I think people in the future might assign a value to a human-made work higher than than that of an AI work which will be nearly free. I think there will be plenty of work for those who want to work and we will have plenty of leisure time as well. I know that many years ago people thought electricity/steam engines would replace work and people would be unemployed but they didn't realize how much more complex the world could become and how many new jobs would be invented. At some point, all needs and wants will be automatically met and technology won't be able to advance any further but at that point we won't need money either.

not sure exactly what you have in mind by “contribute labor” …

supposing you mean no one does anything to sustain life for himself/herself or others …

guess all the beautiful babies would be doomed to going feral and humankind wouldn’t last too long. we’re social creatures, ya know.

Mothership is going to be shredded on entry

Considering plastic is not a natural occurring substance and is a fairly new material then of course there's unprecedented levels of plastic in the oceans and it's going to keep growing because it barely being removes. This is a silly title

Aliens don't visit because we are the trailer park of planets

If we can't even clean up our damn oceans how are we supposed to clean up space!

Exponential human population growth will do that.

Eventually we will be drowning in our own filth.

"has" suggests that something in the past has happened. "in 15 years" suggests something will happen in 15 years.

If a person can't craft a coherent title then I'm not reading the post.

This is do to the fact that companies never have to do a environmental impact evaluation on their product and it packaging. That cost is ignored and passed on to the tax payer. There needs to be a tax based on the report. The more it pollutes the higher the tax. No companies will say it is a job killer or would make the product to expensive. Good, this way they can find a cleaner way to make their products or do not make them. There also needs to be a "award" like Noble that rewards products that are engineered to last longer, easy to repair yourself.

I'm 57 and I haven't so far. Odds are pretty good that I won't.

This was pretty much my first reaction! When snorkelling/diving this issue is in plain sight and changing how people use straws isn't gonna cut it...

Y’all better chill out before aquaman pops out the ocean ready for war because we throwing shit in the ocean

No profit in that!

Understood! See you in about 30 years when it's way too late to do anything and the problem has ballooned wildly out of proportion. Then, just when all hope seems lost, a conservative will ask how we'll pay for it.

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Top 10 Countries that Release the Most Plastic into the Ocean (tons 2021):
Philippines — 356,371.
India — 126,513.
Malaysia — 73,098.
China — 70,707.
Indonesia — 56,333.
Brazil — 37,799.
Vietnam — 28,221.
Bangladesh — 24,640.

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Remember returnable glass bottles? How they just vanished?

All we really need are some actual limits on corporations, and moving taxes around into real programs that help people instead of funneling upwards into checks notes corporations

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More plastic!!! I am all for it. Get out more of it.

Apparently plastic makes more and more men infertile. Which is awesome. If we could cut human population down, we would prosper in peace.

The main problem on earth is too many people. People not born cause no problem.

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No one will care or pay for a nickel to clean any of it up. Then one will hit and kill an astronaut and the very same ones who refused most ardently to contribute to the cleanup will blame others for not cleaning it up

you can find them at walmart

Literally every major environmental news story these days is "unprecedented."