Post-Industrial Revolution changes in large-scale atmospheric pollution of the northern hemisphere by heavy metals as documented in central Greenland snow and ice

During the past decades, the investigation of various elements, species, and isotopes in the frozen atmospheric archives stored in the Greenland and Antarctic ice caps for several hundred thousand years has provided a wealth of fascinating information on past and recent changes in the atmospheric environment of our planet. After a brief description of the Antarctic and Greenland ice caps, we give an overview of the procedures that are used in the field for collecting snow and ice from the surface down to great depths. We discuss the techniques used to date and analyse the samples. The main results obtained to date are then presented, with special emphasis on the very recent. The analysis of the snow and ice layers deposited during the past few centuries, especially since the Industrial Revolution, has allowed us to assess clearly the impact human activity has had on the atmosphere, for important constituents such as heavy metals, sulfur and nitrogen compounds, greenhouse gases, carbon and organic compounds, and artificial radionuclides. The analysis of ancient ice up to several hundred thousand years old has provided unique insight on the past natural changes that affected our atmosphere during glacial–interglacial transitions, especially the temperature, greenhouse gases, soil- and sea-derived aerosols, and heavy metals.Key words: Greenland, Antarctica, ice, global pollution, climate change, heavy metals.

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Reception of Heidegger’s Notion of the Essence of Technology in the “Empirical Turn” Philosophy of Technology

Religija ir kultūra ◽

10.15388/relig.2017.16 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 68-76

Author(s):

Tomas Nemunas Mickevičius

Keyword(s):

Large Scale ◽

Industrial Revolution ◽

Philosophy Of Technology ◽

Micro Scale ◽

Don Ihde ◽

Post Industrial ◽

Empirical Turn

In this article some important aspects of Heidegger’s philosophy of technology is addressed. It is argued against Don Ihde’s observation that Heidegger’s philosophy of technology mostly concerns the large scale technological phenomena of industrial revolution – actually in Heidegger’s oeuvre we can find reflection on such micro-scale post-industrial technologies as cybernetics, biotechnologies etc. The critique of the essentialism of Heideggerian philosophy of technology by such authors as Andrew Feenberg, Don Ihde and Peter-Paul Verbeek is presented. It is suggested that earlier Heidegger’s concept of the essence of technology as “machination” (Machenschaft) is less susceptible to such criticism: whether technologies are exploitative and turning nature into “standing reserve”, or whether they are ecological and nature-friendly, whether they are understood as autonomous force, or democratically controlled process – it could be said that through contemporary technologies reality is increasingly turned into artifice and entities are revealed as makeable and producible.

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A 300-year high resolution Greenland ice record of large-scale atmospheric pollution by arsenic in the Northern Hemisphere

10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-1645 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Khanghyun Lee ◽

Changhee Han ◽

Seong-Joon Jun ◽

Jong Ik Lee ◽

Sungmin Hong

Keyword(s):

High Resolution ◽

Northern Hemisphere ◽

Atmospheric Pollution ◽

Large Scale ◽

18Th Century ◽

Fold Increase ◽

Mean Value ◽

Subsequent Increase ◽

The Great Depression ◽

The First World War

<p>We report the first high-resolution record of arsenic (As) observed in Greenland snow and ice for the periods 1711 to 1970 and 2003 to 2009 AD. The results show well-defined large-scale atmospheric pollution by this toxic element in the Northern Hemisphere, beginning as early as the 18th century. The most striking feature is an abrupt, unprecedented enrichment factor (EF) peak in the late 1890s, with a ~30-fold increase in the mean value above the Holocene natural level. Highly enriched As was evident until the late 1910s; a sharp decline was observed after the First World War, reaching a minimum in the early 1930s during the Great Depression. A subsequent increase lasted until the mid-1950s, before decreasing again. Comparisons between the observed variations and Cu smelting data indicate that Cu smelting in Europe and North America was the likely source of early anthropogenic As in Greenland. Despite a significant reduction of ~80% in concentration and ~60% in EF from the 1950s to the 2000s, more than 80% of present-day As in Greenland is of anthropogenic origin, probably due to increasing As emissions from coal combustion in China. This highlights the demand for the implementation of national and international environmental regulations to further reduce As emissions.</p>

