A story of epic fail and potential
I’d like to tell you a story. It may sound terrifying.
During the late forties and early fifties we developed a new chemical, called PFOS. This was a fairly impressive chemical. On the one hand, it was tremendously stable, able to survive a very broad range of conditions without suffering molecular degradation. On the other hand, it had a lot of industrial applications. Because it is so stable and unreactive, it became best-known as a stain repellant.
Now, fast-forward forty years, to the nineties. Tests of the global blood supply started turning up minute amounts of organic flourides. With a little bit more digging, it turned out that the mystery chemical was PFOS. The stuff that for last forty years was keeping our couches safe from stray barbecue sauce made its way into everyone’s blood stream.
Further tests revealed that it was not only humans, but pretty much every wildlife creature tested for PFOS gave positive results. By now, it is believed that PFOS has entered the global water cycle.
Is PFOS bad for us? Yes. It has been shown to suppress the immune system, and probably causes cancer and a host of other conditions. Which is why it is now being gradually banned from an increasing number of industrial processes and products.
PFOS does not decay. Over time, it simply slowly disperses, leaching into its environment. One molecule at a time, by the ton.
That’s the terrifying part – we coated the entire world in a carcinogenic, immunocompromising stain repellant. So if anyone ever tells you that human activity can’t fundamentally affect the whole world, that the sky is too wide and the oceans too deep – remember PFOS.
Though perhaps there is something good in this story. If PFOS is a story of what we can on accident, imagine what we can achieve on purpose. Imagine how much more capable we are now than fifty years. So if anyone tells you that there is a problem that’s too difficult for us to solve, that global climate change is too intractable, that sustainable energy production is unfeasible, that interstellar travel is ridiculous – remember PFOS.
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Tags: environment, future, green technology, human potential, pfos, science
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