enCore makes production decision on Alta Mesa, its second uranium facility

Staff Writer | March 15, 2023 |

The Alta Mesa facility has a total operating capacity of 1.5 million pounds of uranium per year. 

Credit: enCore Energy Corp.

enCore Energy (NYSE American: EU) (TSXV: EU) has made a formal production decision for the resumption of uranium production from the Alta Mesa central processing plant in early 2024. This will be enCore’s second uranium-producing location after the Rosita processing plant, which is scheduled to restart in 2023.


Alta Mesa is a fully licensed and constructed ISR (in-situ recovery) uranium project and central processing facility currently on standby, located on over 821.5 square kilometres of private land in Texas. Its total operating capacity is estimated at 1.5 million lb. of U3O8 (uranium) per year. The facility historically produced nearly 5 million lb. of U3O8 between 2005 and 2013, after which full production was curtailed as a result of low uranium prices at the time.

Alta Mesa is the latest addition to enCore’s South Texas portfolio following its recent acquisition from Energy Fuels. The project provides a significant boost to the company’s South Texas resource base, adding 3.4 million lb. of uranium in the measured and indicated category and 16.7 million lb. in inferred.

Along with its existing Rosita and Kingsville Dome facilities, enCore now holds three fully licensed uranium production facilities in the state of Texas. At the moment, there are only 11 licensed and constructed uranium production facilities in all of the United States.

Work currently underway at the Alta Mesa plant includes the construction of equipment staging areas and drill pads in the fully permitted production authorization area (PAA), planned for initial production due to its proximal location adjacent to the plant. Development drilling, production and injection well installation will start this month.

Meanwhile, enCore’s technical staff are identifying equipment maintenance and limited repair needs at the Alta Mesa processing plant involving the ion exchange system, uranium precipitation, drying and packaging circuits in order to restart production after having been on standby since 2013.

According to enCore, the Alta Mesa processing plant can reach commercial production levels with limited required capital, from funds on hand, within an estimated 10 months of the announced production decision.

“The enCore team began initial assessment work in November 2022, preparing for the start of work immediately following the closing of the acquisition of the Alta Mesa processing plant and project,” CEO Paul Goranson said in a news release. “Our 2023 startup of production at Rosita and now, the decision to proceed at Alta Mesa, will bring a reliable domestic low carbon energy source to South Texas and the United States when it is most needed.”

Researchers find efficient way to turn vegetable oil industry waste into power

Staff Writer | March 15, 2023 | 

Vegetable oil. (Reference image from Pxhere).

Iran-based researchers have developed a novel and cost-effective anode catalyst that can improve and stabilize the power generation performance of microbial fuel cells (MFCs) treating vegetable oil industry wastewater.


In a paper published in the Journal of Chemical Technology and Biotechnology, the scientists explain that MFCs convert the chemical energy stored in organic matter in wastewater into electricity using bacteria as a catalyst. For years now, the team has been investigating how the modification of the electrodes can improve the performance of this technology.

“Electrode design is the greatest challenge in making MFCs a cost-effective and scalable technology. The anode of MFCs plays a vital role in the extracellular electron transfer between the electroactive bacteria and the solid electrode surface,” Hossein Jafari Mansoorian, corresponding author of the study, said in a media statement. “In this regard, it is of crucial importance to develop a novel anode material with synergistic effects between the properties of the anode surface and microorganisms.”

In Mansoorian’s view, a desirable anode should offer good conductivity to speed up the electron transfer rate; excellent biocompatibility and low bio-toxicity for microbes; higher specific surface area to provide more microbe attachment and catalytic activity sites; chemical stability and anti-corrosion resistance, and flexibility and durability, as well as low cost to commercial application.

“In order to improve bacterial adhesion and efficient electron transfer between bacteria and the electrode surface, the electrode should be modified and its surface area increased to ensure efficient current collection and power yield through the decomposition of organic compounds in the wastewater,” the researcher explained. “Based on the results of this study, the TiO2-HX@MWCNT-COOH-Al2O3 structure of this composite is a suitable candidate for modifying the anode electrode and greatly enhances electroactivity.”

