New plastic pollution discovered: 'Plasticorals' coral rubble fused with plastic

65 points - today at 4:20 PM

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bmk44 today at 5:49 PM
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?”

sharpshadow today at 6:37 PM
In the cycle of life everything becomes a rock.
ninininino today at 5:23 PM
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.

canadiantim today at 6:26 PM
This has been known for decades already. In the historical records we'll be known as the plastic age