Plastic: The Kryptonite of Humanity - An Essay by Thad Stewart.
By combining formaldehyde and phenol under heat and pressure, Belgian chemist Leo Baekland made the first synthetic plastic, Bakelite, in 1907. It was affordable, easily mass-produced, usable, and desirable because of its dark-brown, woodlike appearance.
It was merely the beginning.
In 1933, the British company Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) beat its German and US competitors by accidentally discovering polyethylene, a white waxy substance. We’ve lived in a plastic world ever since.
During Trump’s first term as president, the reports began to surface. While most of us were occupied with Trumpism, systemic racism, climate change, wokeness, right vs. left, or whatever else was on the agenda to be mad about, a few scientists and journalists sounded the alarm.
It wasn’t the first time people pointed out the issues with the increasing use of plastic products. You had your Millennials and Gen Zers declaring its evils and broadcasting their “waste-free” lifestyle via mostly-plastic phones and computers on YouTube and other social media. Before that, we introduced Earth Day and recycling to prevent wastefulness and trash (though we would later find out this was all propaganda pushed by the plastic industry to save their bottom lines). But this time, it felt like a few people started to listen, and the concern grew.
At first, the reports were about microplastics in the ocean, then in the mountains, the food we eat, the water we drink, and finally, the air we breathe. The product we couldn’t live without became so ubiquitous and cheap that no matter how it was disposed of or recycled, it contaminated our world.
Six years later, the first published paper found microplastics in human blood. It wasn’t surprising when they found it in our digestive tracts and feces. But our blood? That was an entirely new reality of despair. Many optimists thought this would be society’s wake-up call. But the next TikTok video is more interesting than the infection of a foreign, manufactured entity into our cardiovascular system. Besides, it was the conservatives' or liberals' fault - depending on who you asked.
The oil companies, seeing the writing on the wall for the electrified grid and cars, invested even more into turning the fossil fuels we harvest from the ground into single-use plastics - profits before people and self-preservation.
Five years later, the bombshell dropped: microplastics have infiltrated every part of our bodies, including the brain/blood barrier. They are passed from mother to baby, prey to predator, and single-celled organisms to multi-celled ones. No place on earth lies untouched by polyamide and polyethylene.
Now, a little over 100 years since polyethylene’s creation, we stand at a crossroads. Cancer rates have quadrupled for adults in their thirties. Millennials are dying younger, dropping life expectancy rates across the world. And birth rates continue to collapse. Next year, it is estimated there will be more deaths than births across the globe. A harrowing prediction that I fear will come true. Only five years ago, births dropped below 100 million globally for the first time since 1955. Since then, births and deaths have had equal numbers twice in the last five years.
Some PR-spinning politicians have called it equilibrium. Fanatics called it God’s plan. The rest of us know what this is - a failure to agree we have a severe problem, even though few of us agree on what we can do about our plastic addiction.
In these unprecedented times, many of us shrug our shoulders. Visually showcasing our passive frustration with all the crises of our times with an apathetic “What’s the point.”
However, the true curse lies within our addiction to convenience. Too many of us still buy $1.99 bottles of water when we don’t need to. Plastic straw and bag use has roared back since the activists moved on to another culture war. Between Amazon, Walmart, social media, and society’s insatiable need to buy, buy, buy cheap products, the plastic bombardment on our planet and our bodies appears unstoppable.
I like to think this will be our wake-up call. The rallying cry that brings out the best of our nature and allows us to set aside our differences. I’ve spoken with many who never gave plastic pollution a thought before but now have growing concerns. I even know some pescatarians who’ve given up eating fish, deciding the risk of plastic intake is too high.
As far as the solutions currently being floated, most seem, at best, like half-baked ideas that will merely be band-aids in a world that desperately needs a cure for this “plastic disease.” At the same time, too many of us remain fragmented and concerned with our society’s many crises, from climate change, mass migrations, or the economy's continual cycle through ever-worse recessions.
Is this our “Great Filter?” So popularized by the Fermi Paradox. Or will new technology and human innovation come to the rescue as they have in the past? I would be misleading you if I said my confidence was high that we’ll find a solution. Recent history has shown our inability to address pressing needs like our warming planet, unfettered capitalism, or extremist politics.
