An article in Forbes reminds us that humans are the only creatures who create junk. David Bressan describes how pollution began when our ancestors started throwing bones out of mouths of caves. At least those scraps, and medieval garbage dumps were mainly biodegrades. However, humans are now inventing pollution of new orders of magnitude, as islands of plastic begin to choke whales.
Humans Invent Pollution and the Trash Mountain Grows
Astronauts left golf balls on the Moon, and unbelievably plastic disposable bags too. This attitude will continue for as long as we think we own the space we inhabit. Beware Oh Man, a World War II poet wrote. Could this happen again?
Pollution certainly happened at Camp Century from 1960 onward. This was a U.S. Army outpost under the Greenland icecap, intended to house 600 missiles at the height of the Cold War. The camp boasted the world’s first portable nuclear generator until a glacier threatened it in 1966. The army left full diesel tanks, organic pollutants, waste, and unknown quantities of nuclear garbage behind.
Those Errors of the Past Will Return to Haunt Us
We will be nice, and assume nobody told those cold war scientists that humans invent pollution, but this is wrong. David Bressan believes they thought that snow and ice would cover their garbage forever. You can safely assume that they were wrong.
Because climate change is melting the ice caps where those military hid their secrets. The entire site could be exposed by 2090. We have evidence of what may happen next in Alaska. There, industrial pollution caused decades ago lies hidden under the permafrost far away.
This permafrost releases mercury into rivers that carry it to oceans as global warming melts it. David Bressan has found mercury in beluga whales, in polar bears, in seals, in fish, in eagles, and other birds. Beware Oh Man, for the sins of the past are haunting you now. Do something about climate change soon.
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Preview Image: The Cold War In Greenland