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Severe Droughts of 1876-1878 in North China and Possible Causes

10.21203/rs.3.rs-161952/v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Zhixin Hao ◽

Mengxin Bai ◽

Danyang Xiong ◽

Yang Liu ◽

Jingyun Zheng

Keyword(s):

Northern Hemisphere ◽

El Niño ◽

Large Scale ◽

North China ◽

Industrial Revolution ◽

El Nino ◽

Wave Train ◽

Extreme Drought ◽

Severe Drought ◽

Price Inflation

Abstract Extreme drought of 1876–1878 occurred in most regions of Northern China after the industrial revolution which has led to a series of social impacts, including harvest failure, price inflation, and population immigration. Concurrently, most regions of Northern Hemisphere occurred extreme drought. Here, we used the reconstructed high-resolution hydroclimatic (PDSI/precipitation) datasets, investigated the seasonal-annual hydroclimatic spatial patterns and drought intensity with time evolution from 1876 to 1878 in North China. Furthermore, we selected combined Sea Surface Temperature (SST) modes with positive IOD/PDO and El Niño from the 1200-year control run simulations of HadCM3 to diagnose the causes of this severe drought. The extent and intensity of selected SST mode was similar with that in Pacific and Indian Ocean during the 1876–1878 from NOAA/ERSST dataset. The results showed that the large-scale drought of 1876–1878 was mainly driven by El Niño and positive PDO, while the effect of IOD was not significant. El Niño may trigger Circumglobal Teleconnection of Northern Hemisphere, and meridional disturbance of mid-latitude Rossby wave train changed the intensity of trough and ridge, and further blocked water vapor transportation.

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Past and recent changes in the large-scale tropospheric cycles of lead and other heavy metals as documented in Antarctic and Greenland snow and ice: A review

Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta ◽

10.1016/0016-7037(94)90049-3 ◽

1994 ◽

Vol 58 (15) ◽

pp. 3217-3225 ◽

Cited By ~ 86

Author(s):

Claude F. Boutron ◽

Jean-Pierre Candelone ◽

Sungmin Hong

Keyword(s):

Heavy Metals ◽

Large Scale ◽

Snow And Ice

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ON THE POLLUTION WITH ANTIBIOTICS, HEAVY METALS AND CONVENTIONAL INDICATORS IN DIGESTED WASTEWATER FROM LARGE-SCALE PIG FARMS IN JIAXING CITY, CHINA

Environmental Engineering and Management Journal ◽

10.30638/eemj.2016.245 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 15 (10) ◽

pp. 2253-2260 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Lvjun Chen ◽

Rui Liu ◽

Genrong Wang ◽

Zhaoxia Ye

Keyword(s):

Heavy Metals ◽

Large Scale ◽

Pig Farms

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Sustainable Large-Scale Aquaculture of the Northern Hemisphere Sea Lettuce, Ulva fenestrata, in an Off-Shore Seafarm

Journal of Marine Science and Engineering ◽

10.3390/jmse9060615 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 9 (6) ◽

pp. 615

Author(s):

Sophie Steinhagen ◽

Swantje Enge ◽

Karin Larsson ◽

Joakim Olsson ◽

Göran M. Nylund ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Fatty Acid ◽

