Unchecked Inconsistencies

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Fun guy chillin’ in South American rainforest finds plastic-eating fungi

Seriously, though this is kind of a big deal. Know that big problem we have? You know, the one involving a crapload of used plastic hanging around in landfills with nowhere to biodegrade for a couple million years? Well, Jonathan Russell might’ve solved that problem. See, Russell and his fellow Yale students went to Ecuador, where they found a new kind of fungus they’re calling Pestalotiopsis microspora. Big deal, you’re thinking. Anyone can find fungus anywhere! Well, something his fellow students found out after the fact is that this fungus can live on a diet of polyurethane alone — and even crazier, it doesn’t even need air to do so! In other words, we could potentially put it at the bottom of a landfill and cover it with plastic, and it would do the rest of the work. This might be game-changing if it works as advertised. (photo via Flickr user dbutt; EDIT: Updated with link to research abstract) source

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this is really cool

WHOA WHOA WHOA WHOA WHOA????

Hm, I will have to keep an eye on this.  This is awesome, but also could get out of hand easily.  Every time people try to “naturally” fix something they fucked up, it usually gets worse.

50 years from now, this fungus will devour the planet.  Just watch.

I’d think you’d be safe as long as you’re not made of plastic ;)

I think the greater danger would be allowing us to become complacent and neglecting other aspects of waste management because “eh, the fungi will take care of it!”

Well, that was more a less a joke there, but mostly what I’m talking about is some kind of ecological imbalance.

Throughout history we have caused ourselves so many problems by bringing in something natural from another place to take care of a problem we created.  Like bringing various kinds of predators to take care of a pest brought on by destruction of habitat.  Then, as soon as the other pest is taken care of, the predator then becomes a pest because they were taken out of their own ecosystem and therefore have nothing above them on the food chain in this new environment.  Like Cane Toads.  Basically what I’m worried about is that we will bring in this new kind of fungus and it will end up being resistant to something or poisonous to something local and cause more problems than what it was originally brought in to fix. 

But Alicia. Cane Toads brought about one of the best movies on the planet, namely, Cane Toads: An Unnatural History.