Dirty ol’ Arctic

According to the American National Science Foundation coal burning, primarily in North America and Europe, has contaminated the Arctic and is potentially affecting human health and ecosystems in and around Earth’s polar regions.

Detailed measurements from a Greenland ice core showed pollutants from burning coal–the toxic heavy metals cadmium, thallium and lead–were much higher than expected.

Luckily things have improved from the beginning of the last century when some really dirty coal was being burnt. But that’s still a lot of heavy metal potentially finding its way into our food chain. Well, not my food chain, because I don’t eat food from the Arctic, but all those North Americans and Europeans. But guess it will make our clean Antarctic food chain look more appealing?

Hat tip – Treehugger

One thought on “Dirty ol’ Arctic

  1. so does the melting of the polar ice cap mean all those heavy heavy metals locked in the ice will now end up poisoning the oceans?

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