| One Green Planet | By The Humane League | Deforestation threatens our environment, impacts human lives, and kills millions of animals every year. Forests provide a home to millions of diverse flora and fauna around the world. But, the benefits of forests extend far beyond the wildlife who live there. They play a vital role in the world’s carbon cycle by balancing greenhouse gas emissions, making the air in our atmosphere breathable, and protecting against climate change. Bu

| University of Oxford | Influencing global policy on mercury University of Oxford earth scientists with diverse expertise have combined their knowledge to inform national and international policy on mercury, one of the most dangerous environmental pollutants. Mercury is extremely toxic and causes a range of serious health impacts including brain and neurological damage, especially among young people and unborn children. Mercury poses a particular ecological and human health

| BRAIN & NERVOUS SYSTEM CENTER | Medical Author: Charles Patrick Davis, MD, PhD | | Medical Editor: William C. Shiel Jr., MD, FACP, FACR | What is Mercury Poisoning? Poisoning of humans can occur from inhalation, ingestion, or skin contact with the various forms of mercury. Mercury is an element that is found all over the earth, in soil, rocks, and water. Even trace amounts can be found in the air. The largest deposits on earth are as cinnabar (mercuric sulfide). Mercury e

| News | 16 March 2022 | by ARM | Russia is also the third-largest producer of gold in the world. Open Letter to the Jewerly Industry The jewelry industry is susceptible to exploitation if the Russian government uses gold supply chains as a tool to evade sanctions and further subsidize their military aggression against Ukraine. It is imperative that we work together to prevent this from happening. As unprecedented financial sanctions against Russia prevent it from accessing

| New Scientist | Environment | 7 March 2022 | | By Adam Vaughan | More than three-quarters of the world's largest rainforest has become less resilient to drought since the early 2000s, with areas near humans and with lower rainfall being the worst hit An area deforested for gold mining, along the Interoceanic highway linking Peru and Brazil in the Amazon region of Madre de Dios. Mariana Bazo/REUTERS/Alamy The Amazon rainforest is nearing a tipping point that will see it tran

| BBC | Science | Climate Change | 19 hours ago | | By Helen Briggs Environment correspondent | "The trees are losing health and could be approaching a tipping point - basically, a mass loss of trees," said Dr Chris Boulton of the University of Exeter. The Amazon contains between 90 and 140 billion metric tons of carbon The Amazon rainforest is moving towards a "tipping point" where trees may die off en masse, say researchers. A study suggests the world's largest rainforest i

| Mongabay Series: Amazon Conservation, Artisanal Mining | | by John C. Cannon on 28 February 2022 | They realized that the pathogens they found in the blood and fecal samples they collected might be causing disease. Or, she said, “It could just be the result of mercury toxicity because it’s so pervasive in that region.” The view from a drone shows the deforestation and pools left behind by mining in Madre de Dios. Image courtesy of Conservation X Labs. A recent study has fou

| Mongabay Series: Indigenous Peoples and Conservation, Land rights and extractives | | by Jenny Gonzales on 22 February 2022 | Major U.S. and Brazilian financial institutions continue to underwrite the destruction of the Amazon by financing mining companies pushing to operate in Indigenous territories, a new report says. The 20 institutional investors plowed a combined $54.1 billion into nine mining conglomerates — including giants Vale, Anglo American, Belo Sun, AngloGold A

| Eurek Alert| Peer-Reviewed Publication | | Duke University | 28-Jan-2022 | Scientists record the highest levels of atmospheric mercury pollution in the world in a pristine patch of the Peruvian Amazon “We found that mature Amazonian forests near gold mining are capturing huge volumes of atmospheric mercury, more than any other ecosystem previously studied in the entire world,” said Gerson, who is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Berkeley.

