Hello all! Thank you for reading this week’s Sunday Post. As we discussed plastic pollution last week, we have picked plastic alternatives as the topic for this week. We found 4 articles about this topic in the last four weeks. The idea of a biodegradable plastic made from organic materials is not new, but it is interesting to check in periodically to see how the field has evolved. To be clear, all of the research we have been looking have only been produced in a lab and are, as far as we are aware, not viable for commercial or wide scale use. This is only a peek at upcoming technology! Unfortunately, that still means society will be dependent on non-degradable plastic produced from fossil fuels for the foreseeable future, though if the switch to biodegradable plastics did happen, we might see all of these technologies being used.
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Hello all! Thank you for reading this week’s Sunday post. We decided to talk about how plastic pollution is affecting human health, from its production to after its disposal. Getting rid of plastics permanently is difficult. Their decomposition time is thousands of years long, and they often splinter into smaller and smaller pieces, scattering to the tops of mountains and bottoms of oceanic trenches. Recycling is difficult because most countries lack the infrastructure to process it, and many products consist of different plastics mixed together. Plastic is so pervasive it is impossible to avoid it at all. But how exactly is it hurting humanity?First, plastic is a byproduct of oil production. As long as fossil fuels remain the dominant source of energy, plastic production will remain easy and convenient. Fossil fuel production releases toxic air and water pollutants that disproportionately affect minority and poor communities, causing abnormally high rates of cancer and other diseases. Then, as plastic is exported to low-income countries and allowed to fester in giant landfills, exposing the local people to toxins and unsanitary conditions. But the main reason we picked this topic is a recent discussion on how plastic pollution may be affecting male fertility. Epidemiologist Shanna Swan recently released “Count Down”, which discusses how all kinds of chemicals can disrupt the endocrine system from babies to adults. We discussed this with frogs previously, but we really want to focus on how there are too many chemicals for any person to keep track of. Scientists are only now figuring out how these chemicals are affecting humans, but by the time they truly understand, the consequences may be irreversible. Swan finds sperm are becoming deformed, incapable of swimming and carrying damaged DNA. Testosterone levels have dropped 1% per year since 1982, increasing rates of erectile dysfunction in men under 40. In women, miscarriage rates have increased 1% per year over roughly the same period. Fertility rates will only continue to drop, necessitating strict regulation to prohibit the most toxic chemicals when there is any cause for doubt.
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March 2019
"There is nothing in which the birds differ more than man than the way that they can build and yet leave the landscape as it was before." |