In “Eyeballs, Tentacles and Teeth”, the local community inadvertently uses geoengineering to fix the problem of plastic in our oceans. They release a bacterium that eats microplastics, which breaks down waste quickly.
“Geoengineering” is the term used for making a large-scale change that has the potential to affect the planet’s natural systems. In China, geoengineering has been used since the 1950s to increase rainfall in the north by billions of tonnes per year. They use planes to spray silver iodide into the clouds to create rain droplets. In Russia, this method was used to clear the radioactive rain from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. But we don’t really know yet what the longer-term effects could be if this silver gathers in lakes and rivers.
Geoengineering techniques can have very positive impacts in the fight against climate change, but with the technology often untested, there is always the potential for unanticipated consequences. The planet’s ecosystem is so complicated that there can be lots of knock-on effects from making one change to the environment. And, importantly, we’d have no way of taking it back if it went badly wrong.
In the case of plastic in our oceans, we need to reduce the rubbish that is ending up in the sea. It might take a lot more effort than releasing microplastic-eating bacteria, but cleaning up beaches and rivers to prevent the plastics entering the ocean is a much safer solution.