Global status of soil pollution
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The document discusses the critical issue of soil contamination from over 144,000 man-made chemicals, emphasizing its significant impact on human health and environmental sustainability. It highlights the urgent need for global initiatives to address soil pollution and improve regulation, technology, and stakeholder engagement in remediation efforts. With millions of contaminated sites worldwide, the document calls for a coordinated response similar to the Paris Agreement for climate change.
Global status of soil pollution
- 2. COOPERATIVE RESEARCH CENTRE FOR CONTAMINATION ASSESSMENT AND REMEDIATION OF THE ENVIRONMENT Professor Ravi Naidu, Managing Director & CEO, CRC CARE Global Chair Innovation, Global Centre for Environmental Remediation, University of Newcastle 2nd May 2018 Clean Soils: Humanity’s next great challenge
- 4. Overview • Introduction • Chemical pollutants in soils • Impacts • Human • Environment • Risk implications • Clean Earth: next great challenge • Conclusion and Global Initiative
- 5. Planetary boundaries Chemical contamination is: • One of the ten ‘planetary boundaries’ which humanity, for its own sake, ought not to transgress (Rockstrom et al., Nature 461, 2009) • Equivalent or greater significance with climate change
- 6. • This is just a little drop given the large number of known and unknown chemicals Human-made chemicals
- 7. Earth now affected by 144,000+ man-made chemicals
- 8. 250+ gigatons of human emissions • 30 million tons of industrial chemicals and pesticides • 150 mt of N and 11mt of P • 400 mt of hazardous wastes • 50 mt e-waste • 15 bt of coal, oil and gas • 50 bt of carbon dioxide gas • 72 bt materials and metals • >50 to 100 bt mining wastes • 75 bt of topsoil.
- 9. 250+ gigatons of human emissions In its scale and global implications, it is the most underrated, under-investigated and poorly understood of all the essential risks facing humans in the 21st Century. IT IS 5 TIMES AS LARGE AS OUR CLIMATE IMPACT
- 10. Point and nonpoint sources NONPOINT SOURCES Urban streets Suburban development Wastewater treatment plant Rural homes Cropland Factory Animal feedlot POINT SOURCES
- 11. Impacts the critical zone These processes support and/or control many ecosystem processes Supply products that benefit society
- 12. Impact of soil contaminants • Human health • Environmental sustainability and via this ecosystem services Natural capital: The stock of natural materials & energy Ecosystem Services: The beneficial flows of goods between natural capital stocks, or stocks & humans
- 13. Costanza et al. (Nature, 1997) 1. Gas regulation 2. Climate regulation 3. Disturbance regulation 4. Water regulation 5. Water supply 6. Erosion control 7. Soil formation 8. Nutrient cycling 9. Waste treatment 10. Pollination 11. Biological control 12. Refugia 13. Food production 14. Raw material 15. Genetic resources 16. Recreation 17. Cultural Services Stocks Ecosystem services: benefits that people obtain from ecosystems: • provisioning • regulating • supporting • cultural services The 17 ecosystem services
- 14. Global GNP is just US$18 trillion per year. Ecosystem services are thought to be worth 1.8 times this. Pollutant: How big is the impact? When we count ecosystem value
- 15. Impacts critical zone: Food Chain • Soil-human • Soil-crop-human • Soil-fodder/pasture-animal-human • Groundwater-animal-human • Groundwater-soil-human etc Food security: yield, quality
- 16. Is soil pollution the only concern? Dust to pollute air Leaching to pollute water/groundwater
- 17. • In 2012, 7 million premature deaths annually linked to air pollution – one in eight of total global deaths • More than doubles previous estimates • Air pollution is now the world’s largest single environmental health risk • Reducing air pollution could save millions of lives. World Health Organisation, March 2014 AIR POLLUTION
- 18. Pollutant: How big is the impact?
