{"product_id":"discarded-sarah-gabbott-9780192869333","title":"Discarded by Sarah Gabbott (Hardcover)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\"What kind of fossils will we leave, as relics into the far future? A blizzard of new objects has suddenly appeared on Earth: plastic bottles, ballpoint pens, concrete flyways, outsize chicken bones, aluminium cans, teabags, mobile phones, T-shirts. The number of our constructions has exploded, to outweigh the whole living world. They're produced for our comfort and pleasure-then quickly discarded. And, designed to resist sun, wind, rain, corrosion and decay, many will remain, petrified, as future geology. What will these technofossils look like, in future rock? Buried deep underground, they will transform, as they are attacked by bacteria, baked by the Earth's inner heat, squashed by overlying rock, permeated by subterranean fluids, crumpled by mountain-building movements. These new fossils have meaning for our lives today, too, and for a world increasingly burdened by our growing waste. As our discarded artefacts begin their odyssey to become future fossils, they may be swallowed by birds, entangle fish, change the flow of rivers, cause wildfires and release toxins. Buried, they will become archaeological remains. Then, over geological timescales, they will transform into true technofossils. Petrified, encased in rock strata, technofossils will leave a legacy for future civilizations to puzzle over. It is a new planetary phenomenon, now unfolding around us. This book describes, for the general reader, the kind of science that is emerging to show the far-future human footprint on Earth. It expands the idea of what people think of as fossils, and what they can tell us\"--\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Oxford University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55399256949079,"sku":"9780192869333","price":18.5,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0799\/4569\/5575\/files\/9780192869333.jpg?v=1791837929","url":"https:\/\/somiibooks.com\/products\/discarded-sarah-gabbott-9780192869333","provider":"Somiibooks","version":"1.0","type":"link"}