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It is not the same logic at all. This is the science forum. Your insight contains no science whatsoever. Plastic does degrade slowly. There is a patch of trash floating around in the Pacific Ocean that is roughly the size of Texas. Apparently a large part of it is empty plastic bottles.
Plastic degrades slowly NOW. That is the CURRENT state. Extrapolating that the rate of decay will stay the same as it is NOW for millions of years isn't science. It isn't even guessing. It's just wrong. It assumes something (that the eco system will stay the same for millions of years) that science already KNOWS is wrong.
That's why it's like the baby example - in that case the calculation assumes something we know is wrong (that the baby's rate of growth will stay the same for 10 years), and in this case the calculations also assume something we know is wrong (that the rate of plastic decay will stay the same for millions of years).
FFS, it took less than 100 years to get organisms that can (start to) bio-degrade plastic. How do you imagine plastic will stay around for millions of years?
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[–] softdown 0 points 5 points 5 points (+5|-0) ago
It is not the same logic at all. This is the science forum. Your insight contains no science whatsoever. Plastic does degrade slowly. There is a patch of trash floating around in the Pacific Ocean that is roughly the size of Texas. Apparently a large part of it is empty plastic bottles.
[–] Men13 1 point -1 points 0 points (+0|-1) ago
Plastic degrades slowly NOW. That is the CURRENT state. Extrapolating that the rate of decay will stay the same as it is NOW for millions of years isn't science. It isn't even guessing. It's just wrong. It assumes something (that the eco system will stay the same for millions of years) that science already KNOWS is wrong.
That's why it's like the baby example - in that case the calculation assumes something we know is wrong (that the baby's rate of growth will stay the same for 10 years), and in this case the calculations also assume something we know is wrong (that the rate of plastic decay will stay the same for millions of years).
FFS, it took less than 100 years to get organisms that can (start to) bio-degrade plastic. How do you imagine plastic will stay around for millions of years?
[–] Gigan 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
We still shouldn't pollute and fill the oceans with plastic, because it does have a very negative effect on the ecosystems that exist now.