#MakeMercuryHistory

U.S. EPA and WHO sign agreement protect the public from health risks of pollution

Bruce A. Cosgrove M.Sc., (Solution Chemistry)

Jan 26, 2022
1 min

U.S. EPA and WHO sign agreement protect the public from health risks of pollution

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

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Air pollution can reach the placenta around a developing baby

Bruce A. Cosgrove M.Sc., (Solution Chemistry)

Jan 21, 2022
2 min

Air pollution can reach the placenta around a developing baby

| 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

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Chemical pollution has passed safe limit for humanity, say scientists.

Bruce A. Cosgrove M.Sc., (Solution Chemistry)

Jan 20, 2022
2 min

Chemical pollution has passed safe limit for humanity, say scientists.

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

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U.S. emissions and coal generation increased in 2021, threatening Biden's climate goals

Bruce A. Cosgrove M.Sc., (Solution Chemistry)

Jan 12, 2022
2 min

U.S. emissions and coal generation increased in 2021, threatening Biden's climate goals

| 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

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Wildfires Are Fueling a Toxic Combo of Air Pollutants

Bruce A. Cosgrove M.Sc., (Solution Chemistry)

Jan 6, 2022
2 min

Wildfires Are Fueling a Toxic Combo of Air Pollutants

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

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Alchemist

Dec 23, 2021
2 min

Merry Christmas-Feliz Navidad

“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

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Amazon tribe suffers mercury contamination as illegal mining spreads

Bruce A. Cosgrove M.Sc., (Solution Chemistry)

Dec 21, 2021
2 min

Amazon tribe suffers mercury contamination as illegal mining spreads

| Thomson Reuters Foundation | December 17, 2021 | | 7:54 am Education Latin America Gold | Nearly 60% of tested people in Munduruku villages had mercury levels above what global health organizations consider safe. (Image: Katiabraga | Pixabay.) Illegal gold mining in the north Amazonian territory of Brazil’s indigenous Munduruku people has led to more than half of several hundred people tested showing unsafe mercury levels in their bodies, including children, health research

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Experimental lake shows fish populations can recover quickly from mercury contamination

Alchemist

Dec 18, 2021
2 min

Experimental lake shows fish populations can recover quickly from mercury contamination

Lengthy experiment demonstrates potential benefits from cutting air pollution. Science 15 DEC 2021 12:20 PM BYERIK STOKSTAD Mercury pollution is a global problem. Emissions from gold mining, coal burning, and other industrial processes travel through the atmosphere, eventually falling to Earth as rain or snow. The poison can make its way to fish and the humans who eat them, where it can damage the developing nervous system, causing problems with memory and language in childre

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Alchemist

Dec 14, 2021
2 min

Congratulations Spain

Dec. 13, 2021 the Government of Spain deposited its instrument of ratification becoming the 137th Party to the #MinamataConvention on #Mercury to #MakeMercuryHistory in Artisanal and small-scale gold miners ore processing. Artisanal miners ore processing is the world’s largest anthropogenic source of deadly mercury pollution overtaking coal fired plants mercury emissions in 2017 and documented in 2021 by Oxford University earth scientists to stay airborne up to one-year. To m

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Alchemist

Dec 14, 2021
2 min

Congratulations Australia

Dec. 7, 2021 the Government of Australia deposited its instrument of ratification becoming the 136th Party to the #MinamataConvention on #Mercury to #MakeMercuryHistory in Artisanal small-scale gold miners ore processing. To make a sustainable change, we have initiated climate action in Ecuador’s Portovelo-Zaruma mining district 1,200 meters high up in the Amazon Andes. Are you aware that ~ 18 million artisanal miners in ~ 80 Countries produce 20% of the world’s gold supply

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Alchemist

Dec 7, 2021
2 min

Environmental Impact of Salmon Farming

OneGreenPlanet By Yasmina Achlim Many omnivores may consider salmon a healthy part of their diet, but the reality is there is nothing healthy about how salmon is raised for food. About sixty percent of salmon consumed in the world come from farms. There are obvious ethical issues surrounding eating these fish, but the environmental impact of salmon farming's is particularly atrocious. A single pen can hold 200,000 salmon, which is incredibly polluting. Here’s what you need to

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With 280 prisoners dead in Ecuador, UN experts call for urgent action

Alchemist

Dec 7, 2021
2 min

With 280 prisoners dead in Ecuador, UN experts call for urgent action

6 December 2021 UN News Global perspective Human stories Human Rights Following a series of riots which have left more than 280 inmates dead and hundreds injured in Ecuadorian prisons this year, UN independent human rights experts on Monday called for urgent government action to address the issue. In a joint statement, the experts said they were “appalled and gravely concerned” by repeated riots that have resulted in the death of so many prisoners, and the “clear risk” of fur

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The Chlorpyrifos Ban Is a Win for Science—and Children

