A good part of my job is to read extremely concerning studies in order to compose cross-sectional view of What's At Stake and work out ways to engage stakeholders This is, without hyperbole, the most concerning thing I have read in a long time www.scientificamerican.com/article/micr... - ThreadSky

patrickgaley.bsky.social • 17 days ago

A good part of my job is to read extremely concerning studies in order to compose cross-sectional view of What's At Stake and work out ways to engage stakeholders

This is, without hyperbole, the most concerning thing I have read in a long time https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/microplastic-pollution-is-messing-with-photosynthesis-in-plants/

Comments

sanejane.bsky.social•17 days ago

This is absolutely terrifying.

spacedentist.bsky.social•17 days ago

Add fucking the atmosphere, we're on our way to famine to add to the incoming war and pestilence.

dendromecon.bsky.social•16 days ago

The most alarming part: “2 to 12 percent in marine plants such as seaweed and 4 to 14 percent in freshwater algae.“
Seaweed is algae. If phytoplankton is similarly affected… zounds.

phoebebarnard.bsky.social•16 days ago

@dpcarrington.bsky.social

persephone52.bsky.social•16 days ago

At least I'm not the only one 😅😩

alanf.bsky.social•17 days ago

The paper itself, excluding the abstract, is behind a paywall. I'd love to know what exactly they did to come to this remarkable prediction as the abstract itself is extremely vague.

arsita.bsky.social•17 days ago

Weird, I don’t subscribe to that publication but for some reason I’m not getting a pay wall

caravellin.bsky.social•17 days ago

They're likely referring to the scientific paper itself, not the magazine article based on it.

caravellin.bsky.social•17 days ago

Can confirm, I also have access to the full magazine article but:

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2423957122

https://sci-hub.se, my usual go-to, doesn't have it yet.

caravellin.bsky.social•17 days ago

Was PNAS always paywalled like that? I can't tell if I remember different or if those memories date to back when I had a very good university account lol

arsita.bsky.social•17 days ago

Yeah I clicked on the link within the link and didn’t hit a paywall.

caravellin.bsky.social•17 days ago

Then you either have access to PNAS (university student?) or you're talking about the abstract.

alanf.bsky.social•17 days ago

The abstract really isn't useful if you want to find out what they actually did and what assumptions they made.

donmurf.bsky.social•17 days ago

Sadly, this study will have all its funding cut because… doge…🤬

leeincapetown.bsky.social•17 days ago

📌

knewearth.bsky.social•17 days ago

📌

wohinjetzt.bsky.social•17 days ago

📌

durruticalm.bsky.social•17 days ago

just when I was feeling slightly more optimistic, thanks for bringing me back down 😅

onemaktub.bsky.social•17 days ago

Oh, so that’s how humans will die, we kill all the plants.

luisalisferrer.bsky.social•17 days ago

This needs to be the "ozone layer" moment with microplastics.

dataarchitect.bsky.social•17 days ago

Alot of people would like a job like that

arsita.bsky.social•17 days ago

As an organic veggie farmer this is very interesting and concerning. We’re always trying to find ways to use less plastic. Straw is getting more expensive and is more time consuming to lay out. And that fake plastic made from corn doesn’t stretch well/rips easily

thalysbar.bsky.social•17 days ago

I got to visit the organic farm I receive my weekly veggies from. Was surprised by the amount of plastic used instead of straw and disgusted by the amount of old plastic mixed with the soil. Didn't feel organic...

arsita.bsky.social•17 days ago

It could have been that fake plastic mulch made out of corn, which biodegrades back into the soil. But likely it was plastic! They look very similar

moviefanforever.bsky.social•17 days ago

Literally the plot of Idiocracy

asiegel.bsky.social•17 days ago

Watching/ suffering the Musk-Trump Cabal’s wrecking machine is filling life with “oh shit” moments. I/we really didn’t need another. 😢

Honestly, thank you for calling attention to (yet) another horrendous implication of our fossil-foolish plastics’ addiction.

timward2014.bsky.social•17 days ago

📌

remonalisa.bsky.social•17 days ago

📌

gspeng.bsky.social•17 days ago

What is the mechanism? Air or water or both?

theapplefarmer.bsky.social•17 days ago

The underlying paper referred to is a meta-anslysis. It is highly flawed in my opinion, having gone back and read some of the papers it is drawing data from, as, among other errors, nano plastics are equated with microplastics. Having said that, plastic is a scourge on the living World.

gspeng.bsky.social•17 days ago

I read the unpaywalled abstract, keyed on “meta analysis”, and decided it wasn’t worth emailing authors for a pdf. I want to understand the causal mechanism. This is a start of further investigation, but I will wait for more research.
Same. Reduce/eliminate plastics

theapplefarmer.bsky.social•17 days ago

Causal mechanism in the papers I read was spraying nanoplastics at unrealisticlly high concentrations onto leaves of plants, and looking at growth characteristics way before maturity. On the other hand, those nanoplastics did get into cells, and seriously inhibited function of photosystems.

gspeng.bsky.social•17 days ago

I live downwind of the intersection of 2 arterials with 40,000 vehicles/day on each. I am much more worried about tire nanoparticles than plastic straws

theapplefarmer.bsky.social•17 days ago

Not an ideal situation.

cowbwz4793.bsky.social•17 days ago

Couple of years ago I started to notice that bags of peat-free compost were filled with microplastics - much of it was flakes of plastic facing off fibreboard, but lots of soft plastic shreds as well. So please be vigilant, & complain to manufacturer if post-consumer waste compost has microplastics.

phoebebarnard.bsky.social•16 days ago

Me, too - this has become haphazard and a matter of convenience and profit over wisdom

cowbwz4793.bsky.social•16 days ago

Yes, I despair at the way 'business opportunities' spring up around the guise of reducing harm to the environment & climate, without anybody (Govts, industry regulators) thinking of the consequences - & most consumers are too preoccupied with other things to be concerned about making ethical choices

phoebebarnard.bsky.social•16 days ago

And that... is where civilizational shift comes in... 😎

ethanmerrill.bsky.social•17 days ago

Plastic: it's what the plants crave

tristansonline.bsky.social•17 days ago

📌

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