
Tons of microplastic rain onto western US - lerie1982
https://earthsky.org/earth/microplastic-rain-western-us
======
scottlocklin
I don't like plastic in the air any more than anyone else does, but

1) stop wearing those stupid fucking polyester hoodies (and other artificial
fibers; aka your socks, gym shirts and underpants) -that's where most of it
comes from. I'm looking at you, SF hacker nerds.

2) Even assuming the entire population of the Western US breathed all that
plastic waste in and it was permanently deposited in the lungs:

1000e3 kg/ 100e6 people = 0.01kg or 10g plastic each person accumulated in
their lungs. In a year. Pretty sure I have more shit in my lungs from being
around diesel engines for a few days, or, like being around potheads.

~~~
briefcomment
Praying for cotton and wool to become stylish. And I hope we get creative with
natural fibers like linen, beech fiber, spider silk, et.

~~~
chewz
One cotton t-shirt equals 2,700 liters of water—what one person drinks in two-
and-a-half years. Google about Aral Sea.

Cotton farming is also responsible for 24 percent of insecticides and 11
percent of pesticides despite using about 3 percent of the world’s arable
land.

[https://www.wri.org/blog/2017/07/apparel-industrys-
environme...](https://www.wri.org/blog/2017/07/apparel-industrys-
environmental-impact-6-graphics)

~~~
jogjayr
We also need to buy less clothing overall. But this doesn't invalidate GP's
assertion that natural fibers are more desirable.

~~~
tluyben2
Yep, but that requires a big mindset change; the insane amount of 'throwaway'
clothes people buy is embarrassing. Not sure how you someone can be proud to
own 50 pairs of shoes and 100 different outfits. I pity people who are that
shallow (then again, I walk around like a vagrant, that's probably a bit too
extreme as well), but it seems to become more normal vs less so as in; less
fortunate people can (and do) do this now too. I know women and men in
Philippines who make a few $100/month working online and spend almost
everything on after market or knock off brand clothes and shoes. My colleague
from the Philippines who is a coder and makes a fortune compared to the
average there, buys new complete outfits for the wife, daughter and himself
weekly (in the weekend they go clothes shopping and then to a family sunday
lunch with that); they must have 100s of boxes of unused clothes stacked in
their storage room (luckily they have a storage room?).

------
spodek
We can legislate to stop producing it, or drastically reduce it. We did so
with CFCs to stop destroying the ozone layer. The doomsayers weren't the
scientists who predicted the problems, but those who said we'd lose
refrigeration etc.

They were wrong. Legislation helped the ozone layer and society did fine. The
same will happen if we legislate on plastic as we did on CFCs.

~~~
dwighttk
plastic is a slightly larger category than CFCs

~~~
lowdose
Any other "solution" results in a local maximum. If I learned one thing last
years of all the denying is that you cannot put the bar high enough especially
when it concerns long term planning of the ecosystem of Earth. Just realize
where we would be today if climate change was taken seriously in the 1960's.
Let's not make that same mistake with plastic all over again.

------
rhacker
So are the chemicals we place on fields of food. Everything we're doing is
toxic. We think the earth can support 7 or 8 billion people but in the current
ways of doing things, it can probably only do so for another 100 years
maximum.

~~~
Melting_Harps
> So are the chemicals we place on fields of food. Everything we're doing is
> toxic. We think the earth can support 7 or 8 billion people but in the
> current ways of doing things, it can probably only do so for another 100
> years maximum.

I gave it more like 300 years back in 2008, whereas Hawking gave it closer to
100 by which time he said if we're not multi-planetary we'll will have
destroyed the Earth sue to our collective myopic behaviour; the time frame may
differ but sentiment is the ultimately same: Humanity needed this reality
check we've had with COVID, what we do from here on out may determine the fate
of our entire Species' fate.

And we should act accordingly.

------
jessaustin
It's in air, it's in water, it's in food... ultimately, it's also in us.

~~~
waheoo
Watched dark waters last night. Pretty unreal how these companies behaved.

