Posted on 06/02/2017 3:46:16 PM PDT by Lorianne
Analysis of ice cores, as well as historic health and economic records, suggests humans have been polluting the air for at least 2,000 years, challenging the assumption that environmental degradation began during the Industrial Revolution.
Researchers determined the natural concentration of lead in the air is close to zero. Ice cores show unnatural lead levels were detectable in the atmosphere several centuries before the Industrial Revolution.
When the Black Death pandemic decimated European populations, halting mining and smelting operations between 1349 and 1353, researchers observed a return to normal atmospheric lead levels.
"These new data show that human activity has polluted European air almost uninterruptedly for the last circa 2000 years," researchers wrote in their study, newly published in the journal GeoHealth. "Only a devastating collapse in population and economic activity caused by pandemic disease reduced atmospheric pollution to what can now more accurately be termed 'background' or natural levels."
Because scientists have previously assumed pre-industrial lead levels to be natural, regulators have deemed pre-industrial lead levels safe. The latest research suggests scientists and public health officials need to reconsider their definitions of "natural" and "safe."
Scientists reconstructed historic lead levels by analyzing ice cores drilled in the Swiss-Italian Alps. Researchers found lead levels dropped suddenly in the section of the ice cores corresponding to the four years between 1349 and 1353, when historical records suggest smelting and mining ceased almost entirely.
SNIP
“natural” and “safe.”
There has been a conscious effort to conflate the two terms.
I'm guessing they, or similar ilk, are taking a new tack at manipulating data.
The Anasazi Indians inhabited a cliff dwelling area near where I once lived in Silver City, NM. The interior roof of the dwelling still had a black color from smoke of the fires they used.
Yes, ancients did pollute, even ancient American Indians did pollute. smile.
Gila Cliff Dewellings
https://www.nps.gov/gicl/index.htm
The allegation that they can detect a four year drop is absurd. Glacial ice requires 10-20 years of compaction to form.
I see only Europeans contribute to “pollution”.
Nothing about the lead and coal contaminated lifestyle they have had for thousands of years.
Air pollution dates back 2000 years? Jeez, liberals you should have been protesting then..and ban SUVs...
You are correct. Arsenic, Cobras, Botulinum Toxin, etc. are all natural. They will kill you, but kill you naturally.
It almost sounds as if the endgame of the AGW acolytes involves the extinction of the human race.
Other than a select few of the “Enlightened”, of course.
That’s no secret-plenty of evidence of that.
I heard a scientist discussion recently where they made the point that the earth actually was experiencing a deficit of CO2-the plants need it to grow healthy and vibrant.
The AGW crowd would tax the very air you breath to save the environment, but what they should be doing is paying you to breathe all over the plants they think you should eat as a vegan. And they should learn to be thankful for cow patties too. LOL
The allegation that they can detect a four year drop is absurd. Glacial ice requires 10-20 years of compaction to form.
That does not necessaryily mean that the layers mix,
Heck - people been breathing and cows been farting longer than that....
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