Our well-being on planet Earth depends on three main essential drivers, i.e. Water, Energy and Natural Resources (fossil minerals and renewables including biosphere and its eco-systems) ‘WENR’. To achieve sustainability and resilience in our societies and to promote prosperity requires using and sharing our common 'WENR' capital with consideration to the complex and multi-layered NEXUS, i.e. the interactions and processes within and between these three drivers 'WENR’. Currently, Earth is facing existential threats caused by us collectively. Scaling-Up and Scaling-Out 'Science, Technology and Innovation' of the WENR-systems and coupling them to the 'Socio-Economic-Environment' pillars of our societies as defined by the UN-SDGs are one of the very few means to mitigate existing and future threats and bring full vitality in the functioning and metabolism of all life forms and processes on Earth. Sustain-earth.com is an open access online platform that allows active contributions and feeback.
Category: Tourism
Tourism is a growing industry that allows us to spend time way from work. It involves travelling and it is becoming an indispensable source for recreational, leisure and holiday purposes. It can be combined with business, education, research, sports, health and medication activities, also for visiting families and friends, and for experiencing the virtual world we meet on the Internet by real excursions and journeys that fulfill specific needs and ventures. In addition to recreation, tourism can be combined with a wide-range of activities to promote individual and group interests, to increase mutual interaction and for cross-fertilization of cultures, and to enhance social entrepreneurship.
Air pollution is a worldwide problem especially in many big cities and industrial areas around the world. Emission of fine particulate matter (e.g. aerodynamic diameter ≤ 2.5 µm; PM2.5) , chemicals (e.g. biogenic VOC) and pollutants (e.g. heavy metals), and associated photo-chemical reactions (e.g. production of tropospheric ozone) in the atmosphere as well as in-cloud interactions (e.g. acid rain) experienced dramatic changes since the industrial revolutions. Concentrations of hazardous pollutants in global atmospheric air masses, dry and wet precipitates have been subject to gradual increasing reaching harmful levels for air-quality what regards human health (e.g. lung cancer, mortality) and the environment (e.g. negative impacts for forests and vegetation and quality of life in aquatic eco-systems) in many places around the world.
Climate change influences air quality through several mechanisms, including changes in photochemical reaction rates, biogenic emissions, deposition/re-suspension, and atmospheric circulation. Several techniques/approaches were used in such studies including atmospheric chemistry, climate model inter-comparison, high-resolution satellite observations together with a global atmospheric models and extensive compilation of surface measurements to better represent global air pollution exposure.
It is interesting and even generous that some nations and civilizations were able to maintain something that describe and illustrate the beautiful reality but yet a difficult and critical past of their history. It is part of the nations and civilization’s mindfulness of their cultural heritage where conflicting history is turned to friendship. Granada is a true window for a glamorous past worth visiting instead of reading history books. Granada is an integration of innovative architecture, cultural history in a unique social and environment context.
Celebrations and social gathering are very much related to culture. How people live together and enjoy life is a matter of imagination, social context and environment. This can be very much different around the world and culture has also an evolution as it makes people grow with time. Apart from the ancient Egyptian Civilization, Africa had other cultural history and evolution with roots back to the stone ages. However, how much do we know about the cultural history of Africa Apart from colonization and slavery of the white man? Carol Beckwith and Angela Fisher did an amazing and innovative journey in Africa to document, collect and compile facts about contemporary social anthropology and culture ceremonies that we know very little about. This is a part of human cultural evolution that can be traced back to stone ages. It is certainly, worth knowing about it as it is part of our cultural heritage.
The world is experiencing tectonic changes in terms of population, economy, production, services and technology. The world in the year 2050 will not any longer be as it used to be in the past decades.
The world population will grow from 6 billions in the year 2000 (one billion in the developed world and five billions in the developing world) to 9 billions in the 2050. One hundred million out of the three billions of the global increase in population will go to the developed world, while the developing countries will increase by 2.9 billions. This is a dramatic shift in world population in the coming five decades only, i.e. an increase from 6 to 9 billions.
The other consequential change is, by the year 2000, the developed world (one billion people) had 80% of the global economy while the developing world (five billion) had the remaining 20%. But, by the year 2050, the developed world will have only 35% of the world economy, while the developing countries will have 65% of the global economy. So, the 80% vs 20% of global economy of the year 2000 will be change to 35% vs 65% by the year 2050. This is just turning the world on its head in terms of the world that used to be in the past decades. This dramatic change in the structure of world economy is being driven by the development in global population and the fast transfer of modern technology to the developing countries.
