Plastics are a store of energy. They could be used to sustain life, once evolution catches up. That's why I don't feel particularly bad about throwing plastic into the landfill. I'm taking an energy loan out against evolution; eventually, evolution will recoup it.
That's funny: do you know why there is petroleum at all?
When plants evolved to have line, they where able to become trees.
Sadly, no bacteria was able to decompose linine. It took a looooot of time (I don't remember how much, but a whole lot). So trees wouldn't decompose when falling down, so they would grow on top of each other, burying the oldest one more and more.
And the end, you have wood very deep, under a lot of pressure and I'm a hot environment: it created the petroleum.
So what you're expecting can take millions of year and it would be ironic if petroleum had to be twice in such a cycle.
Yes, indeed. It took a while, but not that long in the grand scheme. A few million years; plastic is more concentrated and more delicious, energy-wise.
I forgot to mention my theory, which is that we will be the ones who dig up the plastic to either recycle it or use it for its energy -- it will have been conveniently concentrated in landfills after all :)
No guarantee that the evolution that takes care of plastics results in a more livable world for humans though (not to mention plastics that we don’t want crumbling suddenly having issues)
Yes, certainly. The value of plastics is incalculable. (Personally, if there were a plastic-eating bacteria introduced tomorrow, I would be dead within the week, rather than dead within a month or two like most people).
I don't really feel bad about plastics, mostly I feel bad about the egregious stuff -- car tires, fishing gear -- stuff that does not end up in the landfill most of all, because it cannot be segregated from the environment.
What is so special is that we are them. Until we are no longer humans, we should look out for our own. Unless you have somehow overcome self-preservation and suffering. I haven't. I never understood this "what is special about humans" argument. Obviously we should do our best to be good stewards of the environment but that shouldn't ignore our own survival.