Low Temperature ◽

Northern Hemisphere ◽

Biochemical Composition ◽

Large Scale ◽

Biomass Yield ◽

Phenolic Content ◽

Seedling Density ◽

Ulva Fenestrata ◽

High Nutrient

The growing world population demands an increase in sustainable resources for biorefining. The opening of new farm grounds and the cultivation of extractive species, such as marine seaweeds, increases worldwide, aiming to provide renewable biomass for food and non-food applications. The potential for European large-scale open ocean farming of the commercial green seaweed crop Ulva is not yet fully realized. Here we conducted manipulative cultivation experiments in order to investigate the effects of hatchery temperature (10 and 15 °C), nutrient addition (PES and 3xPES) and swarmer density (500 and 10,000 swarmers ml−1) on the biomass yield and biochemical composition (fatty acid, protein, carbohydrate, pigment and phenolic content) of off-shore cultivated Ulva fenestrata in a Swedish seafarm. High seedling densities were optimal for the growth of this northern hemisphere crop strain and significantly increased the mean biomass yield by ~84% compared to low seedling densities. Variations of nutrients or changes in temperature levels during the hatchery phase were not necessary to increase the subsequent growth in an open-water seafarm, however effects of the factors on the thallus habitus (thallus length/width) were observed. We found no significant effect of the environmental factors applied in the hatchery on the total fatty acid or crude protein content in the off-shore cultivated Ulva. However, low seedling density and low temperature increased the total carbohydrate content and furthermore, high temperature in combination with high nutrient levels decreased the pigment content (chlorophyll a, b, carotenoids). Low temperature in combination with high nutrient levels increased the phenolic content. Our study confirms the successful and sustainable potential for large-scale off-shore cultivation of the Scandinavian crop U. fenestrata. We conclude that high seedling density in the hatchery is most important for increasing the total biomass yield of sea-farmed U. fenestrata, and that changing temperature or addition of nutrients overall does not have a large effect on the biochemical composition. To summarize, our study contributes novel insights into the large-scale off-shore cultivation potential of northern hemisphere U. fenestrata and underpins suitable pre-treatments during the hatchery phase of seedlings to facilitate a successful and cost-efficient large-scale rope cultivation.

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Fabrication of Ultrathin MoS2 Nanosheets and Application on Adsorption of Organic Pollutants and Heavy Metals

Processes ◽

10.3390/pr8050504 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 8 (5) ◽

pp. 504 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Siyi Huang ◽

Ziyun You ◽

Yanting Jiang ◽

Fuxiang Zhang ◽

Kaiyang Liu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Heavy Metals ◽

Electrostatic Interactions ◽

Large Scale ◽

Layer Structure ◽

Structural Characteristics ◽

Hexagonal Phase ◽

Two Dimensional ◽

Mos2 Nanosheets ◽

Hybrid Strategy ◽

Ultrathin Mos2 Nanosheets

Owing to their peculiar structural characteristics and potential applications in various fields, the ultrathin MoS2 nanosheets, a typical two-dimensional material, have attracted numerous attentions. In this paper, a hybrid strategy with combination of quenching process and liquid-based exfoliation was employed to fabricate the ultrathin MoS2 nanosheets (MoS2 NS). The obtained MoS2 NS still maintained hexagonal phase (2H-MoS2) and exhibited evident thin layer-structure (1–2 layers) with inconspicuous wrinkle. Besides, the MoS2 NS dispersion showed excellent stability (over 60 days) and high concentration (0.65 ± 0.04 mg mL−1). The MoS2 NS dispersion also displayed evident optical properties, with two characteristic peaks at 615 and 670 nm, and could be quantitatively analyzed with the absorbance at 615 nm in the range of 0.01–0.5 mg mL−1. The adsorption experiments showed that the as-prepared MoS2 NS also exhibited remarkable adsorption performance on the dyes (344.8 and 123.5 mg g−1 of qm for methylene blue and methyl orange, respectively) and heavy metals (185.2, 169.5, and 70.4 mg g−1 of qm for Cd2+, Cu2+, and Ag+). During the adsorption, the main adsorption mechanisms involved the synergism of physical hole-filling effects and electrostatic interactions. This work provided an effective way for the large-scale fabrication of the two-dimensional nanosheets of transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) by liquid exfoliation.

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