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For those who are looking for a reason to care, this stuff does matter. For example, the reason it's unsafe to have sushi twice a week is from mercury, which co

For those who are looking for a reason to care, this stuff does matter. For example, the reason it's unsafe to have sushi twice a week is from mercury, which comes from coal-burning. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_in_fish#Origins_of_mercury_pollution https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_in_fish#Origins_of_mer...

benj111 8y ago
This is something I wasn't aware of. I would question whether this in and of itself would change any bodies mind, considering all the other well publicised reasons to care.
- mariopt 8y ago
  Coal is a relative small contaminant. Check the documentary Salmon Confidencial and you’ll find that farmed Salmon is contaminated by the food provided: contamined eels from the Baltic Sea. Even the cod has started to suffer genetic mutations. The Baltic borders 4 countries, the water takes 30 year to fully renew and it was contaminated by Chernobyl disaster. Not to mention the amount of antibiotic that can produce new resistance bacteria’s that might kill you. We’re reaching the point where aquaculture will the safe method to consume fish.
  - toxik 8y ago
    The Baltic sea is polluted due to factories on the coasts. Well-known fact.
    - llukas 8y ago
      And chemical weapons dumps after WWII
dsfyu404ed 8y ago
>For example, the reason it's unsafe to have sushi twice a week This is misleading. It totally depends on what kind of sushi you have. Tuna rolls are probably the most mercury dense and you'd need to eat a lot of them to eat the equivalent of one tuna sandwich. For people not eating shark and swordfish the primary risk is albacore tuna and even then the standard deviation is very high (mostly having to do with where the fish was caught). Basically don't eat tons of "high up in the food chain" seafood while pregnant and nothing bad will happen. From a risk management perspective it's better to make sure you have working smoke detectors in your house and fire extinguishers scattered throughout your property before than to worry about mercury in seafood.
kirre245 8y ago
If not being able to eat sushi (with dead fish) more than twice a week is the only 'good' reason to care for adoption of sustainable energy production thats exactly explaining why humanities' future looks really bad :D
DoctorOetker 8y ago
>The total amount of mercury released by mankind in 2010 was estimated to be 1,960 metric tons. When I was in high school, there were of course multiple classrooms, and there was a relatively new chemistry lab. One of the other classrooms was in fact the old chemistry lab room, with a monolithic row of water taps and sinks along the middle of the room splitting the room in two, with school benches on the left and right of the sinks. We had mathematics, biology and technical education in this room. Under the sinks were cabinets with wooden sliding doors, some of them were left open, others closed... One day something in the cabinets catches my attention: a brilliant reflecting puddle, with characteristic contact angle, so I realize I am seeing a puddle of mercury. About 15cl. I interrupt the class to point this out to the math teacher, who comes to check, and realizes I am right. We discuss how it ended up there, and we conclude it must have been there for many years, back when this was still the chemistry lab, and that someone wanted to get rid of the mercury and tried to drain it in the sink. The mercury being heavier than water probably refused to flush through the siphon ( U shape ) right above the puddle and over time leaked out somehow. The teacher was quite pissed he had been giving so many hours of class in this room, and didn't really feel like finishing class so we all just sat there bummed out... this was about year 2000. About 3 years ago, I had a long fluorescent lamp in a rented house die, I knew there was mercury inside and that the shops that sells lamps are obliged to take these from the customer, so I very carefully take out the lamp from its housing, carry it carefully to the nearby hardware store, and give it to an employee at the check-out before shopping, I emphasize that they should handle the lamp carefully. I go buy a LED lamp in the same form factor, and when I check out to pay, the cashier tells me the lamp broke accidentally. I tell her that's not good, she says she knows, I ask how often these fluorescent tubes break in the shop, she says all the time, I ask how often is that: multiple times per day!

benj111 8y ago

This is something I wasn't aware of. I would question whether this in and of itself would change any bodies mind, considering all the other well publicised reasons to care.

mariopt 8y ago
Coal is a relative small contaminant. Check the documentary Salmon Confidencial and you’ll find that farmed Salmon is contaminated by the food provided: contamined eels from the Baltic Sea. Even the cod has started to suffer genetic mutations. The Baltic borders 4 countries, the water takes 30 year to fully renew and it was contaminated by Chernobyl disaster. Not to mention the amount of antibiotic that can produce new resistance bacteria’s that might kill you. We’re reaching the point where aquaculture will the safe method to consume fish.
- toxik 8y ago
  The Baltic sea is polluted due to factories on the coasts. Well-known fact.
  - llukas 8y ago
    And chemical weapons dumps after WWII

dsfyu404ed 8y ago

>For example, the reason it's unsafe to have sushi twice a week This is misleading. It totally depends on what kind of sushi you have. Tuna rolls are probably the most mercury dense and you'd need to eat a lot of them to eat the equivalent of one tuna sandwich. For people not eating shark and swordfish the primary risk is albacore tuna and even then the standard deviation is very high (mostly having to do with where the fish was caught). Basically don't eat tons of "high up in the food chain" seafood while pregnant and nothing bad will happen. From a risk management perspective it's better to make sure you have working smoke detectors in your house and fire extinguishers scattered throughout your property before than to worry about mercury in seafood.

kirre245 8y ago

If not being able to eat sushi (with dead fish) more than twice a week is the only 'good' reason to care for adoption of sustainable energy production thats exactly explaining why humanities' future looks really bad :D

DoctorOetker 8y ago

>The total amount of mercury released by mankind in 2010 was estimated to be 1,960 metric tons. When I was in high school, there were of course multiple classrooms, and there was a relatively new chemistry lab. One of the other classrooms was in fact the old chemistry lab room, with a monolithic row of water taps and sinks along the middle of the room splitting the room in two, with school benches on the left and right of the sinks. We had mathematics, biology and technical education in this room. Under the sinks were cabinets with wooden sliding doors, some of them were left open, others closed... One day something in the cabinets catches my attention: a brilliant reflecting puddle, with characteristic contact angle, so I realize I am seeing a puddle of mercury. About 15cl. I interrupt the class to point this out to the math teacher, who comes to check, and realizes I am right. We discuss how it ended up there, and we conclude it must have been there for many years, back when this was still the chemistry lab, and that someone wanted to get rid of the mercury and tried to drain it in the sink. The mercury being heavier than water probably refused to flush through the siphon ( U shape ) right above the puddle and over time leaked out somehow. The teacher was quite pissed he had been giving so many hours of class in this room, and didn't really feel like finishing class so we all just sat there bummed out... this was about year 2000. About 3 years ago, I had a long fluorescent lamp in a rented house die, I knew there was mercury inside and that the shops that sells lamps are obliged to take these from the customer, so I very carefully take out the lamp from its housing, carry it carefully to the nearby hardware store, and give it to an employee at the check-out before shopping, I emphasize that they should handle the lamp carefully. I go buy a LED lamp in the same form factor, and when I check out to pay, the cashier tells me the lamp broke accidentally. I tell her that's not good, she says she knows, I ask how often these fluorescent tubes break in the shop, she says all the time, I ask how often is that: multiple times per day!