A shrinking Alaska glacier is releasing old pesticides in its meltwater

Banned toxic chemicals, including pesticides such as DDT, are melting out of glaciers in Alaska and elsewhere in the Arctic as they retreat.

Decades ago, when DDT was considered a miracle weapon against insect pests, people doused crops, fields, buildings and neighborhoods with the chemical compound. Remnants of that and other now-banned pesticides streamed into the atmosphere, attached to airborne snow and ice particles and dropped down on high-latitude and high-altitude cold places, accumulating in the Arctic.