Remember Romans becoming stupider due to Lead in their plates and goblets? Mercury poisoning drifts to the farthest corners, even the Poles – and reduces IQ just like Lead. Scientist Ari Feinberg from The Spanish National Research Council explains Mercury in the stratosphere. On January 10th, five major institutes reported 2024 was definitely the hottest year ever recorded. We just smashed through major milestones in climate change. Canadian climate scientist Paul Beckwith and I thrash through the latest greenhouse news.

Listen to or download this Radio Ecoshock show in CD Quality (57 MB) or Lo-Fi (14 MB)

 

 

MERCURY IN THE SKY

ARI FEINBERG

There is news about toxic mercury in the atmosphere – and how it travels to far wilderness and the poles. High doses of mercury in food cause severe damage to the nervous system. A 2021 study on Global health effects of future atmospheric mercury emissions predicts 29,000 deaths a year from mercury poisoning by 2050. Worse, mercury reaching the womb leads to loss of IQ points for masses of babies. We need to know how this works.

Dr. Ari Feinberg is a Postdoctoral Fellow with the Atmospheric Chemistry and Climate Group at The Spanish National Research Council or CSIC. Years ago, Feinberg began a “foray” into the travels and operations of mercury. Following a stint at MIT and degrees from ETH Zurich, Ari now works with Prof. Alfonso Saiz-Lopez, the Lead Author of their new paper.

Listen to or download this 20 minute interview with Ari Feinberg in CD Quality or Lo-Fi

 

We’ve known for years about mercury hot spots in India and China, with some elevated places in the Mediterranean and South America. For many of us, the surprise is heavy metal falling from the sky in the most remote places, and even at the Poles, where there is no industrial activity or mining.

The new paper with Dr. Saiz-Lopez is titled “Role of the stratosphere in the global mercury cycle”. All along, scientists presumed air-born forms of mercury were transported by winds and weather in the troposphere. This research found mercury further up in the stratosphere. And it is chemically active, changing forms into something more accessible and lethal for humans when it comes down.

Adding to that whole cycle, humans continue to mine more mercury and emit more into the air from coal-burning power plants and crude gold mining.  Since 2020, about 88% of mercury production came from China, with Tajikistan, Russia and Mexico among principal miners. All of this – and most industrial consumption – is in the Northern Hemisphere. In the stratosphere, a minority of that mercury load ends up moving to the Southern Hemisphere, reaching Australia, South America and the South Pole.

According to UNEP, globally, artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) is the largest source of anthropogenic mercury emissions (37.7%), followed by stationary combustion of coal (21%). Other large sources of emissions are non-ferrous metals production (15%) and cement production (11%). (United Nations Environment Programme, Global Mercury Assessment, 2018).

A less industrial form of gold mining, called “artisanal mining” still flourishes in many developing countries. It uses large amounts of mercury to separate out the gold. Most of that mercury flows down rivers, especially in the Amazon, poisoning fish and people further downstream. Some of the mercury goes air-borne, and eventually some of that gets as far up as the stratosphere. Check out this DW video on mercury from Amazon gold mining.

 

 

The new paper…

“...showed that lower stratosphere mechanisms have oxidized at least 5% of all mercury on Earth’s surface – and potentially as high as 50% – producing long-lived species of the pollutant. Using the model, the scientists mapped global mercury deposition, uncovering a stratospheric circulation route that brings mercury from regions with high anthropogenic emissions to remote wilderness. Finally, the team estimated there could be up to a 12% global increase in stratospheric mercury by the end of the 21st century under the “worst case,” high-emissions RCP8.5 scenario.”

All of that is scary to me. We know high amounts of mercury cause what is now called “Minamata Disease” – neurological poisoning. Even lower exposures to babies in the womb can lead to lower IQ – a life-long loss of intelligence. I suspect this is widespread among humans, especially in the Northern Hemisphere. The IQ loss may be “minor”, say 3 points lower. That would be difficult to measure, and might mean less for people born with a high IQ to begin with. Or the mercury loss may be more IQ points than that. We don’t know for sure. We just know it happens. That is why discovering stratospheric mercury production, and possibly half of mercury aerosols up there – is so alarming!

