The lifecycle of (artificial) plastic stuff in the biosphere is one of these bold, impact agnostic technological adaptations whose true footprint only reveals as densities and exposures become systemic and get integrated over time.
Our mental models and economic organization are simply not geared to long term, insidius, slow cooking phenomena. If a profitable and desirable convenience is not immediately and obviously harmful it assumed to be "ok" for the long term and at scale.
At some point we might have to switch to a thinking pattern where every and any technology that is applied at planetary scale must undergo a long and exhaustive testing process before being deployed.
This will have a dampening effect on innovation in certain areas, but we must accept that moving "fast and breaking things" at planetary scale is no longer a viable strategy.
Our mental models and economic organization are simply not geared to long term, insidius, slow cooking phenomena. If a profitable and desirable convenience is not immediately and obviously harmful it assumed to be "ok" for the long term and at scale.
At some point we might have to switch to a thinking pattern where every and any technology that is applied at planetary scale must undergo a long and exhaustive testing process before being deployed.
This will have a dampening effect on innovation in certain areas, but we must accept that moving "fast and breaking things" at planetary scale is no longer a viable strategy.