Collapse

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This is the place for discussing the potential collapse of modern civilization and the environment.

Collapse, in this context, refers to the significant loss of an established level or complexity towards a much simpler state. It can occur differently within many areas, orderly or chaotically, and be willing or unwilling. It does not necessarily imply human extinction or a singular, global event. Although, the longer the duration, the more it resembles a ‘decline’ instead of collapse.

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Global soil pollution by toxic metals threatens agriculture and human health (www.science.org)

submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by eleitl@lemm.ee to c/collapse@lemm.ee

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Editor’s summary

Metals and metalloids are ubiquitous in soils, originating from bedrock and from human activities and infrastructure. These compounds can be toxic to humans and other organisms, and their soil distribution and concentrations at global scale are not well known. Hou et al. analyzed data from more than 1000 regional studies to identify areas of metal toxicity and explore drivers of these trends. They estimate that 14 to 17% of cropland exceeds agricultural thresholds for at least one toxic metal. Climate and topography, along with mining activity and irrigation, predicted which soils would exceed metal thresholds. Soil metal pollution is a global issue that will likely increase with the growing demand for toxic metals in new technologies. —Bianca Lopez

Abstract

Toxic metal pollution is ubiquitous in soils, yet its worldwide distribution is unknown. We analyzed a global database of soil pollution by arsenic, cadmium, cobalt, chromium, copper, nickel, and lead at 796,084 sampling points from 1493 regional studies and used machine learning techniques to map areas with exceedance of agricultural and human health thresholds. We reveal a previously unrecognized high-risk, metal-enriched zone in low-latitude Eurasia, which is attributed to influential climatic, topographic, and anthropogenic conditions. This feature can be regarded as a signpost for the Anthropocene era. We show that 14 to 17% of cropland is affected by toxic metal pollution globally and estimate that between 0.9 and 1.4 billion people live in regions of heightened public health and ecological risks.

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[–] maketotaldestr0i@lemm.ee 4 points 6 days ago

also bad phosphorus fertilizers contain just about every bad heavy metal and radioactive ones. USA has dirty P . China actually has some of the cleanest P because so much of their P refining are newer facilities and they work with different feedstock sources. USA is basically Mosaic corp which has bad sources now that theyve high graded the country, and old shitty refining process facilities.

People sleep on this contamination source getting added every year on almost all farmlands in USA . and its totally preventable problem with effects that cant be undone economically.