Plastics have officially entered the food chain

There was a thread on ATS recently that outlined the unreal amount of plastics and other garbage floating in the Pacific also known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

As we all know this is a huge problem but the outlook may only be getting worse now that microbes are feasting on these plastics.

Plastics have officially entered the food chain, as seen in the deadly effect things like Styrofoam and bottle caps have on sea turtles and albatross, and even whales. However, how far into the food chain is plastic going? It seems even microbes are eating their fill, though whether or not they’re actually digesting the plastic or just passing it up the chain to larger life forms is still a big question. Regardless, researchers including Tracy Mincer of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts and colleagues have found bacteria that is feasting on plastics found in the ocean.

The problem of course, is finding out if these microbes are actually digesting the plastic, turning it into a non-toxic substance again, or if they’re just eating it and passing the chemicals right up the food chain. Researchers don’t know yet if this is good news for plastic pollution, or cause for concern over how plastics and the toxins they contain are becoming part of the food chain.

www.impactlab.net...-76290

Researchers don’t know yet if this is good news for plastic pollution, or cause for concern

LOL

Life can adapt to anything, probably even eating plastic.

I have directly observed fish and birds eating plastic. Didn't Anderson Cooper get tested only to find traces of high plastic compounds in his blood?!

It's so far into the food chain that virtually EVERY one of us has it in our fatty tissues, and perhaps even circulating at this very moment in our blood.

The environment is quite mucked up, and this is part of the reason for all the apathetic, mindless idiocy we're witnessing out there.

Try to sweat a bit every day to keep your toxic load down.


Peace.

Originally posted by FOXMULDER147
Life can adapt to anything, probably even eating plastic.

Qualify your definition of life?

Some species adapt, some evolve, and some die out.

The toxicity for the majority of these petroleum derived synthetics is orders of magnitudes greater than most natural heavy metals. It didn't evolve with us over the last hundreds of millions of years.

Perhaps it would be best not to be unreasonably optimistic.

reply to post by unityemissions


There is room for adaptation, seeing as humans are more prone to adapt than evolve, taking a few pointers out of Sociology classes. I do not see any gene mutation in the near future that would allow for plastic - digestion, but hey, I am not a scientist, and plastic is Carbon, so I can be a talking dumb***

Originally posted by unityemissions

Originally posted by FOXMULDER147
Life can adapt to anything, probably even eating plastic.

Qualify your definition of life?

All extant living organisms.

Originally posted by unityemissions
Some species adapt, some evolve, and some die out.

But life that dies out becomes the sustenance for other life. When I die and my body decomposes I feed a trillion organisms, and when they replicate I'm effectively reborn a trillion times.

Mufasa: Everything you see exists together in a delicate balance. As king, you need to understand that balance and respect all the creatures, from the crawling ant to the leaping antelope.
Simba: But dad, don't we eat the antelope?
Mufasa: Yes, Simba, but let me explain. When we die, our bodies become the grass, and the antelope eat the grass. And so we are all connnected in the great Circle of Life.

Yes, I quoted the Lion King to make a point. So what...

So even if the organisms that eat plastic die out, their matter will sustain and beget other life. And that new life will not eat plastic. Hence, life will 'adapt'.

reply to post by FOXMULDER147


How much needless suffering will happen through the process of this adaptation?

Just bizarre reasoning in these posts.

reply to post by unityemissions


What suffering?