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The Combustion Trap

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by Glen Hendrix There is a science fiction novel,  Transmat World ,  that   mentions "The Combustion Trap". It is the name of a theory wherein all civilizations go through the same process. The discovery of fire and its gradual increase in utilization to the point of planetary ruin before the civilization realizes it is even in trouble. In the book it is a theory put forth by an alien  robot  thousands of years in the past,   but it is a serious subject that political leaders and scientists ignore at the peril of the future of humanity. Image courtesy of  Alun Salt  under a  Creative Commons License. The atmosphere has been in equilibrium, more or less, for millions of years except for the  great extinctions  that wiped out most of life on the planet due to volcanic upheavals or comet/asteroid collisions. It has always recovered. For the  next extinction , we are going to have to come up with a work-around for two r...
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RECYCLE OR REUSE: THE DEBATE RAGES ON FOR PLASTIC GROCERY BAGS

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Photo by Christopher Vega on Unsplash While some may revile the ubiquitous plastic grocery bag as the ultimate example of our throw-away society, others argue they aren't that bad if they are recycled. One problem with recycling is that time and energy are expended returning the bags to a store or recycling center. Altogether, it costs $4,000 to recycle a ton of plastic bags. 1 That ton of plastic is then worth $500-$1200 on the open commodities market. 2 That’s before it is turned back into plastic bags which only adds to this unequal cost equation. We are only talking about the estimated 5-20% of bags that make it to the recycler. The rest end up as landfill or litter. In the landfill, however, they take up a fraction of the volume paper bags occupy. The litter problem does remain, and it seems governments are unwilling to impose stiffer fines to reduce it. In another comparison with paper bags, because the plastic bags are light and take up less room, they require only one s...
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