You can imagine how such monumental economic shifts mean to the young generation world over. This is a change of enormous importance where India and China by the year 2050 will constitute 50% of the global GPD, this is a monumental switch in terms of economical power.
In the year 2000, one billion middle class people were in the rich countries and half billion people were in the developing countries. By the year 2030, 2 billion middle class people will be in Asia (one billion in China by 2050). Africa will grow from 850 millions people in 2000 to two billions people 2050. By the year 2050, the average income in Africa will be 2000-3000 dollar per capita, for China and India will be between 30 000 and 40 000 dollar per capita, and for the countries in the rich world (US and Europe) will be between 90 000 and 100 000 dollar per capita.
Africa is a continent that is not any longer isolated, it is not a place where people are not well informed as information is passing and moving very quickly. Much trade and business in China and India is geared towards Africa.
These tectonic changes have monumental impacts on the young generation and they have to think very carefully how to face the global transfer in economy, production, services and technology. Education figures for the year 2007, tell us that 110 000 Chinese and over 100 000 Indians were studying in the US, while only 11200 Americans were studying in China and 2800 Americans in India. But, these figures will experience dramatic changes in the future because the mentioned major shifts in economy, production, services and technology.
The western countries were able to stay ahead because of (1) manufacture and that was taken away and moved to Asia; (2) service industries that first moved into the western countries but is moving out again to Asia by their gradual dominance in the service sectors; (3) technology where the west were able to stay ahead, but now the technological advance is being shifted as well to Asia. The challenge is now what is left for the west to do??
Necessity is the mother of invention. Where energy lacks there is much concern about finding it and using it with the most sustainable manner possible. This is why Iceland is among very few countries in the world where Renewable Energy Resources are managed with the best possible sustainable solutions. It is, also, possible that the availability and affordability of renewable energy in Iceland attracted Scandinavians to settle in Iceland sometime around the second half of the 9th century as in ancient cultures people sought living there were good possibilities to secure “WE-resources”. i.e. water and energy resources. The necessity and needs for survival are essential drivers for inventions and advances in science and technology. It is interesting to mention that 100% of the electricity production in Iceland is produced from renewable energy resources, i.e. hydropower and geothermal heat. Furthermore, 85% of total primary energy supply in Iceland is derived from domestically produced renewable energy sources.
So, we have something to learn from this country that in addition of being in the icy part of the world has a very long dark winter season. However, Iceland is not as cold as Minnesota (USA), for example, and not as dark as Tromso (Norway). That doesn’t mean that Island is some tropical paradise though.
The dream of any nation is to provide its population with safety and security especially in most critical situations with severe disasters, tragedies and collective nightmare arising from fear, insecurity and uncertain future. The nuclear disaster and the national tragedy from Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan demonstrated how collective efforts, the neat national planning along with continuous and intensive hard-work brought about safety and security for almost all the population in Japan.
An amazing awareness and responsibility on all levels for the DE-COMTAMINATION of every single inch or centimeter of land, houses, school, hospitals, roads, trees and practically all environmental compartments. A national DE-COMTAMINATION strategy if followed by other nations much of pollutions and waste problems can be solved. Successful sustainable management is about providing future generations with secure and safe living conditions, it is a collective discipline, awareness and responsibility from all for all and by all including preparing and fostering future generation for how to handle national disasters and severe tragedies.
Increasing pressures on natural resources, in particular availability, accessibility and affordability of Water and Energy “WE”-resources, require Sustainable Management Policies that consider shaping and integrating Sustainable Technologies to meet the growing needs for large-scale and long-term transformation to New Sustainable Life-styles. Unlike, in ancient civilization where population settlements were created at/around fresh surface-water bodies, e.g. rivers, lakes and deltas, future settlements are likely to grow faster at coastal regions “Hydroponic Coastal Colonies” and non-traditional living areas with limited fresh-water resources. Agricultural production may not require land to the same extent as in traditional farm communities; modern technology will allow more Sustainable Cities to grow on coastal areas as well. However, climate change threats for increasing sea-water levels have to be taken in consideration, what we have learned from the past safety and protection measures are always part of any successful socio-economic developments. The future is bright by innovation and not by imitation.
