Plastic-eating fungus caused doomsday[2][3]
A collaborative effort
This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the End of Plastic (2029) article, about the Tremella purgare fungus, released into the Gulf of Mexico after the TransAm War Oil Spill, and the knock-on impact of the attempted bioremediation.
This page has been listed as a level-3 vital article in Earth. If you can improve it, please do.
Deadly fungi?
Can an expert in this field please expand on or link to the meaning of ‘deadly fungus’ in the opening sentence. Deadly fungi is a disambiguation page and as a non-expert I am uncertain whether it applies here. — 8ditor
Update details
There’s some updated research explaining the spreading mechanism the fungi used to move from sea to land. The spores eject hard, and once airborne, can latch on to any oil-based synthetic material, and then they grow and digest it. Here’s the ref: (Spread of mycelium oil to plastics) — jamirazzz
Dumping an untested fungus into the environment like they’ve learnt nothing from biological pest control. — 8ditor
I think it was tested (Lab_Results_FUNGUS.PDF). Just not well enough, I guess. — SamePanicDifferentDisco
Article name
Doomsday doesn’t seem like a good fit for this article. It’s supposed to focus on the introduction of the oil-digesting fungus dumped into the Gulf of Mexico. — Kinoko
It does that in section one tho, look: Development and introduction into the ecosystem. It’s causing major chaos. — DoraTheExSpora
Chaos isn’t the same as doomsday. Suggest renaming to ‘Unintended consequences of fungal petrochemical control’. — Kinoko
Remove image
The picture of mushrooms sliced up on pizza can be confusing and might be dangerous. — thatplantguy
All suggestions that T. purgare fungus might be edible in the future should be removed to prevent potentially fatal mistakes. This includes any links to edible fungi in the initial description. — jamirazzz
Level-3 change to Level-2
Can an expert please confirm whether we can upgrade this page from Level-3 to Level-2 to reflect the current shitstorm now that plastic everywhere is basically disappearing? — Kinoko
I second this, the damage it’s causing to health equipment is crazy!
[This guy’s pacemaker disintegrated].
And there was that airplane that got holes in it while it was flying. Look: [Watch this airplane turn into swiss cheese!] — DoraTheExSpora
That footage needs to come with a trigger warning. I’ve unlinked them from the article. — thatplantguy
Misleading statement: Jelly seas???
Section four talks about the fungus (fungi?) eating all the microplastics in the ocean. But it talks about the seas turning to jelly, which is a misnomer. Sure, they’re more solid than previously, but when the plastics are all consumed, the fungi will die and it’ll become water again. — 47.71.232.208
Yeah, but that’s going to take a while. And look, [U gotta see this dude walking on water] and his shoes melt because of the doomfungus. Plus, all the fish and things are gonna die before the seas are free of microplastics.
Img.png
Img2.png — DoraTheExSpora
Is there a way to revoke edit access if DoraTheExSpora doesn’t stop posting triggering things? — thatplantguy
This stuff is really happening, though. You can’t deny it. — DoraTheExSpora
Death toll
Updated figures rolling in from accidents and medical issues in section four. Suggest this be moved up to the intro section to keep it easier to locate/update. Also have made a list of things that contain plastic that people might not expect to suddenly break down. Like clothes and orthopaedic implants. — SamePanicDifferentDisco
These figures are changing daily. Will add a link to the UN mortality stats page. — 8ditor
Sealing off computing equipment/bunkers
Has anyone else moved into their prepper bunker? Just checking if they’ve managed to sterilize everything before sealing in. — jamirazzz
I just switched everything in the house over to metal. Like, the keyboard is an old metal typewriter that I rigged. — DoraTheExSpora
Remember that this is not a chat room. But, yes, everything in the bunker looks ok so far, everyone settling in. Nice to be away from the city, too. — SamePanicDifferentDisco
Temporary lag
Had to move to a new bunker, didn’t realize the sealant around the windows was sus. Plus, internet went down because a bunch of equipment got eaten. The UN mortality page has been moving too fast to keep this page updated. Suggest just putting a link in the page intro. — jamirazzz
I think we should big up the numbers, so more people take it seriously. Not like this dude [Watch this fool explode after drinking water with doomshroom in it!] — DoraTheExSpora
Petition to ban DoraTheExSpora for recidivism. — thatplantguy
Any updates?
I noticed there’s not been any updates for a few days. Family bunker life is keeping me busy, and so is managing the water situation. The filters were not designed for this. — SamePanicDifferentDisco
Checking in
Internet has also been very patchy the past few days. But if anyone has any updates, please feel free to post here. It would be good to know how regular contributors from different parts of the world are doing. I heard on the news that the seas haven’t actually turned back to liquid yet, and that’s really impacting things like weather. It would be good to hear from you folks. — SamePanicDifferentDisco
Still not heard anything
It’s been a few weeks since the last post and there’s been no updates. I don’t know if that means your internet is just down, or worse. Some internet services must still be running, because the UN is still updating their death toll, and there’s still news coming in through the radio. Anyway, I hope you’re all doing ok. — SamePanicDifferentDisco
Steampunk saved me
Glad I went with metal! Even bunkers aren’t safe, look [Doomfungus ate thru insulation and got this family!] — DoraTheExSpora
The story behind the story
Emma Burnett reveals the inspiration behind Plastic-eating fungus caused doomsday[2][3].
There’s this weird idea that to fix a problem, you have to introduce new things as a solution. There’s loads of examples in recent history. To solve the increased demand for fabric, we needed bigger machines. To solve demand for travel, we needed more, bigger, faster travel. To get rid of things we consider to be pests, we needed to introduce predators. And now, we’ve got tech bros telling us that to solve society, or the economy, or whatever, we need to donate our data and buy their AIs.
I’m not inherently against innovation or technology. But I do think we have a tendency to treat symptoms without ever truly considering the cause. Maybe because it feels better, maybe because that’s where the rewards are. But it’s also dangerous, because of carelessness, problematic incentives and second-order effects. The issue with the economy isn’t limited productivity. It’s the fundamentals of the model. The problem with pests isn’t the bugs or scavengers, it’s what we’ve done to their natural habitat and predators. So, do we need to invent something that eats plastic? Or could we, you know, rustle up the grit to solve the actual problem?
doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-01723-z
This story originally appeared on: Nature - Author:Emma Burnett
