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Tag: ecosystems

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©Ashley Cooper
January 18, 2022 Environment / Failed Policies / News & Updates / Policies / Pollution / Science & Society / Time for Action is Now
Chemical pollution has passed safe limit for humanity, say scientists

Chemical pollution threatens Earth’s systems by damaging the biological and physical processes that underpin all life. For example, pesticides wipe out many non-target insects, which are fundamental to all ecosystems and, therefore, to the provision of clean air, water and food.

“There has been a fiftyfold increase in the production of chemicals since 1950 and this is projected to triple again by 2050,” said Patricia Villarrubia-Gómez, a PhD candidate and research assistant at the Stockholm Resilience Centre (SRC) who was part of the study team. “The pace that societies are producing and releasing new chemicals into the environment is not consistent with staying within a safe operating space for humanity.”

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January 16, 2022 Environment / Forever Chemicals / International / News & Updates / Pollution / Public Health
Toxic reaction: how to clear dangerous pollutants out of your home

Six months ago, I had my blood tested for 100 different persistent organic pollutants or POPs – chemicals such as pesticides and flame retardants that accumulate inside us and stick around for longer than we’d like. Scientists at a specialist lab in Norway found traces of chemicals that were taken off the market decades ago, such as low levels of a metabolite of the infamous pesticide DDT, alongside concerning levels of some of the less well-known “forever chemicals” known as PFAS (perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances – a class of chemicals that includes the likes of Teflon). Most surprisingly, my blood contained relatively high levels of a chemical called oxychlordane that comes from a pesticide known as chlordane that was banned by the EU in 1981, just a year after I was born, so exposure was probably via the womb. What struck me most is that some of these highly hazardous chemicals last more than a lifetime. 

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December 29, 2021 Climate Change / Environment / Failed Policies / International / News & Updates / Oceans / Science & Society
‘The Fuse Has Been Blown,’ and the Doomsday Glacier Is Coming for Us All

But in the long run, it is not clear that the dynamics of ice sheet collapse that are underway at Thwaites can be stopped. As glaciologist Eric Rignot put it in 2015, in Antarctica, “the fuse has been blown.” Even if we cut carbon emissions to zero tomorrow, warm water will continue to flow beneath the ice sheet for decades, destabilizing the ice and further pushing the glacier toward eventual collapse. This doesn’t means that cutting carbon pollution to zero isn’t an important goal — nothing, in fact, is more important or more urgent. “We may have a small safety margin in Antarctica, but not a large one,” says Alley. Even if the fuse is blown, cutting emissions fast could slow it all down to a millennium-long crack-up that will give us more time to adapt. One way or another, our future is written in ice.

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December 14, 2021 Climate Change / News & Updates / Oceans / Science & Society
Crucial Antarctic ice shelf could fail within five years, scientists say

“It’s upwardly mobile in terms of how much ice it could put into the ocean in the future as these processes continue,” said Ted Scambos, a glaciologist at the University of Colorado Boulder, and a leader of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration (ITGC). He spoke to reporters via Zoom from McMurdo Station on the coast of Antarctica, where he is awaiting a flight to his field site atop the crumbling ice shelf.

“Things are evolving really rapidly here,” Scambos added. “It’s daunting.”

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November 25, 2021 Climate Change / Environment / Failed Policies / Future Costs / International / Legislation / News & Updates
Epic Storms on Two Coasts Have Parliament Talking Climate Action, Adaptation

“If the last year has shown us anything, it’s the impacts of climate change are here sooner than expected and they’re devastating,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told the House, promising to throw “the full power of government and the entire force of our commitment behind real, meaningful climate action.” That promise will include increased funding to municipalities through the Disaster Mitigation and Adaptation Fund, the Toronto Star reports.

“This is not about bad weather. This is about whether human civilization can survive,” said Saanich-Gulf Islands MP and former Green Party leader Elizabeth May, adding that her husband’s farm was sheltering climate refugees for the second time this year.

“No issue could be more riveting,” May said. “The stakes could not be higher.”

“The government speaks a lot about addressing climate change,” added Mission-Matsqui-Fraser Canyon MP Brad Vis. “Here is the opportunity to back those words with action through resilient infrastructure, climate change adaptation, and mitigation for the 21st century. I call on the government to work with partners to rebuild Lytton, to fund critical infrastructure, and to empower First Nations to have more control over disaster management, because the current way of doing things is failing.”

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