Melting Himalayan Glaciers Are Releasing Toxic Chemicals, Poisoning Water Flowing Into India

As the world continues to warm, the ice in our mountains and polar regions is steadily melting. Now that doesn't just contribute to floods and sea level rises.

In some cases, it's also releasing toxic pollutants that were once trapped in the ice back into our ecosystem.

Images courtesy: Wikimedia Commons

According to a new study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, the melting glaciers in the Himalayas are releasing decades worth of accumulated pollutants downstream. Apparently chemicals commonly used in pesticides have been accumulating in glaciers and ice sheets around the world since the 1940s. And now, thanks to rising temperatures due to climate change, they're being released.

The study shows these toxins are ending up in Himalayan lakes, possibly killing the aquatic life. And since they're accumulating in the fish, they're probably also entering human bodies through the food chain.

One of the most remote areas on the planet turning into a toxin-spewing pipeline because of our pollution.

The Himalayan glaciers contain even higher levels of atmospheric pollutants than those in other parts of the world "because of their proximity to south Asian countries that are some of the most polluted regions of the world," said Xiaoping Wang, an author on the study.

And believe me, this isn't surprising at all. Pollutants can travel incredibly long distances through the atmosphere, riding on dust particles and water molecules. Heck, pollutants have even reached the polar ice sheets and the depths of our oceans.

The Nam Co Basin, in the Himalayas was home to more than 300 glaciers across 200 square kilometers in 2010. But thanks to the ice melt, the total volume of those glaciers has gone down nearly 20 percent in the last 20 years.

Wang and team found that glaciers in the Nam Co basin, as they melt, are releasing about 1,342 milligrams of toxic pesticides every day into the nearby lake. They estimate that would be about 1.81 kilograms per year. "In general, the results are comparable to previous studies on lakes in polar regions," the team wrote.

The chemicals referred to here, specifically perfluoroalkyl acids, have a very long lifespan too. They don't usually biodegrade, meaning they pass through various organisms in the food chain, getting continually concentrated in the process. Even worse, the Nam Co Basin also feeds directly in certain water resources in India.

It's time we got cracking cleaning up our mess, before there's nothing left to save.