IAMKOREA posted:

Oh yeah the switch to plastic tea bags done in secret is absolutely loving insane. Imagine all the microplastics people are drinking and making GBS threads out from that. I got in an argument with my father in law about not giving my daughter tea from plastic tea bags, he simply could not believe that something so insane could exist and thought I was being dramatic, until he took a lighter to one and realized it was indeed made of plastic. He threw out all of their tea after that lol.

Car Hater posted:

No more ice!
Twice as nice!

gently caress COREY PERRY posted:

I had been mildly wondering if the cheap tea I get from the Chinese grocery store was plastic, I'll have to burn a bag later and find out

mediaphage posted:

if it ends up being a problem, bulk tea isn't really that expensive and there are plenty of paper bags to spoon it into. it's only fractionally more of a pain to use

endlessmonotony posted:

Or you can use a metal tea holder and skip the paper bags entirely?

TeenageArchipelago posted:

No, More Ice!

Prophet of Nixon posted:

I was kind of looking at the "finger lake" area of New York... regarding Nova Scotia, how hard is it to get Canadian citizenship?

Ihmemies posted:

Aren't tea bags lined with plastics since the 40's? When macines close the bag at the factory, the bags the plastic liner melts from heat and thus keeps the bag closed. You can perhaps observe that with your own tea bags too.

Ihmemies posted:

Aren't tea bags lined with plastics since the 40's? When macines close the bag at the factory, the bags the plastic liner melts from heat and thus keeps the bag closed. You can perhaps observe that with your own tea bags too.

gently caress COREY PERRY posted:

I had been mildly wondering if the cheap tea I get from the Chinese grocery store was plastic, I'll have to burn a bag later and find out

Hexigrammus posted:

Waiting to find out my metal tea ball is made from a cadmium alloy.

SniperWoreConverse posted:

e: the bricks are compressed plastic now

SniperWoreConverse posted:

i dump my loose leafs into a ceramic pot and make tea without any added plastic or metal. There's 100% plastic in the packaging but at least i'm only getting nice wholesome natural cinnibar glaze from the pot

ikanreed posted:

Eventually bacteria will solve the plastic problem like they solved the carboniferous. It's only a few million years away

TehSaurus posted:

Hey why don't we just use machine learning to design bacteria that can break down the plastic now? What could possibly go wrong???

TehSaurus posted:

Hey why don't we just use machine learning to design bacteria that can break down the plastic now? What could possibly go wrong???

silicone thrills posted:

My favorite find in my dirt in my yard was plastic aquarium pieces that must have been thrown into the woods at least 25 years ago. Im like. Idk a block from a golf course and I also find a lot of golf balls. I'm making little shrines out of this poo poo cause like what the gently caress else can I do at this point?

quote:

The El Ejido region has been described by environmentalists as a "sea of plastic" due to the expansive swaths of land covered by greenhouses, and has also been labeled "Europe's dirty little secret" due to the documented abuses of workers who help produce large quantities of Europe's food supply.

quote:

Workers have complained of ill health effects as a result of exposure to pesticides without proper protective equipment.

quote:

Groundwater is being polluted with fertilisers and pesticides. Some 5200 tons of chemical waste is dumped into the area each year.
The local government has also banned drilling new water wells, but this is often ignored and new wells are drilled up to a depth of 2000 meters.

quote:

Some 30 000 tons of plastic waste is created each year, and in places where the soil has become infertile, the greenhouses are abandoned after shredding them. The plastic waste from the greenhouses is reported to run off into the Mediterranean Sea.

quote:

Research shows climate change may enable Alaska to grow more of its own food

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - Farmers in Alaska know that it can be hard to grow in the state’s climate, but as the climate rapidly warms in the far north, that could change.

Climate change could enable Alaska to grow more of its own food. Agriculture is one area in which climate change may actually bring some benefit to the state, but not without stumbling blocks and uncertainties.

Nancy Fresco, at the International Arctic Research Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, has worked with other scholars as well as farmers to begin investigating the state’s agricultural future.

“It’s not weird at all to say that there might be positive impacts and I think to some degree that might be why this particular study has drawn a lot of attention,” Fresco said. “Because people are very concerned about climate change, but they’re also interested to think about something where the change might be not entirely negative.”

What they’ve done is taken global climate change models, but downscaled them to the local level, followed by getting insights from farmers growing vegetables for local markets. The research suggests that planning for future decades may be crucial for keeping Alaska fed and economically stable.

According to the Alaska Food Policy Council, only 5% of the food consumed in Alaska is grown or raised here. That leaves Alaskans vulnerable to supply chain disruptions when even a single barge fails to arrive or one road is blocked, which is why growing food becomes increasingly important.

“There’s lots of room for expansion and I think not only do people like locally grown produce but people have become a bit more aware about what can happen when supply chains don’t come through,” Fresco explained.

The climate modeling the researchers performed “suggests a dramatically changing future for Alaska crops by 2100, with frost-free seasons extending not just by days, but by weeks or months,” Fresco wrote in an article detailing the work. The coldest winter days, the research found, could potentially become 10-15 degrees less extreme.

But an increase in warmer days could also lead to challenges farmers haven’t seen before. Janet Dinwiddie, the owner of Pioneer Peak Farm, said there’s a variety of concerns that come with a warmer farming season. One is the risk of new pests being introduced to farmlands when items are shipped to Alaska from the Lower 48.

“A lot of the variety that we pick to grow are specifically selected after years and years of research from us and others in this area that we know will do well up in here because of cooler temperatures or the shorter summers,” Dinwiddie said. “And so if we have a really hot summer there’s always a chance that either things will bolt quickly or they just don’t thrive much well because they were specifically planted as a cool weather-type crop."

Xaris posted:

bad news about the soil of alaska lol

Mola Yam posted:

found out about a new hell on earth today, thought it belonged here

what's that little white patch in the south of spain?


hm is that a city or something? it covers a huge area


oh it's all greenhouses


plastic tomato greenhouses


where "migrant workers" (slaves) work in 50C+ heat and live in plastic slums


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intensive_farming_in_Almer%C3%ADa







enjoy

ur

tomatoes

Hubbert posted:

millions of years from now, some poor plastic-eating creature will be trying to furously warn their brethen that their vast plastic stores are non-renewable resources, and that they should not squander the good fortune of this rich plastic earth

now if you excuse me, I have some styrofoam cup rims to chew

T-Paine posted:

^^^ drat I remember reading about that like ten years ago

gghgh
https://www.alaskasnewssource.com/2022/03/31/research-shows-climate-change-may-enable-alaska-grow-more-its-own-food/

AceClown posted:

AceClown posted: