Apparently rain water is now unsafe everywhere

[wildwanderer]

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-11/ ... -post-3098

Not the best news. I wonder if this still applies once it's hit the ground and flowing through creeks..

[Baeng72]

Humans, the one species smart enough to do damage to their life support system, but not smart enough to not do damage to it.
I imagine that if rainwater goes through peat bogs or other carbon filtering environs it would remove some PFAS.

[Warin]

Report link
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.2c02765

Looks like the report is based on reports based on 16 regions in China (6), USA (2), Sweden (2), Portugal, Malta, USA/Canada, Tibet and Antarctica. Tibet and Antarctica had the lowest levels...

-----------------------
Of more concern ...

Almost 200,000 Australians are often forced to drink water containing unsafe levels of uranium, arsenic, nitrates, fluoride and E.coli, according to the peak body for water suppliers. 40% of these are indigenus communities.
A further 400,000 people across Australia regularly drink water that fails aesthetic standards, a new Water Services Association of Australia report has found.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-11/ ... /101318826

[Aardvark]

It's not that hard to work out what to do.
Don't have kids and get ready to die.

[Baeng72]

It's not that hard to work out what to do.
Don't have kids and get ready to die.

Mortuiri te salutamus imperator!
But the only problem with that defeatist or resigned stance is that our kids/future us lose everything. We can save a lot and do a lot.
We'll all cark it one way or another, but since I've got kids, I'd like to make their future less *&%$#! than it could be. It'll be *&%$#! though, we've already done too much to avoid 1.5C warming.

[sandym]

YMMV, but I find the ABC loves a good doom and gloom news article. I actually think we have bigger problems with poor dietary patterns and inactivity rampant. Eat your veggies and exercise is not really a headline grabber though.

[Baeng72]

YMMV, but I find the ABC loves a good doom and gloom news article. I actually think we have bigger problems with poor dietary patterns and inactivity rampant. Eat your veggies and exercise is not really a headline grabber though.

My mileage and what the science says does vary.
The ABC actually sells the big-business line that there's a few issues around the edge, but things are basically OK.
They report the idea that if we keep warming to 1.5C, then problem solved, but 1.5C means famine, floods, drought and obvious knock-ons like wars and all that worse than we have now as we only have about 1.3C warming, but are doing so much damage now, there's a lag before we experience it so we carry on. And we have such a disconnect between what the science says and what the media and politicians say....
Anyway, If you think dietary patterns and sedentary lifestyle are a bigger problem than all that...well OK. Priorities I guess.
I'll leave a few notes from the IPCC report, because I find people don't want to believe we're stumbling head first into calamity, and so won't be convinced, as it's easier to pretend it's not a big deal.

This from IPCC for Austalasia:

1. Loss and degradation of coral reefs and associated biodiversity and ecosystem service values in Australia due to ocean warming
and marine heatwaves (very high confidence)
2. Loss of alpine biodiversity in Australia due to less snow (high confidence)
3. Transition or collapse of alpine ash, snowgum woodland, pencil pine and northern jarrah forests in southern Australia due to hotter
and drier conditions with more fires (high confidence)
4. Loss of kelp forests in southern Australia and southeast New Zealand due to ocean warming, marine heatwaves and overgrazing by
climate-driven range extensions of herbivore fish and urchins (high confidence)
5. Loss of natural and human systems in low-lying coastal areas due to sea-level rise (high confidence)
6. Disruption and decline in agricultural production and increased stress in rural communities in south-western, southern and eastern
mainland Australia due to hotter and drier conditions (high confidence)
7. Increase in heat-related mortality and morbidity for people and wildlife in Australia due to heatwaves (high confidence)
8. Cascading, compounding and aggregate impacts on cities, settlements, infrastructure, supply-chains and services due to wildfires,
floods, droughts, heatwaves, storms and sea-level rise (high confidence)
9. Inability of institutions and governance systems to manage climate risks (high confidence).

https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg2/down ... alasia.pdf

[CraigVIC]

The threshold referenced is a "lifetime" threshold so presumably this is more relevant to people drinking tank water mostly/exclusively rather than bushwalkers. Still, it's hard to see this in any other way than utterly depressing.

[ribuck]

A further 400,000 people across Australia regularly drink water that fails aesthetic standards, a new Water Services Association of Australia report has found.

This is the water supply companies touting for business. I'd like to see what they propose to do about water that fails to meet my aesthetic standards. I'm thinking of a remnant waterhole I had to take water from in Central Australia that was dark green with some dead fish floating on top.

Regarding the chemicals found in rainwater, it's not welcome news but it's the first recognition of a problem. Knowledge is what leads to further understanding and to the emergence of solutions. I'm not part of the "We're all doomed" camp.

I note in passing that the production of breathable hi-tech membranes is a cause of the pollution that is being reported here.

[Avatar]

Mining toxic metals like lithium, cadmium, lead, cobalt and rare earths on a heretofore unknown massive global scale, with a 20 year or less cycle of mining, processing and disposal in order to support the "green renewables" agenda is not going to do any good for global ecology and the environment, let alone water quality and food security. These products are elemental. They do not break down and once dispersed in the environment they are taken up the food chain. We are facing global level dispersion of this toxic payload and thinking more "green" technology is going to solve it is simply dreaming.