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Scientists Find Plastic-Eating Fungus Feasting on Great Pacific Garbage Patch (futurism.com)

submitted 5 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/16488358

Scientists Find Plastic-Eating Fungus Feasting on Great Pacific Garbage Patch

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[–] [email protected] 43 points 5 months ago (1 children)

"...at a rate of roughly 0.05 percent per day ... would take a very long time" ... but by my quick calculation 0.9995^3650 is 84% per decade, which is not long. Almost instantaneous on a geological timescale - and think how much the world changed when fungi learned how to digest lignin in wood - ending the era of coal-forming swamps.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 5 months ago

It's going to be a significantly different number than that. You have to factor in growth rate in a resource-abundant environment as well as reduced access to food sources as more of the patch is consumed. But yeah, you're right that's actually a very fast rate of consumption of a non-naturally-renewing food source.