Poisoned.
The ice fields of the north (top) carry surprisingly high concentrations of mercury in their surface crystals (bottom).
Credit: University of Michigan
Posted on 02/26/2008 1:38:13 AM PST by neverdem
Poisoned.
The ice fields of the north (top) carry surprisingly high concentrations of mercury in their surface crystals (bottom).
Credit: University of Michigan
By Phil Berardelli
ScienceNOW Daily News
25 February 2008
The shimmering ice crystals spread across the Arctic landscape may look beautiful, but new research reveals that they carry an ugly secret: They contain surprisingly high concentrations of mercury, even when mercury is almost totally absent in the atmosphere. The researchers who made the discovery hope their findings will encourage stricter standards on mercury emissions that drift north.
The form of mercury that emanates from smokestacks of incinerators and power plants is relatively benign in the air. But after falling to the ground, it is converted by bacteria into methylmercury, a highly toxic compound that tends to work its way up the food chain. Few people were worried that this might be a problem in the Arctic, because sunlight was expected to break down mercury particles trapped in surface ice. Recent research had shown, however, that the deadly metal was lingering in Arctic ice, leaving scientists puzzled about where it was coming from or how it was accumulating.
To answer this, a group of U. S. scientists took surface samples from nearly 300 sites around Point Barrow, Alaska, and from kites they flew above gaps in the Arctic sea ice off the Alaskan coast. What they found alarmed them: In some places, mercury concentrations exceeded levels recorded near coal-burning plants. And the amounts evaporating from the seawater exceeded what had been recorded as falling from precipitation by as much as a factor of 10.
In the 1 March issue of Environmental Science & Technology, the team concludes that most of the methylmercury in Arctic ice comes from water vapor that’s evaporating from the ocean through openings in the sea ice, not from precipitation. They know this, geologist and co-author Joel Blum of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, said in an e-mail, because they also condensed out mercury from vapors collected from open ocean waters. As far as the ultimate sources of the mercury, Blum says they remain unknown. Despite that mystery, says Blum, "The only significant solution would be to reduce global mercury emissions."
It's surprising that the researchers have found such high concentrations from seawater evaporation, says retired environmental chemist Steve Lindberg, formerly with Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The problem, he says, is that "we still don't know the exact chemistry that generates the mercury” that gets deposited by the seawater. It will be important, says Lindberg, to collect additional data and generate models that try to answer these questions.
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Bush's fault!!
LOL! Yeah, saw that before. It’s a keeper.
That nasty Di Hydrogen Monoxide is every where! It’s even in that cup of liquid you’re drinking!
Hilarious!
If Logan's Run comes with those same clothes for the ladies... sign me up!
Once again you have made a pivotal post. Recycling causes heavy metal pollution!
Thank you, that gives me a lot of ammunition.
We even have a celebrity spokesperson. We can cobble together CGI endorsements from stock footage, and Freddy Mercury is dead, so we won't have to pay him!
Hey hey! Welcome aboard Mr Promo Guy! Btw, to get paid you gotta hire your own network.
On the reverse is the fasces (birch rods and axe), which is the etymological source of "fascism".
I read another article recently about an estimate that the North Atlantic current may decline faster than previously expected, even without more warming. Now that the climate numbers are starting to turn against their global warming scenario they’re going for other global catastrophies to shore up their global taxation scheme.
Bathing is Murder!
Free the Microbes!
“Try this link for a clue of just how stupid enviros can get.”
Is nothing sacred to these people?... oh, wait, stupid question. Carry on.
While it is the bacteria causing the problem, mankind will again get the blame.
Already been shot down in my opinion.
November 20, 2006
False Alarm
Filed under: Climate Changes, Gulf Stream —
“False Alarm: Atlantic Conveyor Belt Hasn’t Slowed Down After All” is the title of a “News of the Week” piece in this week’s (November 17, 2006) Science magazine by science writer Richard Kerr (for those with a subscription, you can view the whole story, here).
Kerr’s piece starts off with the line “A closer look at the Atlantic Ocean’s currents has confirmed what many oceanographers suspected all along: There’s no sign that the ocean’s heat-laden ‘conveyor’ is slowing.”
The rest of the story here
http://www.worldclimatereport.com/index.php/2006/11/20/false-alarm/#more-193
My Sierra Greenie Merck Credit lawyers will be talking to your lawyers.
We do a lot of fishing and are very much aware of the continuing situation of mercury in fish. Here's a much more recent consumption guideline for mercury & PCB's in fish:
Not to mentioned patented by George Soros and his empire.
Mercury is occurring naturally in the environment, so we must shut down factories to save the environment from mercury that’s not coming from factories.
Some mercury in the atmosphere comes from volcanoes and forest fires (since all plants contain at least small amounts of mercury). However, by far, most mercury in the atmosphere is human-caused, and it mainly comes from three sources: burning coal and oil (since the plants these fuels came from contained mercury), incineration of garbage (mostly due to batteries and fluorescent bulbs) and cremation (from dental fillings).
Didn’t the ecos decide it wasn’t atmospheric, but rather fish born concentrations or some such?
And, in an attempt to be serious for a sec, does mercury occur at all, naturally, in water sources? Seems lots of minerals do, salt and such. I know uranium in ground water is an issue in places long the Sierra Nevadas because of natural deposits of the stuff, as well as some from older mining efforts.
Not saying human causes should or could be nil, just curious about how the natural part might also be working in to the problem.
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