31 points giuliomagnifico 2 hours ago 11 comments

ninininino 1 hour ago | parent

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.

dvh 1 hour ago | parent

It's our own K-T layer

testfoobar 55 minutes ago | parent

"The Plastocene – Plastic in the sedimentary record"

https://blogs.egu.eu/divisions/ssp/2019/01/09/the-plastocene...

vatsachak 30 minutes ago | parent

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

wongarsu 12 minutes ago | parent

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

bmk44 1 hour ago | parent

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?”

Joel_Mckay 43 minutes ago | parent

"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

SoftTalker 31 minutes ago | parent

The planet is fine; the people are fucked!

canadiantim 28 minutes ago | parent

This has been known for decades already. In the historical records we'll be known as the plastic age

criddell 23 minutes ago | parent

The article says it's already being called the plasticene.

sharpshadow 17 minutes ago | parent

In the cycle of life everything becomes a rock.