Download or read book Rise of Mercury Emissions in the Amazon Rainforest an Evaluation of Artisanal and Small scale Gold Mining and Biomass Burning Sources written by Marcos J De la Cruz and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Two important global sources of mercury emissions to the atmosphere are biomass burning (BMB) and artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) operations. These activities, prevalent in the Amazon rainforest, are driven by agricultural and cattle ranching expansion and rising international gold prices, respectively. Although there are indications of increasing ASGM activities in the Amazon, there are no studies of corresponding mercury consumption and emissions within this context. In this study, a regional assessment of mercury consumption and emissions from ASGM activities is made for the period between 2001 and 2014. Mercury consumption and emissions are derived from analyses of official and illegal gold production estimates and mercury imports. Between 2001 and 2014, annual ASGM mercury emissions from the region increased approximately 155% from 57.4 metric tons to 146.1 metric tons. If illegal gold mining occurring in the Amazon rainforest is considered, mercury emissions increase to 242 tons in 2014. Between 2001 and 2014, ASGM mercury emissions (excluding emissions from illegal gold mining) for the whole region were 1,339 metric tons. Similarly, over 3,420 metric tons of mercury were consumed and released to the environment as tailings and emissions with almost 65% coming from just 3 countries (Colombia, Peru, and Suriname) out of 8 countries and 1 overseas territory evaluated. In contrast, BMB mercury emissions derived from deforestation rates in the Amazon decreased 80% from 12.7 tons to 2.6 tons in the same period. Decrease of BMB emissions was driven by lower deforestation rates in Brazil. Between 2001 and 2014, approximately 105 tons of mercury were released to the atmosphere from deforestation activities. These results show the significant increase of ASGM mercury emissions in the Amazon rainforest, which would represent 12% of global mercury emissions from anthropogenic sources.
Download or read book The Amazon Gold Rush and Environmental Mercury Contamination written by Daniel Marcos Bonotto and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The importance of the Amazon area to sustain the global equilibrium in the environment has been recognised world-wide. This has been much more accentuated in the present days due to the intense debate related to global warming. Consequently, all initiatives/studies directed to a better knowledge/management of that huge environment are welcome and needed. This book is a contribution to this task, as gold has been exploited intensively in the Brazilian Amazon during the past 30 years using garimpo methods (small-scale gold mining), where the elemental mercury (Hg) used in amalgamating the gold, the final stage of the ore dressing process, has caused abnormal Hg concentrations in waterways. This has occurred in several areas of the Amazon region, where most of the ore prospected is alluvial. Particular attention to the Madeira River has been given since 1986 by several investigators. The main reason for this is that the Madeira River is the largest tributary of the Amazon River and the gold mining was officially allowed on a 350-km sector of the river, for its mid and upper reach, in the north-western reach of the Amazon basin. Consequently, mercury was released from gold-mining fields to the atmosphere or to waterways in the metallic form, due to the large number of mechanical dredges operating simultaneously (about 6,000 during the peak mining activities). Although Hg0 is relatively immobile in the aquatic environment and its solubility is low in water, Hg contamination in people living upstream and downstream from garimpos has been reported. The gold-mining activities on the Madeira River basin reduced substantially in the present days, i.e. it is practically absent. However, despite this, it is necessary a better understanding of the Hg behaviour in tropical aquatic systems, mainly close to the most populated areas, as people may be still suffering toxicological consequences of the Hg releases in the past. Therefore, even in the present days, the knowledge of the mercury occurring in the aquatic system of the Madeira River basin is a great concern by local/international authorities and environmentalists, since it can contribute for identifying the effects of the anthropogenic Hg inputs relatively to the background reference levels expressing the natural Hg concentration. This book describes the results obtained on the analysis of samples of water, bottom sediments, suspended solids and fishes that were collected at the Madeira River basin, Brazil, with the purpose of investigating the mercury release in the aquatic environment as a consequence of the gold mining activities.
