Mercury Found in Every Fish Tested in the US

“as mad as a hatter” syndrome, now a deadly US reality

Researchers Found Mercury Contamination in Every Fish Sampled in 291 Streams Across the United States: USGS

Since 1980, the amount of mercury in the atmosphere has risen by about 56 percent, our colleagues at EDRO have estimated.

Mercury contamination in quarter of the samples tested  exceeded “the criterion for the protection of people who consume average amounts of fish, established by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.”  And nearly 70 percent  of the fish exceeded the U.S. EPA safety level for fish-eating mammals.

Mercury levels in fish are determined by (1) mercury sources, such as atmospheric emissions from burning coal; (2) methylation efficiency, which is controlled by certain biological, chemical, and environmental characteristics; and (3) food-web complexity, the totality of feeding interactions—from algae to predatory fish—in an ecological community. USGS

“This study shows just how widespread mercury pollution has become in our air, watersheds, and many of our fish in freshwater streams,” said Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar. “This science sends a clear message that our country must continue to confront pollution, restore our nation’s waterways, and protect the public from potential health dangers.”

Mercury contamination is widespread globally, originating from natural and human-related sources, including air transport from coal combustion, waste incineration, and mining. (Photograph by Phillip J. Redman, U.S. Geological Survey). Caption USGS.

Mercury is released to the environment from natural and anthropogenic sources. Volcanoes,  natural mercury deposits, and volatilization from the ocean are among the main natural sources. The main anthropogenic sources include: coal combustion, chlorine alkali processing, waste incineration, and metal processing [gold and mercury mining.] USGS estimates that human activities have about tripled the amount of mercury in the atmosphere, and that “the atmospheric burden is increasing by about 1.5 percent per year.”  [Source EDRO based on USGS data. ]

“Some of the highest levels of mercury in fish were found in the tea-colored or “blackwater” streams in North and South Carolina, Georgia, Florida and Louisiana — areas associated with relatively undeveloped forested watersheds containing abundant wetlands compared to the rest of the country. High levels of mercury in fish also were found in relatively undeveloped watersheds in the Northeast and the Upper Midwest. Elevated levels are noted in areas of the Western United States affected by mining. ” US Department of interior said.

Studies of sediment cores show that younger sediments deposited since industrialization have mercury concentrations that are [up to] 5 times that of historical sediments. Thus, the fact that these sediments are primarily composed of dead microorganisms that were once the bottom of the food chain would suggest that modern levels of mercury in the food chain are elevated over preindustrial times. USGS.

Mercury cycling pathways in aquatic environments are very complex. The various forms of mercury can be converted from one to the next; most important is the conversion to methylmercury (CH3Hg+), the most toxic form. Ultimately, mercury ends up in the sediments, fish and wildlife, or evades back to the atmosphere by volatilization. Reprinted with permission from Mercury Pollution: Integration and Synthesis. Copyright Lewis Publishers, an imprint of CRC Press.

For a US listing of fish advisories from the Environmental Protection click here.

Combustion from coal-fired utilities and industrial boilers accounts for more than 85 percent of the transmission of inorganic mercury to the atmosphere (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1997). USGS findings will provide a better understanding of what drives methylation of inorganic mercury in certain environmental settings, and thereby help to clarify appropriate strategies regarding mercury emissions. Pie chart and caption USGS

“This study improves our understanding of where mercury ends up in fish in freshwater streams,” said USGS scientist Barbara Scudder. “The findings are critical for decision-makers to effectively manage mercury sources and to better anticipate concentrations of mercury and methylmercury in unstudied streams in comparable environmental settings.”

The USGS study included testing for “mercury contamination in fish, bed sediment and water from 291 streams” across the country, spanning over an 8-year from 1998 to 2005.

USGS found that “coal-fired power plants are the largest source of mercury emissions in the United States.” Additionally, 59 of the streams sampled were also “potentially affected by gold and mercury mining.”

Why study mercury?

Mercury can adversely affect humans and wildlife through consumption of contaminated fish, particularly by sensitive individuals, such as children and women of childbearing age. Mercury is currently the leading cause of impairment in the Nation’s estuaries and lakes and was cited in nearly 80 percent of fish-consumption advisories (2,242 of 2,838) reported by states in 2000. The geographic extent of mercury advisories covers more than 10 million acres of lakes and more than 400,000 stream miles—increases of about 7 and 48 percent, respectively, over advisories reported in 1998 (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2002a).

Facts about mercury:

• Highly toxic to the nervous system
• Persistent in the environment
• Bioaccumulates (higher concentrations in tissues of aquatic plants and animals than in water)
• Biomagnifies (higher concentrations at increasingly higher levels in the food chain)
• Numerous chemical forms in air, water, sediment, and biota
• Responsible for nearly 80 percent of U.S. fish-consumption advisories

Mercury Cycle links:

• Mercury Cycling in the Environment (USGS)
• Mercury Contamination of Aquatic Ecosystems (USGS)
• Wisconsin Water Science Center

• Mercury Build-Up in the Seas: Where it Comes From and What It’s Doing to the Food Chain
• Agency details emissions from five industries in Berks

Water Pollution and Related Links:

• Coal Is Deadly
• The Aquaculture Dilemma
• Pregnant Women, Eat Fish! Don’t Eat Fish!