Time will tell whether I’m a fraud or a prophet.
Thad Stewart
The Amazingly Adaptable Octopus - A Netflix Documentary
Narrator
Our Oceans aren’t what they used to be. Warmer. Polluted. Forever changed by the choices humanity has made. But there are still wonders to discover. Some life has found a way to survive and, even in rare cases, thrive in an ever-increasingly inhospitable world.
To find such a creature, one only has to look towards the amazing Common Octopus. While many other species have gone extinct, the Common Octopus, once thought to be the most at risk of extinction, has found a way to flourish in Earth's more acidic and plastic-laden waters.
Like this one found in the waters just beyond the tip of South Africa, if you can’t see it yet, it’s because it has cleverly camouflaged itself amongst the plastic debris. Thanks to Chromatophores, special cells that create color, an octopus can change its skin color to blend into its surroundings—allowing it to avoid detection from predator and prey alike.
Ah, there it is. I think our cameraman spooked it.
The common Octopus is one of our planet's most intelligent and creative animals. They’ve often been observed gathering clam shells as another type of camouflage to defend against sharks and sea otters. Some predators may even mistake this as a rock or dead coral. But as you can now see, it’s our friend again.
They’ve now adapted this strategy to utilize the more rigid and sharper plastic chunks collecting on the shallow sea floor. With their uncanny ability to attach themselves to these shards, they’ll blend right in. As this Pyjama Shark is about to find out, it doesn’t feel or taste too good to take a bite out of our octopus at this time.
It hasn’t always been an easy transition for the Common Octopus. Though they are the most prevalent species of Octopus worldwide, much of their food supply has diminished.
The decreasing populations of mollusks and crustaceans have led our little friends to rely on worms and more exotic diets of fish, which are more challenging to catch. But one must do what one must do to survive.
Oooh, so close. It appears our little friend will go hungry a bit longer this time.
Recent evidence has shown even small mammals who venture too close to the sea have become prey to these clever predators. If you are the proprietor of a cat or small dog, you may want to keep your beloved pet away from the ocean. Though some are skeptical of this becoming a common habit of the Common Octopus, many scientists agree this is likely only to become more common as the biodiversity in our oceans continues to plummet.
As for those frightful rumors of young children being abducted by these intelligent and highly adaptable creatures, there has been no evidence of such horrors. And most scientists agree it would be an unlikely habit for them to develop.
Our world is still a unique and wonderful place that can still surprise us as we near the end of our time. Hope remains that life will find a way after we are gone. What will become the dominant species after us? We may never know, but we have some ideas.
NARRATED BY THE DAVID ATTENBOROUGH HOLOGRAM, a Ministry of Science and Preservation product.
Plastics Aren’t the Problem - A Rebuttal to the Alarmist Thad Steward by Benjamin Crawford
Plastic = Death
Certain people in this country and planet want you to believe that. It is a cult religion with no room for nuance or discovery. You must know that anything made from fossil fuels is evil, just like anything that is or was good for this country is also unethical.
An inconvenient truth for the believers of evil plastic is that without it, most people in this country would find it too expensive to purchase a vehicle or furnish their home. Your smart watches, phones, and earbuds wouldn’t exist. The clothes you wear would smell, fall apart, and wouldn’t protect you from the weather.
Plastics are unavoidable because they are necessary.
Indeed, microplastics are everywhere, including inside our bodies. However, little evidence shows they are at the root of our health issues. For one, the human body is incredible at adapting to environmental dangers. From Funghi spores to deadly bacteria, viruses, and invasive parasites, we’ve adapted and survived things that could have easily wreaked havoc on us as a species.
The studies Thad cites in his arguments are from reputable sources, but like all scientific research, they leave some questions to be answered. First, what are the diets of the individuals tested and found to have microplastics across their bodies? Are they active with healthy eating habits? Or do they live a sedentary life and eat processed foods?
We already know how unhealthy habits in living and eating damage the body and increase the risk of disease and susceptibility to illness and infection. Cancer rates and early deaths have risen over the last few years due to our unhealthy habits. Plain and simple.
Combine the above with the last three generations' unwillingness to have children, and you have a recipe for more deaths than births. That’s quite literally the problem. Do the math.