Download or read book Mercury and the GEF written by Global Environment Facility and published by Global Environment Facility. This book was released on 2013-10-15 with total page 12 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Assessing the Role of Top down Techniques for Improving Regional Estimates of Artisanal and Small scale Gold Mining Mercury Emissions written by Thandolwethu Dlamini and published by . This book was released on 2022 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ASGM is the world's largest source of anthropogenic Hg emissions and is common in Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and East Asia. However, the amount of mercury emitted from ASGM and contributing to global mercury emissions is subject to substantial uncertainty. Bottom-up studies have quantified sources of Hg, including ASGM, using data on underlying activities to estimate regional and global totals. In contrast, top-down studies have used atmospheric concentration measurements and models to constrain Hg emissions. However, no top-down estimates have yet been calculated for ASGM emissions. With GEOS-Chem's global-scale chemical transport model for Hg, we investigate whether and how ASGM-related Hg emissions can be quantified from existing regional measurement sites for gaseous elemental mercury (GEM). By combining our top-down method with existing bottom-up data, we improve estimates of Hg emissions from ASGM activities, using Peru and the Madre de Dios region of South America as case studies. We find that quantitative constraints on ASGM emissions are better provided by information on the shape of the probability distribution of GEM concentrations, such as the interquartile range and the 95% range, suggesting possible design guidelines for monitoring networks. The model-based analysis offers insights into improving regional estimates of ASGM emissions.
Download or read book Mercury from Gold and Silver Mining written by Luiz D.de Lacerda and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Due to its inherent characteristics, mercury contamination from gold mining is a major environmental problem compared to past mercury contamination from industrial point sources. The worsening of social-economical conditions and increasing gold prices in the late 1970s resulted in a new rush for gold by individual entrepreneurs for whom Hg amalgamation is a cheap and easily carried out operation. Even after the present-day mining areas are exhausted, the mercury left behind will remain part of the biochemical cycle of the tropical forest. This book reviews the current information on mercury from gold mining, its cycling in the environment and its long-term ecotoxicological impact. The book is illustrated with numerous diagrams and photographs.
Download or read book At the End of the Rainbow written by Gordon MacMillan and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 1995 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Throughout the 1980s, a combination of widespread poverty and favorable gold prices encouraged hoards of wildcat miners to penetrate some of the Amazon's rainforest headwaters in search of new deposits. Now, hundreds of makeshift camps threaten the future of both the rainforest and the indigenous people who inhabit it. This book explains how gold fever came to grip the Amazon and considers the changes it has brought to the region. It contains a vivid account of the violent clash between forty thousand miners and the Yanamami Indians in the state of Roraima, as well as thoroughly researched arguments that explore the perspectives of the farmers, ranchers, natives, and others involved in this historic moment.
Download or read book Mercury in Artisanal and Small Scale Gold Mining written by Patricio Coln Velsquez Lpez and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Human and Environmental Dynamics of Artisanal Small scale Gold Mining in the Peruvian Amazon written by Rachel Constance Engstrand and published by . This book was released on 2021 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The idea of the Amazon as a primeval tropical rainforest, undisturbed and stable since the dawn of time, is a myth. While the forest provides a myriad of valuable local and global ecosystem services, such as biodiversity conservation and carbon storage, it is also host to numerous human activities, such as farming, logging, and mining, that impact this system at a continuously expanding rate. Of these human activities, artisanal small-scale gold mining (ASGM) is thought to have the most destructive environmental impacts due to the large-scale deforestation, soil disturbance and heavy metal contamination associated with this activity. Understanding how forests respond to and recover from gold mining induced changes is crucial to ensure the future provision of ecosystem services for the future. Due to its illicit nature, little is known about the drivers and dynamics of ASGM in the Madre de Dios region of Peru, an area which is renowned for having both some of the highest levels of biodiversity and gold mining activity in the Amazon. To address this, I first examine the human context in which ASGM occurs in this region. I use qualitative data collected from semi-structured interviews with miners and other local stakeholders to learn about the social-environmental drivers, impacts, and the perceived future of ASGM. I then leverage remote-sensing to complement these human stories with an understanding of the dynamics and spread of ASGM over a 36-year time-period. I expand on this data using machine learning to identify which environmental and social factors can predict the intensity of future mining in any given area. Finally, I discuss the results of a field study in which I collect soil samples and conduct vegetation surveys on a 15-year chronosequence of abandoned gold mines. I look at how gold mining impacts vegetation structure, soil biogeochemistry, and soil microbial communities over time to understand the potential for natural recovery in a post-mining ecosystem. I analyze these results in the context of the human and spatial perspectives explored earlier. This combination of on-the-ground, aboveground, and underground perspectives is used to create a holistic understanding of the broad-scale impacts of ASGM and to help inform policy and decision makers working to regulate ASGM to create a brighter ecological future for this region.
