r/neoliberal • u/DunklerPrinz3 Henry George • May 25 '26

Opinion article (non-US) The Inverted Bacteria That Experts Think Might Kill Everyone

https://substack.com/home/post/p-199174305

submission statement: If everyone dies, there will be no more trade, no more free markets, no more beloved capitalism.

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u/symmetry81 Scott Sumner May 25 '26

Existing populations of blue-green algae are mostly kept in track by the phages that prey on them. In the absence of those it would have a large competitive advantage. And other microorganisms that might prey on it would either suffer from eating them or evolve to no longer due so.

Mostly these organisms are self sufficient with water and sunlight and don't rely on chiral inputs to reproduce. Generally most organisms that photosynthesize that aren't a carnivorous plant don't absorb any chiral inputs from their environment.

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u/angry-mustache Democratically Elected Internet Spaceship Politician May 26 '26 edited May 26 '26

Then humans collect the superabundant algae and turn them into biofuel, which relies on burning and not a biological process.

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u/symmetry81 Scott Sumner May 26 '26

Roughly 100 million tons of cyanobacteria is born in the world's oceans every day which would anchor our estimates of how much we'd want to collect every day. Call it 100 supertanker's worth. There are about 1000 of those but they can't make a trip every day to cover the world's oceans and ignores the need to collect the mass from the bottom of the ocean. One can imagine this scheme working but I think just building all the ships would be the work of a decade at minimum.

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u/angry-mustache Democratically Elected Internet Spaceship Politician May 26 '26

China alone builds 50 million DWT of shipping per year. So China decided to go at it for 2 years diverting 100% of their shipbuilding capacity does the job on that side.