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Organic Pollutants Poison the Roof of the World
ananyo writes "Toxic chemicals are accumulating in the ecosystems of the Himalayas and the Tibetan plateau, researchers warn in the first comprehensive study to assess levels of organic pollutants in that part of the world. Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are carbon-based compounds that are resistant to break-down. Some originate from the burning of fuel or the processing of electronic waste, and others are widely used as pesticides or herbicides or in the manufacture of solvents, plastics and pharmaceuticals. Some POPs, such as the pesticide dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) and the herbicide Agent Orange, can cause diseases such as cancers, neurological disorders, reproductive dysfunction and birth defects. The researchers found large amounts of POPs (including DDT) in various components of the ecosystems such as soil, grass, trees and fish in the Himalayas and in the Tibetan plateau, especially at the highest elevations."
It wasn't about human lives per se, it was about the heavy toll on the environment. DDT was the nuclear option of pesticides, it killed everything good and bad. Now for people who want to use it again they need to realize that even back then insects like mosquitoes were already developing genetic resistance to it because it was overused. Plus there are alternatives to DDT now that are superior and more selective.
We've also become much more aware of the effects of chronic low-level exposure to toxins. It may not kill you outright but over decades could be causing genetic damage, neurological damage, etc. Most people want to live long and healthy lives I assume.
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
My own personal take on this particular kind of idiocy is that when something is free (as in Beer) people have no respect for it's value because it cost them nothing to obtain. Knowledge on the Internet can be obtained for virtually no expenditure of time or resources at all, beyond that which you've already put in to gain access to the Internet, ergo people stop caring about knowledge and stop bothering to access it, even when they really should and nothing is stopping them.
Sadly, for a people who live in relative isolation, they are getting poisoned by the rest of us.
Even though they ignore our ways of life for their simple one, they end up not being able to trust the air and the water they are surrounded with as it delivers them poisons.
This world is too fractured to come up with viable options for actually cleaning up and reversing the damages we've done.
Yet we must, because eventually, we will cause damages which will be hard to revert from.
We need to normalize our social and political landscape across the entire globe and we need to figure out a true viable global economy which factors in, the proper way of doing business which enforces keeping our environment clean and pollutant free.
We have the technology, but we don't have the maturity. This planet is being exploited to the bones by a few very greedy bastards and the flock of sheeps who won't do nothing about it.
Better grow up folks, because this is the only planet we have.
Profit at the cost of our environment is wrong.
Unless you don't care about the legacy you leave your children and their future progeny.