Guardian | Air pollution | Thu 17 Feb 2022 16.00 GMT | | Sofia Quaglia | “The possibility of a link between air pollution and semen quality has been suggested in a number of studies over the years, although not all of them have agreed with this conclusion,” said Allan Pacey, professor of andrology at the University of Sheffield, who was not involved in the research. Research into samples of 30,000 men in China suggests ability of sperm to swim in right direction could be aff

| Earthshot Prize | 16 February 2022 | “We must make this the decade of the Earthshot. A decade where we all respond with urgency and optimism to change the course of our planet’s future.” – Prince William on stage at the first ever Earthshot Prize Innovation Showcase. ​​ Five of our incredible 2021 Finalists presented their ground-breaking eco-innovations at the event, hosted by DP World at Expo 2020 Dubai.​ This must be the Decade of the Earthshot, a decade where all of us

| by Alianza periodística tras las huellas de la palma | 4 February 2022 | | Translated by Sydney Sims | “When the company moved in, the contamination arrived with them,” said José Mina, the leader of San Javier de Cachaví. “We used to drink the river’s water and nothing happened. Now the children bathe and get pimples and their bodies itch. The fish arrive here dead.” Residents of the community of San Juan de Chillaví use the river near their village for bathing and drinking

| BBC News | Latin America & Caribbean | | February 02, 2022 | A special task force in Brazil is conducting raids deep in the Amazon, in a new crackdown against what it calls "blood gold" mining. Mining in territories that are supposed to be protected by law is destroying the lives of indigenous people and wreaking havoc on the environment. The UK is the third biggest buyer of Brazilian gold, and public prosecutors have alleged that 30% of Brazil’s exports may be illegally mi

| The New York Times | January 31, 2021 | | By Coral Davenport | Quotable: “Sound science makes it clear that we need to limit mercury and toxins in the air to protect children and vulnerable communities from dangerous pollution,” Michael Regan, the E.P.A. administrator, said. The E.P.A. will resume enforcing limits on the release of mercury, a neurotoxin linked to developmental damage in children, from coal-burning power plants. Mercury is a neurotoxin that poses a particula

Source: The World Health Organization | January 22 This week, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and World Health Organization (WHO) signed a five-year Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). The agreement continues EPA-WHO collaboration on a wide range of specific and crosscutting environment and health issues, particularly air pollution, water and sanitation, children's health, and health risks due to climate change. The updated agreement includes exciting new action

| Science NEWS HEALTH & MEDICINE | | By Aimee Cunningham | SEPTEMBER 17, 2019 AT 4:57 PM | A study of women in Belgium found black carbon particles, or soot, within the organ. “There’s no doubt that air pollution harms a developing baby,” says Amy Kalkbrenner, an environmental epidemiologist at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee who was not involved in the new work. Mothers who encounter air pollution regularly may have babies born prematurely or with low birth weight The

Guardian Damian Carrington Environment editor Tue 18 Jan 2022 08.00 GMT Study calls for cap on production and release as pollution threatens global ecosystems upon which life depends Firefighters take part in an emergency drill against winter chemical hazards and accidents in China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Photograph: Xinhua/Rex/Shutterstock The cocktail of chemical pollution that pervades the planet now threatens the stability of global ecosystems upon which human

| Washington Post - The Climate 202 Analysis | By Maxine Joselow with research by Alexandra Ellerbeck | Yesterday at 8:14 a.m. EST The Jeffrey Energy Center coal power plant in Kansas on Sept. 18. (Charlie Riedel/AP U.S. emissions and coal generation increased last year, analysis finds Greenhouse gas emissions in the United States surged last year, putting the nation further off track from meeting President Biden's ambitious climate targets, your Climate 202 host and The Wash

SCIENTIFIC AMERICA - POLLUTION The 2020 fire season subjected half the western U.S. population to a stew of particulate matter and ozone. By Chelsea Harvey, E&E News on January 6, 2022 Smoke fills the air over homes in Oakland, California, in September 2020. Credit: Michael Short/Bloomberg via Getty Images. Unseen dangers accompanied deadly flames in the record-breaking wildfire season that raged across the U.S. West in 2020. In addition to the millions of acres burned by the

“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s needs, but not every man’s greed.” - Mahatma Gandhi "La Tierra proporciona lo suficiente para satisfacer las necesidades de todos los hombres, pero no la codicia de todos." At this time of the year especially, be aware of the human health threats and global biodiversity destruction costs caused largely by artisanal ore processing facilities which use and vaporize 2,000 tonnes of mercury, a deadly neurotoxin, to our environment ann