[https://imdb.com/title/tt9071322/](https://imdb.com/title/tt9071322/)

~~~
doitLP
Please keep in mind biopics and historical films are fictionalized _movie_ and
not documentaries but entertainment.

Link to NYT article: [https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/10/magazine/the-lawyer-
who-b...](https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/10/magazine/the-lawyer-who-became-
duponts-worst-nightmare.html)

------
hoppla
Our era will be known as the plastic age

------
carapace
Biodegradable plastic has been a thing since the late 70's.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biodegradable_plastic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biodegradable_plastic)

My dad once showed me transparent cellulose-based plastic envelopes you could
eat. They didn't taste like anything but were totally non-toxic. That was in
the 80's.

------
kilroy123
What is the solution? Maybe massive taxes for manufacturing plastics for
consumer uses? Just brainstorming here.

It seems like the incentives need to align somehow.

~~~
pas
Yes. Carbon tax, plastic tax. Basically we're still in the full denial phase.
We need more energy, and we need clean energy. (Because ultimately every
problem with plastics and pollution is solvable via spending more energy.) And
some serious transformation.

* Tyres? Make them out of biodegradable organic materials. Maybe they'll need to be replaced every year, and they'll cost more, that's why the pollution tax has to make the safe/sane/eco/green version competitive. (Also more investment in infrastructure, mass transit, denser cities, more walking, etc.) Urbanization is already ongoing, but somehow instead of building efficient dense cities many countries on Earth are just building sprawling slums and/or suburbs. (Plus we need carbon-efficient concrete and a more carbon-efficient construction industry as a whole.)

* Synthetic fibers. Cotton. Sure, but you'll need non-polluting cotton farms, so closed loop energy intensive [indoor/vertical] farms.

* Plastic packaging. Meh, just use biodegradable alternative packaging. Eg. paper. (Heavier, needs more energy to transport.)

* Plastic bottles. Use aluminum cans. Again, heavier, plus needs more energy to manufacture, but endlessly recyclable.

* Plastic pigments in paint. Meh, find biodegradable alternative or stop using them.

------
minerjoe
In some just universe, oil == pure evil. It's underground for a reason and
poking a million painful needles into Mother Earth to suck it out and spew it
into every biome is bound to have implications on our own health.

As above, so below.

~~~
mey
Oil has horrible consequences, but your rational for it being evil by being
out of "reach" isn't very enlightening. By your logic we should not tap
aquifers for drinking water, but mass desalination is fine. Instead, oil is
bad because. It's not renewable, it's refinement/combustion is readily linked
to cancer and other deadly/health issues, extraction/transport routinely kills
ecosystems/creates toxic waste sites.

~~~
na85
Mass desalination via solar energy seems like it would be a huge win for the
environment. Plus you could sell the salt.

I wonder if it's feasible.

~~~
ggm
Desal plants cause localised brine concentration and screw ecology. If you
built them at Salinas (salt pans) maybe that would be ok, and we'd get more
flamingoes once the brine shrimp population rose. So you need strong solar and
large flat expanses. North Africa? There was a serious proposal to sell solar
power to Europe from north Africa. Maybe this is the triple play?

~~~
Gibbon1
I've looked at Desalination in Southern California. One thing they're trying
is to mix the saline water with waste water discharge. One assumes that's
better. Other thing I found when poking about is the energy expenditure for
some of LA's water sources is close to that of desalination.

I think I'm firmly down on the side of I'm against desalination if it just
means more water for almonds. For desalination if it means replacing expensive
imported water sources and leaving more water for what's left of the states
natural environment.

I feel like things are complicated with a inescapable level of fucked.

~~~
pas
Carbon tax (or a similar, more general environmental impact tax) would sort
thing out in no time.

It wouldn't matter if someone uses water to raise almonds in the middle of the
desert, but it should have its env. impact priced in.

Similarly, it's absolutely ridiculous that large states can't plan ahead for
~20-50 years and instead of building efficient power plants we're stuck with
windmills and solar and batteries as the "green" option.

------
elevenoh
"Rocky Mountain National Park, which had the greatest amount of microplastics
among the national parks and wilderness areas in the study"

Surprised to see Colorado so affected.

~~~
sojournerc
That is surprising, especially considering that it's on the continental divide
and has mostly headwaters.

I live a bit south of there in the mountains, also close to the divide. A lot
of our precip, especially in winter, is moisture carried by the jet stream
from the north pacific that gets caught on the mountains. Could be the source,
but that's a wild guess.

------
stunt
It’s crazy how much waste we produce. You only realize that after you start
separating your trash for recycling.

