer
"The Plastocene – Plastic in the sedimentary record"
https://blogs.egu.eu/divisions/ssp/2019/01/09/the-plastocene...
This has been known for decades already. In the historical records we'll be known as the plastic age
The article says it's already being called the plasticene.
It even has a theme song from 1980: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=k8vaoGQCuyg