I have thought for a long time that evolution has no answer to plastics.

[Rustynaerduwell]

My daughter is now thirty two years old. We avoided plastics of all kinds while she was growing, both in and out of the womb. Glass bottles, cloth diapers. At the time you could still get milk and juices in glass, and not plastic, bottles. We did. Our families thought we were crazy.

Two facts made me distrust plastic. First, plastics don't degrade. Second, we have evolved due primarily to environmental forces.

I believed then that evolution could not prepare us- our biology- for the amount of plastic our environment was about to absorb. We have introduced, I thought, an indestructible environmental force into our systems. I didn't know how, but I knew this can't be good.

And now it seems to me that evolution has responded to plastic by ignoring it, allowing it to take up space everywhere water can get to: in fish, in most protein sources and, I assume, among the cells of our bodies.

This can't be good.

[dweller]

1. I remember reading last year or so

Rainwater all over the world no longer safe to drink … due to pfas
All over the world
No longer safe to drink

When I told someone, they remarked : I don’t drink rainwater
😳

How stupid some ppl are




✌🏻

[Voltaire2]

2. evolution is fairly slow process in complex life forms

Also evolution doesn't ignore or pay attention to anything, it is a process not an agent.

Species either adapt to existential environmental threats or they go extinct. The ubiquitous diffusion of environmental plastics will undoubtedly result in adaptive changes in plants and animals.

[Rustynaerduwell]

3. The idea of plastics in my brain...

scares me.

Not sure why?

[Shermann]

4. The news a while back that plastic recycling contributes to microplastics in the water rattled me a bit.

Sooooooo we can't recycle this crap without making the negative impacts even worse?

Technology doesn't have an answer either.

[Lulu KC]

5. Yes, we stopped recycling our plastic after learning more about that

It feels so wrong to throw it away, but what's the alternative? We buy as little as we can, but that's a small difference.