Waste is an issue, and we should allow the markets to solve that issue. They are already working on it, thanks to the constant cries from environmentalists and woke politicians threatening regulation. In my opinion, these activists' actions have caused inaction by corporations - making it too expensive to innovate.
Plastics have been around for multiple decades, and we are still here as we will be for the next several decades. If you prefer, buy bottled water, use plastic straws, and live your life. Don’t let the Alarmists scare you.
Benjamin Crawford
This Cult Suffocates Themselves in Shopping Bags - Youtube.
A group of men and women stand on one of many twenty-foot-high piles of plastic trash that have replaced the natural sand dunes on a beach. Their arms are tied behind their backs. A scattering of tattoos marks their bodies and faces as they stare into some unseen abyss.
The Cult Leader, a man, walks behind them from left to right. He stops behind a woman.
He speaks, “We, the people of carbon and dust, declare that Mother Earth has had enough of our waste and insolence.” He dramatically pulls a plastic grocery bag over the top of her head. She stands stoically and lets out a deep sigh. He pulls the bag tight and ties it. She gasps for air and tumbles to the ground, slowly suffocating. The Leader walks to the next person.
“Each of us will dawn a plastic bag over our heads and take our last breath.” He pulls a bag down over a weepy man’s face. He leans into the weeping man’s ear as he ties the bag. “Don’t worry, friend. Soon you will be at peace.”
The Leader moves on as the weepy man slowly suffocates and collapses. “This is our message to our corporate overlords. We’ve had enough. Our planet has had enough.”
He walks down the line, firmly tying plastic bags around his follower’s heads. “People of earth, stop your plastic addiction.” The suffocating followers crumble, suffer, and die, gasping for air, clawing for relief, and squirming in excruciating pain.
The Leader, surrounded by his followers who are now dead or asphyxiating slowly to their death, stands in the middle of the pile of plastic, holding a plastic bag with his outstretched arms above his head. He stares fiercely at the camera recording him.
He yells, “Absolve yourselves of wickedness and your co-dependence on the drug of plastic. Free your minds and save your souls!”
His arms shake as he dramatically lowers the bag closer to his head. His eyes stare past the camera and ignore the dying, whose bodies thrash and convulse on the trash pile with him. He takes a deep breath, pulls the bag down, and ties it.
His mouth opens, gasping for air. He holds his hands away from his head in defiance of the pain. The camera zooms into his face - his mouth agape against the familiar grocery bag blue. He collapses into the plastic debris and dead comrades. The camera tracks his wide eyes. His legs and torso thrash on top of corpses and milk jugs.
His hands claw at his face and rip the bag around his mouth. Deeply, he sucks in the outside air and stands up.
His gaze looks upon his followers, degraded and spread across the trash pile. The news camera follows him.
“Fuck this!” He says to himself. “Stupid idea anyway.” He rips the remaining plastic away from his head and walks away.
The camera pans down to the corpses now littered among the plastic trash.
X (Twitter)
Thad Stewart @ThadStewartSlaps:
I think @TheBenjaminCraws rebuttal is a tasteless and unprecedented attack on science and facts. How many people have died because of deniers like him? #PlasticsKill
Benjamin Crawford @TheBenjaminCraws
Replying to @ThatStewardSlaps
I’m not falling for your alarmist propaganda, and neither should America. Besides, aren’t we all going to die anyway? #DontTreadOnMe
Clay Nice @AmericaThiiiirrrrrrrssssst
Replying to @TheBenjaminCraws
Ben for President! #MAGA
Betty @OGgrandma47
Replying @TheBenjaminCraws
Pharma makes money off our deaths. This is real, and they want us to die. #facts #deathbyplastic
Thad Stewart @ThadStewartSlaps
Replying to @TheBenjaminCraws
You’re a fascist and a disgrace to this country. You’ve ensured the end of humanity. #deathbyplastic
Benjamin Crawford @TheBenjaminCraws
Replying to @AmericaThiiiirrrrrrrssssst
There’s an idea. I think I can save #america #MAGA
Benjamin Crawford @TheBenjaminCraws
Replying to @ThatStewardSlaps
Some of us take the red pill while others stay sheep. Everyone has their place. @ThatStewartSlaps is a #sheep
Clay Nice @AmericaThiiiirrrrrrrssssst
Replying @ThadStewartSlaps
You’re just upset because you haven’t seen a WAP since you came out of your Mothers. #LibTard #AmericaFirst #PlasticsRule
TWO DUMB WHITE MEN - A Response to White Men Thinking by Saige Williams
It WOULD BE an elitist intellectual calling out people for buying bottled water. Has he yet to hear of Flint, Michigan? Jackson, Mississippi? Crenshaw? No, I’m sure he has, but he forgets that having access to clean and drinkable water is a privilege. There is no choice between drinking poison or consuming bottled water with micro-plastics for far too many.
