Read about the launch of the new EPA mercury and air toxics regulations, and some of our work on linking emissions to impacts:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/environment/la-me-gs-epa-issues-mercury-arsenic-rules-20111219,0,4536616.story
A video about the "Mercury Game," our educational simulation focusing on science-policy interactions in international environmental negotiations, has been posted on TechTV. Check out the new video which features game developer and Selin Group member Leah Stokes! You can download the Mercury Game free on the game web site, http://mit.edu/mercurygame.
The recent publication "Science and Strategies to Reduce Mercury Risks: A Critical Review" in Journal of Environmental Montioring was one of the journal's top ten most accessed articles in September, 2011. Read the paper here.
Colin Pike-Thackray joined the Selin Group as a research assistant in September, 2011. See his bio here. Welcome, Colin!
The Selin Group welcomes two new students in September 2011: Shaojie Song, PhD student in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, and Amanda Giang, Master's student in the Technology and Policy Program. Both Shaojie and Amanda will be working on issues related to the fate and transport of hazardous substances. Welcome! For more information about Selin Group students, see our people page.
New publication out today in Journal of Environmental Monitoring, looking at spatial and temporal scales of the mercury problem and links between science and policy:
For full text, see our publications page.
The "Mercury Game," an interactive negotiation simulation focusing on the interactions between science and policy in developing global environmental regulations, was launched today at the Mercury 2011 conference in Halifax.
For more on the game, which was developed by graduate student Leah Stokes with Noelle Selin and Lawrence Susskind at MIT, see a news article here or the game web site here. The game is freely available for download to use in courses and other educational/nonprofit uses. The game was developed with support from the U.S. National Science Foundation.
Tammy Thompson, Selin Group postdoc, spoke at a press conference in Texas hosted by the Sierra Club on her modeling of the Houston area, presenting her modeling predicting the impacts of a proposed coal plant on local air quality. See the press release here.
"Næsten en tiendedel af det kinesiske bruttonationalprodukt går til spilde på grund af luftforurening. Det viser en ny amerikansk undersøgelse."
"A recent study released by the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change quantifies the damage to the Chinese economy caused by a lack of air-quality control measures between 1975 and 2005. Not surprisingly, the MIT researchers found that air pollutants produced a substantial socio-economic cost to China over the past three decades."
See more: The price of fresh air - MIT News Office.
Listen to the podcast here
Video of Noelle's talk at the Transportation@MIT seminar series is posed on the MIT World web site: Excerpt: "It is a complicated matter mapping the movement of pollution in the atmosphere, but Noelle Eckley Selin models not just the chemistry of the atmosphere as it absorbs emissions and responds to climate change, but its potential impact over time on human health and world economies."
The project "Understanding Chemistry, Transport and Fate of Mercury and Persistent Organic Pollutants through Global Atmospheric Modeling" was recently awarded a CAREER grant by the U.S. National Science Foundation. For information, see the award announcement here