- 19. Soil pollutants: where do we escape? Exposure: Pb from mine soil
- 20. HUMAN-MADE CHEMICALS • Brain development conditions affect millions of children worldwide – e.g. autism, Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), dyslexia and other cognitive impairments • Five industrial chemicals identified in 2006 as toxic to the developing brain: lead, methylmercury, polychlorinated biphenyls, arsenic, toluene • Since 2006, six additional such chemicals documented – manganese, fluoride, chlorpyrifos, dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, tetrachloroethylene, and the polybrominated diphenyl ethers – Even more remain undiscovered Grandjean & Llandigran (2014) Neurobehavioural effects of developmental toxicity. The Lancet Neurology, 13(3): pp 330-338. The Lancet, March 2014
- 21. Soil contaminants: where do we escape? Just an example: As
- 22. Country Potentially contaminated sites Value of current market Future potentials USA 450,000 to 500,000 US $10+ billion per year (1/3 of global demand) Estimated at US $650 billion over 30-35 years Western Europe 600,000+ An estimated € 50 billion, timeframe unspecified 0.5-1.5% of GDP is likely to be spent per annum Japan 500,000+ $1.2 billion+, timeframe unspecified N/A Australia 160,000 >$3 billion per annum N/A Asia region >3,000,000 Unassessed N/A (modified from CEI, 2005) Global estimate of potentially contaminated sites So where are we? Site clean up has been on for nearly 5 decades; < 10% have been cleaned
- 24. Global- contaminated sites and pace of remediation Time 5,000,000 Number of contaminated sites Contaminated sites Sites remediated in last 50 years Cost of remediation: $80 to 100 billion/annum Developed nation investments
- 25. CLEANUP IS NON EXISTENT IN MANY DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: LACK OF RESOURCES Investment($M) GDP ($B) Capacity Developing Nations Developed Nations To remediate all the contaminated sites is humanty’s next great challenge
- 26. Cleaning soil pollutant- what’s needed? •Regulation •Technology •Finance •Capacity •Stakeholder support. 1. Best practice policy 2. Better measure ment 3. Minimise uncertainty in assessment 4. Cleaning up End users
- 27. Why regulation is failing • Only 19 out of 144,000 chemicals banned • > 2000 new chemicals released each year • Many new chemicals not tested for human or environmental safety (UNEP) • Replacing old chemicals with new ones can bring new problems (e.g. DDT, neonics) • Regulation cannot control the billions of mixtures arising from human chemical release • Chemical industry re-basing in poorly regulated Asia
- 28. Progressing cleanup • Recognition and awareness- contaminants are far more serious than any other illness; • Medical costs; • Regulation- industry and policy makers to collaborate and work towards a harmonised approach; • Cost effective technologies; • Polluter pays… Capacity Building Remediation industry-
- 29. Clean-up-the-Earth technologies • Green chemistry • Lifecycle assessment • Zero waste • Material flow analysis • Industrial ecology • Integrated pest management • Organic farming systems • Risk assessment/bioavailability • Remediation technologies • Need local resources; • Capacity in each country; • Technology innovation; • Policy considerations.
- 30. Concluding remarks • More than 5 million potentially contaminated sites; • Chemical pollutant in soil is not a single entity- Linked to water and air • The heath burden is higher than any other causalities • The impact of chemical pollutants is five times as large as our climate impact; • Regulation could play a central role in managing; – Introduction of new chemicals in the environment; • Need for an accord like Paris Climate Change- for Soil pollutants • Global initiative is needed..
- 31. The Global Contamination Assessment and Remediation Enterprise (globalCARETM) Need Initiative: Scale is Global Minimise the exposure of humans and the Earth’s biosphere to anthropogenic chemical contamination from all sources Email: ravi.naidu@crccare.com
- 32. Acknowledgement • Dr Bhabananda Biswas, UniSA • Mr Adam Barclay, CRC CARE • Mr Julian Cribb • Dr Brent Clothier • GCER and CRC CARE Team
- 34. Global CleanUp Congress: 21st to 25th October, Coimbatore, India