Monday Morning lunacy

On the one hand, I want to make lots of Wolly Mammoth jokes. On the other hand, this is typical drive-by smear journalism with no basic attempt at discussing hazard/risk.

Some people just don't understand how long range transportation of substances works. That should be explained.

These same people don't know the difference between bio-accumulatio and bio-magnification. That should be explained.

These same people do not understand bio-availability. That should be explained.

They also don't know what is a desert.


Toxic chemicals freed in Canadian Arctic: Study ; Environment: Climate change to blame

The Welland Tribune Mon Jul 25 2011 Page: C6 Section: News Byline: KRISTY KIRKUP, PARLIAMENTARY BUREAU

OTTAWA -- Just weeks before Prime Minister Stephen Harper's annual trip to the Arctic, researchers have released a study stating climate change in Canada's North has unleashed toxic chemicals once frozen in the ice.

A team of scientists, including two Canadian researchers from Environment Canada, published the report Sunday in the scientific journal, Nature Climate Change.

The article says Arctic cooling could undermine global efforts to protect humans from chemicals known as persistent organic pollutants (POPs).

POPs, which are man-made substances emitted by industrial, agricultural and combustion activities, were banned under the Stockholm Convention.

The international environmental treaty was signed in 2001, took effect in 2004 and aimed to restrict the use of 12 POPs often used in insecticides and pesticides. Scientists say the toxins made their way to the Arctic by air and ocean currents, and were trapped in Arctic ice, soil and the ocean. Researchers now claim as the ice is melting and temperatures are cooling, chemicals are being freed.

POPs have also reached the food chain in the North and accumulated in wildlife.
"A wide range of POPs have been remobilized to the Arctic atmosphere over the past two decades as a result of climate change," the study states.

The new report, published by a team of four researchers including Environment Canada's Jianmin Ma and Hayley Hung, examined the chemical concentration of DDT, HCH and cis-chlordane. Scientists observed analyzed data from between 1993 and 2009 from Norway and Canada.

The team says the rate of chemical remobilization will depend on how fast climate change affects the Arctic. However, POPs are of "real concern" to humans, researchers say, because they can cause serious illnesses and cancers.

Harper is set to visit the North in August to assert Canadian sovereignty, which he has done every summer since becoming prime minister.