Download or read book Health Over Efficiency written by Wiley Willden and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Both large-scale and small-scale mining operations are found in the rainforests of South America. But while the large-scale operations largely comply with the legal and regulatory framework provided by the different governments of the Amazon Countries, the small-scale mining operations fall under the radar of the Amazon Governments because there is a weak state presence in the remote regions where mining is taking place, and the regional governments do not have the necessary resources or manpower to properly monitor and control the small-scale mining industry. The lack of government oversight has allowed for small-scale mining operations to use mercury in the mining process, which is not only hazardous to many diverse species that reside in the Amazon, but it is also dangerous to those involved in the various processes used to extract, refine, and process gold, as well as those living near or downstream from the mining activity.Mercury is used in the small-scale mining industry because the miners are able to use it to efficiently capture gold without having to invest in other, more costly, gold recovery equipment or processes. While these processes may be cost effective, mercury emissions from small-scale mining operations present a real and serious threat to the environment and to the growing populations involved in the mining industry. Although it is relatively safe to handle mercury in its elemental form, the processes being used by small-scale miners to recover and process gold converts elemental mercury into organic methylmercury, or mercury fumes when it is heated. Both can be extremely hazardous to humans and many other creatures in the Amazon. The small-scale mining industry has exacerbated the dangers that mercury poses on the populations in the Amazon Counties, and steps need to be taken to minimize these hazards.
Download or read book The Needs of Miners Political Ethics Mercury Abatement and Intervention in Artisanal Gold Mining Communities written by and published by . This book was released on 2002 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This dissertation examines the role of donor-funded international projects to reduce mercury pollution from artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASM). ASM is the second largest source of anthropogenic global mercury pollution, accounting for roughly 1000tonnes of atmospheric emissions and releases to the environment per annum. The artisanal mining economy involves 10-15 million people across the developing world, and supports 80-100 million people directly and indirectly. In 2003 the Governing Council of the United Nations Environment Program reached consensus that there is sufficient scientific evidence to trigger an international response to global mercury pollution, including the pollution generated by ASM. Yet thus far most international interventions have concentrated on environmental monitoring and assessment, while virtually no efforts have focused on implementing solutions. The aim of this dissertation is to move global mercury policy for ASM past its emphasis on assessments. It does this by developing a philosophical and strategic policy framework to guide future interventions by international institutions. A brief history of global mercury policy is provided, illustrating how ASM has been neglected and examining divisions between ecocentric and technocentric theories of environmental intervention. The relationship between ASM and poverty is examined, reaching the conclusion that because artisanal gold mining is a form of upward mobility for the world's extreme poor, the idea of reducing mercury pollution by redirecting miners into alternative livelihoods is unrealistic; indeed gold itself is the alternative livelihood. Using case studies collected in the field, the issue of conflict over property rights between artisanal miners and large-scale mining companies is explored, and a risk mitigation framework presented to assist companies to coexist with artisanal miners. Finally, a new approach to international intervention is proposed based on three interde.
