Soggy Muffin posted:

I think micro plastics are more of a “gently caress you, eat this” to whatever comes after us. They are suspected to be behind our ever increasing infertility, which may be a blessing in disguise

Unless posted:

https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/150070/almerias-sea-of-greenhouses

Almería’s surface albedo increased by nearly 10 percent between 1983 and 2006 because of the high reflectivity of the greenhouses. They concluded this likely contributed to a cooling effect of 0.3°C (0.5°F) per decade in Almería compared to a 0.5°C increase per decade in the region.

uguu posted:

But I'm spending too much time here. Thank you, please.

Perry Mason Jar posted:

Came here to post this and lmfaooo

Context so this gets more love:

https://twitter.com/LeonSimons8/status/1682089465890611213?s=20

Soggy Muffin posted:

I think micro plastics are more of a “gently caress you, eat this” to whatever comes after us. They are suspected to be behind our ever increasing infertility, which may be a blessing in disguise

Xaris posted:

have you been outside?? it's a furnace and everyone is cosplaying michael douglas from Falling Down on their neighbors rn

stay inside where it's nice and cool. what freak would want to go outside at a time like this

i suggest you rescind immediately

toggle posted:

which country will collapse first?

Soggy Muffin posted:

Haiti and Somalia and a bunch others basically already have. Without outside support and aid they’d be a total blood bath. Haiti especially is rough right now, with citizens lynching thieves and gangsters in the street becoming a popular past time

toggle posted:

and i assume every country will eventually go the same way?

biceps crimes posted:

but what if we dropped a bunch of tires and cinder blocks in the area after we mine it?

Soggy Muffin posted:

No country will be alike, some may fare better as they slowly crumble, others may implode violently if there’s no functioning government or supply chain. Haiti has all of that as well as famine going on. Gangs are fighting in the power vacuum and regular people are fed up and lynching them in the streets. We can look at Haiti as an example of sudden collapse, but it could be a lot worse if grid goes down. Absolute chaos

Zeta Taskforce posted:

In order to mine an amount that would matter it would mean disturbing an absolute massive area, and marine life is destroyed not only in the immediate mined area but also a significant distance away.

Car Hater posted:

What is marine life going to do for me, the shareholder?

Cuttlefush posted:

gonna need a picture of the cat food and probably a replication experiment. cat food bleaching sounds pretty serious

randomly looked for some wild colored cat food and found some of the most chilling ad copy ive ever seen.

https://sensientfoodcolors.com/en-za/market-trends/three-ways-to-win-pet-owners-over-through-color/

toggle posted:

which country will collapse first?

Shifty Nipples posted:

lol i thought they were talking about dyed fish food

Unless posted:

bonus update for the “economic activity occurs primarily indoors” crowd



https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/20/climate/how-extreme-heat-affects-workers-and-the-economy.html

toggle posted:

which country will collapse first?

The Voice of Labor posted:

the entire white world has been trying to destroy haiti for 200 years. I wouldn't call lovely material conditions there sudden

Dog Case posted:

I went out and rode my bike today. It's a pleasant 70°f with a cool breeze off the water.
Coasting past the quarter mile of cars stopped at a light and then cruising through the intersection right as the light changed was fun too

Perry Mason Jar posted:

Came here to post this and lmfaooo

Context so this gets more love:

https://twitter.com/LeonSimons8/status/1682089465890611213?s=20

Honky Mao posted:

Guarantee you it's not going any higher than that. It can't.

Danru posted:

Honky Mao posted:

Guarantee you it's not going any higher than that. It can't.

toggle posted:

which country will collapse first?

Unless posted:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jul/20/air-conditioning-heatwaves-lifesaving-expensive

“incredible content”

Perry Mason Jar posted:

Came here to post this and lmfaooo

Context so this gets more love:

https://twitter.com/LeonSimons8/status/1682089465890611213?s=20

Cuttlefush posted:

lol imagine being the product of evolutionary algorithms. end up with backwards eyes or some poo poo because lol gently caress it it works next



"im, er, a normal radar"

quote:

A recently discovered ice core taken from beneath Greenland’s ice sheet decades ago has revealed that a large part of the country was ice-free around 400,000 years ago, when temperatures were similar to those the world is approaching now, according to a new report – an alarming finding that could have disastrous implications for sea level rise.

The study overturns previous assumptions that most of Greenland’s ice sheet has been frozen for millions of years, the authors said. Instead, moderate, natural warming led to large-scale melting and sea level rise of more than 1.4 meters (4.6 feet), according to the report published Thursday in the journal Science.

..

Levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are 1.5 times higher now than they were 400,000 years ago, and global temperatures keep climbing.

..

Jason Box, professor in glaciology at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland who was also not involved in the study, said the results could force a reevaluation of established thinking.

“The current greenhouse gas emission-driven warming may reduce the Greenland ice sheet faster than forecast,” he told CNN.

news.unl.edu posted:

The fastest way to heat food and drink might also rank as the fastest route to ingesting massive quantities of minuscule plastic particles, says new research from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.

