It's a long messy chain of pollution

Always remember - you might not see it, you might not know it - but YOU have an impact on our planets environment. Is it a good one? When your grandchildren see the impact you had during your life, will they be proud or ashamed?

Scientists studying hydrothermal vents, those underwater geysers that are home to bizarre geological structures and unique marine species, have discovered something all too familiar: pollution...Examining deposits retrieved from the site of an underwater volcano near Italy, they discovered lead that did not come from the underlying rocks or from any possible natural source in the nearby region or anywhere in Europe.

Instead, they traced the lead to an Australian lead mine thousands of miles away...How did it get to near Sicily? Kamenov said the most likely scenario is that the lead was mined at Broken Hill and shipped to Europe, where it was added to gasoline, burned by cars and emitted into the air. From there, the lead found its way into the sea, and then to the Marsili Seamount, where it traveled with water down into the earth and then re-emerged via the hydrothermal vents.