Decades-Old Pollutants Melting Out Of Himalayan Glaciers
Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
The new research in AGU's Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres finds chemicals used in pesticides that have been accumulating in glaciers and ice sheets around the world since the 1940s are being released as Himalayan glaciers melt as a result of climate change.
These pollutants are winding up in Himalayan lakes, potentially impacting aquatic life and bioaccumulating in fish at levels that may be toxic for human consumption.
The new study shows that even the most remote areas of the planet can be repositories for pollutants and sheds light on how pollutants travel around the globe, according to the study's authors.
The Himalayan glaciers contain even higher levels of atmospheric pollutants than glaciers in other parts of the world "because of their proximity to south Asian countries that are some of the most polluted regions of the world," said Xiaoping Wang, a geochemist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing and an author on the new study.
[...] The study adds important data to the bigger picture of how pollutants cycle around the globe, Miner said. Similar studies have been conducted at the poles and in Europe, but not as much is known about pollutants in the Himalaya. Each mountain range has its own characteristics that influence how chemicals move through the environment, she added.
"The Earth is a closed system. Everything released on the Earth, stays somewhere on the Earth," Miner said.
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