[benchly]

This was my take for a short story I banged out one week after reading about the metal-eating microbes. Basically, humanity was all "three cheers for these little guys helping us fix all the pollution, etc" then shifting to "huh, that's an awful lot of changes happening to the gas content of the air and oh, didn't you corporate guys who sold us these solutions say you had these microbes under control? Oh, you did? But...like past tense?"

I read too much dystopian sci-fi to write much else, but in truth, I have pretty high hopes for these garbage-eating microbes.

[fwip]

When I was younger, I picked up a copy of "Mutant 59: The Plastic Eaters"[0] at a used book sale. While the book itself was rather shlocky, I always thought the premise was very compelling.

From memory; a scientist created a breed of bacteria that could digest a special food-like plastic, which was accidentally released, but sporulated as their special food source could not be found in the environment. Decades later, a product company introduced "bio-degradable" plastic for greener packaging, which happened to be similar enough to their original food source that the bacteria were able to feed on it. Unfortunately for humanity, plastic itself was also much more widely distributed in the current year, and the bacteria was able to make the jump from eating this plastic to eating "any" plastic. (For added drama, this process also resulted in the release of explosive gases - methane, maybe?)

Also perhaps related, I also picked up The Last Gasp[1] at the same book sale, another speculative sci-fi about global warming. It was very influential on my preteen mind.

[0]: https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/2368220.Mutant_59

[1]: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1685500.The_Last_Gasp

[benchly]

Thanks for sharing! I will have to check out The Last Gasp. Heck of a title, that. The reviews seem to paint it as something that's up my particular alley.