North America's Ongoing, Ignored Disaster

There is an ongoing disaster in north America which is not only ongoing but getting worse. And despite its geologic origin, it has been largely ignored by the public. This video discusses the sudden changing of many remote streams and rivers from a clear blue to a toxic orange color. This is not due to acid mine drainage or illegal dumping of waste, but instead something worse.

Thumbnail Photo Credit: Josh Koch, U.S. Geological Survey, Public Domain, https://www.usgs.gov/media/images/ora...

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Various licenses used in sections of this video (not the entire video, this video as a whole does not completely fall under one of these licenses) and/or in this video's thumbnail image (and this list does not include every license used in this video and/or thumbnail image):
Public Domain: https://creativecommons.org/publicdom...
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Sources/Citations:
[1] U.S. Geological Survey
[2] Christiansen, Hanne & Sjöberg, Ylva & Blume-Werry, Gesche & Dorrepaal, E. & Etzelmüller, Bernd & Farnsworth, Wesley & Hjort, Jan & Ingeman-Nielsen, Thomas & Malenfant-Lepage, Julie & Petterson, R. & Sannel, A. & Siewert, Matthias & Tomaskovicova, S. & Väliranta, M.. (2024). A roadmap for developing higher permafrost education in Norden. Nordic Journal of STEM Education. 8. 18-44. 10.5324/njsteme.v8i2.5127. CC BY 4.0.
[3] Patzner, M.S., Mueller, C.W., Malusova, M. et al. Iron mineral dissolution releases iron and associated organic carbon during permafrost thaw. Nat Commun 11, 6329 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-20..., CC BY 4.0.
[4] O’Donnell, J.A., Carey, M.P., Koch, J.C. et al. Metal mobilization from thawing permafrost to aquatic ecosystems is driving rusting of Arctic streams. Commun Earth Environ 5, 268 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-024-01..., CC BY 4.0.
[5] Glen Fergus, 2015, Article link: http://gergs.net/all_palaeotemps/, Photo link: https://i0.wp.com/gergs.net/wp-conten..., CC BY 4.0

0:00 A Geologic Rabbit Hole
0:33 An Orange River
2:06 Toxic Metals
2:41 Permafrost
3:34 Bacteria
4:13 Pyrite & Sulfides