Experiments have shown that microwaving plastic baby food containers available on the shelves of U.S. stores can release huge numbers of plastic particles — in some cases, more than 2 billion nanoplastics and 4 million microplastics for every square centimeter of container.

Though the health effects of consuming micro- and nanoplastics remain unclear, the Nebraska team further found that three-quarters of cultured embryonic kidney cells had died after two days of being introduced to those same particles. A 2022 report from the World Health Organization recommended limiting exposure to such particles.

“It is really important to know how many micro- and nanoplastics we are taking in,” said Kazi Albab Hussain, the study’s lead author and a doctoral student in civil and environmental engineering at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. “When we eat specific foods, we are generally informed or have an idea about their caloric content, sugar levels, other nutrients. I believe it’s equally important that we are aware of the number of plastic particles present in our food.

“Just as we understand the impact of calories and nutrients on our health, knowing the extent of plastic particle ingestion is crucial in understanding the potential harm they may cause. Many studies, including ours, are demonstrating that the toxicity of micro- and nanoplastics is highly linked to the level of exposure.”

The team embarked on its study in 2021, the same year that Hussain became a father. While prior research had investigated the release of plastic particles from baby bottles, the team realized that no studies had examined the sorts of plastic containers and pouches that Hussain found himself shopping for, and that millions of other parents regularly do, too.

Hussain and his colleagues decided to conduct experiments with two baby food containers made from polypropylene and a reusable pouch made of polyethylene, both plastics approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. In one experiment, the researchers filled the containers with either deionized water or 3% acetic acid — the latter intended to simulate dairy products, fruits, vegetables and other relatively acidic consumables — then heated them at full power for three minutes in a 1,000-watt microwave. Afterward, they analyzed the liquids for evidence of micro- and nanoplastics: the micro being particles at least 1/1,000th of a millimeter in diameter, the nano any particles smaller.

The actual number of each particle released by the microwaving depended on multiple factors, including the plastic container and the liquid within it. But based on a model that factored in particle release, body weight, and per-capita ingestion of various food and drink, the team estimated that infants drinking products with microwaved water and toddlers consuming microwaved dairy products are taking in the greatest relative concentrations of plastic. Experiments designed to simulate the refrigeration and room-temperature storage of food or drink over a six-month span also suggested that both could lead to the release of micro- and nanoplastics.

“For my baby, I was unable to completely avoid the use of plastic,” Hussain said. “But I was able to avoid those (scenarios) which were causing more of the release of micro- and nanoplastics. People also deserve to know those, and they should choose wisely.”

With the help of Svetlana Romanova from the University of Nebraska Medical Center, the team then cultured and exposed embryonic kidney cells to the actual plastic particles released from the containers — a first, as far as Hussain can tell. Rather than introduce just the number of particles released by one container, the researchers instead exposed the cells to particle concentrations that infants and toddlers might accumulate over days or from multiple sources.

After two days, just 23% of kidney cells exposed to the highest concentrations had managed to survive — a much higher mortality rate than that observed in earlier studies of micro- and nanoplastic toxicity. The team suspects that kidney cells might be more susceptible to the particles than are other cell types examined in prior research. But those earlier studies also tended to examine the effects of larger polypropylene particles, some of them potentially too large to penetrate cells. If so, the Hussain-led study could prove especially sobering: Regardless of its experimental conditions, the Husker team found that polypropylene containers and polyethylene pouches generally release about 1,000 times more nanoplastics than microplastics.

The question of cell infiltration is just one among many that will require answers, Hussain said, before determining the true risks of consuming micro- and nanoplastics. But to the extent that they do pose a health threat — and that plastics remain a go-to for baby food storage — parents would have a vested interest in seeing that the companies manufacturing plastic containers seek out viable alternatives, he said.

“We need to find the polymers which release fewer (particles),” Hussain said. “Probably, researchers will be able to develop plastics that do not release any micro- or nanoplastics — or, if they do, the release would be negligible.

“I am hopeful that a day will come when these products display labels that read ‘microplastics-free’ or ‘nanoplastics-free.’”

The team reported its findings in the journal Environmental Science & Technology. Hussain and Romanova authored the study with the University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s Yusong Li, Mathias Schubert, Yongfeng Lu, Lucía Fernández-Ballester, Bing Wang, Xi Huang, Jesse Kuebler, Dong Zhang and Ilhami Okur. The researchers received support from the National Science Foundation and the Buffett Early Childhood Institute.

The Demilich posted:

I wonder how many microplastics are released with the flash frozen veggie bags that steam when you microwave them for 5 minutes.

Cuttlefush posted:

i mean i guess some people just feed whatever food to whatever animal like there aren't rules so sure

The Demilich posted:

I wonder how many microplastics are released with the flash frozen veggie bags that steam when you microwave them for 5 minutes.