Bamboo instead of platinum

Mansoorian and his group also investigated the modification of the cathode to identify a cost-effective alternative to platinum. Carbon felt modified with powdered activated carbon (PAC) originating from Bambuseae (a family of bamboo plants) was found to be effective.

According to the researcher, the findings from this study are the latest in continuing efforts to improve MFC performance. “A tremendous breakthrough has been made regarding power output in MFCs from a few mW⋅cm-2 or mW⋅cm-3 to several W⋅cm-2 or W⋅cm-3, an improvement of three orders of magnitude, owing to continuous efforts of researchers,” he noted. “The use of fossil fuels, especially oil and gas, in recent years has accelerated and this is triggering a global energy crisis. Renewable bioenergy is viewed as one of the ways to alleviate the current global warming crisis.”

For Mansoorian, the large volumes of wastewater generated by the vegetable oil industry mean that the high energy requirements of conventional wastewater treatment are unsustainable.

“Since traditional wastewater treatment has various limitations, sustainable implementations of MFCs might be a feasible option in wastewater treatment as well as green electricity production, bio-hydrogen synthesis, carbon sequestration, and environmentally sustainable sewage treatment,” the scientist pointed out. “But for MFCs to be a viable option for wastewater treatment, they need to be scaled up to accommodate large volumes of incoming wastewater, which has proven challenging for several reasons, including minimizing the distance between the anode and cathode to reduce electrical losses and being cost-competitive with other treatment technologies.”

In addition, Mansoorian noted that the materials used for MFCs are expensing, as they include membranes to separate the electrodes, which are prone to fouling, and a catalyst to produce enough power.

“At last, after obtaining superior anode electrodes, it is necessary to examine their long-term performance in real wastewater treatment to investigate their stability, durability, mechanical properties and secondary pollution effects,” he said. “Nonetheless, MFCs undoubtedly have potential in terms of energy recovery during wastewater treatment, occupying a market niche in terms of a stand-alone power source and also in the direct treatment of wastewater.”

Miners need to learn how to navigate the political spectrum in Latin America, says Southern Pulse

Bruno Venditti | March 15, 2023 | 

Image courtesy of Federation of Copper Workers — FTC.

Scenario: A profitable gold mine operator in faces a threat of work stoppage as local political leaders square off with the local union leader.


The protests are not organized by the union but by the local community leader, who holds more influence over the local labor force.

To solve the problem, the miner decides to investigate who influences who in the community.

The company learns that the union leader’s position was not in line with his boss’ position (at the state level). It also learns that the local community leader and the mayor were related through marriage and would likely not turn on one another.

The miner executives decide to sit with the state-level union leader, present their case, and ask him to bring the local union leader into alignment.

As a result, the state-level union leader diffuses the conflict at the local level by removing the local union boss and replacing him with someone who was more loyal to the state-level structure.

The mine is no longer threatened by a work stoppage.

The real case described here is one of many handled by Southern Pulse, a company focused on local networks and strategic relationships that supports Canadian and American companies to navigate the Latin American market.

The company works with different sources and methods to produce what it calls a ‘3D map’ showing the stakeholders involved in the community.

“We bring a more nuanced and granular understanding of the most influential stakeholders in their immediate operating area,” Southern Pulse founder Sam Logan told MINING.COM.

According to Logan, mining in Latin America presents an excellent opportunity for foreign direct investment, but at the same time, it has risks because of corruption and lack of regulation.

“The biggest challenge that miners have is at the moment when they realize that they’ve broken ground, beginning construction. And then they get a knock at the door from some local, highly influential, perhaps politically connected or criminally connected individual that comes in and says, okay, we’re going to have to work together,” said Logan.

“A lot of times, it’s the person who supplies the diesel, or the person who supplies the food. If you are a junior mining company and have a large enough camp in that operation, that’s a big deal.”
Political influence

With the high demand for critical minerals for the energy transition, countries like Chile, Mexico and Brazil have sought to review regulations and permitting.

That comes with concerns about resource nationalism.

With the return of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to Brazil’s presidency in January, Ecuador is now the only significant regional economy with a right-wing government.