Perhaps, if Mr. Lewis could take some of his academic money and purchase some of his fancy Reverse Osmosis water filters for us poor folk, maybe then I could believe he actually cares about the harm being done to poor people; especially minorities when it comes to the environmental catastrophe capitalism has released upon us.
Too many of us live paycheck to paycheck. Too many of us don’t have the time or energy to worry about plastic pollution. We are dying by simply being impoverished. We are dying by only being able to afford the terrible food that is cheap enough to fit within our budgets. We are dying because as long as we make money for “The Man,” they don’t care how we live.
I don’t want to address the bigot lobbyist Benjamin Crawford. His colors have been displayed since he started working for Big Oil and voting for incompetent and racist presidential candidates.
He should be so lucky for me to waste words on an article I wrote. Fuck you, Ben. I hope you die as you lived - consuming the dirty air your companies made for us, choking on the oil and plastic that gave you your fucking mansions and private jet.
Saige Williams
Youtube Video - Anatomy of Plastic Poisoning
A doctor stands in front of a corpse of a recently deceased human. He points to the brain, which can be seen through the half-opened skull.
“There is a unique blood-brain barrier that only allows in what is necessary for the brain to function while keeping harmful and potentially toxic compounds out. It crucially maintains the right ionic balance within the brain and blocks substances that disrupt essential neural functions. Microplastics and the chemicals they leach are the first known compounds to pass successfully through this barrier. With a high enough concentration, these compounds disrupt the firing of neurons and kill essential communication pathways within the brain.
These disruptions in an infected individual have caused neurological disorders, depressive episodes, movement issues, and memory deterioration. Combined with the plastic particles leaching into our gut and digestive system, the infected would experience nausea and detachment as the first symptoms, which would gradually accelerate into a complete immune response that would attempt to purge the resins by any means necessary - eventually leading to dehydration, severe hemorrhaging, and death.
The millennial generation saw these diseases take hold in their 40s and 50s, Gen-Z in their 30s-40s, and the last two generations infected by their 20s.”
Response to the Criticism of Mr. Crawford and Ms. Williams - An Essay by Thad Stewart.
Though I’ve been hesitant to respond to the criticism from Mr. Crawford, fearful of lending more breath and eyeballs to a man who wishes to peddle conspiracy and propaganda, I’ve decided not engaging in his criticism is also not a solution.
The catastrophe at hand is complicated and messy. Of course, the unhealthy lifestyle of the average American is a factor in life expectancy and even resilience to disease. There are other contributing factors, as well: constant summer wildfire smoke infiltrating our lungs, untenable summer temperatures, mass migrations, political upheaval, and, of course, the mental health nosedive of the recent generations.
However, there is little doubt that microplastic infection is currently the main culprit in the demise of the human species. One hundred million deaths worldwide have now been attributed to the proliferation and contamination of microplastics within our bodies. The data clearly shows a correlation between the rise of plastic products and increased cancer rates, infertility, and now what we deem “Plastic Disease.”
Everything we eat, drink, and touch contains broken-down nanoparticles of the plastic shopping bags, bottles, Tupperware, and packaging we have come to use ubiquitously throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. You can’t take a breath of air without microplastics entering your lungs.
To declare any other reason for the premature deaths of tens of millions of people is not just ignorant but dangerous. If I had the power, I would ensure your violent rhetoric would only exist in the echo chamber of your own home. But that is not our world, so I choose to address you directly, regardless of your false and misleading claims.
As for Ms. Williams's criticism, I apologize to her and the people experiencing poverty. I meant what I said in critiquing our plastic consumption, but I empathize and understand that the idea of having a choice, to many, doesn’t exist. Capitalism is an ugly beast that has built its riches from the poor and working class, leaving them most vulnerable.
