New plastic pollution discovered: 'Plasticorals' coral rubble fused with plastic

ninininino

Plastic also visibly in rocks on the beach: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5UoVDxjG1g https://www.science.org/content/article/rocks-made-plastic-f... And invisibly in trees: https://www.waldwissen.net/en/forest-ecology/climate-and-env... Pick your favorite Disney movie, the beautiful nature in it is now infused with plastic.

bmk44

Reminds me of the classic George Carlin bit: "The planet will be here for a long, long, LONG time after we’re gone, and it will heal itself, it will cleanse itself, ’cause that’s what it does. It’s a self-correcting system. The air and the water will recover, the earth will be renewed. And if it’s true that plastic is not degradable, well, the planet will simply incorporate plastic into a new paradigm: the earth plus plastic. The earth doesn’t share our prejudice toward plastic. Plastic came out of the earth. The earth probably sees plastic as just another one of its children. Could be the only reason the earth allowed us to be spawned from it in the first place. It wanted plastic for itself. Didn’t know how to make it. Needed us. Could be the answer to our age-old egocentric philosophical question, “Why are we here?”

canadiantim

This has been known for decades already. In the historical records we'll be known as the plastic age

sharpshadow

In the cycle of life everything becomes a rock.

ah27182

I think its inevitable that something (either from humans or nature) will figure out how to digest plastic. Similar to the Devonian Wood Crisis.

nomel

> While more research is needed to determine the exact origin of plasticorals — one likely source is beach bonfires Considering the last picture they have is a bit of plastic (or wax), on top of some leaves , with burn marks, this seems like a logical conclusion.

kazinator

Plasticoral could be simulated to make a new man made craft material. Then when an artist becomes known for working it it a lot and takes a break, they can say, "I'm not doing anything in plasticoral at the moment".