I really want to see a dramatic movie trailer that starts for like it’s going to be a Michael Bay action thriller but then is just a cop losing his kind at acorns
“You fucked with squirrels, Morty! We’ve got a good five minutes before they’re back and up on our ass, Morty! We have to pack up and move to a new reality!”
As far as I know, silica doesn’t break down into toxic compounds with exposure to weathering, UV radiation and time like plastic does. Microplastic doesn’t just stay as it is
Not the right sub, but entirely the right person to be asking this question to.
Like with most soil things, the answer is a mix beteeen "it’s complicated’ and “we don’t know”. This may sound like a cop out, but soil science didn’t really take off until the 1940s (thanks Jenny), so it’s a very new science. On top of that you have multiple disciplines (biology, mineralogy, chemistry, physics, and pedology itself) that tie into soil. Soil itself also has substantial spatial heterogeneity.
Short answer: I don’t know.
**Long answer:**I don’t know, but I suspect it might be more labile in soil.
Here is why:
First thing to consider is the chemical and biological resistance of the plastic. Generally plastics are pretty stable to degradation, but plasticizers are more biologically active and can have all kinds of nasty effects.
Stability will ultimately be determined by feedstock (type of plastic) climatic factors, soil chemistry (primarily pH), organic matter content (high OM -> possibly broader soil Ecosystem -> more chance of some weird soil microbe being able to break things down), and particle size (smaller particles break down faster).
Given that soils have more microbial activity (which can generate weak humic acids too - see podzolification), particle size of the plastics are sand sized or less, and that soils are generally in the pH 5-7 range, it’s likely that they are more mobile and easily degraded versus inert sand. Whether this gets tied back up into soil organic matter is a whole other can of worms.
So yeah. Idk. I think so though.
If you’re comparing micro plastic to just sand in terms of stability - sand is far more stable.
Oh wow thanks for the detailed answer! I guess the most likely answer is that it probably will degrade over a long time span, and during that time negative effects could happen.
Correct. It’s a similar process to geochemical weathering of rocks, which can cause major issues in mining. In that case, the rocks often contain pyrite (sulphide minerals) which are fine if they aren’t exposed to oxygen. When you dig up the rock, though it starts a chain reaction which results in low pH leachate, which can then make metals mobile.
I believe it’s really just like silicate sand. The problem with microplastics isn’t actually the plastics itself. Plastics itself is chemically inert and therefore non-toxic. The problems are:
Physical: larger junks can cause constipation of the digestive track, which is a problem for some sea animals.
Chemical: Plastics often have additives that give them special powers, like blocking UV-light. These additives are often toxic, unfortunately. This is why producers nowadays try to minimize the use of additives in plastics. But still, they are there.
The cop should’ve known that the correct response to an acorn is to edit together a misleading video that makes it look like the acorn is committing crimes.
Footage of a police shooting that occurred during November has came out. A cop detained a suspect who they believed to have a supressed gun, they cuff and search him finding no gun and put him in back of a police car. So the deputy was walking past the car when an acorn struck the car. He shouts "shots fired" and basically unloads on the car with the unarmed suspect while screaming he is hit. The other cops on the call also start unloading on the car and thankfully the person in the car was not hurt. So from the onset its a humorous story about a cop overreacting to a stimuli and we are only laughing because noone was killed in it (well I guess some people would still be laughing if it was deadly but probably less). The cop apparently was a vet, so this seems to be a case of PTSD and its not great that an officer was able to make it that far along while such a mundane stimuli was able to set them off possibly getting someone killed. Hopefully the officer in question gets the help they need but its clear they shouldn't be in that position at all if that is how they will react.
That's horrible, how can a vet with PTSD get a job where he is allowed to carry a gun? That's the worst idea. Might as well let him patrol a loud and hectic arcade.
Thank you for the elaboartion though, banger meme nonetheless.
Really important to point out, PTSD or not, that police are trained to do this shit in a lot of cases and in the rest of them are not trained well enough to not do this shit. Police have been lobbying constantly for decades to make sure they have little oversight or training based on real world application. They’ve also made sure that they have no legal obligation to protect anyone but themselves. Cops have been trained to be dangerous to the public. It’s not an accident, it’s intentional.
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