glacier-legacy-contaminants-utac

GenesisAeon Package 109 — glaciers as chemical archives. The bridge connecting glacier-buffer-utac (P99), black-carbon-albedo-utac (P105), and freshwater-ecosystem-stressors-utac (P106): glaciers don't only lose water and darken from soot — they also store, and now release, decades of atmospherically-deposited persistent organic pollutants. Deliberately has no UTAC/CREP/AFET bridge — see DISCLAIMER.md.

For a plain-language explanation of the same topic (German, no jargon, written for general audiences), see WHITEPAPER.md.

Deliberately not one-sided

This package includes a real, important complication of the "glaciers release toxins" narrative, not just confirmation of it. release_implies_increased_food_web_exposure() returns False on purpose — real, measured contaminant release (confirmed at Lake Oberaar) does not automatically translate into higher ecological exposure everywhere it happens.

What's real here

• Pawlak, Koziol & Polkowska (2021, Science of the Total Environment) — a real systematic review: glaciers and snowpack act as "cold condensers," accumulating persistent organic pollutants (PCBs, DDT, PBDEs, PAHs, HCB, HCHs, chlordane) transported atmospherically from lower latitudes. PCB concentration trends in glacial meltwater echo the ~1970 global PCB emissions peak — the ice is releasing a decades-old chemical record.
• Bogdal, Schmid, Zennegg, Anselmetti, Scheringer & Hungerbühler (2009, Environmental Science & Technology) — a real, dated sediment core from Lake Oberaar (high-Alpine, glacier-fed, Switzerland): pollutant input increased sharply since the late 1990s, attributed to accelerated release from melting Alpine glaciers. A measured event, not a model or projection.
• McGovern, Warner, Borgå et al. (2022, Environmental Science & Technology) — the honesty check: glacial meltwater is confirmed as a secondary source of α-HCH to Arctic fjord zooplankton, but for legacy POPs generally, terrestrial inputs were associated with reduced, not increased, zooplankton POP concentrations. Real release does not automatically mean higher food-web exposure everywhere.

Quickstart

pip install glacier-legacy-contaminants-utac

from glacier_legacy_contaminants_utac import (
    contaminant_classes,
    pcb_emissions_peak_year,
    LAKE_OBERAAR,
    is_measured_not_modeled,
    confirmed_secondary_source_compound,
    release_implies_increased_food_web_exposure,
)

print(contaminant_classes())
print(pcb_emissions_peak_year())                # 1970
print(LAKE_OBERAAR.increase_onset)              # "late 1990s"
print(is_measured_not_modeled(LAKE_OBERAAR))    # True
print(confirmed_secondary_source_compound())     # "alpha-HCH"
print(release_implies_increased_food_web_exposure())  # False

Development

pip install -e ".[dev]"
pre-commit install
ruff check src tests
mypy src
pytest

Citation

See CITATION.cff and .zenodo.json.