Faculty Associate Henrik Selin Co-Authors New Article on Mercury Pollution

Henrik Selin, an associate professor at the Pardee School of Global Studies and a Faculty Associate at the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future, recently co-authored an article on mercury pollution in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.

In the article, titled “A Critical Time for Mercury Science to Inform Global Policy,” the authors argue that environmental factors and human activities – like climate change and land use change – have a significant influence on mercury pollution by remobilizing previously released mercury and increasing methylation efficiency (the process that produces the toxic form of mercury that bioaccumulates in aquatic and terrestrial food chains). The authors conclude that more integrated research and improved policy and management actions, like better monitoring and risk communication, are needed to successfully combat local and global mercury pollution in the future.

In February, Prof. Selin was selected as an expert for the newly-formed Minamata Convention on Mercury effectiveness evaluation committee, representing the Pardee Center, which is an observer organization of the Convention. He was selected as an expert representing civil society based on his extensive work in international environmental governance and the management of hazardous substances.