Don’t feed the fish: Re-engineering textile microfibers to prevent 190 million tonnes / yr of plastic marine pollution
Why I am so concerned about the state of the world.
I am worried and very concerned, yes. My background is originally materials science.
From my perspective, the problem is that there is an environmental cost to every single material that you buy — be it gold, cotton, steel, or whatever. People forget that. The economy may benefit from materialism, but the environment certainly doesn’t.
Now, keep in mind that when I did my degree over 15 years ago, the ‘environment’ wasn’t even really discussed in that course. It was all about the properties and structure of materials.
First off, there is a lot of energy required to make materials. So if the country of manufacture uses coal power to generate their electricity, and they are not offsetting those emissions, then whatever physical goods you buy from them is contributing further to climate change.
Why? Because almost all materials either require either energy, heat, or other chemicals (which, in turn, require heat) in order to produce them. That’s a bit of a worry in itself. Because people are generally becoming more materialistic.
So for instance, hunters that shoot animals and think that is a ‘sustainable’ way of life, well I have news for you. If your gun is made of plastic or metal, where does that come from? It all comes from mines. And plastic comes from oil&gas. And your bullets. What are they made from? That too comes from mines. And the gunpowder contains chemicals like sulfur and potassium. And they have to come from somewhere too. And mines don’t last forever…
Currently, the manufacture of every single synthetic material results in carbon emissions somewhere along the line, if only from the energy that is required to create them. I think the correct term is “embodied energy”. [Read more…]
Why I love books and hate iPads.
I don’t own an ipad. I never have. And I never will. And I’d like to share with you why that is…
Why? Because I’d rather read a book, that’s why. A book doesn’t need batteries, and –if anything– supports the growth of forests, which in turn is providing oxygen to our Earth’s atmosphere [as opposed to mining and extraction industries, which are needed to make an ipad].
I’m not so sure that “virtualising everything” is better for the environment. Is it? I choose not to own an ipad/kindle. I buy real, physical books instead. Partly because I believe that keeping books is better for the environment. Partly because I still like to read real books. Yes they are made with paper.
When the tree is growing, it is giving us oxygen and taking CO2 out of the air. It is life-giving. Can the same be said of metal extraction, electronic component manufacture & final assembly? No.
Yes books require physical transport. But they don’t require a supply of electricity. They don’t require me to keep an additional device (and subsequent replacement devices that supercede the original ones).
Books don’t require continual minining + extraction of all the elements, chemicals and compounds that go into manufacturing electronics.
A book is biodegradeable and compostable. In that sense it is *completely* recycleable. Worms and other insects will willingly eat books. For free. They will organise themselves. They will even eat around any of the plastic parts they don’t want. And their crap can eventually be used to make more books.
So once I am finished with a book, even if I can’t resell it, I can always burn it or compost it. What is really the liklihood of us making biodegradeable or compostable electronic devices? We are a long way from that; the way we are making them now is not at all sustainable. To my knowledge, we do not recover any of the elements from a circuit board other than gold. That right there is very wasteful. So right now I try to avoid all electronic devices like the black plague…
A book costs less than a meal. You could even eat the pages of a book if you wanted to. You can’t really do that with electronics because they are too toxic… *many* of the organic chemicals used in plastics manufacture are carcinogenic.
A book already has a 300dpi interface. A book doesn’t require batteries. A book doesn’t go obsolete. You can pick up a book several hundred years after it was put on a shelf and start reading. Will you be able to do that with your ipad?
Books don’t have start-up and no shut-down delays. You just… open and close the cover. It’s a physical thing that you can touch.
And as for ipads vs desktops vs laptops, I do my [real] work sitting at a desk. Why would I want to use a *smaller* screen? Why? Why would I want to use something that is *slower*? Why would I want to use something that can’t handle half of my software? Why would I want to use something with a smaller keypad (or no keyboard at all)? Something that cranes my neck every time I look down at it? Ditto for laptops replacing desktops.
And that’s great. Microsoft has invented a computer the size of a pack of gum. Fantastic! But seriously, I’d rather go for a nice long walk [yes without the earphones I might add] rather than sit in front of yet another screen… Because sometimes it is nice to disconnect completely.
What does this materials scientist think about all this plastic?
Today I’d like to talk about plastic and terrorism. Yes plastic and terrorism.
First of all, the proper term for ‘plastic‘ is ‘polymer‘. It’s not supposed to be called plastic, the correct term is polymer. Ther word polymer describes the material; the word plastic describes a physical property (and not all polymers are plastic, so its technically wrong).
Don’t get me wrong, plastic itself is not a ‘bad’ material. It’s just blatantly overused. One of the reasons why it is used is because of it’s properties. It’s electrically insulating for one thing, which is good for wiring. Otherwise, what would we use?
It’s also very cheap. And that’s another reason that it is blatantly overused. Well you know what I think? I think we need some form of “plastic control”. What makes me say that?
Well much ilke Chris Rock said “if a bullet cost five thousand dollars, there’d be no more innocent bystanders”. Well if a plastic bottle top cost five thousand dollars, there’d be no more innocent victims of plastic pollution!
I do not think companies should even be allowed to make everything they choose out of polymers. So right now there is no plastic control at all. Anyone can make anything of plastic that they want. And I think it’s about time their should be restrictions on its use. In all industries.
Take coffee capsules and disposable plastic cups for instance. I do not think that they should even be produced at all.
Do you know what they are using at the wellbeing clinic in Caringbah? Disposable plastic cups. And I’m damn sure that they are used in offices all around the country. Well that has got to stop!
And now to talking about terrorism:
[Read more…]
Development is not progress
I believe we cannot save the world by simply buying things all the time.
Even if we all bought 100% eco things 100% of the time instead of the plastic crap that everyone buys today, they are still ultimately things and it will mean that the demand for timber and other eco fibres will go up further, leading to further deforestation elsewhere (more plantations of whatever crop, be it corn for renewable plastic, bamboo or hemp for fibres, etc).
Personally I think the only real ‘solution’ for the entire human civilisation is … to do nothing. And by that I don’t mean “don’t change”. I literally mean: do nothing. For people to simply work less. Work a four day week. Work a four hour week.
We should be more like the Aborigines! We should look up to the Aborigines! The original (and best) custodians of this land.
More sleep and more meditation. That’s the only hope for humanity, for people to be more mindful. And that is the best that I can think of (after several years of thinking I might add).
And I can tell you first hand that it’s very hard to live with less, because we have all been brainwashed with “more more more”.
Of course it’s a huge problem because half the global economy is based on blatant overconsumption. I think one of the best things I ever did was to live in Spain — it taught me to be happier with much less.
I’m not saying we shouldn’t all try to be more eco, but what I am promoting these days is simply minimalism. So I would rather buy a wooden broom than have a vacuum cleaner (for example). Because I see the broom as being much less wasteful over the long term.
Unfortunately, when you begin to look at where all of our starting chemicals come from, the industrial processes used to get them, and where everything else is mined from, you realise how big the problem is.
People don’t want mines in their own backyard. And so the ONLY other place to get them is the natural spaces that are left. That is a very big problem. If only because “accidents happen”.
From my point of view as a former materials scientist, I find that life is so special, we should be fighting for every shred of biodiversity on this planet. We couldn’t even hope to artificially make anything like near as complicated as a fly or a worm from first principles using artificial methods (without cheating using genetic engineering etc).