Precious

Photo courtesy of NASA

The world is changed. I feel it in the water. I feel it in the earth. I smell it in the air. Much that once was is lost, for none now live who remember it.  [Spoken by Galadriel in The Lord of the Rings. ]

The title “precious” is not meant as in the Lord of the Rings, an evil obsession with possession, ownership, control and power.  Rather I mean “an object, substance, or resource of great value; not to be wasted or treated carelessly”.  

Today Tolkien’s One Ring, which was lost and hidden underground for thousands of years until chanced upon by mortals, who were then consumed, makes me think about the strangeness of our history with fossil fuels and plastic.  

Plastics are made, not found, but according to Professor Plastic, most plastics can be made from the hydrocarbons that are readily available in natural gas, oil and coal. https://www.plasticsmakeitpossible.com/about-plastics/types-of-plastics/what-are-plastics/

We know about Climate Reality now and the problem with our having leapfrogged into our technological wonderland which by the way, I LOVE.  

Photo credit, Molly Smith: https://goo.gl/images/nDjCeH

And now we are invaded by plastic, made from those hydrocarbons formed deep in the [land of Mordor, in the fires of Mount Doom] underground by centuries of pressure upon ancient dinosaur bones, (hence “fossil fuels”).  Plankton contain plastic and it’s eaten up  the food chain from there.  When we eat sea salt or shellfish, we are consuming plastic. And it’s not just from the sea, landlubbers have the same risks. We now learn that plastic fibers are everywhere, in all of our drinking water, in the air, in us.  The US has the highest rate of contamination, with plastic fibers in 94% of drinking water samples; in Europe, 72% of water samples were found to be contaminated.  Our washing machines dump plastic fibers into the water and our clothes dryers blow fibers into the air.  When we drink beer, we are imbibing plastic.  

[The Guardian has a good series of articles this past week or so, quoted heavily in the science mags like Discover.  See for example, with links to related stories,

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/sep/06/plastic-fibres-found-tap-water-around-world-study-reveals;

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/sep/06/we-are-living-on-a-plastic-planet-what-does-it-mean-for-our-health]

All this news reminds me of the 70’s movie Poltergeist.  Remember when all those weird things happen to the family and the punchline is, it’s caused by the greedy developers who built the suburban development on top of the ancient Indian burial ground.  That’s the creepy feeling I get about the hydrocarbons smothering us and the plastic poisoning us.  We have greedily disturbed the (dinosaur) bones without regard to the consequences.

It’s a good season to re-read Lord of the Rings, and see Poltergeist again.