The earth’s surface went through enormous large-scale and long-term shaping and re-shaping evolution history that resulted in todays earth’s “face”. In the last million years these shaping and re-shaping processes of the earth’s surface were continuously fueled by dominant erosion processes of natural origin that carved land-areas, holes and trajectories for coastal, surface and groundwater systems, e.g. rivers, lakes, coastal deltas and shores, fjords, water-falls, forests, natural parks, caves and other major geological formations. However, modern man-made interferences are becoming increasingly important, primarily because of increasing activities and processes on the earth’s surface in particular urbanization, mining and global warming. Recent climate changes, for example, are imposing extreme daily and seasonal variations in atmospheric temperature, gradual warming of oceans, seas and surface water systems with feedback impacts on atmospheric, oceanographic and hydrospheric erosion processes. These processes are brought about by the action of more dynamic air and water masses on different scales ranging from micro, local, regional and global scales, e.g. dynamic changes in speed and velocity of wind and water waves, also heating, freezing and de-freezing cycles “expansion and contraction” and geothermal processes.
Erosion is the main source of nutrients supporting the formation of vegetation cover, animal and evolution of bio-diversity and the very origin of natural agricultural production through photo-synthesis and associated biogeochemical, geophysical and geochemical machinery of the functioning and metabolism of global eco-systems. However, modern pollution and waste because of industry, agriculture and household have severe negative impacts of all life forms on the earth’s surface.
Give your support to bio-diversity, environment and water issues and create public awareness to protect life from extinguision around the Great Ruaha River and the eventual the drying up of the river itself.
Ruaha Marathon, Irnga-Tanzania, is a social event which you can contribute in shaping it and improving its activities through not only being part of it but also by active initiatives and interactions. Social enterpreneurs can very well innovate in how they can be effective part of making this event move forward towards achieving sustainable socio-economic developments in Africa. All what Africa needs is INNOVATION, where people join together to share solutions. Life is about to serve and get served but do it with quality! Building up sound eco-tourism and green-awareness part supporting rural communities in Africa.
With flourishing economy in Africa, and the vision of young people for transfer to democracy and a better life, innovation in music, fashion and art are gradually penetrating and diffusing in the unique cultural mosaic of the growing Africa. An example is the Ethiopian music that combines different cultural and emotional backgrounds, a needed positive energy for fueling the populations towards the new future.
Climate Change and the expected impacts of Global Warming on global water resources will have pronounced effects worldwide in the 21st century. To see any change some references must be used and in this case as explained here the 20th century will be used reference for comparison. Among key processes in the global water cycle that are undergoing dramatic changes in dynamics and rates are: evapotranspiration; soil moisture; surface water flow and ground water levels. Changes in the dynamics and rates of these processes will have direct and indirect effects on the vegetation cover, forest, agriculture and farming as well as remarkable impacts on the global water supply with feedback effects on agriculture, industry and basic human need including drinking water .
Mercury is among toxic pollutants with harmful effects on humans. Mercury in aquatic eco-systems originate from atmospheric pollution and ends up in aquatic systems where fish get exposed to different levels of mercury concentrations in water. Direct injections of pollutants, involving other types, can occur also from agriculture, industry and household. Here are simple facts on mercury pollution in aquatic systems.
In the next video we are demostrating how pollution gradually degraded the water quality in natural aquatic systems making then of less recreation and economic value. Water quality monitoring, assessment and regulations are essential management instruments for protection and preservation of natural waters against all types of pollution. Protection of air and water qualities have feedback effetcs on health of humans and safety of the environment, they are also imperative for achieving sustainable socio-economic developments.
The “Arab Spring”, as is the cases for “Global Warming”, are strong signals that “Globalization” is facing further difficulties with negative feed-back on stability. This might not be obvious in the short-term, especially if what is happing in the MENA region and other emerging ethnic-conflicts in Africa are ignored.
Humans are adapted for life on land only, we wouldn’t survive in water more than few minutes. Yet without life in aquatic systems, seas, rivers and lakes, many of us wouldn’t be a life at all and even vanished away longtime ago. But do we understand the secrets of life in fresh, brackish and marine water systems, from where fish (small and big) get their food, do fish drink water, if so how do food-chains look like in aquatic systems, does life exist in surface sediments. Do fish sleep, and while swimming how do fish navigate between stones, corals, identify there way, survive the dark environments in deep regions and at nights? Do fish get sick, have diseases and eventually die, if so why and how?
Victoria Falls is one the most beautiful waterfalls in the world. The wildlife and biodiversity of Zambezi River, feeding this spectacular waterfall, are unique in many aspects, i.e. unlike the other most famous waterfalls around the world.
However, what is the perception of a local fisherman, after being fishing for 69 years in the river, of wildlife and what does water and rain mean for the population and the animals in this enormous eco-system and life-factory.
