Marcello Veiga's story: A mission accompanies singing mining professor

"This is real. It's serious. And I have lived the stories I tell," says Veiga, who was given a piece of a net, removed from the waters around Minamata, Japan in 1997, in recognition of his ongoing work there. 

For more than 20 years the net held back mercury infested fish which caused horrific human suffering in the '50s and '60s.

The Minamata Convention on Mercury is a global treaty to protect human health and the environment from the adverse effects of mercury.  Major highlights of the Minamata Convention include a ban on new mercury mines, the phase-out of existing ones, the phase out and phase down of mercury use in a number of products and processes, control measures on emissions to air and on releases to land and water, and the regulation of the informal sector of artisanal and small-scale gold mining.

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