Last week, representatives of the Argentinean delegation said at the annual PDAC convention that countries in the region are discussing the creation of a lithium cartel in South America.

For the Southern Pulse founder, miners need to learn how to navigate the political spectrum in the region.

“Mines, when operating successfully, represent the most stable and most important source of economic growth in the local environment compared to any other potential activity that could happen in that same place,” said Logan.


“This is where I think a lot of mining executives fall short of their potential. The political influence and the political voice that one has as a mining operator is, oftentimes, underutilized,”

Logan says it is possible for miners to have political influence in an ethical and lawful way.

“You don’t want to get into a situation where you are making agreements to give anyone money or do any sort of campaign financing,” he said. “But what you want to do is to be receptive, you want to let them (politics) come and tour your project. You want to have meetings with them where you go and you discuss the development of that community.”

Deep South Resources prospects improve in battle for Haib copper project licence in Namibia

Staff Writer | March 14, 2023 | 

The Haib copper deposit is in the extreme south of Namibia close to the border with South Africa, which is defined by the course of the Orange River. (Image courtesy of Deep-South Resources.)

The High Court of Namibia has rendered its judgment and set aside the decision of the Minister not to renew Deep-South Resources (TSX-V: DSM) licence for the Haib copper project.


The decision is a win for the Canadian miner in its battle to renew the company’s prospecting licence for the Haib project after the country’s mining and energy ministry missed a deadline to file the permit’s refusal.

Minister Tom Alweendo declined to renew Deep-South’s licence in June 2021 citing the Vancouver-based company’s inability to advance to a prefeasibility stage and complete the proposed drilling program as planned.

Deep-South took the case to Namibia’s High Court, which ruled that no permits could be granted over the same area until further notice.

From April 2017 to April 2021, Deep-South invested more than C$2 million ($1.6m) on the project, including an updated preliminary economic assessment. The miner has also proposed a C$7.1 million feasibility study and C$25.5 million pilot plant.

The company had acquired the remainder of the project in 2017 from Teck Resources, which is one of its major shareholders.

The updated PEA in December had put Haib’s after-tax NPV at $957 million and IRR at 29.7% using a $3 per pound copper price, envisaging a 24-year mine producing 35,332 tonnes per annum of copper cathodes and 51,080tpa copper sulphate.

The effect of the latest order is that the Minister must resume the licence renewal application procedure and arrive at a new decision. The court noted that the facts presented by Deep-South subsidiary Haib Minerals should not have been ignored in the evaluation process.

The judgment mentions that the Minister and Mining Commissioner did not consider the large investments carried out by Deep-South to develop a low grade deposit.

The court also stated that the Minister and Mining Commissioner did not take in consideration the fact that the covid 19 pandemic impacted the exploration program. The court also ordered the Ministry to pay the legal costs of Deep-South’ subsidiary Haib Minerals.

“This is a very positive verdict and we are confident to be able to create a new positive working relation with the Minister and the new Mining Commissioner,” Deep-South CEO Pierre Leveille said in the statement. “It is also an important decision for Namibia as it shows that the rule of law prevails in Namibia. Our Board of Directors would like to thank our shareholders for their strong support over all that difficult period.“

The Minister and the Mining Commissioner have the right to appeal the judgement in the Supreme Court of Namibia, Deep South said. If they decide to lodge an appeal, the request shall be filed within 21 court days from the date of the judgement — March 10.

Philippine miners not keen on Indonesia nickel alliance plan

Bloomberg News | March 15, 2023 |

Nickel. Credit: LME

A plan by top nickel miner Indonesia to create an OPEC-like group to coordinate supply would not benefit the Philippines, the No. 2 producer, according to an industry group.


The Philippines mined a 10th of the in-demand metal that’s used in electric vehicle batteries last year, according to the US Geological Survey, and mainly exports nickel ore to China. That’s well behind Indonesia, which accounted for almost half of global output, and floated the idea of a producer alliance late last year.

“If prices of raw materials go up, then they will feed into prices of finished products, which we import, and it will hurt us so much,” Dante Bravo, president of the Philippine Nickel Industry Association, said in an interview. “I’m not a believer in a controlled market.”

