It would be interesting to see a comparison between the benefits that plastic has brought us, versus the detrimental effects, specifically the microplastics and other plastic waste in the environment.
Call the average benefit per person X; or the
total benefit P⋅X where X is total human population.
Call the detriment to the environment of one person's plastic use Y, or the total detriment to the environment P⋅Y.
But the degraded environment affects EVERYONE, for total detriment of P⋅P⋅Y (or even worse, (P+P')⋅P⋅Y where P' denotes the non-human creatures that concern us). The total benefit is proportional to population, but the total detriment is proportional to population SQUARED.
This isn't the "Overpopulation" thread, but overpopulation rears its ugly head again. A poison that would be almost harmless with moderate human population can outweigh its benefits when the population is eight billion. Plastics are obviously not the only instance of this effect.
Left as an exercise: Find something whose benefit increases with population squared.