Long-term, low-level exposure to mercury can cause muscle tremors, irritability, personality changes, or rashes.

SEE ALSO:   Global scenarios of anthropogenic mercury emissions
Flora Maria Brocza

SEE ALSO: maybe 20 trillion dollars in health costs for current policy from accumulated mercury…

Article Open access Published: 24 May 2021

Global health effects of future atmospheric mercury emissions
Yanxu Zhang

=======================

WARMING RECORDS SMASHED in 2024

PAUL BECKWITH

“Heat as the red virus infecting maps of the world”

– Paul Beckwith commenting on NASA video of heat anomalies since 1700s

We just lived through two insanely hot years on Planet Earth. Places flooded, dried right out, and burned, burned, burned. Carbon stored in plants went into the sky, along with toxic ash when plastic cities burn. The big five climate-tracking agencies all reported on January 10. Were the past two years just freak time – or the start of rapid global heating?

To discuss results and reality, we are joined by Canadian climate scientist Paul Beckwith. After lecturing on climate science at two universities, Paul produces YouTube video explainers for breaking climate science.

Listen to or download this 40 minute interview with Paul Beckwith in CD Quality or Lo-Fi

 

EUROPE

For our European listeners, Copernicus science and satellite service says, quote: “2024 was the warmest year on record for Europe, with an average temperature of 10.69°C; 0.28°C higher than the previous warmest year of 2020. This 2024 temperature is 1.47°C above the average for the 1991–2020 reference period, and 2.92°C above the 1850–1900 level.” Nobody has managed to skate on the canals in the Netherlands since February 2021. Even the seasons have changed in Europe where it was almost 3 degrees C above pre-industrial last year.

BILLIONS OF PEOPLE IN MORE HEAT

Berkeley Earth says a quarter of Earth experienced locally record warm annual averages, including 32% of all land. That puts 40% of Earth population, 3.3 billion people in record heat. It includes two thirds of people in China and a third of Americans – living through not just heat, but never-seen-before heat most of the year. This sounds like a big heat event that is not reported. Do you think most people notice? Do they know?

Copernicus tells us: on July 10, 2024 forty four percent – almost half the world, “was in ‘strong’ to ‘extreme heat stress’” We are halfway to global heat wave events. Or – should we say: we are already in a slow-moving heat wave?

WET PLANET

Then we have a notably wetter atmosphere. According to Copernicus: “The total amount of water in the atmosphere reached a record value in 2024, at 4.9% above the 1991–2020 average, markedly higher than in 2016 (3.4%) and 2023 (3.3%), the years with the second and third highest values.”

There was almost 5% more water in the atmosphere in 2024 than the previous two decades. This is an astounding amount of water vapor, like a changed atmosphere.

Water vapor is the largest and most powerful greenhouse gas in the atmosphere. Until now, science study and reporting discounted water vapor as a greenhouse gas because it is so short-lived. Water in the atmosphere may be rained out in mere days. But if the warmer atmosphere holds more water, and the amount up there is increasing every year, is it time to add increased water vapor as a serious greenhouse gas and work that into all studies?

CHINA REPORTING ON HEAT

These five big climate reports are all from Western agencies. China has invested heavily in climate science. I looked into what they are saying. Last July, the The China Meteorological Administration (CMA) released “the Blue Book” on Climate Change of China 2024. According to a China Meteorological News Press Release, their global warming estimate was ”about 1.2°C higher than that in pre-industrial level (1850-1900).

China has lower estimates than Western agencies, and well below the 1.5 degree C limit set in the Paris Accords. Their report stresses that China is greening, and has fewer dust storms. The English version is pretty low-key. Considering massive hits by climate-induced storms and floods in China over the last two years, and insufferable heat this year for almost a billion citizens, I find it strange they are so conservative in reporting warming.  But there is no “climate change is a hoax” movement in China.  Right to the top, the government acknowledges the climate crisis as a key challenge.

