In defense of plastic (sort of)
Plastics have a bad reputation, there’s no denying it. They’re an environmental, climate, and public health disaster. But, simultaneously, they’ve brought down costs across industries and saved lives, thanks to their use in everything from medical equipment to electronics.
The question is, where do we go from here? Taking steps to cut down on gratuitous plastic use is a start, and finding ways to reinvent plastic recycling could also play a huge role in cutting down on its negative impacts. Among the most promising of these is chemical recycling, which, if chemists successfully pull it off, could allow us to handle different plastics using a single process. Read the full story.
Casey’s story is from The Spark, her weekly climate and energy newsletter. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Wednesday.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 The European Central Bank thinks bitcoin is on its last gasp
It says the cryptocurrency is on “the road to irrelevance.” (The Guardian)
+ Sam Bankman-Fried has given another disastrous interview. (NYT $)
+ Unsurprisingly, he said his lawyers had advised him against speaking publicly. (Vox)
+ Times aren’t great for NFT artists right now. (New Yorker $)
+ It’s okay to opt out of the crypto revolution. (MIT Technology Review)
2 Chinese protests could be the beginning of the end for zero covid
It is damaging the country’s economy, and much of the population has had enough. (Vox)
+ Xi Jinping has painted himself into a corner. (The Atlantic $)
+ Simply lifting the restrictions won’t magically return life to normal, though. (Wired $)
3 An American journalist is suing NSO Group
He and his colleagues allege they were surveilled using the company’s Pegasus spyware. (New Yorker $)
+ Password manager LastPass says some user data was exposed in a hack. (The Verge)
+ The war in Ukraine has shifted cybercriminals’ focus away from stealing money. (Economist $)
+ Google has blocked a Spanish hacking tool. (Wired $)
+ The hacking industry faces the end of an era. (MIT Technology Review)
4 San Francisco police can now deploy killer robots
They can kill someone in order to save the life of a civilian or an officer. (TechCrunch)
+ The policy could easily end up harming the city’s most vulnerable people. (Wired $)
5 Children are still dying from TikTok’s blackout challenge
Parents feel the platform’s not doing enough to prevent other minors from copying the videos. (Bloomberg $)
6 California wants to punish doctors who spread covid misinformation
But two legal challenges claim the new law is unconstitutional. (NYT $)
7 Gasoline consumption in the US barely fell last year
Despite more electric vehicles hitting the roads, gas use fell by just 0.54%. (Wired $)
+ Electric vehicle startups are struggling to survive. (The Information $)
+ Where are those superbatteries we were promised? (IEEE Spectrum)
8 A Singapore therapy chatbot has been accused of gaslighting
The government-backed bot is designed to help teachers, but seems to be doing anything but. (Rest of World)