I’ve wondered how far out we are from microorganisms and insects adapting to remove one of the biggest utilities of plastics, their durability. Crazy to think it’s taking less than a century for these organisms to begin to adapt.

[–] shalafi@lemmy.world 23 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Might have been even faster if world insect populations weren't crashing.

[–] sorghum@sh.itjust.works 17 points 6 days ago (1 children)

You could also draw a conclusion that plastic eating insects are evolving faster because of less competition and abundant plastic. It's amazing how life can be both fragile and resilient at the same time

[–] PhilipTheBucket@ponder.cat 16 points 6 days ago

Life is incredibly resilient. It’s been through way worse than us and it’s done fine.

The right conditions for any single species to keep existing in a safe and comfortable place, like the friendly green-blue paradise we were born on, are heartbreakingly fragile.

[–] Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz 4 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I expected to see microbes here first. Insects have a slower reproduction cycle, so evolution should take longer.

[–] LwL@lemmy.world 4 points 5 days ago

Well, it's the gut bacteria of those insects doing the breaking down, so it is still microbes. Just microbes hosted by worms.

[–] MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml 3 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

There are adapted ground bacteria in tar pits, eating tar.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tar_pit#Living_organisms

[–] SubArcticTundra@lemmy.ml 1 points 6 days ago

Yeah – I wasn't expecting nature to make plastics biodegradable sooner than we did.