Microplastics in the sea

[Hardhead]

Originally Posted by S/V Adeline

Would your single use plastic ban apply to everything and everyone?

The medical field alone would be at the cost of billions. Almost everything in a paramedic bag is single use, usually plastic, wrapped in single use plastic.
Many with diabetes uses single use plastic syringes wrapped in single use plastic. Daily or multiple times daily. Then test strips.

Where is the line drawn?

I'm not against the idea, per say, I just don't see it being a single ban solution.

It has to be applied intelligently.

If there is no reasonable alternative packaging, and it's necessary for human health - it's allowed. Plastic sold as a durable good is not included. Awareness of the environmental dangers of plastic are generally made known to the public, so everything can be understood. Done.

[Jdege]

Originally Posted by Hardhead

It has to be applied intelligently.

If there is no reasonable alternative packaging, and it's necessary for human health - it's allowed. Plastic sold as a durable good is not included. Awareness of the environmental dangers of plastic are generally made known to the public, so everything can be understood. Done.

Nothing imposed by government is ever applied "intelligently". Seriously - granting government bureaucrats the discretion needed to apply a policy "intelligently" is a very bad idea. It results in rent seeking and corruption.

If your solution depends upon having perfect people administering it, it's not a solution.

[Hardhead]

We have a representative government. Vote different people in - that would be the intelligent solution. Greatly restrict new precedents that have allowed massive additional new money into political issues - like Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. Actually fire government people who are not working. Media messaging BS & political games certainly play a large part in that, IMHO.

I respectfully submit - if we continue allow the repeated harvesting of our deeply personal data, purchase and click patterns, and likes and dislikes - as is harvested currently - we will be manipulated. Everyone has "hot button" issues, initiated, bred, cultivated and emphasized by the media, and with modern data analysis, and message targeting - we can be played like puppets. It's working great - as far as I can tell. Nothing's working.

If everyone is always fighting & pointing the finger at the other, by design - like the leading media "news" stories we are shown every day - it's a great strategy to bury important issues from public attention. Just like pervasive microplastic contamination. Crickets chirping... and things get worse. But - somebody is happy.

[Hardhead]

If we had a 1 term limit for politicians - the downside would be they cannot continue personally working on the same issues.

The upside would be - that elected representatives are not completely beholden to where their next campaign money is coming from. (this is HUGE) If the people are happy with the work that is being done - they can continue on it with a fresh set of eyes. Career politicians need to be a thing of the past - if we want to really move to the future, IMO. We do need smart people willing to enter politics. Right now, it is a career - with all that implies.


String the people along - work in harmony with whoever is paying the money - and do it again.

[Hardhead]

If, after 1 term, an elected representative wishes to run for a totally different office - it's allowed. However - a restriction keeping them from running for a term in-between would ensure two things. 1) they are focusing on the job of their current office, which they have been elected for, and 2) that power and decision corruption in the current office is not transferred to the new office, based on campaign financing promised by those funding the new campaign.

Really --- more than anything else - we need to get the massive, real, influence of campaign funding out of the decision making. This is far afield from microplastic contamination - but I'd submit it is the ENTIRE problem with microplastic contamination & government action. The actual people are the losers - like most issues.

I wonder who is not?

[Hardhead]

Thinking about it a little further - it might help with gridlock too. Without highly developed congressional and senate power and seniority structures, the likelihood of getting to a impasse would probably be lessened. Also, any developed personality clashes and grudges between office holders might be lessened. More turnover might mean fewer entrenched problems between them. Again, a fresh set of eyes on things.

[GordMay]

HOW MUCH ARE MICROPLASTICS HURTING US?

First, microplastics in streams and oceans began turning up in the guts of fish and shellfish. Now they are in the lungs and blood of humans.

What is the danger to us? That’s what Nat Geo’s Laura Parker is investigating.
One alarming finding: While humans have been concerned about getting microplastics from eating shrimp or mussels, we already are getting greater amounts elsewhere.

“People will take in more plastic during a mussels dinner by inhaling or ingesting tiny, invisible plastic fibers floating in the air around them, fibers shed by their own clothes, carpets, and upholstery, than they will by eating the mussels,” she writes.

More ➥ https://www.nationalgeographic.com/e...sible_20220426

[Lake-Effect]

If microplastics and other nano particles are toxic, welp it's already too late. They're out there, and in us. Perhaps they will prove to be just an elevated risk ....?

In any event, now that we're playing footsie with WW III, microparticles are by comparison less of an existential threat. Hooray?

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by Lake-Effect

If microplastics and other nano particles are toxic, welp it's already too late. They're out there, and in us. Perhaps they will prove to be just an elevated risk for us.

In any event, now that we're playing footsie with WW III, microparticles are by comparison less of an existential threat. Hooray?

Nice to see your more relaxed about this elevated risk that is 'Out there' than you were about Covid..

[Lake-Effect]

Originally Posted by boatman61

Nice to see your more relaxed about this elevated risk that is 'Out there' than you were about Covid..

I'm less concerned about wearing out my liver, now.

[GordMay]

Did you know that a garbage truck's worth of plastic enters the ocean every minute? Ocean experts explain how to reverse course, and create a better, healthier future.

"Ocean, People, Planet" ~ Pew Trust
There is only one ocean, essential to the life of everyone on Earth—and it faces perils like never before

The ocean covers nearly three-fourths of the Earth. Vast and powerful, it is central to the life of everyone on the planet, supplying more than half of the world’s oxygen, providing food and recreation, and supporting economic vitality. Yet for all its seeming invincibility, the ocean has never been more in danger.

Its very chemistry is changing as ocean waters become more acidified through climate change. Its inhabitants—from large sharks to finger-sized crustaceans—are under assault.

Plastics pollution is now ubiquitous, found even in the ocean’s greatest depths. And sea levels continue to rise, challenging the barriers separating people from water.

Much More ➥ https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/campaig...test_Headlines

[AKA-None]

Off topic but we also have n increasing amount of drugs and hormones entering the water
Just thought I’d toss that out there if there wasn’t enough to worry about

[Jdege]

Originally Posted by AKA-None

Off topic but we also have n increasing amount of drugs and hormones entering the water
Just thought I’d toss that out there if there wasn’t enough to worry about

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXlBESlGFPE

[GordMay]

Bugs Are Evolving to Eat Plastic

Microbes in oceans and soils, across the globe, are evolving to eat plastic, according to a study [1], published [last year] in the journal mBio.

The research [1] scanned more than 200m genes found in DNA samples, taken from the environment, and found 30,000 different enzymes, that could degrade 10 different types of plastic.

The study [1] is the first large-scale global assessment of the plastic-degrading potential of bacteria, and found that one in four of the organisms analysed carried a suitable enzyme. The researchers found that the number and type of enzymes they discovered matched the amount and type of plastic pollution, in different locations.

The results “provide evidence of a measurable effect of plastic pollution on the global microbial ecology”, the scientists said.

Many plastics are currently hard to degrade and recycle. Using enzymes, to rapidly break down plastics, into their building blocks, would enable new products to be made from old ones, cutting the need for virgin plastic production. The research provides many new enzymes to be investigated, and adapted for industrial use.

[1] “Plastic-Degrading Potential across the Global Microbiome Correlates with Recent Pollution Trends” ~ by Jan Zrimec et al
➥ https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/mBio.02155-21

[mako]

George Carlin had a few things to say about saving the planet:

https://youtu.be/7W33HRc1A6c