Indonesian Investment Minister Bahlil Lahadalia said last month that he plans to travel to major nickel producers including Australia, Brazil and the Philippines to promote the alliance. He may face an uphill battle though, given that a major mining association in Australia and Canada’s trade minister have also said they’re not keen on the idea. The other main miners of the metal are a diverse bunch including Russia, New Caledonia and China.

Indonesia’s nickel plan is part of President Joko Widodo’s goal of adding more value domestically and becoming a key part of the battery supply chain. The country, along with Australia, also has the largest reserves of the metal, with Brazil not far behind. Prices for nickel, which is also used to make stainless steel, have rise by around two-thirds so far this decade as EV demand surged.

Jakarta’s ban on exports of metal ores in 2020 boosted the value of its nickel shipments to $30 billion from $3 billion in two years as Chinese companies built refineries and smelters there. The Philippines is considering following in Indonesia’s footsteps by taxing nickel ore exports to lure investment in processing plants.

However, the Philippines’ nickel is of a lower quality than Indonesia’s and it has far smaller reserves, meaning it would be more difficult to attract funds, Bravo said on Monday. The country should instead focus on enhancing cooperation between its mainly small-scale miners to set up processing facilities, and expanding the areas where companies are allowed to explore, he said.

The alliance being promoted by Indonesia would only be of interest to the Philippines if it was focused on the sharing of best practices and technology and deploying resources more efficiently, Bravo said.

(By Manolo Serapio Jr. and Ditas Lopez)

Colombia coal mine gas blast kills at least 11

Reuters | March 15, 2023 | 

Coal mines outside of Samaca, Colombia. Image source: Scott Wallace | World Bank

An explosion caused by accumulated gas in six adjoining coal mines in central Colombia has killed at least 11 workers and trapped 10 below ground, authorities said on Wednesday.


The explosion took place late on Tuesday in a rural area of Sutatausa, about 75 km (46 miles) north of Bogota.


“People are trapped between 700 and 900 meters,” Cundinamarca provincial governor Nicola Garcia told journalists, adding more than 100 rescue workers had joined the search.

Two people had already been rescued and seven escaped unaided.

“We are making every effort with the government of Cundinamarca to rescue the people who are trapped alive,” President Gustavo Petro said on Twitter. “A hug of solidarity for the victims and their families.”

The mines were authorized to operate, the national mining agency said.

Serious accidents are common at open pit and subterranean coal and gold mines in Colombia, mostly at illegal or informal operations and those without proper safety measures.

The most serious recent accident occurred in June 2010, when 73 people were killed in a mine explosion the northwest.

(By Luis Jaime Acosta and Julia Symmes Cobb; Editing by Nick Macfie)

Search on for 10 trapped miners after Colombia blast kills 11

Wed, March 15, 2023 


Firefighters and fellow miners battled Wednesday to save ten workers trapped in a coal mine in central Colombia after an explosion killed at least 11.

The blast happened when accumulated gases in the mine were ignited by a spark from a worker's tool late Tuesday, governor Nicolas Garcia of the Cundinamarca department told Blu Radio.

President Gustavo Petro called it "an unfortunate tragedy," in a Twitter message.

"We are making every effort with the Cundinamarca regional government to rescue the trapped people alive," the president said, offering "a hug of solidarity to the victims and their families."

The ANM national mining agency said on Twitter Wednesday morning that two workers had been "rescued alive" from the mine at Sutatausa.

"We regret what happened and we stand in solidarity with the families of those affected," the ANM added.

Garcia said ten were still missing, and more than 100 rescuers were involved in the search.

- 'Less oxygen' every minute -

Workers from other mines also rushed to the scene with their yellow hard hats and lanterns to join the rescue effort.

Outside the mine, family members waited increasingly desperately for news of their loved ones.

The explosion happened at a legal coal mine linked underground to five others.

The miners were trapped some 900 meters (2,950 feet) underground, and access was difficult, said Garcia.

"Every minute that passes means less oxygen," he added.

