The glaciers are not only victims of climate change: today we know that they also keep a toxic legacy. New research conducted by the State University of Milan together with One Ocean Foundation has drawn the first large scale map of the contamination of Italian glaciers, revealing the widespread presence of organic pollutants and heavy metals.
The problem? With global warming and accelerated casting of ice, these substances are released in the waterways, reaching rivers and seas. An evident sign of how mountain and marine ecosystems are much more interconnected than it seems.
The research also highlights the interconnection between mountain systems and marine: with the merger of the ice, accelerated by global warming, the pollutants are released in the waterways, potentially reaching marine ecosystems.
The study
Between 2020 and 2021 the researchers collected champions from 16 Italian glaciers – including cauldron, the only Apennine – and analyzed them in the state laboratories. In the above debris were found:
In some glaciers, such as ebenferner, toxic metals levels have been particularly high, probably due to local anthropic pressures. Others, such as red prey, show contamination related to geological characteristics of the territory.
Glaciers as “environmental sentries”
Those who have considered the “freezers” of the planet for years today prove to be real environmental sentries: they accumulate the pollutants produced by the human being and, with the merger, they release them downstream.
The risk is concrete: compromised water quality, river and marine ecosystems under pressure and a chain of impacts that highlights the profound connection between mountains and sea.
What happens on the tops of the mountains has direct effects on the valleys and marine ecosystems – explains Jan Pachner, secretary general of One Ocean Foundation. It is no coincidence that the project is called “The sea begins from here”.
This research underlines the urgency to constantly monitor not only “historical” pollutants but also emerging contaminants.
The message is clear: the glaciers who merge do not speak to us not only of climatic crisis, but also of global pollution that travels through the water cycle and ends up inextricably lining mountains and oceans. The lesson is one: there are no separate environments. Everything is connected. Taking care of the alpine peaks means, ultimately, also protecting the sea.
