Microplastics found in 'pristine' Pyrenees mountains

bbc.com

59 points·gpvos··7 comments

I sort of see this period as a similar period to when trees invented wood and nothing on the planet could break it down. Then millions of years later fungus figured it out. Eventually life on this planet if the planet doesn't become uninhabitable will figure out how to break the plastic down and use it for fuel. There are already bacteria capable of degrading plastics. Maybe one day they will eat it.

Can you hint where I can read more about the wood / fungus history thing?

http://feedthedatamonster.com/home/2014/7/11/how-fungi-saved...

The period of time is called carboniferous and it's the time where all the coal we use today was created.

> Using a class of enyzmes called peroxidases, the fungus bombarded the wood with highly reactive oxygen molecules, in much the same way one might untie a knot using a flamethrower. This strategy reduced the wood to a carbohydrate-rich slurry from which the fungus could slurp up the edible cellulose.

>in much the same way one might untie a knot using a flamethrower.

I find the fact that the speed is mismatched by many orders of magnitude to be amusing. It's like comparing the formation of a mountain range to a car crash.

On geological scale there's not a big difference -- the continents skitter around the surface of the earth like drops of water on a hot skillet.

is this why we have petrified wood?

basically a dup of https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19672514

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