Immediate need for action to protect the polar regions
The polar regions are exposed to an increasing load of pollutants. Under the leadership of the Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon and the Umweltbundesamt (UBA), experts from the European Commission, the Stockholm Convention, the Arctic Council and the Antarctic Treaty Conference, environmental sample banks, data centers and leading research institutions have now formulated the “Berlin Statement”. The resulting recommendations for action were recently published in the journal “Chemosphere”.
Ecological crises have an impact even in the remotest corners of the earth. For example, the polar regions are heavily polluted by long-lived contaminants. These may be familiar chemicals, but more and more previously overlooked substances are being added. The authors of the Berlin Statement (Berlin statement on legacy and emerging contaminants in polar regions) emphasize as a result of their international workshop that countermeasures by different actors are necessary to effectively reduce the pollution caused.
Therefore, the researchers around Prof Dr Ralf Ebinghaus, head of the Hereon Institute of Coastal Environmental Chemistry, developed ten recommendations for action and provided them with suggestions for concrete implementation. The Berlin Statement aims to promote screening, monitoring, risk assessment, research collaboration and open data exchange to better protect the polar environment. The consensus reached at the workshop can be summed up in two words: “Act now!” (Source Hereon Press Release)
Read the complete Hereon Press Release:
==> Crisis in the cold
Ebinghaus, R., Barbaro, E., Bengtson Nash, S., de Avila, C., de Wit, C.A., Dulio, V., Felden, J., Franco, A., Gandrass, J., Grotti, M., Herata, H., Hughes, K.A., Jartun, M., Joerss, H., Kallenborn, R., Koschorreck, J., Küster, A., Lohmann, R., Wang, Z., MacLeod, M., Pugh, R., Rauert, C., Slobodnik, J., Sühring, R., Vorkamp, K., & Xie, Z. (2023): Berlin statement on legacy and emerging contaminants in polar regions. Chemosphere, Volume 327, 138530, doi:10.1016/j.chemosphere.2023.138530
Abstract:
Polar regions should be given greater consideration with respect to the monitoring, risk assessment, and management of potentially harmful chemicals, consistent with requirements of the precautionary principle. Protecting the vulnerable polar environments requires (i) raising political and public awareness and (ii) restricting and preventing global emissions of harmful chemicals at their sources. The Berlin Statement is the outcome of an international workshop with representatives of the European Commission, the Arctic Council, the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting, the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), environmental specimen banks, and data centers, as well as scientists from various international research institutions. The statement addresses urgent chemical pollution issues in the polar regions and provides recommendations for improving screening, monitoring, risk assessment, research cooperation, and open data sharing to provide environmental policy makers and chemicals management decision-makers with relevant and reliable contaminant data to better protect the polar environments. The consensus reached at the workshop can be summarized in just two words: “Act now!”
Specifically, “Act now!” to reduce the presence and impact of anthropogenic chemical pollution in polar regions by
- Establishing participatory co-development frameworks in a permanent multi-disciplinary platform for Arctic-Antarctic collaborations and establishing exchanges between the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program (AMAP) of the Arctic Council and the Antarctic Monitoring and Assessment Program (AnMAP) of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) to increase the visibility and exchange of contaminant data and to support the development of harmonized monitoring programs.
- Integrating environmental specimen banking, innovative screening approaches and archiving systems, to provide opportunities for improved assessment of contaminants to protect polar regions.