Download or read book Developing Policy and Governance Strategies to Address Mercury and Small scale Gold Mining written by and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In over fifty countries, mercury is used to extract gold by artisanal and small-scale miners and poses significant threats to human and environmental health. While extensive research has focused on the negative effects of mercury, remarkably little attention has been devoted to institutional policies and governance strategies to reduce mercury use and associated risks. In many of the world's poorest regions, mercury amalgamation has become more prevalently used as worsening poverty has contributed to a growth in rudimentary gold extraction activities. This study examines how these challenges prompted United Nations agencies to launch a global pilot initiative addressing mercury in small-scale gold mining, focusing on the mandate of "assisting countries to transfer to cleaner technologies." Linking governments, NGOs, mining companies and other agencies, case studies from development campaigns in Africa, South America and Asia illustrate the complexities of environmental interventions in rural areas and the need for sensitive attention to government relations with mining communities. While mercury has been illegally used in most small-scale mining communities, this study demonstrates how strong stakeholder willingness to legalize mercury can help to more productively regulate and phase out mercury use and trade in order to eliminate major pollution point sources and health hazards. The study proposes developing UN International Guidelines on Mercury in Small-Scale Gold Mining to assist decision-makers at multiple governance levels, from village-level planners to national lawmakers and donors, in targeting technical priorities. Recognizing how narrow top-down policy models can be counterproductive, the analysis focuses on how interdisciplinary development planning teams have taken incremental and integrative approaches seeking to facilitate the reduction of pollution while supporting miners' livelihoods. A policy framework is proposed to assist institutions in cultivat.
Download or read book Assessment of Mercury Contamination in Riverine Fish and Sediment Associated with Artisanal and Small scale Gold Mining in Madre de Dios Peru written by Gerardo Martinez and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) in Madre de Dios, Peru, continues to expand rapidly, thus raising concerns about its immense loading of mercury (Hg) to the environment. We measured water physicochemical parameters and sampled and analyzed fish and sediments from multiple sites along one ASGM-impacted river and two unimpacted rivers in the region to examine whether Hg concentrations were directly related to ASGM activity in their watersheds. We also analyzed the 308 fish samples, representing 36 species, for stable isotopes ([delta]15N and [delta]13C) to estimate their trophic position. Trophic position was positively correlated with log Hg[subscript fish] concentrations among all sites. There was a lack of relationship between Hg[subscript fish] and either ASGM activity or Hg[subscript sed] concentrations among sites, suggesting that Hg_fish alone is not an ideal bioindicator of site-specific Hg contamination. Hgfish were not elevated in the ASGM-impacted river relative to the other two rivers; however, Hg[subscript sed] were highest in the ASGM-impacted river. The degraded habitat conditions and commensurate shifts in fish species and ecological processes appear to play a role in Hg bioaccumulation in the ASGM-impacted river. More research is needed on food web dynamics in the region to elucidate any effects caused by ASGM, especially through feeding relationships and food source.
