Plastic Eating Fungus Discovered in Amazon


The question of Plastic is quite bothersome for most of us as there seems to be little that can be done about seeing the extent of trash is being strewn around everyday in the name of progress and globalization. This is anything but growth made in the right direction. We continue to take from the Earth with little or no regard for we are giving back, in most cases its garbage and toxic pollutants that might take a while for the Earth to clean up on its own. This way of life is surely doomed and we are quite steadily marching on towards an end of times scenario when the Earth can take no more and decides to clean up the scum from the Planet, which sadly might include us unless we decide to change our ways.

Plastic and all other artificial chemicals as they are popularly known as are all finally from this biosphere we call Planet Earth and the Earth knows best how to deal with itself. We live under the delusion of being in charge of all life forms on Gaia, when the truth is that we too are one of its living, breathing, functioning cells .... seeing itself from human eyes ! Plastics are a by product of the Oil and Gas Industry and by bringing in cleaner and more sustainable forms of energy we will automatically start phasing out plastics. Broadly categorized as Free Energy, there are many kinds of free energy devices that have the potential to power the entire world without burning any fossil fuels. Nikola Tesla's Wardenclyffe Tower is one such example of Free Energy technology suppressed for personal monetary gain by a few greedy men.


With pollution levels rising to alarming heights many people are now seriously taking a look at the garbage problem at hand and what can be done about it. Something each one of us can do is start segregating our garbage into wet waste, dry waste and plastics. This is our home and it is up to us to keep it clean. Let's leave our future generations something beautiful and life affirming rather than dying oceans and islands of plastic. Thankfully there are new ways being discovered to deal with Plastic. Plastic eating Fungus in the Amazon Rainforest and other such Plastic Remediation tools devised to deal with the Garbage problem are some examples of solutions to the growing Plastic problem.


An expedition to the Amazon by a group of Yale researchers has led to the discovery of a fungus called "Pestalotiopsis Microspora" which can survive on a diet of only polyurethane, one of the most common pollutant from industrial plastics used by humans. What's even more amazing is that the plastic eating fungus can feast on polyurethane in an anaerobic (oxygen-free) environment - the perfect match for chowing down on trash at the bottom of a landfill.

19-year-old Boyan Slat, an Aerospace Engineering student at TU Delft came up with this brilliant idea to clean up the oceans ! Slat's design came out of a school paper about the possibility of remediation of the ocean garbage patches, which went on to win numerous accolades, including Best Technical Design 2012 at the Delft University of Technology. He developed the concept even further that year, and presented it at TedXDelft 2012.




Some more videos highlighting the extent of garbage pollution on our planet !





Here is the trailer from Trashed ...


We must stop producing more plastic on this planet, while continue to recycle and reuse the plastic that already exists. If we can seriously look to cleaner fuel / energy sources we will start to bring back some harmony into the ecosystem.


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