(no subject)
HOLY SHIT! This is DISGUSTING!
It is well worth EVERYBODY'S time to read this chapter from Alan Weisman The World Without Us. It's called "Polymers are Forever" and is basically about how plastics are absolutely TERRIBLE for the environment. I've never been more motivated to never use another plastic bag in my life. I'm going canvas from here on out.
A few quotes:
"By 2005, Moore was referring to the gyrating Pacific dump as 10 million square miles-nearly the size of Africa. It wasn’t the only one: the planet has six other major tropical oceanic gyres, all of them swirling with ugly debris. It was as if plastic exploded upon the world from a tiny seed after World War II and, like the Big Bang, was still expanding. Even if all production suddenly ceased, an astounding amount of the astoundingly durable stuff was already out there. Plastic debris, Moore believed, was now the most common surface feature of the world’s oceans. How long would it last? Were there any benign, less-immortal substitutes that civilization could convert to, lest the world be plastic-wrapped evermore?"
"Moore and Thompson began consulting materials experts. Tokyo University geochemist Hideshige Takada, who specialized in EDCs-endocrine-disrupting chemicals, or “gender benders”-had been on a gruesome mission to personally research exactly what evils were leaching from garbage dumps all around Southeast Asia. Now he was examining plastic pulled from the Sea of Japan and Tokyo Bay. He reported that in the sea, turtles and other plastic fragments acted both as magnets and as sponges for resilient poisons like DDT and PCBs.
The use of aggressively toxic polychlorinated biphenyls-PCBs-to make plastics more pliable had been banned since 1970; among other hazards, PCBs were known to promote hormonal havoc such as hermaphroditic fish and polar bears. Like time-release capsules, pre-1970 plastic flotsam will gradually leak PCBs into the ocean for centuries. But, as Takada also discovered, free-floating toxins from all kinds of sources-copy paper, automobile grease, coolant fluids, old fluorescent tubes, and infamous discharges by General Electric and Monsanto plants directly into streams and rivers-readily stick to the surfaces of free-floating plastic."
“Except for a small amount that’s been incinerated,” says Tony Andrady the oracle, “every bit of plastic manufactured in the world for the last 50 years or so still remains. It’s somewhere in the environment.”
...
This is obviously a VERY big problem. Much bigger than I can even conceive of. If we cannot even conceive of the magnitude of this problem, then how can we go about trying to fashion a solution? I haven't read Weisman's book YET (I plan to as soon as possible), but the premise seems to be: even if we stopped doing all of the terrible things we are doing to the environment, we have done irreparable damage, and the earth will not recover or evolve to overcome the damages for a VERY VERY long time.
All of this is very related to my anthropology class with Molly last semester. I took it because it fulfilled one of my last requirements for graduation (Environmental category) , it was "Animals in Human Societies". We learned about a lot of different things, but one of the major themes of the course was human beings attempts to control, manipulate, and dominate the environment, and how these efforts ALWAYS lead to many unintended (and almost always undesirable) consequences.
Technological developments have far outpaced our ability to forecast what impact those technologies will have on our societies, environments, lives, and civilizations for generations to come. But we are driven by a desire to constantly invent, innovate, and "improve" our lives. So... what should we do? Stop "advancing"/inventing/etc. because of the unknown potential consequences of our actions?
Humans are foolhardy. They have short memories and do not often learn from the past. Lessons learned are quickly forgotten and easily dismissed.
.... so.... what should we do? Can we fix this? How do we know that our efforts to correct our past mistakes will not just amplify the consequences?
It is well worth EVERYBODY'S time to read this chapter from Alan Weisman The World Without Us. It's called "Polymers are Forever" and is basically about how plastics are absolutely TERRIBLE for the environment. I've never been more motivated to never use another plastic bag in my life. I'm going canvas from here on out.
A few quotes:
"By 2005, Moore was referring to the gyrating Pacific dump as 10 million square miles-nearly the size of Africa. It wasn’t the only one: the planet has six other major tropical oceanic gyres, all of them swirling with ugly debris. It was as if plastic exploded upon the world from a tiny seed after World War II and, like the Big Bang, was still expanding. Even if all production suddenly ceased, an astounding amount of the astoundingly durable stuff was already out there. Plastic debris, Moore believed, was now the most common surface feature of the world’s oceans. How long would it last? Were there any benign, less-immortal substitutes that civilization could convert to, lest the world be plastic-wrapped evermore?"
"Moore and Thompson began consulting materials experts. Tokyo University geochemist Hideshige Takada, who specialized in EDCs-endocrine-disrupting chemicals, or “gender benders”-had been on a gruesome mission to personally research exactly what evils were leaching from garbage dumps all around Southeast Asia. Now he was examining plastic pulled from the Sea of Japan and Tokyo Bay. He reported that in the sea, turtles and other plastic fragments acted both as magnets and as sponges for resilient poisons like DDT and PCBs.
The use of aggressively toxic polychlorinated biphenyls-PCBs-to make plastics more pliable had been banned since 1970; among other hazards, PCBs were known to promote hormonal havoc such as hermaphroditic fish and polar bears. Like time-release capsules, pre-1970 plastic flotsam will gradually leak PCBs into the ocean for centuries. But, as Takada also discovered, free-floating toxins from all kinds of sources-copy paper, automobile grease, coolant fluids, old fluorescent tubes, and infamous discharges by General Electric and Monsanto plants directly into streams and rivers-readily stick to the surfaces of free-floating plastic."
“Except for a small amount that’s been incinerated,” says Tony Andrady the oracle, “every bit of plastic manufactured in the world for the last 50 years or so still remains. It’s somewhere in the environment.”
...
This is obviously a VERY big problem. Much bigger than I can even conceive of. If we cannot even conceive of the magnitude of this problem, then how can we go about trying to fashion a solution? I haven't read Weisman's book YET (I plan to as soon as possible), but the premise seems to be: even if we stopped doing all of the terrible things we are doing to the environment, we have done irreparable damage, and the earth will not recover or evolve to overcome the damages for a VERY VERY long time.
All of this is very related to my anthropology class with Molly last semester. I took it because it fulfilled one of my last requirements for graduation (Environmental category) , it was "Animals in Human Societies". We learned about a lot of different things, but one of the major themes of the course was human beings attempts to control, manipulate, and dominate the environment, and how these efforts ALWAYS lead to many unintended (and almost always undesirable) consequences.
Technological developments have far outpaced our ability to forecast what impact those technologies will have on our societies, environments, lives, and civilizations for generations to come. But we are driven by a desire to constantly invent, innovate, and "improve" our lives. So... what should we do? Stop "advancing"/inventing/etc. because of the unknown potential consequences of our actions?
Humans are foolhardy. They have short memories and do not often learn from the past. Lessons learned are quickly forgotten and easily dismissed.
.... so.... what should we do? Can we fix this? How do we know that our efforts to correct our past mistakes will not just amplify the consequences?