A synthesis of mercury research in the Southern Hemisphere, part 2: Anthropogenic perturbations

Environmental mercury (Hg) contamination is a global concern requiring action at national scales. Scientific understanding and regulatory policies are underpinned by global extrapolation of Northern Hemisphere Hg data, despite historical, political, and socioeconomic differences between the hemispheres that impact Hg sources and sinks. In this paper, we explore the primary anthropogenic perturbations to Hg emission and mobilization processes that differ between hemispheres and synthesize current understanding of the implications for Hg cycling. In the Southern Hemisphere (SH), lower historical production of Hg and other metals implies lower present-day legacy emissions, but the extent of the difference remains uncertain. More use of fire and higher deforestation rates drive re-mobilization of terrestrial Hg, while also removing vegetation that would otherwise provide a sink for atmospheric Hg. Prevalent Hg use in artisanal and small-scale gold mining is a dominant source of Hg inputs to the environment in tropical regions. Meanwhile, coal-fired power stations continue to be a significant Hg emission source and industrial production of non-ferrous metals is a large and growing contributor. Major uncertainties remain, hindering scientific understanding and effective policy formulation, and we argue for an urgent need to prioritize research activities in under-sampled regions of the SH

Becoming Animal

Animals really matter for Victorianists: this is the message this collection of essays, gathered in Volume 85 of Cahiers victoriens et édouardiens, conveys as it proves that Animal Studies and Victorian Studies can cross-fertilise each other in often very surprising but successful ways. The contributions are issued from the 2016 SFEVE conference, ‘Becoming Animal with the Victorians’, which was held at the University Paris Diderot on 4-5 February 2016. While the goal of this conference was to encourage participants to embrace the animal while questioning the position of the human, the reference to ‘becoming animal’ hinted at Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari’s major concept, allowing to consider Victorian animals through notions of identity and subjectivity. Following an introduction presenting the current state of research on animals in Victorian literature and culture, the seven contributions focus on the questions of transformation, evolution, regression and hybridization. They examine how Victorians crossed the borders between species and undermined the existence of a frontier separating the human and the non-human. La question des animaux est centrale pour les Victorianistes. C’est le message que ce recueil d’articles rassemblés dans le volume 85 des Cahiers victoriens et édouardiens cherche à transmettre en montrant que les Animal Studies et les études victoriennes peuvent s'enrichir mutuellement de façon souvent surprenante. Les contributions à cet ouvrage proviennent de communications effectuées lors du congrès annuel de la SFEVE qui s’est tenu à l’université Paris Diderot les 4 et 5 février 2016, sur le thème ‘Becoming Animal with the Victorians’. Si le but de cette conférence était d’encourager les participants à considérer l’animal à partir d’un questionnement sur l’humain, la référence au ‘devenir-animal’ faisait clairement allusion au concept majeur de Gilles Deleuze et Felix Guattari, et invitait à considérer les animaux victoriens sous l’angle de l’identité et de la subjectivité. L’introduction présentant l’état actuel de la recherche sur les animaux dans la littérature et la culture victoriennes est suivie de sept articles qui portent sur les questions de transformation, d’évolution, de régression et d’hybridité. Ces articles analysent la façon dont les Victoriens franchissent les frontières entre les espèces et remettent en cause l’existence d’une limite qui séparerait l’humain du non-humain