Popular Writing & Video
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Gold Mining Is Poisoning Amazon Forests with Mercuryby Jackie Gerson, January 28, 2022
[Excerpt] I led a research team wanting to know whether mercury was entering into the land around mining sites in Peru, and my team found that it was. With this kind of artisanal mining occurring in 70 countries, including several in the Amazon basin, the potential for widespread mercury contamination of old-growth forests is enormous. Efforts to control mercury pollution do not generally include forests. They should. |
by Marie Simonin and Emily Bernhardt, published September 2021
Today about 1 in 4 freshwater creatures face extinction. Wetlands are disappearing three times faster than forests. Across the globe, water quality is plummeting, polluted by plastic, sewage, mining sludge, industrial and agricultural chemicals and much more.
It’s challenging to study how these stresses are affecting aquatic life. There are many diverse threats, and river networks cover broad geographic regions. Often they run through remote, nearly inaccessible areas. Current techniques for monitoring freshwater species are labor-intensive and costly.
In our work as researchers in ecology, we are testing a new method that can vastly expand biomonitoring: using environmental DNA, or eDNA, in rivers to catalog and count species. Federal and local agencies need this data to restore water quality and save dwindling species from extinction.
Continue reading article here
Today about 1 in 4 freshwater creatures face extinction. Wetlands are disappearing three times faster than forests. Across the globe, water quality is plummeting, polluted by plastic, sewage, mining sludge, industrial and agricultural chemicals and much more.
It’s challenging to study how these stresses are affecting aquatic life. There are many diverse threats, and river networks cover broad geographic regions. Often they run through remote, nearly inaccessible areas. Current techniques for monitoring freshwater species are labor-intensive and costly.
In our work as researchers in ecology, we are testing a new method that can vastly expand biomonitoring: using environmental DNA, or eDNA, in rivers to catalog and count species. Federal and local agencies need this data to restore water quality and save dwindling species from extinction.
Continue reading article here
by Emily Ury, published April 2021
Trekking out to my research sites near North Carolina’s Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge, I slog through knee-deep water on a section of trail that is completely submerged. Permanent flooding has become commonplace on this low-lying peninsula, nestled behind North Carolina’s Outer Banks. The trees growing in the water are small and stunted. Many are dead.
Throughout coastal North Carolina, evidence of forest die-off is everywhere. Nearly every roadside ditch I pass while driving around the region is lined with dead or dying trees.
Continue reading the article here
Trekking out to my research sites near North Carolina’s Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge, I slog through knee-deep water on a section of trail that is completely submerged. Permanent flooding has become commonplace on this low-lying peninsula, nestled behind North Carolina’s Outer Banks. The trees growing in the water are small and stunted. Many are dead.
Throughout coastal North Carolina, evidence of forest die-off is everywhere. Nearly every roadside ditch I pass while driving around the region is lined with dead or dying trees.
Continue reading the article here
by Jackie Gerson, Austin Wadle and Jasmine Parham, published May 2020
Gold is everywhere in modern life, from jewelry to electronics to smartphones. The global electronics industry alone uses 280 tons annually. And that demand keeps growing. But most people know little about the environmental impacts of gold mining. About 15% of world gold production is from artisanal and small-scale mining in over 70 countries throughout Asia, Africa and South America. These operations employ 10 to 19 million workers. They often are poorly policed and weakly regulated.
Artisanal mining might sound quaint, but it is usually criminal activity and results in widespread environmental damage. It also is the largest source of mercury pollution in the world today, far exceeding other activities such as coal combustion and cement manufacturing.
Continue reading the article here
Gold is everywhere in modern life, from jewelry to electronics to smartphones. The global electronics industry alone uses 280 tons annually. And that demand keeps growing. But most people know little about the environmental impacts of gold mining. About 15% of world gold production is from artisanal and small-scale mining in over 70 countries throughout Asia, Africa and South America. These operations employ 10 to 19 million workers. They often are poorly policed and weakly regulated.
Artisanal mining might sound quaint, but it is usually criminal activity and results in widespread environmental damage. It also is the largest source of mercury pollution in the world today, far exceeding other activities such as coal combustion and cement manufacturing.
