Good news -- bad news

First the good news: a teenager in Ontario isolated a bacteria that will break down plastic bags considerably faster than several hundred years. This appears to be something that could be done on a broad scale, which may dramatically reduce landfill waste. (Thanks to Mark for this one.)

Next, the bad news: Bisphenol A -- a topic I've been following for a long time should have been banned long ago. The villains according to this article are the Weinberg Group, Sunoco, and Sciences International. Although these people have no business in the civilized world, what's much worse is what this situation implies about the rest of us:

"Humans are terrible at reacting to subtle threats: We fear the unknown, the immediate, but not things which harm us slowly in subtle ways." (source)

If this is true and global warming is true (so far the vast consensus is yes), we're in a great deal of trouble.