PUBLIC MARKS from Ralpharama with tag Mercury

A global coalition of environmental NGOs is putting pressure on governments around the world to phase out mercury and ban exports of the toxic metal. The Zero Mercury Coalition, which include veteran lobbyists from the European Environmental Bureau and South African grassroots network groundwork, are using next week's meeting of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) meeting in Nairobi to argue the case for a global ban.

It has long been recognised that burning forests release more than carbon, as the cocktail of chemicals absorbed by the trees as they grow is set free as they are consumed by fire. But new research at the University of Michigan suggests that the role of forest fires has been underplayed...