I have benefited from our economic system, even though I’ve argued long and hard about the need to change it. And I’m undoubtedly privileged. But I promise you, I fight and criticize the plastic lobby and corporations because I know a change is necessary, even if I believe it’s too late.
Again, I apologize for the omission of addressing the lack of choice for many when it comes to the pressing issue of plastic pollution. If I could buy the entire country water filters, I would.
Thad Lewis
.
X (Twitter) - Again
Saige Williams @SaigeofWisdom
Half-baked apologies won’t suffice @ThatStewartSlaps We will not stop until justice for all marginalized people and races is achieved. Resign! #KillTheRich #FuckElitists
Benjamin Crawford @TheBenjaminCraws
@ThatStewardSlaps is crying WOLF again. When are you going to stop seeing Ghosts? Don’t you listen to your liberal mob of friends like @SaigeofWisdom You’re just as bad as the rest of us. #Snowflakes #plasticsforlife #eatyourtail
Saige Williams @SaigeofWisdom
Replying to @TheBenjaminCraws
Do the world a favor and shoot yourself. One less bigot in the world, the better!
Betty @OGgrandma47
Replying @SaigeofWisdom
We need to do something about plastic. Don’t let race distract you. You’re the reason we can never win. #deathbyplastic #liberal #infighting
Clay Nice @AmericaThiiiirrrrrrrssssst
Replying @SaigeofWisdom @TheBenjaminCraws
Cancel @ThatStewartSlaps #LibTard #AmericaFirst #PlasticsRule
Cure for Plastic Disease? - TikTok by Dale
A burly, bearded dude walks through a wooded backyard with a massive house behind him and several side-by-sides and trucks in a driveway.
“Yo. Listen. The “Doctors” diagnosed me with Plastic Disease a few months ago, and as you can guess, I didn’t buy it. They wouldn’t hear me out, though, and honestly, I felt like complete and utter shit.”
Dale walks around the proprietary while he talks to the camera on his phone.
“I know this will sound crazy, but at one point, I started believing that maybe this disease was real.”
Dale takes a seat on a fallen-over log and looks around his property. Then he looks directly into the camera phone.
“I heard from a friend about this drink called PRIME. They said people who “supposedly” were sick would drink this and feel better.”
Dale shrugs his shoulders on camera.
“I hate taking medication, and you know I didn’t do whatever the doctors told me. So, I figured, what the heck? Why not give it a shot?”
He lifts up a can of Prime and takes a swig.
“I’ve been drinking this for a month and feel way better. The brain fog? Gone. The severe aches and pain have vanished. My wife said I had depression or some shit, but now she says I don’t have it. Honestly, I’m not sure I’ve ever felt better in my entire life, and I’m forty-five.”
Dale takes another swig of PRIME.
“Did I mention it also tastes good…like real good. So, if you’re like me, question what those experts know. Get some PRIME and see if it works for you.”
***This video was sponsored by Prime Hydration, LLC. Prime Hydration does not recommend its product as a medical substitute.
They’re the Violent Ones - A Rebuttal to Thad & Saige by Benajmin Crawford
They speak of violence as if they don't perpetuate violence. They believe they have a moral high ground, yet they attack me ad hominem and think anyone who disagrees with them is a lesser, dumb idiot who isn't conscious enough to understand their words.
Do they think this will win over the skeptics? Do they sincerely believe their critics will be silenced by such vile disdain?
Go ahead and censor me. There will only be more skeptics to challenge your assumptions. Ignore that we've failed the younger generations by not instilling family values and giving them the tough love they needed to succeed in a brutal world.
Because the experts have all drunk the Kool-Aid on micro-plastics, they have ignored the youngest generations' sedentary lifestyles and unhealthy eating habits. Video games over being outside. Social Media over real, in-person interactions. Processed foods are cheaper than fruits and vegetables because our nation continues to subsidize corn.
Maybe if we did a better job of regulating Tech's hold on our attention, preventing our kids' addiction to violent and distasteful video games, and creating a common sense government run by the average American, not elitist pricks, our population wouldn't be dwindling and dying.
