BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:icalendar-ruby
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
X-WR-CALNAME:Linking Science to Global Environmental Action: Lessons from M
 ercury Pollution
X-WR-TIMEZONE:Eastern Time (US & Canada)
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTAMP:20260520T163259Z
UID:tag:localist.com\,2008:EventInstance_51277806678977
DTSTART:20260220T170000Z
DTEND:20260220T180000Z
DESCRIPTION:Noelle Selin (Professor in the Institute for Data\, Systems and
  Society and the Department of Earth\, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences\
 , and the Director of MIT’s Center for Sustainability Science and Strate
 gy)\n\n \n\nScientific research can be critical to identifying global envi
 ronmental problems\, understanding them\, and implementing potential solut
 ions. How can science contribute to evaluating the effectiveness of global
  environmental policies? In this talk\, I discuss how scientists and polic
 y-makers are addressing the question of policy effectiveness\, with exampl
 es from the case of mercury pollution. In October 2013\, a global treaty c
 alled the Minamata Convention on Mercury was signed\, aiming to protect hu
 man health and the environment from anthropogenic mercury. Measurements an
 d models can contribute to identifying and attributing changes in environm
 ental concentrations of mercury\, but doing so is tricky: mercury cycles b
 etween the land\, atmosphere\, and ocean\, and current levels are driven n
 ot only by contemporary emissions but also by the legacy of historical use
 s. While uses of mercury in products and processes are being phased out\, 
 and emissions controls are being implemented worldwide for major sources\,
  the most recent inventories available suggest that mercury emissions incr
 eased globally in the 2010s. I will present results from a combination of 
 data analysis and modeling that suggests that these pessimistic estimates 
 are probably wrong -- contemporary anthropogenic emissions have most likel
 y declined. In follow up work\, we have developed ways to leverage limited
  data to better constrain emissions\, taking advantage of signals from its
  variability over time. I conclude by discussing lessons learned for evalu
 ating the effectiveness of global environmental treaties in general.\n\n \
 n\nNoelle Eckley Selin is Professor in the Institute for Data\, Systems an
 d Society and the Department of Earth\, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences
 \, and the Director of MIT’s Center for Sustainability Science and Strat
 egy (CS3). She co-leads MIT's Bringing Computation to the Climate Challeng
 e (BC3) project. She served as Interim Director of MIT’s Institute for D
 ata\, Systems\, and Society (2023-2024)\, and as director of MIT’s Techn
 ology and Policy Program from 2018-2023. Her research uses modeling and an
 alysis to inform sustainability decision-making\, focusing on issues invol
 ving air pollution\, climate change and hazardous substances such as mercu
 ry. Her work has also addressed interactions between science and policy in
  international environmental negotiations.  She received her PhD and M.A. 
 (Earth and Planetary Sciences) and B.A. (Environmental Science and Public 
 Policy) from Harvard University. She is the recipient of a U.S. National S
 cience Foundation CAREER award (2011)\, a Hans Fischer Senior Fellow at th
 e Technical University of Munich Institute for Advanced Study (2018-2021)\
 , a Carl Friedrich von Siemens Research Award of the Alexander von Humbold
 t Foundation (2024)\, and an American Association for the Advancement of S
 cience Fellow (2024).
GEO:42.3783;-71.117081
LOCATION:Pierce Hall\, 100F
SUMMARY:Linking Science to Global Environmental Action: Lessons from Mercur
 y Pollution
URL;VALUE=URI:https://events.seas.harvard.edu/event/noelle-selin-mit
CATEGORIES:Colloquia / Seminar / Lecture
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR