What a crap, gotcha headline. There's dust from construction...much like there's dust following harvest or when planting. There's land that is leased too, but that does not preclude future crop growth on the region
I always use the example of driving around town. The fastest route is usually not the surface roads linking A to B along the shortest line, but a route that includes a highway with a faster route. Longer drive length, but shorter overall duration.
This is a nothing headline. Yes, they're all going up and it ain't great, but this will be happening for a while. Until we move off of fossil fuels, we can expect as such .
The headline is like, "Global population is at an all time high". No shit. It will again be tomorrow too.
I agree with all of that, but as a society, I would not say we "know" it until we remove it from our food supply in a significant way. Today, still in most countries much of our food is stored, sold, and prepared in substantial plastics. We rightfully "know" better with lead and asbestos, but societally were still ignorant of the real concerns of plastics.
Being able to work with useful approximations is an important and liberating skill for many tasks.