An encouraging new experiment hints that cutting off mercury pollution to bodies of water can quickly translate into lower levels of the toxic substance in seafood.
This is according to a new paper, published today in Nature. During the study, conducted over 15 years, scientists intentionally added a traceable form of mercury to a lake and its watershed. They discovered that the new mercury they added quickly built up in fish populations, and then declined almost as quickly once they stopped additions.
IISD undertook a scoping exercise to hear from our staff, civil society, and policy partners about what they see as some of the biggest challenges in charting a path to sustainable food systems in Canada.
Mercury pollution is a major global environmental problem, with small-scale gold mining and coal burning the two biggest sources, but fish can recover quickly when the pollution stops.
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 children exposed in the womb.
Mercury pollution remains a problem in many parts of the Great Lakes, but new research from Canada’s Experimental Lakes Area in northern Ontario shows that efforts to reduce the amount of mercury going into a lake can have quick and dramatic effects on the levels of the pollutant in fish populations.
Liberia has launched its National Adaption Plan (NAP) which is intended to help Liberia tackle the issue of climate change through a sound adaptation programme that involves a whole-of-society approach to achieve the goals, vision, and specific objectives.
This guidebook provides concrete recommendations for how states in India can implement solar irrigation sustainably—targeting low-income and marginal farmers while avoiding negative impacts on groundwater.