Letter to Al Gore (unanswered)

I would like to introduce you to another important connection regarding global warming that you do not address in your book.  Our planet is stressed and the biochemical mediator of the stress response is cadmium (Cd). Where is Cd coming from? It is a ubiquitous element in air coming from population growth, industrial processes, agricultural practices, combustions of all kinds and probably solar winds since polar animals have high levels of Cd in their kidneys. Tobacco smoke has always been a powerful source.  It has to be the most important global element that nobody concerned with global warming seems to know anything about.

The Cadmium Hypothesis

Although you mention cadmium once in your book as one of 215 toxins found in humans routinely, it has a major effect on the many problems you outline so well. The planet is an aggregate organism of all the living systems.  It is my hypothesis that cadmium played a role in the evolution of the planet and the past climate changes, mass extinctions and dramatic changes in life forms that occurred.

 It was able to do this because it is changes gene expression, interferes with DNA repair and  acts through signal transduction pathways that help cells adapt to stressors in their environment. The very young are generally unable to adapt.  The strategy is to quickly sequester cadmium and then just allow a little cadmium to be free in situations of stress to do the necessary up and down regulation of genes and signaling to respond to the stress in an adaptive way that leads to resiliency and hardiness.

At current levels of pollution the planet is not able to sequester the cadmium adequately. The extreme variations in temperature, storms, flooding, and drought are manifestations of this stress. If the people concerned about climate change are unwilling to look at what I have discovered I do not believe an adequate solution can be found.

Methane Production

Archae, one of the oldest living forms, which makes up 16% of the earth’s biomass, makes methane, sulfuric acid and nitrates. It has the enzymes of DNA repair and signal transduction found in plants and animals. These organisms are able to survive in extreme environments, just the conditions that cadmium could facilitate.  By increasing methane gas from archae cadmium contributes to global warming.   In animal studies when the archae  in the guts of ruminants that make methane are treated with tannins which bind cadmium, the methane production decreases. 

Since methane deposits  were probably produced by Archae  using Cd. It is possible that these deposits contain Cd. Dimethyl cadmium is an odorless gas and the current filters will not pick it up. Fracking has been associated with adverse effects in humans and animals that one could attribute to cadmium acting probably in conjunction with other chemicals. I would very much like to see a biological filter for cadmium used to determine how much cadmium leaks out and whether “clean” methane gas is actually clean. If burning it is releasing more cadmium fumes it will contribute to global warming.

Measuring Cadmium

Algea exposed to cadmium increase the copy number of the cadmium binding protein phytochelaton.  The filters in use now for cadmium were developed when lead was in the air and the lead/cadmium particulate was caught. Without lead cadmium goes through the filter which is why the various groups concerned about global warming have not been paying attention to cadmium.  It is necessary to use a biological trap.  I predict that invasive species are cadmium resistant. That would be a kind of measure. The fungal blights affecting corn in the Midwest are cadmium tolerant. All fertilizerrs have cadmium and cadmium gets into the lignan of plants which is how it gets into plastics.  Cadmium can go through the plant into the air in hot windy conditions but the current filters wont pick up this fume.

 CO2 Production

All combustion releases cadmium in the air. Biofuels are just as bad as fossil fuels. But in addition to releasing CO2 it releases Cd which influences all plants. Diatoms in phytoplankton use cadmium to produce CO2 which increases the growth of phytoplankton.  This is a large biomass in itself.  Cadmium can decrease photosynthesis and increase photo-respiration increasing CO2. At the same time it will decrease the atmospheric O2, a finding you describe that is happening.

How Leaded Gasoline Blocked Cd Uptake and the Aftermath of Its Removal

When there was lead pollution from tetraethyl lead in gasoline, Cd was more effectively monitored but it blocked to some degree the uptake of Cd in house dust, pollen, and all living entities. In 1993, a German scientist found the uptake of Cd in the tree rings of a single oak was decreased in the time period from 1960 to 1980. This was the time of highest exposure to leaded gasoline. The curve of measurements of Cd in the rings can be super‑imposed on a curve of global temperatures during the same time period. On 1‑9‑13 the Wall Street Journal printed a graph of global temperatures and drought from 1900 to 2010. For 20 years between 1960 and 1980 there were decreased temperatures, decreased variability of temperature, and no droughts.  In 2012 the global temperature was the highest and the US experienced a devastating drought as you note in your book.

 I know a lot about cadmium. I have been studying it for 27 years. You can find my papers on my Web page.  I am a physician I see the effects in the change in health patterns.  Children under the age of 50 in the USA have the lowest life expectancy in the developed world and they are the population with the highest perceived stress.

 I hope you will call me and let me share with you all that I know about this very important element. Science as you say is also not working. A new idea, especially a global hypothesis, is unpopular. Even more so if overturns assumptions seen as facts.  

But the inconvenient truth is that cadmium is an increasing global pollutant and the mediator of stress, playing a role in all the problems you describe.  The rain forests and wetlands which are the natural traps for cadmium are decreasing while cadmium air pollution increases. Cap and trade will not work.