Oil and coal are the main exports of Colombia, where mining accidents are frequent, especially at illegal digs in Cundinamarca and other departments in the country's center and northeast.

Colombia registered more than 1,600 mining accidents from 2011 to May 2022, for an average annual toll of 103 deaths, according to official data.

At least 130,000 people make a legal living from mining in Colombia.

But unions consistently denounce poor working conditions, with a lack of protective gear and overly long working hours.

In August, nine miners were rescued from a collapsed illegal coal mine in the same department.

And in June, 15 people died at a mine in the municipality of Zulia, near the border with Venezuela, also due to an explosion of accumulated gases.

The country is a major coal producer for the global market.

According to the ministry of mines and energy, in 2020 Colombia had "53 percent of proven coal reserves in Latin America and 0.6 percent of reserves" in the world.

Petro, who became president in August, has called coal a "poison" and vowed to transfer mining jobs to the agriculture, clean energy and tourism sectors.

Illegal mining, along with drug trafficking, is also a major source of income for Colombia's armed groups that have waged a nearly six-decade conflict among each other and against the security forces.

das/lv/mlr/bfm

BHP potentially faces $44 billion bill in Brazil dam case

Reuters | March 15, 2023 |

Reconstruction efforts at Samarco’s Fundão tailings dam in 2017. (Image courtesy of BHP)

BHP Group is potentially facing a £36 billion ($44 billion) lawsuit in London over Brazil’s worst environmental disaster after the number of claimants more than tripled to 700,000, their lawyers said on Wednesday.


BHP was initially sued by around 200,000 Brazilians over the 2015 collapse of the Fundao dam, owned by the Samarco joint venture between BHP and Brazilian iron ore mining company Vale.

The disaster killed 19 people as more than 40 million cubic metres of mud and toxic mining waste swept into the Doce river, obliterating villages and reaching the Atlantic Ocean more than 650 km (400 miles) away.

BHP, the world’s biggest miner by market value, denies liability and in December applied to join Vale to the case. Vale said in a statement at the time that it “intends to contest any alleged liability”.

BHP has said the London lawsuit duplicates legal proceedings and reparation and repair programs in Brazil. BHP did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

Vale declined to comment.

The lawsuit, one of the largest in English legal history, was thrown out in 2020 before the Court of Appeal ruled in July that it could proceed. BHP has applied to the Supreme Court to overturn that decision and its application is pending.

Lawyers representing the claimants said on Wednesday that the number of claimants had increased to more than 700,000, pushing the potential bill if the claimants were successful to $44 billion, including interest.

Tom Goodhead, CEO of law firm Pogust Goodhead, which is representing the claimants, said in a statement: “By failing to enter into a negotiated settlement of these proceedings in 2018 after they were brought, as well as failing to pay adequate compensation in Brazil, the number of claimants has more than tripled to over 700,000.”

(By Sam Tobin and Ernest Scheyder; Editing by Jane Merriman)

OUTLAW DEEP SEA MINING

China to step up deep sea mining efforts

Frik Els | March 14, 2023 | 

A polymetallic nodule is captured on a seamount deep in the North Atlantic Ocean during the 2021 North Atlantic Stepping Stones expedition. Credit: U.S. Geological Survey and NOAA Ocean Exploration.

China Daily reports that the country will make renewed efforts to join the race to mine the deep sea for critical minerals.


The English language government-run paper says China lags behind the West in terms of research, technology and hardware for seabed mining which it calls “a new frontier for international competition.”

Ye Cong of Wuxi-based China Ship Scientific Research Center, a subsidiary of the China State Shipbuilding Corp, said mining the metals found in nodules on the seafloor – mainly nickel, copper, cobalt and manganese – will “help us reduce the heavy reliance on foreign suppliers”.

Ye is a member of the 14th National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, a policy shaping body, that was held last week. China Daily reports the state shipbuilding company is known for its deep sea submersibles like the Jiaolong (Sea Dragon) and the Shenhai Yongshi (Deep Sea Warrior).

Mining exemption

Last week the United Nations agreed to the first ever High Seas Treaty after more than a decade of negotiations by member states. The treaty aims to set aside for conservation around 30% of the world’s international waters and provide rules for its exploitation.

