this post was submitted on 12 Mar 2025
385 points (98.2% liked)

World News

43677 readers
2324 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News [email protected]

Politics [email protected]

World Politics [email protected]


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 hours ago (5 children)

I am longing for plastic-eating bacteria to be released into the wild. There are other materials we can use.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 49 minutes ago

I would like for you to meet my friend, the oyster mushroom. I'm wondering what level of soil accumulation we need to support massive, city-wide oyster mushroom blooms

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 hours ago

The medical field would be categorically fuct. Just the loss of sterile packaging would have serious consequences. Minimally invasive surgeries, joint replacements, bandages that don't adhere to wounds, stents...

Then let's consider cordage. Mountain climbing, arborists, rescue teams, sailboats (the most efficient way to cross oceans), ships, construction... the loss of just Dyneema/UHMWPE, which is a relatively new entrant to the cordage field would have seriously negative impacts.

There is a lot of energy bound up in those long molecules, and there are no unexploited niches in balanced ecosystems. There are already bacteria that can consume certain polymers under narrow conditions. Humanity is gonna be so screwed for a long time if bacteria can slip those narrow parameters.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

We first need a way to use them to consume plastic in a controlled manner. There are things that simply would not be possible without these polymers and that we do not want destroyed.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 hours ago

Think of how many things around you are made of plastic. What about critical pieces of things like airplanes? What would you replace that with to prevent the bacteria from causing damage to them?

I could probably pick a few things on my desk right now that would be much more difficult and much more costly to produce with other materials.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) (1 children)

Yes, I am sure such a bacteria being released at this scale would have absolutely zero negative consequences

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 hours ago

As opposed to the alternative?