Chapter 8

In every pore

Plastics production overtakes steel in 1979

The Age of Plastics dawns.  The negative effects of mass-produced plastics are becoming worryingly clear.   As early as the 1950’s plastics were found in human tissue. This chapter reflects the depth to which plastics are imbedded in our physical world.

 

Libretto

One of the greatest shortcomings of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function. Polymer rapture has always held within it the premonition of disaster.

In every pore  

Behind feather, behind the fin, inside shell

In every pore  

Within the nail, beside the bone, within blood between beak  

In every pore  

The skeleton, the connective tissue, the slippery skin of modern life  

In every pore  

In every day, in every way,  

We become a little more plastic