this post was submitted on 05 Jun 2024
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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/16488358

Scientists Find Plastic-Eating Fungus Feasting on Great Pacific Garbage Patch

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 2 months ago (5 children)

There's a lot of discussion in here about how great this is. And it is. But it is at odds with another environmentalist concern.

What if we could take carbon dioxide and turn it into something that can't be degraded by living organisms? Well, plastic is one of those things, or was. Plastic is a form of carbon sequestration.

These micro organisms, they're turning plastic into carbon dioxide. Any and all carbon compounds on earth will enter the carbon cycle. every drop of oil pulled out of the ground, even the stuff that's used to make plastic, will wind up in the atmosphere.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Conveniently, nature has provided us with another carbon sequestration method that has a lot of other benefits, ranging from being a good building material, to helping regulate the local temperature: trees.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 2 months ago

Yep, I concur. I'm of the opinion that that's all you need to solve this problem.

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