Alchemist

Dec 3, 2021
3 min

The Chlorpyrifos Ban Is a Win for Science—and Children

NRDC advocates and our partners spent decades fighting against a highly toxic pesticide that harms kids, farmworkers, and their families. In August, the EPA finally banned it. September 17, 2021 Nicole Greenfield Back in 1989, a groundbreaking NRDC report called Intolerable Risk detailed the perils children faced just by dutifully eating their fruits and vegetables. “These staples of children's diets routinely, and lawfully, contain dangerous amounts of pesticides, which pose

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"It’s as if we’re in Mad Max’: warnings for Amazon as goldmining dredges occupy river"

Bruce A. Cosgrove M.Sc., (Solution Chemistry)

Dec 3, 2021
2 min

"It’s as if we’re in Mad Max’: warnings for Amazon as goldmining dredges occupy river"

| Guardian | | Tom Phillips in Rio de Janeiro | Wed 24 Nov 2021 17.04 GMT | “They’re making a gram of gold an hour down there,” one prospector claims in an audio recording obtained by the Estado de São Paulo newspaper. Hundreds of illegal goldmining dredges converge in search of metal as one activist describes it as a ‘free-for-all’ An aerial view shows hundreds of dredging rafts operated by illegal miners who have gathered in a gold rush on the Madeira, in Brazil, on Tuesday

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Why Responsible Artisanal & Small-Scale Gold Mining Matters, for People & the Environment

Alchemist

Nov 23, 2021
2 min

Why Responsible Artisanal & Small-Scale Gold Mining Matters, for People & the Environment

Artisanal and small-scale mining accounts for 20 percent of the global supply of gold and currently generates a combined $25-30 billion each year. Most of us come in contact with gold on a daily basis. About 20% of that gold comes from millions of artisanal and small-scale gold miners around the world, whose livelihoods depend on this activity. But due to a lack of awareness or alternatives, many of these operations use toxic mercury to extract their gold. We believe that whe

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Indigenous communities in Ecuador Amazon protest mining projects

Alchemist

Nov 18, 2021
2 min

Indigenous communities in Ecuador Amazon protest mining projects

CGTN Latin America 05:29, 17-Nov-2021 Indigenous communities in Ecuador’s Amazon are protesting mining projects in their territories, as constitutional court judges held a historic hearing in the region on the communities’ roles on mining project decisions. The country’s President Guillermo Lasso, a conservative ex-banker, wants to expand mining to bring in more private investments but has promised legal stability and respect for some of the concessions already granted. Indig

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GEF PRESS RELEASE Donors pledge $413 million to help most vulnerable cope with climate crisis

Alchemist

Nov 10, 2021
2 min

GEF PRESS RELEASE Donors pledge $413 million to help most vulnerable cope with climate crisis

November 9, 2021 In a show of support for those most at risk from climate change, 12 donor governments have pledged $413 million in new funding for the Least Developed Countries Fund during the COP26 climate summit. The LDCF, hosted by the Global Environment Facility, is the only dedicated source of climate resilience funds for the 46 Least Developed Countries, which have contributed the least to carbon emissions and face some of the highest risks from the effects of climate

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Climate Change Is Acidifying and Contaminating Drinking Water and Alpine Ecosystems

Alchemist

Nov 10, 2021
2 min

Climate Change Is Acidifying and Contaminating Drinking Water and Alpine Ecosystems

Scientific America By Elizabeth Miller on November 4, 2021 Hotter, drier mountains leach more metal into streams from abandoned mines and natural deposits Geamana village flooded with waste water from mining, Romania, taken in May 2019. Credit: Lukas Bischoff Getty Images Garrett Rue grew up fly fishing in central Colorado, often surrounded by mountains stained amber and maroon, and hiking along streams that seemed to borrow those colors. Sometimes he would cast for native tr

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Minamata COP-4 opportunity & celebration “global commitment to putting mercury pollution to an End"

Alchemist

Nov 2, 2021
2 min

Minamata COP-4 opportunity & celebration “global commitment to putting mercury pollution to an End"

02 NOV 2021 The first segment of the fourth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Minamata Convention on Mercury (COP-4) takes place online from 1 to 5 November with over a thousand participants and an ambitious programme of work. Are you aware about this global deadly mercury climate crisis, the human health and global biodiversity costs for jewellery and electronics gold? December 17, 2020, UK Super Mega Rock Star @robbiewilliams reported he 'almost died’ from mer

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First Person: Telling the tragic story of mercury poisoning in Japan- Minamata(cop)4

Alchemist

Nov 2, 2021
2 min

First Person: Telling the tragic story of mercury poisoning in Japan- Minamata(cop)4

UN News Global perspective Human stories 30 October 2021 Health Masami Ogata is a survivor of Minamata Disease, a debilitating illness caused by industrial mercury poisoning, which originated in the Japanese town of the same name in the 1950s. As a UN conference on preventing future poisoning outbreaks gets underway, we hear Mr. Ogata’s story from COP4. In the 3rd anniversary of the Minamata Convention on Mercury (COP)3, the victims of the Minamata Disease send their true voi

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