• EPA Declares PHE in Libby, Montana

• Whale Meat ‘n Blubber Tastier With PFCs
• WhaleWatch
• Environmental Disasters: Too Close for Comfort?
• Don’t Worry, it’s Only Earth
• The Eight Steps that Help Kill More of Our Fish
• TITO: Toxin In, Toxin Out!
• Tuna Sushi, and Hold the Mercury!
• Fish Farming: The Hazards, Environmental Impacts
• Our Oceans: Wild Fact Series

Regulating GHG: Too Little, Too Late!

It’s too bad the planet couldn’t wait

Cap and Trade All You Want, Nature Isn’t Interested!

We’ve had our chances and have blown every single one of them. Our masters won’t allow us to change  our lifestyles. Dealing with greenhouse gasses as if we’re doing Earth a favor won’t change a thing.

Every step of the way, we are reinforcing a discourse which is destroying the planet’s ability to protect us. Nature isn’t “market based,” and doesn’t recognize “market-based solutions.” It  has finite limits. You don’t “combat climate change;” you remove the causes for the climate change catastrophe.

The main stream human culture have proven unequivocally that it does not have what it takes to enter the next phase—it lacks the intelligence and is void of the will to live.

A mock grave stone declaring ‘Climate change-a matter of life or death’ outside the ruins of Coventry Cathedral on March 19, 2009 in Coventry, England. The symbolic head stone was the first stage of a climate change campaign action day. Organizers Christian Aid, CAFOD and others later took part in a New Orleans style funeral through the streets of Coventry. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images Europe). Image may be subject to copyright.

The following news is meant to be not only celebratory, but conciliatory:

U.S. clears way to regulate greenhouse gases

http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSN1732459820090417

By Deborah Zabarenko and Tom Doggett

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Obama administration opened the way to regulating U.S. greenhouse gas emissions on Friday by declaring climate-warming pollution a danger to human health and welfare, in a sharp policy shift from the Bush administration.

Environmental activists and their supporters in Congress were jubilant and industry groups were wary at the news of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s move. The White House said President Barack Obama would prefer legislation over administrative action to curb greenhouse emissions.

Congress is already considering a bill to cut emissions of carbon dioxide, which is emitted by cars, coal-fired power plants and oil refineries, among other sources.

EPA’s declaration was seen as a strong signal to the international community that the United States intends to seriously combat climate change.

In its announcement, the EPA said, “greenhouse gases in the atmosphere endanger the public health and welfare of current and future generations” and human activities spur global warming.

“This finding confirms that greenhouse gas pollution is a serious problem now and for future generations,” said EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson. “Fortunately, it follows President Obama’s call for a low carbon economy and strong leadership in Congress on clean energy and climate legislation,”

“The president has made clear his strong preference that Congress act to pass comprehensive legislation rather than address the climate challenge through administrative action,” a White House official said, noting that Obama has repeatedly called for “a bill to provide for market-based solutions to reduce carbon pollution.”

The EPA’s endangerment finding said high atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases “are the unambiguous result of human emissions, and are very likely the cause of the observed increase in average temperatures and other climatic changes.” The document is available online at http://www.epa.gov.

The EPA’s finding is essential for the U.S. government to regulate climate-warming emissions like carbon dioxide under the Clean Air Act. Regulation is not automatically triggered by the finding — there will be a 60-day comment period.

But as that period proceeds, legislation is moving through Congress aimed at cutting carbon dioxide emissions with a cap-and-trade system, which would let those companies that emit more than the limit buy credits from those that emit less.

MAJOR SHIFT FROM BUSH

EPA scientists last year offered evidence of the health hazards of greenhouse emissions, but the Bush administration took no action. It opposed across-the-board mandatory regulation of climate-warming pollution, saying this would hurt the U.S. economy.

Senator Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat who shepherded climate legislation to the Senate floor last year, called the EPA’s finding “long overdue.”

“We have lost eight years in this fight,” Boxer said in a statement. “… The best and most flexible way to deal with this serious problem is to enact a market-based cap-and-trade system which will help us make the transition to clean energy and will bring us innovation and strong economic growth.”

“At long last, EPA is officially recognizing that carbon pollution is leading to killer heat waves, stronger hurricanes, higher smog levels and many other threats to human health,” said David Doniger at the Natural Resources Defense Council.

But the National Association of Manufacturers said trying to regulate greenhouse emissions with the Clean Air Act would “further burden an ailing economy while doing little or nothing to improve the environment.”

“This proposal will cost jobs. It is the worst possible time to be proposing rules that will drive up the cost of energy to no valid purpose,” NAM President John Engler said.

Steve Seidel of the Pew Center on Global Climate Change said the EPA announcement is an important message to the international community, which is set to meet in Copenhagen in December to craft a follow-up agreement to the carbon-capping Kyoto Protocol.