Climate Change News reports deep sea mining is exempted from environmental impact assessment (EIA) regulations established under the UN treaty, which will remain the remit of the International Seabed Authority.

ISA has been working on a framework for deep sea mining since 2014 and is set to issue its approved mining code within months.

CCN notes that the ISA accelerated the pace of negotiations after the island state of Nauru “triggered an obscure provision forcing approval by July 2023,” adding that should the agency miss the deadline, “companies could submit a request to begin full-scale mining, even without any rules in place.”

The nodules are found on abyssal plain sediments at about 3,500–6,000m water depths and the USGS expects that about 35–45% of the demand for critical metals will come from deep-ocean mines by 2065.

TikTok health information videos on Mpox often inaccurate and of poor quality

Findings highlight potential risks of using social media for health information

Peer-Reviewed Publication

BMJ

Health information on M(onkey)pox, posted on the social media platform TikTok, is often inaccurate, incomplete, and of poor quality, finds a recent analysis of relevant videos, published in the open access journal BMJ Global Health.

The findings highlight the potential risks of using social media for health information, particularly during public health emergencies, warn the researchers.

Mpox, formerly called monkeypox, usually describes fever, swollen lymph glands (lymphadenopathy), and painful skin pustules all over the body that last from 2 to 4 weeks.

With more than 1 billion users in 2022, TikTok is one of the most active social media platforms used today to access and share information on timely public health issues, note the researchers. Its users can easily create videos lasting between 15 seconds and 5 minutes.

The researchers wanted to assess the content, quality, and level of engagement of video content on the Mpox outbreak on the platform.

They carried out an online search of relevant video content uploaded between 1 January and 11 August 2022, using 12 hashtags. The initial search returned 2462 videos, but only those that were original, in English, and contained educational content were included in the analysis. After manually checking each video, 85 were left. 

The videos were evaluated for content on features and treatment of Mpox. Video and information quality was assessed using three validated tools for evaluating health information, which included DISCERN and the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) criteria.

The video authors were categorised as doctors and science communicators; institutions; nurses and other healthcare workers; and the general public. And information on the number of followers they had, who they were following, and the total number of posted videos and likes was collected.

The average length of the videos was 78 seconds. The average value of received likes, comments, and shares for each video was 11,015, 211, and 693, respectively. 

The most common video authors were doctors and science communicators (43.5%; 37), followed by the general public (35%; 30), nurses and other healthcare workers (13%; 11), and institutional users (8%;7).

Video content was assessed, using six content categories related to Mpox in clinical practice. Most (85%) addressed Mpox risk factors, but, on average, the videos addressed only a third of the content items highlighted in clinical practice guidelines.

The overall average score for the videos was 39.56 out of 80 on the DISCERN instrument and 1.93 out of 4 on the JAMA criteria, indicating that the overall quality of information in the videos was poor. No video met all the JAMA criteria. 

Overall scores for quality were higher for videos produced by doctors and science communicators than for those made by institutional users or nurses, with those produced by the general public achieving the lowest scores.

The inclusion of people in the video and information on the quality of treatment choices were significant independent determinants of audience engagement. 

The researchers acknowledge various limitations to their findings, including the relatively short time period covered by the study, the fact that the DISCERN and JAMA instruments were originally designed to evaluate website information, and the absence of information on the behavioural and psychological impacts of the videos.

But they nevertheless, point out: “Overall, the material on the recent Mpox outbreak shared through TikTok videos was frequently unreliable and incomplete, hindering public health efforts to share accurate information on Mpox.”

While the poor quality content of most videos may relate to the limited information available on Mpox and its novelty, guidance is needed for health information content, given the crucial role this has, they insist.

“Our quality-of-information results emphasise the need for developing instructions on health information videos on social media and for encouraging more content from health professionals,” they write. 

And they conclude: “Our study highlights the risks of referring to TikTok or social media as a health information source….Poor quality videos with biased content may lead to confusion and impair successful informed decision making. This exacerbates the ‘infodemic’ on social media, deterring efforts to prevent and manage disease outbreaks, notably the Mpox outbreak.” 

