https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/germany-climate-seagrass/
People restoring sea grass to the Baltic Sea.
https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2023/08/the-serial-killer-and-the-texas-mom-who-stopped-him
This woman stopped a serial killer.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/sep/28/plastic-eating-bacteria-enzyme-recycling-waste
Plastic eating bacteria could change the world.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-09-28/quoll-thought-extinct-found-south-australia/102911364
An animal called a quoll thought to be extinct for 130 years has been rediscovered.
Since 2021, a French company named Carbios has been running an operation that uses a bacterial enzyme to process about 250kg of PET plastic waste every day, breaking it down into its precursor molecules, which can then be made directly into new plastic. It’s not quite composting it back into the earth itself, but Carbios has achieved the holy grail of plastic recycling, bringing it much closer to an infinitely recyclable material like glass or aluminium.
That’s a significant step forward from when the last time I read up on the plastic eating bacteria. Granted, I’d prefer it if it was recycled into something other than more plastic… but I’ll still take it.
I think it’s highly likely there’s a catch, like you have to grow 250 tons of bacteria. Usually there is with amazing advances which get a news story but not a lot of reaction from other academics.
They’re still in the process of genetically engineering the bacteria, so their efficiency is still a work in progress.
There’s also the issue that economies of scale tip heavily in plastics direction,
It’s not a carbon neutral process. There’s significant both heating and cooling involved.
And, it doesn’t really solve the issue of retiring plastics.
The last update I read on the bacteria, prior to the genetic engineering, mentioned that the bacteria didn’t actually like the plastic and would only really break it down for want of something more practical. Presumably that has been solved, but I didn’t see it brought up in the article.
This feels like an ice 9 situation
Well, how would we change it from plastic into something else?
The article explains that they use the bacteria to basically break down the plastic into two solutions, which they ultimately recombine into plastic—seemingly out of lack of any other practical use for the results.
I’m not a scientist, I don’t know what could be a better use for the results of the bacteria doing their job. And seemingly, neither do the scientists, but it’s still a very young project in the grand scheme of things.
Anyone else wonder if plastic decomposing bacteria might be a disaster? I’m interested in it’s research and development but can’t imagine how it would be contained to stop it from eating everything we have.
Don’t worry, we’ll invent a type of plastic immune to this bacteria and start the whole process anew!
As an aside, ‘plastic eating bacteria’ have been ‘discovered’ countless times over the past several decades.
Possibly due to each discovery being some bacteria that eat exactly 1 chemistry of plastic.
: )
The plastic arms race!
No idea about that, but your bringing up the issue reminded me of the movie Andromeda Strain…
“Just as he has this insight, the organism mutates into a non-lethal form that degrades synthetic rubber and plastic”
Apparently there’s a TV show based on the same story.
Nice! As a follow up, is there a good app/source to get more positive articles Ike this regularly?
Also enjoy this article on drive in sex boxes in Zurich, giving a new meaning to public spaces: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/aug/26/zurich-drive-in-garages-prostitutes
I tend to read Metafilter (https://www.metafilter.com/), it’s not all good news but it’s a weblog of really interesting content.
That Vanity Fair story is one of the craziest things I’ve ever read, thanks for sharing!
Isn’t that bonkers? I read it twice I was so interested.
The death of all the coral in Florida.
It was front-page news where I live a few days ago but not a blip of it could be seen anywhere else.
It’s easily the most important news of the past two months and will negatively affect life on the planet anywhere but fuck all if humans outside of a local area could bring themselves to give a shit.
I hate to inform you that corals are dieing all around the world, not just in Florida.
Fellow Floridian here. I hope we can get someone better after DeSantis’ term limit is up. We live in one of the most climate change prone regions and a region where environmental changes mean a great deal.
A police officer drover over and killed an Indian student in Seattle, and when he found out, he laughed about it. He did apologize later but the system that led to it is still in place. Hate the game.
I hate it when it happens with terrible news, but… I lost the game.
this won’t get reported in the news but i started my dream job after 10+ years of shitty jobs and that makes me happy 😊 I’ve got no motivational advice, life sucks and then you die lol
If I was the news, I’d interview you.
Probably due to the absence of lead that the previous generation got due to leaded gas emissions.
And maybe microplastics have the opposite effect. But this is just speculation, and afaik no sources support this.
Ethan Liming.
Was a kid in Akron Ohio who was driving around with black friends.
They drove past a group of black kids playing basketball, and one of his friends shot them with a bright orange water gel blaster.
Ethan ended up being brutally murdered (the only one), fractured skull, bootprints on his chest, then the group stole their car and took it on a joy ride to prevent him being taken to the hospital.
They were just found not guilty.
What did being black have anything to do with this story?
Sounds like they’re claiming race was a motive in his beating, but I don’t know enough about this story to weigh in.
Seems like shooting at people from a moving vehicle was the motive. Story stays the same w race going unmentioned.
OP sounds like they may be pushing a narrative, but if it’s true that the white kid that died did not shoot the gel gun and was the only one in the car to be beaten then it is possible race was a factor in the crime. I’m still highly skeptical and I don’t have the time right now to delve into this to get a full understanding so I’ll just leave it at that.
Yeah, I don’t know the story but it kind of strains credulity the way OP told it. A bunch of black kids that did this would have the book thrown at them in America, and probably become a racially-tinged campaign story for the AG’s re-election campaign.
why don’t you research it then.
it’s all true.
or maybe consider that what you envision to be reality is not correct.
It’s almost like you’d have to try to get it this wrong.
I have the feeling we should talk more about bio char. Seams like a feasible improvement for three very different problem mankind faces right now.
Can you expand on that or provide some resources to learn about biochar. I’ve never really heard about it before.
It’s a french news but in Rouen an empty appartement building full of asbestos burnt to the ground some days ago but due to the Hamas attack on Israel no news outlets talks about it anymore.
Hunter’s biden laptop scandal. No news about it
Did they finally find more dick pics or something? What’s new to report?
Don’t your read the news? They are about to find all of the evidence and as soon a it is revealed it will change everything. Just like last month!
I dunno what news you look at but it’s all over the news I read.
