A community to post scientific articles, news, and civil discussion.
rule #1: be kind
Microplastics are also in the rain. So I’m not sure we should be worried about hiking gear at this point.
Single use plastics for non-medical uses should be taxed out of existence.
Was your purpose to spread disillusionment?
Because that probably was the consequence.
Don’t be disillusioned. Most of the microplastics in the air is thought to come from tire dust. It’s a problem a lot of tire companies are already working on. And because EVs mostly use regenerative braking, they’ll make an impact there as well.
Plastic garbage was found in the Marianas Trench. Foot traffic brings more in, but it was gonna show up there, regardless.
I’ve found party balloons up in the mountains
It falls to the earth in rain and snow. That’s probably a more insurmountable threat than backpacks.
I was gonna say... isn't this just in the air and rain now?
Yes. And most of it comes from tire dust. Not hiking equipment. Some tire companies are working on reformulating to try to solve this.
https://arstechnica.com/cars/2024/07/heres-how-michelin-plans-to-make-its-tires-more-renewable/
Yeah its more of the same "carbon footprint" (pun intended) rhetoric pushed by the biggest polluters of the planet.
"Look Look the plebs are the evil ones, not us the poor innocent billionaire corpos"
Meanwhile every day the rain probably drops a billion times more than all hiking boots combined.
Goretex is Teflon! Teflon never degrades, causes cancer!
This study only proves that human activity sheds microplastics. How are they making the claim that the source of the plastics is from hiking gear? It could be food wrappers, microplastic in our excrement, really any other human activity.
They've gotta have some way to make it about shaming the individual...
You know, to take the heat off all the corporations spewing metric fucktonnes of plastic into the air, water, and various substrates across the fucking planet every goddamned day... Right? 🤌🏼
So what you're saying is "kill all humans"? I can get behind that message.
Fine. Let's hike naked!
PNW hikers: "Was that not an option already?"
I was on a hike years ago very early in the morning, only one other car at the trail head. On the way up, spotted the only other dude hiking naked except for shoes and a backpack.
I'm not bothered by the naked as much as the idea of getting mosquito bites on my balls. Fuck that noise.
If you keep moving the mosquitoes won't catch you, unless you're somewhere insane like Siberia. Dude like that probably has his balls covered in OFF!.
Also, funny trick I keep trying, and it works. Hold your breath and walk quickly. They no longer have a lock on your CO2 and will drop back. My lungs are jacked from smoking in my youth, can't go too far.
Naked I could do, but hiking without shoes sounds terrible
Leather moccasons it is then.
Macro plastics are also brought into the wilderness on hiking shoes and gear.
Makes sense. Lots of rain gear and tents use teflon in their waterproof coatings. That shit sheds worse than a malamute in spring.