In a similar spirit to Ms. Williams, I will not address her directly nor give her the respect she so clearly denies me. She is a radical extremist who I blame for the downfall of our country as much as the big government that has failed every American Patriot.
The one thing I agree with Thad about is that this is, indeed, the end of us. I wish we could have given future generations a chance, but it appears we've failed.
Benjamin Crawford
WKMG TV - Miami, Florida
A brunette female news anchor looks up at the camera as a motion graphic “Breaking News” ticker appears in the lower third of the video frame reading: Breaking News - Octopus Abducts Unsuspecting Child.
Anchor: “Good evening, South Florida. We have breaking and heart-wrenching news for you tonight.”
A photo of a common octopus appears in the right corner of the screen.
Anchor: “Mary and Kyle were hanging out on one of the last remaining pristine beaches in Naples, Florida, on Friday the 13th, enjoying a lovely sunset as a family, when their two-month-old son, Collin, was whisked away by a predatory Octopus.”
Footage of a white sand beach and downtown Naples, Florida, appears onscreen.
Anchor: “Rumors have long floated of Octopi, desperate for food, snagging small pets and land mammals for snacks, but this is the only known and recorded incident of an Octopus grabbing a child.”
A man in a star-spangled banner baseball cap and white crew t-shirt stands next to a reporter on the beach. The lower third identifies the man as a regular beach visitor, Phil Donovan.
Phil: “I saw this Octopus just gliding on the beach like it was something on the Discovery channel.”
Footage of the beach, desolate of people. Whitecap waves crash in the distance.
Phil: “I got my phone out because I knew I didn’t want to forget seeing this. It took me a couple of minutes to realize it was heading straight for this baby who was lying on a blanket in the sand, enjoying the breezy air in front of his parents.”
Phil, on camera again, visibly grows emotional. He takes a swig out of his $1.99 bottle of water.
Phil: “I just wish there was something we could do.”
The anchor appears back on screen, talking directly to the camera.
Anchor: “Collin was declared dead a few hours later when some beach runners discovered his socks on a nearby shoreline. Authorities are asking anyone with more information on this Octopus and the incident to please reach out. They ask that all residents and visitors with small children stay away from the water for the foreseeable future. The beach is to remain closed until further notice.”
Anchor: “Our thoughts and prayers are with the mother and father. Have a good night.”
Those Who Argued - Wall Street Journal
Thad Stewart, aged 39, passed away suddenly last week from “plastic disease.” Labeled a fear-monger who attacked the plastic industry with prose and warned of the threat of plastic proliferation for years, was laid to rest in his hometown of Lake Placid, New York.
He was cheered for by many and loathed by others, though none should argue that his concerns and warnings didn’t come true. As we stand today at the precipice of what some consider the end of humanity, he was one of the loudest voices warning of impending doom.
Benjamin Crawford, aged 50 and a vocal critic of Thad’s, also passed away two days after him of the same ailments. Benjamin graduated from Harvard with a law degree and worked at Shell for two decades before moving over to lobbying for the plastic industry. He attempted an unsuccessful presidential bid four years ago and is being buried today near his home in South Carolina.
Saige Williams had little to say about either man. However, she is rumored to take Thad’s place and tenure at New York University and refocus Thad’s newsletter on social justice issues, saying, “Plastic is here to stay. If we want the world to be better, we must start by treating people better. All people. And raise the economic standard for everyone.”
The Last Woman On Earth - A TikTok by Kira
Sad, but beautiful music plays as we are POV of a deserted bridge spanning a small river flowing into the Pacific Ocean. Plastic debris floats in the polluted currents and dumps into a growing pile of plastic waste. Cars sit abandoned on the bridge.
Text on Screen: “I am…
The POV shot moves to the edge of the bridge. The phone camera shakes and blurs until we see the woman’s feet on the concrete edge - below her are littered rocks, dirty water, and plastic.
Text on Screen: “...the last…”
The POV moves up to reveal a sun setting on the ocean’s horizon. A grey haze turns its rays into a deep, dirty red. The video flips to reveal a young twenty-something woman, tears streaking down her cheeks. She turns around, the sun now behind her.
Text on Screen: “...woman on earth.”
She pushes off the bridge's ledge, terror on her face as she screams and falls toward her death. The phone flips out of her hand and smashes against the ground. Everything is black.