Signing (Off On?) the Environment From our earliest history, human activity has left a signature in the environment. While this can be said of any organism for a given time scale, anthropogenic activity often uniquely marks the environment compared to our Terran siblings. Archeologists, equipped with ever more sensitive instrumentation are using this fact to locate and uncover cultural and technological history. An excellent example adorns this issue’s cover: an international team discovered spikes in the osmium (Os) levels in Spanish peat bogs that correlate with historical timeposts on the Iberian Peninsula (Environ. Sci. Technol. DOI 10.1021/es901887f). Increases above the nearly zero background levels of Earth’s second rarest element (after iridium [Ir]) mark the advent of (impactful) mining 4700 y ago; Roman blacksmithing 2000 y ago; and the rise of the Industrial Age 260 y ago. This compelling article has piqued the interest of (archeo)geochemists as noted in a news piece in C&EN. Since its inception in 1967, Environmental Science & Technology has been a home for articles on the detection and quantification of anthropogenic signatures in nature. This continues today in the February 1, 2010 issue’s two Featured pieces: Landers et al. on the ambitious Western Airborne Contaminant Assessment Project (WACAP) (Environ. Sci. Technol. DOI 10.1021/es901866e) and Lohmann and Muir on the need for aquatic passive samplers (Environ. Sci. Technol. DOI 10.1021/es902379g). In the former, the detection of pesticides and other persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in addition to mercury (Hg) in supposedly pristine U.S. National Parks’ air, water, soil, and biota is so alarming to policymakers that new regulations are percolating through the system. Further evidence that policymakers should heed is frequent in ES&T, with this issue being no exception: nitrogen (N) isotopes track sewage in Floridian and Bahamanian corals (Environ. Sci. Technol. DOI 10.1021/es9018404); polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the Canadian high Arctic (Environ. Sci. Technol. DOI 10.1021/es902203w); and Hg deposition on the snows of the Svalbard Islands (Environ. Sci. Technol. DOI 10.1021/es902579m). Clearly, the signature of human industry, at least as old as Spanish dirt, is now a global graffiti. (Note that this author does distinguish art from lazy scrawls: respectful citizens decorate their environment with structures
10.1021/es903961p
2010 American Chemical Society
Published on Web 01/28/2010
and aesthetically chosen pieces/reserves while disrespectful citizens deface it with an arrogant ignorance of their surroundings.) Yet as territorial sigils can be used to detect harmful activity, analytical environmental chemists are taking note of potential ways to track our nefariousness. Both WACAP and an article by Uzu et al. (Environ. Sci. Technol. DOI 10.1021/es902190u) on lettuce’s uptake of lead (Pb) indicate how biota can be a detection medium. Yet Lohmann and Muir argue that manufactured samplers will provide more consistent resultssthey opine that the success with atmospheric samplers should be repeated in aquatic realms. Significant of that need, articles herein report on the anthropogenic tainting of waterways from ante bellum Pb (Environ. Sci. Technol. DOI 10.1021/es902307c), through 20th century POP pesticides (Environ. Sci. Technol. DOI 10.1021/ es902482b) (see also the January 15 news article (Environ. Sci. Technol. DOI 10.1021/es903688s) on Environ. Sci. Technol. DOI 10.1021/es9025535), and the depressingly “emergent” specter of pharmacoactive chemical species (Environ. Sci. Technol. DOI 10.1021/es9022706). The Stockholm Convention has been well supported by the detection and tracking of the Dirty Dozen’s gang signs (now with Twenty-One members). Perhaps daunting at first, scoping the extent of the problem is the first step to legislation to mitigate, if not eradicate, the threat we place on ourselves by putting up with our defacing ways. While true that garbage dumps are treasure troves for archeologists, we hope that your continued submissions to perfect cleanup efforts mean that future archeogeochemists will see a stratigraphic signature marking when we turned the corner.
Darcy J. Gentleman Managing Editor
[email protected] February 1, 2010 / ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 9 851