Download or read book Mercury Use in Artisanal Small scale Gold Mining Threatens Human Health Measures to Describe and Reduce the Health Risk written by Nadine Steckling and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Global Mercury Pollution from Anthropogenic Forces with Special Emphasis on Small Scale Gold Mining written by D. B. Porcella and published by . This book was released on 1998* with total page 79 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Biomass Burning in Amazonia written by John Edward Ten Hoeve (#suffix.) and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Biomass burning is the largest source of anthropogenic aerosols in the Southern Hemisphere. In the Amazon Basin, burning is used to clear forests, remove crop residue, and mobilize nutrients. Over the last decade, trends in biomass burning over forest and savanna/agricultural lands in the Amazon have changed dramatically. We find that between the early 2000s and the late 2000s, the ratio of forest to savanna/agricultural fires more than halved over South America, in turn changing the optical properties of aerosols in the region. This change from forest to savanna burning is attributed in part to better forest fire management, changing agricultural practices along the Amazon frontier, and reduced deforestation rates. Interannual precipitation variability over forest and savanna lands is also shown to play an important role. Biomass burning aerosols over the Amazon have a substantial effect on cloud properties and the regional radiative balance. Remote sensing observations of aerosols and clouds over Brazil illustrate that meteorological variability and aerosol-cloud overlap, ignored in previous studies, must be accounted for to correctly determine aerosol-cloud interactions from satellite observations. When accounting for these confounding variables, we find that microphysical aerosol effects, which serve to increase cloud cover and optical thickness, dominate for low levels of aerosol loading (aerosol optical depth (AOD) 0.3-0.5), whereas radiative effects, which serve to decrease cloud cover and optical thickness, dominate for higher levels of aerosol loading (AOD 0.3-0.5). We find a similar result using high-resolution nested model simulations over the Amazon Basin, which include physical representations of direct, indirect, semi-direct, and cloud absorption effects. Simulations including and excluding biomass burning emissions are used to establish causation of the remotely sensed correlations. A two-regime relationship, defined by dominance of microphysical aerosol effects at low AODs and dominance of radiative effects at high AODs, is modeled for a variety of cloud variables including cloud optical thickness, cloud liquid droplet number, cloud fraction, and precipitation. These competing effects also exhibit a strong diurnal signal -- microphysical effects dominate in the early morning whereas radiative effects dominate in the late afternoon and night. By finding consistent relationships between remotely sensed observations and modeling results, we conclude that remotely sensed correlations between aerosols and clouds are not largely dominated by retrieval artifacts such as the hygroscopic growth of aerosol particles near clouds, brightening of aerosols near clouds, darkening of clouds below absorbing aerosols, and cloud contamination of aerosol retrievals over the Amazon, and that the complex aerosol-cloud relationships determined in this and previous studies over the Amazon can be attributed to genuine physical interactions between aerosols and clouds. In the Appendix, the same 3-D modeling tools used in the Amazon biomass burning study are applied to assess the health effect from the Fukushima nuclear disaster on March 11th, 2011. Radioactive emissions for the month following the accident are determined from worldwide observations by the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization. Modeled worldwide airborne concentrations are used to determine inhalation and external atmospheric exposure, modeled deposition rates are used to determine external ground-level exposure, and ingestion exposure from contaminated food and water is extrapolated from previous Chernobyl studies all assuming a linear no-threshold model of human exposure. We estimate an additional 280 (30--2400) cancer-related mortalities and 390 (50--3800) cancer-related morbidities incorporating uncertainties associated with the exposure-dose and dose-response models used in the study. A hypothetical accident at the Diablo Canyon Power Plant in California, USA, with identical emissions to Fukushima, is studied to analyze the influence of location and seasonality on the impact of a nuclear accident. This hypothetical accident may cause up to ~45% more mortalities than Fukushima despite a lower local population density due to differing meteorological conditions.
Download or read book Measuring Global Progress Towards a Transition Away from Mercury Use in Artisanal and Small scale Gold Mining written by Brenda Koekkoek and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 148 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A sustainable global program to reduce mercury use in artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) will require the demonstration of credible, continuous progress to secure political support and financing, and ultimately achieve success. Focused progress measurement has been lacking to date for ASGM at the global level. This research analyses information on appropriate options to measure mercury reduction progress in ASGM. Research methods included a case study of Mongolia, supplemented with information analyzed from semi-structured interviews related to ASGM and other applicable evaluation approaches. The study concludes by proposing the development of a framework approach for measuring progress and by offering guiding principles and recommendations. Recommendations for the framework approach include: on-going and enhanced support to an information database; simplified evaluation metrics for the ASGM Partnership; tracking the level of political commitment of national governments as an indicator of progress; and promoting common reporting metrics across global programming.
Download or read book Literature Review of Emissions of Mercury from Fossil Fuel and Biomass Combustion and Emerging Control Technologies written by Van Maltby and published by . This book was released on 2002 with total page 39 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