AMERICA

Of course, Saudi Arabia does not issue an annual report on global warming. Like most countries, including the United States and Russia, they profit by producing more emissions. The Trump team has already demanded control over the next U.S. National climate assessment, due out in 2026 or 27. Maybe that report never comes out – or it is full of lolly-pops and lies. I am worried about American climate science. I’ve already had a couple of American scientists decline an interview right now, as their jobs and even their whole departments may be chopped with little notice. The chill is on.

PREDICTION FOR 2025

Pairs of hot years, like 2023 and ’24 are not unusual in the climate record. Two hotter than normal years appeared in 1877 and ’78. Copernicus says, quote: “These were during the ‘Great Drought’ of 1875 to 1878, when it is estimated that around 50 million people died in India, China and parts of Africa and South America.” Then temperatures go down again toward whatever was “normal”. Some scientists predict 2025 will be a bit cooler than ’24. The UK Met Office forecast indicates it is likely that 2025 will become the third, or even second, warmest year on record globally.

But beware. Berkeley Earth says:

“The warming spike in 2023/2024 suggests that the past warming rate is no longer a reliable predictor of the future, and additional factors have created conditions for faster warming, at least in the short-term.”

CLIMATE BLOW-BACK INTO THE ECONOMY

Paul Beckwith talks about “the climate casino”.  He means the chances of you getting hit by the next climate-induced disaster.  These days, some extreme event can hit anywhere.  Hurricane Helene and the Los Angeles fires demonstrated that.

But there really is big-time betting on climate, with billions of dollars at stake. It is called Actuaries working on risk for banks and the military. It is called the insurance and re-insurance industry. After massive losses from Hurricane Helene, and now tens of thousands of homes and business lost in California, it is hard to see how the insurance industry survives. Without insurance, banks won’t issue mortgages. So banks are in trouble too. In that chain of events, the stock bubble could blow up. Should we expect the unexpected: 2025 as the year of climate blow-back into the economy?

MAJOR INSTITUTES RELEASING 2024 HEAT REPORTS ON JAN 10…

Five reports come out: from the UK Met Office, NASA. Copernicus in Europe, Berkeley Earth, and the World Meteorological Organization. Although carefully avoiding words of alarm, to me these graphs and maps seem more like reports from a war zone.  I found the reports from Copernicus and Berkeley Earth to be clear and most believable.  All reports are linked below.

All the reports we need, with links, are provided by Paul in his video “Global Temperature Anomaly Skyrockets UPWARDS like a BAT out of HELL, to as HIGH as 1.62 C” posted Jan 11, 2025. Thanks Paul!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fynh8m8Enns&t=83s

 

BBC article: 2024 first year to pass 1.5C global warming limit

UK Meteorological Office: 2024: record-breaking watershed year for global climate

NASA report: Temperatures Rising: NASA Confirms 2024 Warmest Year on Record

NASA: Global Temperature Anomalies from 1880 to 2024

U.S. Greenhouse Gas Center

World Weather Attribution Center

Copernicus Climate Change Center:
The 2024 Annual Climate Summary Global Climate Highlights 2024

Copernicus Global Climate Highlights 2024 Graphics Gallery

World Meteorological Organization (WMO) article:
WMO confirms 2024 as warmest year on record at about 1.55°C above pre-industrial level

Berkeley Earth report: Global Temperature Report for 2024

========================

Next week I will arrive with the usual good cheer. You hear about previously unknown factors in abrupt climate change: the role of wildfires and methane. We also expose the lie that coal is disappearing as renewables come on. THE coal trade expert from Germany says coal burning and all those greenhouse gases are still increasing. It’s black news for bleak times. Sorry.

I’m Alex. Thank you for listening – and caring about this world enough to hear the awful truth.

The one hour show goes out with music from Cyberzen Sound Engine (used with permission)