“This decision sends a strong signal to the international community that the United States is moving forward to regulate greenhouse gas emissions,” Seidel said by telephone.

However, he said this move alone is no guarantee of success in Copenhagen. Participants in that meeting will also look for progress in the U.S. Congress, and for movement from other developed and developing countries.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled two years ago that the EPA has the authority to make these regulations if human health is threatened by global warming pollution, but no regulations went forward during the Bush administration.

Carbon dioxide, one of several greenhouse gases that spur global warming, is emitted by natural and industrial sources, including fossil-fueled vehicles, coal-fired power plants and oil refineries.

(Additional reporting by Tim Gardner and Ayesha Rascoe; Editing by Eric Walsh)

Related Links:

• FEWW CO2e Links
• Can Humans Enter the Next Phase of the Future?
• A Most Powerful Mechanism of Collapse

• Energy Dinosaurs
• Failing Ecosystems
• First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities
• Intelligent Communities: 286W

Image of the Day: Polluting Poland!

Energy Dinosaur Poland relies on polluting coal for about 92 percent of its electricity production.

Poland’s 105 coal-burning power plants produce 60 percent of its CO2 emissions

A Greenpeace activist carries a banner during a protest to create a “Stop” sign next to an excavator at Jozwin-2B, a state-owned (KWB) open pit brown coal mine in Konin, western Poland November 24, 2008. REUTERS/Nick Cobbing/Greenpeace /Handout.

“Poland’s economy is based on coal and any real alternative like nuclear, is a long way off,” says Tadeusz Skotnicki, production chief at the 110-year-old Wujek coal mine in the heart of southern Poland’s Silesian coal basin.

Amazing Images of the Day: Mountain Top Removal

Coal is good for you! Don’t let a mountain or two stand in your way!

Mountaintop removal near Hazard (Perry County, KY). Image may be subject to copyright.

In West Virginia, Virginia, Tennessee and eastern Kentucky, coal companies blast as much as 600 feet off the top of the mountains, then dump the rock and debris into mountain streams.

Over 300,000 acres of the most beautiful and productive hardwood forests in America have already been turned into barren grasslands. Mountaintop removal mining increases flooding, contaminates drinking water supplies, cracks foundations of nearby homes, and showers towns with dust and noise from blasting. (Photo and Caption:The Mountaintop Removal Road Show).

Related Links (Must Watch Videos)

• Mountaintop Removal Section of “The Appalachians” Part 2
  
• “The Appalachians” Mountaintop Removal Sequence
  

• Toxic West Virginia: Mountaintop Removal- Episode 1
• Toxic West Virginia – Part 2
• Toxic West Virginia – Part 3
• Toxic West Virginia – Part 4
• Toxic West Virginia – Part 5

Other links:

• For more information about mountaintop removal, go to: Links
  

Ich bin eine Coal Girl!

How do you say you’re a “hypocrite” without calling yourself “hippo turd” in German?

Brazil biofuels must respect Amazon: Merkel

German coal-powered plants must respect Earth: The World

German Chancellor Merkel urged Brazil to adopt tougher environmental standards in biofuels production. [She added rich nations needed to pay up to help protect the rainforests’ biodiversity.]

“Biofuels are a way to replace traditional fossil fuels but only if they are produced sustainably,” Merkel said in Brasilia. [She could hardly hide her disgust at the fact that Germany couldn’t import “cheap” Brazilian ethanol anytime soon.]

Merkel and Sarkazy. Two turds of the EU powerhouse. (Credit: Gerald Herbert, AP) Image may be subject to copyright. See FEWW Fair Use Notice!

“There are statistics that raise concerns about deforestation, the process of displacement between soybeans, beef and the rain forest,” Merkel said at a joint news conference with Brazilian President Lula.

Merkel with the other one turd of the EU powerhouse. (Credit: global-metropolis) Image may be subject to copyright. See FEWW Fair Use Notice!

Meanwhile Lula made his statement of the year saying that “Brazil was the most interested of all countries in protecting the Amazon but that the millions of people living there also had a right to prosperity.” (Source)

So, remember children, Lula style “prosperity” first, ecosystems second! Because if you are prosperous, you can tell mother Earth to go F*ck herself!

Previously …

Dr Hansen at Columbia University Earth Institute wrote to Dr Merkel (April 2008 ):

Dear Chancellor Merkel,

Your leadership is needed on a matter concerning coal-fired power plants in your country, a
matter with global ramifications, as I will clarify.

For the sake of identification, I am a United States citizen, director of the NASA Goddard
Institute for Space Studies and Adjunct Professor at the Columbia University Earth Institute. I
write, however, as a private citizen, a resident of Kintnersville, Pennsylvania, on behalf of the
planet and life on Earth, including all species.

I recognize that you strongly support policies aimed at reducing the danger of global warming.
Also Germany has been a leader in pressing for appropriate international actions.

Yet there are plans for construction of new coal-fired power plants in Germany. Consummation
of those plans would contribute to foreseeable adverse consequences of global warming.
Conversely, a choice not to build could be a tipping point that seeds a transition that is needed to
solve the global warming problem. […] (Source)