The mammoth wildfire destroying Alberta is releasing toxic mercury into the atmosphere. The fires have filled Fort McMurray’s air with dangerous contaminants pushing its air pollution to off-the-charts levels. But now the fires are releasing mercury into the atmosphere….and mercury can travel around the globe for as long as a year before settling… anywhere Grist reports: The Fort McMurray fire, which merged with another smaller wildfire last week, has displaced residents and cleared nearly everything in its path, including swaths of the region’s dense boreal forests. The combined blaze has already released the equivalent of 5 percent of Canada’s annual carbon dioxide emissions and is expected to continue to burn for the next few months. The fires have also filled Fort McMurray’s air with dangerous contaminants, ozone, and nitrogen dioxide, pushing its air pollution to off-the-charts levels. Along with all that carbon, the fires are releasing mercury into the atmosphere. When a huge fire rages through a boreal forest, it is probably going to hit some peatlands, 80 percent of which are located in high latitudes. Peat contains more mercury than other soils, accumulated in layers that can build up over thousands of years. Peatlands are largely stable sinks for mercury — until a wildfire comes along. “All of a sudden, you have this big release in a fire,” said Christine [...]