In my initial readings on microplastics, I found that while there is an acknowledgement of how microplastics pervade all environments and penetrate all beings, this acknowledgement is centred within a concern, primarily, for the human above all else. For example, we acknowledge microplastics exist within fish-bodies so that we may ask if this is bad for human-bodies, and we acknowledge microplastics within the food-chain so that we may ask if microplastics have made it to the top.  Even an article which focused on 'animals' in the headline couldn't resist discussing potential harms anthropocentrically. Interestingly, our understanding of microplastics began with a focus on non-human animals 40 years ago. However, our current concern is, undoubtedly, centred around what micoplastics mean for us.

Enframing of the natural world is not the only boundary-making we partake in; I also found that, when discussing harms, we create categories between ourselves which do perhaps help us better understand how (human-made) economies and class-systems perpetuate harm but I wonder if such categorisation also serves to reenforce a separation between the human and the natural. While we may enframe our human technologies (and technological lives) as distinct from 'the natural', the edges of our Gestell provide no protection from the ability of microplastics to penetrate. For instance, microplastics are able to absorb heavy metals and antibiotics which may impact bacterial resistance and cause biological/environmental damage from which none of us--the natural or the human--may protect ourselves. From a certain perspective we might see an absorbent microplastic as a representation of the human (plastic) entangled with the natural (heavy metals) and homo-natural (antibiotics), and we may also see the consequences of this representation-made-real as a hammer threatening the destruction of our anthropological Gestell.

I closed my reading on an article which mentions microplastics after discussing the extinction of the dinosaurs. This provoked a question within me: if plastics are made from the by-products of the burning of the carcasses of ancient life (e.g. natural gas and oil), and if these plastics are to play a role in rendering the planet unfit for human life, are plastics merely the hands of past extinctions pulling us back into an inarguable ecodiegetic fact? Thus, while the origin of the microplastics problem may be most clearly understood through an anthropocentric lens, we may only grapple successfully with the problem as it exists now--with all its consequences and entanglements--ecodiegetically.

Toby Francis (z5342546)

Works Cited

Basu, Mohana. “Dinosaurs May Have Been on a Decline Long Efore the Fateful Asteroid Hit Earth.” ThePrint, 25 Sept. 2022, theprint.in/scientifix/dinosaurs-may-have-been-on-a-decline-long-before-the-fateful-asteroid-hit-earth/1141316/. Accessed 29 Sept. 2022.

Koumoundouros, Tessa. “Study Shows How Microplastics Can Easily Climb the Food Chain. Should We Be Worried?” ScienceAlert, 17 Sept. 2022, www.sciencealert.com/study-shows-how-microplastics-can-easily-climb-the-food-chain-should-we-be-worried. Accessed 29 Sept. 2022.

Kramm, Johanna, et al. “Superficial or Substantial: Why Care about Microplastics in the Anthropocene?” Environmental Science & Technology, vol. 52, no. 6, Mar. 2018, pp. 3336–3337, pubs.acs.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1021/acs.est.8b00790, 10.1021/acs.est.8b00790. Accessed 16 Dec. 2019.

Lai, Olivia. “The Detrimental Impacts of Plastic Pollution on Animals.” Earth.org, 4 May 2022, earth.org/plastic-pollution-animals/. Accessed 29 Sept. 2022.

Marathe, Nachiket P., and Michael S. Bank. “The Microplastic-Antibiotic Resistance Connection.” Microplastic in the Environment : Pattern and Process, edited by Michael S. Bank, Springer Nature, 2021, pp. 311–322, directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/72226. Accessed 29 Sept. 2022.

Parker, Laura. “Microplastics Are in Our Bodies. How Much Do They Harm Us?” Environment, 25 Apr. 2022, www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/microplastics-are-in-our-bodies-how-much-do-they-harm-us. Accessed 29 Sept. 2022.

Taylor, Mark Patrick, et al. “Microplastics Are Common in Homes across 29 Countries. New Research Shows Who’s Most at Risk.” The Conversation, 6 Sept. 2022, theconversation.com/microplastics-are-common-in-homes-across-29-countries-new-research-shows-whos-most-at-risk-189051. Accessed 29 Sept. 2022.

Thomson, Jess. “Alarming Level of Microplastics Found in Fish—Eating It “a Personal Choice.”” Newsweek, 22 Sept. 2022, www.newsweek.com/microplastics-found-large-proportion-fish-human-consumption-1745346. Accessed 29 Sept. 2022.