Marine scientists discovered an ocean-borne fungus chomping through plastic trash in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
  • mister_monster@monero.townEnglish
    293·
    5 months ago

    There’s a lot of discussion in here about how great this is. And it is. But it is at odds with another environmentalist concern.

    What if we could take carbon dioxide and turn it into something that can’t be degraded by living organisms? Well, plastic is one of those things, or was. Plastic is a form of carbon sequestration.

    These micro organisms, they’re turning plastic into carbon dioxide. Any and all carbon compounds on earth will enter the carbon cycle. every drop of oil pulled out of the ground, even the stuff that’s used to make plastic, will wind up in the atmosphere.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
      192·
      5 months ago

      Well, sure. And that’s really bad for Ice Age evolved macro-species that require a certain survivable temperature and condition to thrive. But you’re missing the bigger picture. For lots of plants and bacteria and various insecticidal organisms that thrive in hot, humid environments, this is going to be absolutely amazing.

      Yes, humans are absolutely fucked, along with enormous chunks of the mammalian class of species. But life will continue on in exciting new ways.

    • WolfLink@lemmy.ml
      121·
      5 months ago

      Conveniently, nature has provided us with another carbon sequestration method that has a lot of other benefits, ranging from being a good building material, to helping regulate the local temperature: trees.