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JOURNAL

BMJ Global Health

DOI

10.1136/bmjgh-2022-011138 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Mpox (monkeypox) information on TikTok: analysis of quality and audience engagement

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

14-Mar-2023

Knowing your ants from your anteaters: are wildlife documentaries showing us the ‘real’ natural world?

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE

Wildlife documentaries miss an opportunity to highlight the diversity of nature by focusing too much on mammals and birds, according to a new study.

In a new study published in People and Nature, researchers from the University of Cambridge have shown that while the production of wildlife documentaries has exploded over recent decades, they portray a biased view of the natural world around us.

Our natural world is under threat, from habitat and biodiversity loss, to high extinction rates. At the same time, there is a growing disconnect between people and nature, with children’s opportunities to experience the natural world diminishing.

Now more than ever the public are experiencing nature through technology, from documentaries to social media, which play a key role in shaping public attitudes and awareness  as well as being an effective tool for social change.

However, nature documentaries have been accused of presenting a pristine view of the natural world while excluding the impacts of humans.

Lead author Kate Howlett, a PhD student in the Department of Zoology at the University of Cambridge, and fellow researchers analysed an online film database and collated a list of nature documentaries produced between 1918 and June 2021. A list of 945 documentaries was compiled and split into seven time periods, from each of which 15 random documentaries were chosen.

For each documentary, the researchers recorded every habitat, organism, and species featured and whether there was a conservation message mentioned.

Overall, the researchers found that wildlife documentaries provided a diverse picture of the natural world with an increasing focus on conversation. However, they overrepresented vertebrate species, potentially pushing public attention towards this group of animals and away from others.

Documentaries  were seemingly biased towards vertebrates, which had 81% of mentions, with birds and mammals collectively making up more than half of mentions, while invertebrates only had 18% of mentions. This is despite vertebrates representing only 3.4% of known species compared to 75% for invertebrates. Plants had a consistently low representation across time periods.

Representations of insects, fish and reptiles showed large variations across the decades while representations of mammals and bird remained consistently high.

“There’s almost certainly a reason why we see more mammals and birds – if you want people to be engaged, you need animals that people are familiar with and already care about or they are not going to watch,” says Howlett.

“But this then risks leaving people with the impression that all of nature is fine. There is a balance to be had.”

A range of habitats were mentioned, with the most common being tropical forest and the least common being the deep ocean, and this did not change significantly over the time periods studied.

Moreover, conservation was mentioned in 16% of documentaries in total, but in almost half of documentaries in the current decade. No documentary before the 1980s contained a conversation message.

Increase in public awareness of conversation issues in the 21st century is clear, with mentions reaching 47% in the 2020s.

Anthropogenic impacts – the human impact on nature – were mentioned in 22% of documentaries, but never before the 1970s, with overexploitation of animal populations coming top of the mentions.

“We’ve not had to think about how people are experiencing nature before  because it has just been in everyone’s lives”, says Howlett. “It wasn’t a problem before but now more and more people live in towns, cities and urban spaces.”

Findings from the paper are consistent with recent studies that suggest conservation science has itself been focused more on vertebrates over the last three decades.

The researchers argue that documentary film makers should look to increase the range of species and habitats featured, which could potentially increase awareness of the importance of the range of ecosystems and support for their conservation, as well as an appreciation for nature.

“Film makers have scope to focus on urban wildlife and engage the public by showing them wildlife in their local area and potentially inspiring people to engage more actively with local biodiversity,” says Howlett.

“It is quite frightening to realise how inaccurate our own perception of the world is, and it is important that viewers are given an appropriate balance between education and entertainment as well as hope and solutions to conservation problems.”

The research was funded by the Natural Environment Research Council.

Reference

Howlett, K., Lee, H.-Y., Jaffé, A., Lewis, M., & Turner, E. C. (2023). Wildlife documentaries present a diverse, but biased, portrayal of the natural world. People and Nature, 00, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1002/pan3.10431

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JOURNAL

People and Nature

DOI

10.1002/pan3.10431