Our understanding of the natural resources and life in rural Africa, and the habits, culture and needs of the local inhabitants is crucial for shaping future sustainability policies and for integrating rural regions with the increasing trends of urbanization in Africa.
The Earth, our unique home is just an immense ball of rock with proper mix of essential components for life at the surface, in the atmosphere, in water bodies, within and beneath the crust. It went through dramatic history of 4.5 million years with extreme environments and catastrophic transformations that eventually resulted in diverse forms of life. We now exist on its surface after a long struggle over ruins of fire, ice, violent seas, poisonous fumes and dead mass-extinctions. We are the survivals but yet for sometime, how long no one knows.
For thousands of years humans had no idea of the true age of the earth and the origin of the world. It is just in the past two hundred years scientists have explored and un-earthed its secrets through remarkable discoveries that led to tell the incredible story “How the earth was made”. It was a simple Scottish farmer “James Hutton” that triggered the generation of the enormous knowledge about the evolution of the earth. He spent years of own research with horse-expeditions around Scotland, to understand how rocks were formed from layers of sediments. Hutton finally found proves that the earth was very much older than what the Christian Church had been telling for generations. The Archbishop in the 17th century had calculated that the age of the earth was 6000 years old and indeed it was made on October the 14th on the afternoon. Hutton’s discovery was a turning point. It is now the rocks, who are the gays knowing the truth about age and evolution of the earth.
The journey of our blue-green planet began in a world full of fire and media made up of the early solar system with temperature similar to the surface of the sun. The origin of enormous heat of the earth, and the large-scale and long-time slow cooling-processes of the earth, is radioactivity. Based on heat evolved from the primordial radioactivity in the earth, uranium, thorium and potassium, Kelvin estimated that the earth would take millions of years to cool down. However, radiometric dating gives the correct age of the earth, i.e. using uranium found throughout the rocks on the earth and decaying into another element, lead. By measuring the ratio between lead and uranium trapped in rocks the view changed from millions to billions of years.
The origin of water on the earth remains to be a mystery. As the planet cools the surface of rocks burns out into carbon dioxide and together with water vapor formed thick cloudy atmosphere and toxic hostile water that remained for half billion years along yet with volcanic activity, formation of basaltic and granite rocks, ocean and continents. With radioactive dating, the scientists for the first time have tools to know the age of rocks, arrange them in systematic order and re-write the history of the evolution of the earth. With the slowly declining radioactivity and thereby removal of heat at the earth’s surface the first radical change towards a watery world took place and the formation of oceans.
Life was first appearing in the ocean and became free to move to land for 400 million years ago. For 200 million years swamps developed and later transformed to coal. Also, dead marine organisms transformed to oil and gas. These are the origin of fossil fuel, coal, oil and gas which probably required at least tens of million of years for formation and transformation. The first mass-destruction was the death of dinosaurs about 65 million years ago with appearance of mammals some 50 million years ago. Two million years ago modern humans appeared in the east coast of Africa and spread out of Africa where the ice age restricted the spread of humans further to Europe. As the last glacial retreated 10 thousand years ago, many new living conditions were further developed, e.g. with the creation of huge depressions making up many freshwater lakes and river systems in the northern hemi-sphere.
A new BLOG about applied global sustainability is available now. We will be gradually working with developing, interacting and promoting all issues relevant to applied global sustainabilty. With the NEW YEAR of 2014, you are kindly invited to visit, share and contribute in this BLOG.
At the onset of the ancient Egyptian civilization the world population was somewhat more than 15 million people, i.e. the current population of the Netherlands only or fifth of the current of population of Egypt today. Ancient Egyptians had therefore enough natural resources to create a civilization on their own and within their boundaries. So, peak population had passed very long time ago!
http://www.vaughns-1-pagers.com/history/world-population-growth.htm
When the waste on our planet keeps piling up, in air, water and land, the only choice left is to breath it, drink it and eat it up. We can’t run away from it! http://m.theatlanticcities.com/neighborhoods/2012/09/worst-polluted-playgrounds-world/3395/
Everywhere on our planet, waste management is of major concern. Life quality is very much related to successful waste-management policies. Reducing, Collecting, Sorting, Processing and Re-cycling of human and industrial waste is becoming a major industry. But do we have proper scientific and technology approaches for such vital and important industry. Waste problems have costed humanity decades, if not centuries, to understand the enormous threats of waste and pollutions that have degraded all forms of life qualities of earth.
http://theferkel.co.uk/2012/05/30/worst-examples-of-pollution/chinese-migrant-workers-sort-through-industrial-and-household-waste-at-a-recycling-centre-in-beijing-china/
