At any given moment, crude oil is being pumped up from the depths of the planet.
But what happens after an objects lifetime?
The question is, how does the technosphere impinge upon the biosphere?
Your gadgets are actually carbon sinks.© Mitland73/Shutterstock
Plastic bags and fishing nets, for example, can choke the animals that encounter them.
Once you discard these things, the question is, how do you treat that carbon?
Each year, the paper estimates, roughly a third of these fossil-products in the technosphere get incinerated.
Another third end up in landfills, which can act as a kind of long-term carbon sink.
But unfortunately, the authors acknowledge, these sites oftenleach chemicals, burp outmethane, orshed microplasticsinto the environment.
Theres so many different aspects to the problem and treating it properly, Hubacek said.
Nevertheless, he said, landfills are a good starting point if managed well.
Ultimately, Hubacek said, the real solution starts with people questioning if they really need so much stuff.
Reduce consumption and avoid making it in the first place.
But after you grab it, thats when we need to think about what to do next.
This article originally appeared inGristathttps://grist.org/science/gadgets-carbon-sinks-technosphere-study/.
Grist is a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future.
News from the future, delivered to your present.
