An Ethnography of Entanglements: Mercury’s Presence and Absence in Artisanal and Small-scale Gold-mining in Antioquia, Colombia

This paper describes a ‘follow the thing’ methodology as applied to an ethnography of entanglements. This methodology allowed for a materially and politically nuanced understanding of Antioquia, Colombia’s response to mercury pollution. This pollution primarily originates from the Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining (ASGM) industry where mercury is employed in the gold extraction process. In following the mercury, the authors experiment with an ethnography of entanglements. The paper discusses how they address the current lacunae in mining ethnographies by focussing on mining as ‘practice’, going past the provision of technical descriptions of mining and ethnographic descriptions of miners to an ethnography of mining. This ethnographic approach considers the politics of materiality and addresses a lack of attention to the impacts of the presence and absence of materials on social life. Various mining practices in Antioquia illuminate how entanglements between miners and mercury have been co-constitutive of particular modes of ASGM. The paper will also provide examples of ‘negative mercury entanglements’ where efforts have been made to extricate mercury from mining practices. Rather than creating a vacuum, these mercury absences have been generative of new contested symbolic and material arrangements including entrepreneurial and ‘responsible’ mining, debates over miners’ rights, and the creation of new political relationships between ASGM and large-scale mining companies.fals

Dissecting the Discourse of Social Licence to Operate

The term “social licence to operate”, or SLO, has increasingly featured in public discussion about commercial operations in the marine environment. As part of the Sustainable Seas National Challenge, we are studying how this term is being used in New Zealand and its implications for industry-community relations

Tackling plastic pollution in New Zealand’s fin fishing industry Case study: Moana NZ

This study aims to seek ways to prevent marine plastic pollution leakage in New Zealand’s commercial fin fishing industry supply chains. Drawing on a case study approach, this research investigates how sea and land-based plastic material flows are perceived by those working for commercial fishing company Moana NZ. It considers current global, regional and national policies, as well as current initiatives that seek to minimise marine plastic pollution and considers the potential for their implementation in this context. This study also acknowledges the significant role that industry can play in implementing best practice guided by the top of the zero waste hierarchy.falseLondo

Family Violence, Help-Seeking & the Close-Knit Aboriginal Community: Lessons for Mainstream Service Provision

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Statistical Theory of Asteroid Escape Rates

Transition states in phase space are identified and shown to regulate the rate of escape of asteroids temporarily captured in circumplanetary orbits. The transition states, similar to those occurring in chemical reaction dynamics, are then used to develop a statistical semianalytical theory for the rate of escape of asteroids temporarily captured by Mars. Theory and numerical simulations are found to agree to better than 1%. These calculations suggest that further development of transition state theory in celestial mechanics, as an alternative to large-scale numerical simulations, will be a fruitful approach to mass transport calculations

Transition state in atomic physics

The transition state is fundamental to modern theories of reaction dynamics: essentially, the transition state is a structure in phase space that all reactive trajectories must cross. While transition-state theory (TST) has been used mainly in chemical physics, it is possible to apply the theory to considerable advantage in any collision problem that involves some form of reaction. Of special interest are systems in which chaotic scattering or half-scattering occurs such as the ionization of Rydberg atoms in external fields. In this paper the ionization dynamics of a hydrogen atom in crossed electric and magnetic fields are shown to possess a transition state: We compute the periodic orbit dividing surface (PODS) which is found not to be a dividing surface when projected into configuration space. Although the possibility of a PODS occurring in phase space rather than configuration space has been recognized before, to our knowledge this is the first actual example: its origin is traced directly to the presence of velocity-dependent terms in the Hamiltonian. Our findings establish TST as the method of choice for understanding ionization of Rydberg atoms in the presence of velocity-dependent forces. To demonstrate this TST is used to (i) uncover a multiple-scattering mechanism for ionization and (ii) compute ionization rates. In the process we also develop a method of computing surfaces of section that uses periodic orbits to define the surface, and examine the fractal nature of the dynamics

Plastics pollution as waste colonialism in Te Moananui

Plastics pollution is a global, relational, integrated, and intersectoral issue. Here, we undertook narrative analysis of semi-structured interviews with nineteen key plastic pollution decision-makers. They offered a contextual lens to understand challenges facing Pacific Island (Te Moananui) nations in preventing plastics pollution. We build on the work of Ngata (2014-2021) and Liboiron (2014-2021) to situate the narrative analysis within a "waste colonialism" framework. We argue that plastics pollution as waste colonialism transcends environmental, policy, and industry concerns. "Indigenous political ecologies" of plastics pollution provide an understanding by which plastics pollution prevention can be examined at multiple scales. These include, at the international level: trade agreements and import dependency, donor aid and duplication, and transnational industry influence. At the local level: pressure from local plastics manufacturers, importers and suppliers, and barriers to accessing the latest science. Located within a global and regional context, our findings capture the systemic and long-standing impacts of colonialism on Indigenous responses to plastics pollution prevention and management, highlighting its effects on human and environment health and wellbeing. Sustainable solutions to plastics pollution for Te Moananui require the centering of its peoples and their deep, lived, and intergenerationally transmitted knowledges in the identification of challenges and solutions, the implementation of activities, and amplification of a shared regional voice.fals