Continue reading the article here
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The loss of forests and shorelines on the NC coastal plain - with Science Fridayfrom Science Friday's Luke Groskin, posted in May 2019
Luke spent two days visiting the NC coastal plain with Emily B, Emily U. Steve and our NCSU colleagues Marcelo Ardon, Ryan Emanuel and members of their lab group to talk about the growing phenomenon of ghost forest formation due to sea level rise and salt water intrusion. Luke made this wonderful video to explain the issue that highlights several of our field sites. Emily got to talk with Ira Flatow during the May 17th Science Friday show, you can hear the episode "Embracing the Salt and Adapting to Sea Level Rise" at this link |
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Making the Time (to Learn How) to Teachby Jess Brandt, October 2018
[excerpt] I taught a Bass-sponsored course on the Food-Energy-Water Nexus for undergraduates in environment, public policy, and engineering majors in Fall 2016. Having since graduated, moved to a postdoc position, and entered the academic job market, I’ve reflected a lot on my teaching experience. These are my top reasons for making the time to learn how to teach during grad school:
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The poisoning of the Amazonby Jackie Gerson, Kelsey Lansdale, and Melissa Marchese, National Geographic
[excerpt] "While groups of miners can produce up to 30 grams of gold per day using this process [ASGM] (worth an astounding US$600), their actions are altering the river’s flow, disturbing local cultural norms and introducing large amounts of toxic mercury into the environment. In fact, the Madre de Dios region of Peru is estimated to produce 16 tons of gold per year, using over 32 tons of poisonous mercury in the process. Once in the air and water, mercury is a potent toxin that can impact the neurological functions of people and animals, particularly carnivorous species that feed high in the food web." |
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"Wild, wonderful" West Virginia's decapitated mountains and deformed fishby Jackie Gerson, 2018, Scientific American
[excerpt] "These peakless mountains and curved-spine fish are the hidden consequences of coal extraction and use. The impacts are present on the landscape even before the coal is burned and remain for decades after it has been consumed. No amount of remediation can rebuild the tops of these mountains, remove the pollution that has already been released or restore the species that have been lost from these streams." |
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Mining powers modern life, but can leave scarred lands and polluted waters behindby Matt Ross, October 3, 2019 in The Conversation
[excerpt] "Mining operations have also left thousands of square miles of land altered. In some cases, particularly mountaintop removal mining, entire land forms are permanently reshaped. For millennia the planet’s surface was configured by the slow geologic processes of wind and rain. In contrast, mining alters the very geology, topography, hydrology and ecology of sites within years or decades."
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Rethinking the scientific careerby E.S. Bernhardt, S.J. Hallam, J.D. Olden, and W.J. Palen in The Chronicle for Higher Education. OCTOBER 03, 2017
[excerpt] "A career in science should be an adventure on a long and winding path rather than an uphill slog to a peak that few have ever attained. Science is about interacting with and discovering the world, so isn’t it a shame that so many of us are persuaded to walk the same narrow and well-trodden path to perceived academic success?" |
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The dirty secrets of gold mining in Senegalby Jackie Gerson, National Geographic
July 2017 [excerpt] "In AGM villages, mercury can also be inhaled directly from the air. In fact, mercury levels in gold buyers’ huts can reach levels up to 1,000 times that recommended by World Health Organization (WHO) standards. The mercury in the air can be transported for hundreds of thousands of miles, falling as rain or with dust particles in areas as far away as France and the United States. AGM is the number one source of mercury globally, contributing more to mercury contamination than coal combustion. Yet, while much of the mercury used in AGM travels far from its source, most of it remains in the local area, polluting the community’s air, water and soil." |
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Column: What does ‘clean coal’ mean and can it save the planet?by E.S. Bernhardt, PBS News Hour guest column
June 2017 [excerpt] "It seems odd to use the label ‘clean coal’ for something as obviously destructive as removing mountain ridges with explosives and filling rivers with rock spoil and coal residues. New surface mining technologies mean that fewer miners are required to maintain the same level of coal production. This has reduced the health risk for miners. At the same time, surface mines are associated with poorer health outcomes for the people living in communities downwind or downstream of surface mines. Surface mines generate enormous quantities of dust and fine particulate pollution and leach a variety of contaminants into groundwater and into rivers." |
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Kindness in Scienceby E.S. Bernhardt in the Bulletin of the Society for Freshwater Science
September 2016 [excerpt] "So for the good of science and the scientists that make it happen let's all choose to rack up acts of intentional scientific kindness. Let's work on recognizing them when they happen and being grateful for them. I can think of no better goal for a scientific society than to make its members individually and cumulatively feel more accepted and happier in the work that we do." |
