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Are you worried about microplastics?
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this post was submitted on 14 Mar 2024
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Nothing can be done to prevent microplastics. They’re already out there.
The problem will solve itself via microbiology. Organisms will evolve that eat plastic and then it’ll be “over” (by which I mean there will be a constant, but not increasing, amount of microplastics in the environment).
In the meantime, our health will suffer and hopefully our medical technology will expand to handle the negative outcomes.
Our civilization relies too heavily on plastic. And that’s not a bad thing. It has its drawbacks, but plastic is also super useful as a material and it’s part of what we are.
We aren’t just Homo sapiens any more. We’re Homo sapiens cybogified. Giving up plastic means giving up what we are. Going back is an illusion that we create for children so they can have an environment that mimics our environment of evolutionary adaptedness. In the real world, the world that an adult by definition engages with, change is a constant.
We have filled the world with plastic and there’s no way in our power to get rid of it. But nature has a way. Life has a way to handle it, and it will.
It takes a very long time for evolution to adapt to changing environments. We've littered the planet with microplastics in less than a century. I'm not sure it can adapt that quickly.
It could give rise to organisms with mechanisms already in place to deal with them. Unfortunately, the organisms with no such traits aren't going to magically mutate. Good news for the organisms that can process micro plastics, less predation.
If people do start dieing en masse, though, and modern science has to quickly adapt we might see some major advancements in bio technology. Biggest thing being, lifting some of the taboos around gene manipulation.
Please take everything I say with a grain of salt. I tend to fantastical thinking.
There are already plastic eating bacteria
So at least there's that
There are, but it's more of a question of how quickly they could go global and counteract the microplastics.