Plastics were fantastic and would save the earth.  In the mid-1980's I worked in a grocery store where we asked customers would they prefer a paper bag or to save a tree and use plastic.  Now plastic is destroying the earth and killing everything it touches.  Interesting how things go in circles.

Even deep in caves.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/z3mw4x/scientists-found-microplastics-deep-inside-a-cave-closed-to-the-public-for-decades

And in the Mariana Trench.

https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/plastic-bag-found-bottom-worlds-deepest-ocean-trench/

 

Edited April 3, 20242 yr by martin-w

5 hours ago, stans said:

prefer a paper bag or to save a tree and use plastic.

The paper bags were healthier for my cats to play with, but I had one cat who would stick his head through the loop on a plastic bag and wear it around for a while.  He'd get upset if you took it off.  "Casey's being Supercat again."  He also used to dig through my son's toy box to find things to play with.  Yeah I miss him.

Hook

 

Paper is a renewable resource. In America, loggers must by law replant more threes than they cut down. Trees have been recycling themselves for what, a hundred thousand years? Plastic hangs around for almost forever.

I read a while back that micro plastics are present in most human blood samples being tested. This in itself is very concerning.

So many microbeads are now used in cheap beauty products as exfoliants, and the waste water treatment doesn't always remove them so it ends up in the environment. A plastic bag is one thing but the microbeads is next level due to being undetectable, and the mass amounts now being produced. 

21 hours ago, Fielder said:

Paper is a renewable resource. In America, loggers must by law replant more threes than they cut down. Trees have been recycling themselves for what, a hundred thousand years? Plastic hangs around for almost forever.

 

The only issue with planting trees as you cut them down is that trees can take from 10 to 40 years to reach full maturity, dependent on the variety. 

A very minor issue in my opinion. Mother Earth has been using this nice long process for eons. She has blessed us with trees for our use.

2 hours ago, martin-w said:

The only issue with planting trees as you cut them down is that trees can take from 10 to 40 years to reach full maturity, dependent on the variety. 

As long as you have more than enough trees that it takes "10 to 40 years" to get back around to where you started, you'll never run out of trees.  There are plenty of trees.  Except on Easter Island, where they cut them all down.  And on Iceland, where apparently they never grew.  At least Easter Island has a program to replant the trees going on now.  You can even see this in MSFS.

If only there were a way to increase the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.  This would make the trees grow even better.

Hook

 

Edited April 4, 20242 yr by LHookins

Oh for the life of a lumberjack. Praising and cherishing each tree as you harvest it. All the while remaining highly skeptical of the alternatives which science provides. Like plastics.

Cue Monty Python Lumberjack Song.

o/`  Oh, I'm a lumberjack and I'm OK... o/`

Hook

13 minutes ago, LHookins said:

As long as you have more than enough trees that it takes "10 to 40 years" to get back around to where you started, you'll never run out of trees.  There are plenty of trees.  Except on Easter Island, where they cut them all down.  And on Iceland, where apparently they never grew.  At least Easter Island has a program to replant the trees going on now.  You can even see this in MSFS.

If only there were a way to increase the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.  This would make the trees grow even better.

Hook

 

 

Quote

The largest 1 per cent of trees contain half of all the carbon. This means that while young trees planted now will be important in the future, it will take them a long time to catch up with older forests' ability to store carbon

 

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-planting-trees-wont-solve-climate-crisis-gavin-mooney#:~:text=Planting trees will never be,forests' ability to store carbon.

Drifting into banned territory, so I'll leave it at that before we get told off.

15 minutes ago, LHookins said:

Cue Monty Python Lumberjack Song.

o/`  Oh, I'm a lumberjack and I'm OK... o/`

Hook

Such a jolly crew they were. Listening to them sing was good for the soul.