I don't like plastic in the air any more than anyone else does, but<p>1) stop wearing those stupid fucking polyester hoodies (and other artificial fibers; aka your socks, gym shirts and underpants) -that's where most of it comes from. I'm looking at you, SF hacker nerds.<p>2) Even assuming the entire population of the Western US breathed all that plastic waste in and it was permanently deposited in the lungs:<p>1000e3 kg/ 100e6 people = 0.01kg or 10g plastic each person accumulated in their lungs. In a year. Pretty sure I have more shit in my lungs from being around diesel engines for a few days, or, like being around potheads.
We can legislate to stop producing it, or drastically reduce it. We did so with CFCs to stop destroying the ozone layer. The doomsayers weren't the scientists who predicted the problems, but those who said we'd lose refrigeration etc.<p>They were wrong. Legislation helped the ozone layer and society did fine. The same will happen if we legislate on plastic as we did on CFCs.
So are the chemicals we place on fields of food. Everything we're doing is toxic. We think the earth can support 7 or 8 billion people but in the current ways of doing things, it can probably only do so for another 100 years maximum.
Biodegradable plastic has been a thing since the late 70's.<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biodegradable_plastic" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biodegradable_plastic</a><p>My dad once showed me transparent cellulose-based plastic envelopes you could eat. They didn't taste like anything but were totally non-toxic. That was in the 80's.
What is the solution? Maybe massive taxes for manufacturing plastics for consumer uses? Just brainstorming here.<p>It seems like the incentives need to align somehow.
In some just universe, oil == pure evil. It's underground for a reason and poking a million painful needles into Mother Earth to suck it out and spew it into every biome is bound to have implications on our own health.<p>As above, so below.
"Rocky Mountain National Park, which had the greatest amount of microplastics among the national parks and wilderness areas in the study"<p>Surprised to see Colorado so affected.