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: Energy Resources
The use of conventional energy sources, typically fossil-fuel hydrocarbons, primarily coal, oil and natural gas, have caused gradual degradation in environment and climate because of the emission of pollutants, including toxic compounds, greenhouse and acidic gases. Unilateral use of natural minerals and fossil fuel as energy sources, and the increasing competition on such limited resources have introduced large uncertainties and constrains in the energy sector, especially with the existing reality of “oil-peak”. In some part of the world, vegetation and woods from forests are also used for household needs, e.g. heating and cooking, which have caused gradual expansion of deserts and Sahara with associated negative impacts on groundwater and surface-water hydrology. Nuclear power remains to be important as it produces about 15% of world’s electricity. However, the access of such high-tech in developing countries is very limited compared to developed countries, e.g. EU, South Korea, Japan, US, Russia and Canada. Also, the fear from nuclear accidents and disasters, e.g. Fukushima in Japan and Chernobyl in Ukraine, and non-peaceful use of nuclear power poses further limitations on the expansion of nuclear power technology. Natural uranium, used in nuclear power plants, is also a limited resource. Hazard from nuclear accidents, disasters and uranium mining as well as nuclear waste remains to be of major environmental threats.
Hydropower, which is among renewable energy sources, is projected to grow considerably in China, Asia and Africa. Because of the coupling between water and energy resources “water-energy nexus” and there mutual impacts on the national and regional socio-economic developments and associated trans-boundary conflicts many issues have to be carefully assessed and resolved on continuous bases. Other sources of renewable energy, e.g. wind, solar and bio-energy, are becoming more and more popular and attractive on the global scale because of their environment-friendly nature and the flexibility they offer to individual users and small-scale stakeholder applications.
You may have felt poor up-dating of the Blog “farideldaoushy.wordpress.com” and major interruptions in the activities. The wide-range of interests within the Blog “farideldaoushy.wordpress.com” made it necessary to up-date the layout and construction of the Blog. Also, to have own domain with representative name that reflects the content and extent. The new “Sustain-Earth.com” will also allow us to fulfill our wish to improve the communication with the visitors and readers and to provide new services. It will, also, provide platform for professionals and expertise within society sectors to share knowledge and contribute in topic discussions.
This Blog “farideldaoushy.wordpress.com” will get a new address “sustain-earth.com”.
The change to the new address will take place within one week.
We have a new layout and construction of the Blog to make it easier to follow the Posts and the content much easier as well as to contribute in discussions as well.
The new construction will involve a number of new interactive functions where guest Bloggers, expertise and professional will contribute as well as interacts with the media to discuss and answer their questions. The Categories of the Blog are kept wide enough to deliver solutions and approaches in all society sectors.
Even if we can ignore the reality, we can never ignore its consequences. Economic models and scientific discoveries have promoted an ever accelerating consumption of the earth’s natural resources with little consideration to population growth and the associated damage of all forms of life on the Earth. Depletion of important resources, the increasing waste and pollution combined with an accelerating population have caused poverty, disease, malnutrion and above all the definite fact of an approaching total annihilation of life on the whole planet. Survival of humans and newcomers has continuously forced impoverised people to destroy their environment. It is the very nature of humans, no one can go hungry without commiting a “crime” to fill the stomach!
But what is Sustainability and can we really achieve it, when we are regularly presented with a range of the so-called “sustainable” products and “green or organic” cleaning supplies to carbon offsets. With micro-economic markets keep supplying us with so much labeled as sustainable, the term has grown to become essentially a “bubble of sustainability”, at best indicating a practice or product slightly less damaging than the conventional alternative.
Sustainability can not be achieved by un-sustainable policies that are left over to the market without having appropriate instruments on all levels and sectors to strictly define, measure and control how sustainable is sustainable. How else can we can we achieve a goal that is not well-defined and regulated!
How enough is enough? How long can we afford to go on consuming and consuming? This is not high level mathematics and it doesn’t even need a Nobel Prize in economics. This is certainly not sustainable. Oil peak, water peak, collapse of the US dollar and end of the US!
Follow the story:
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RN5BLQLA4FA
It is not about if it would come? But rather when it would happen? This is the truth that was never told. If you can ignore the reality, it would never be possible to ignore its consequences.
So, be prepared, check out the top 5 places not to be in a “Dollar Collapse”.
Energy left after the “Big Bang” was the origin of the Earth, water and all other natural resources on the earth including fossil fuel, wind-power and the solar-fuel. These are the fundamental drivers of the evolution of all forms of life on the earth. The dichotomy between natural resources and basic life-components that has facilitated our life, which seemed to us to be “endless”, promoted our consumption to the degree that we are running out of all resources. The dilemma of water and energy seems to be like the classical question “which came first, the chicken or the egg” and if they will disappear which will disappear first. We need energy to produce water and we need water to produce energy. Both resources are running out. As we are reaching Peak Oil, we also appear to approaching Peak Water. With the vanishing drivers of life, life itself will fade away. In other words, our planet is aging with us and the question who dies first!
The MENA region is facing major challenges to meet the growing pressures on its WE “Water and Energy” resources. This would require major transformation for shaping new policies to meet the accelerating demands not only on energy but also on water. Other drivers what regards energy are high insolation rates, young and empowered workforce. Among other drivers for achieving sustainable WE-policies are increasing awareness of cost, quality, market diversity and public services.
The global center of power and prosperity is moving to the west of the US. With such dynamic economical shift, the prospect for instability and conflicts that involve the US interest in peace, freedom and prosperity is, also, moving with it.
Asia is world’s largest and fastest-growing economy with strong evolution in its trade and technology infra-structures involving several of most economically free nations in the world. Asian-US trade is among the strongest world-wide where the US has more trade with Asia than with any other region of the world. Asian firms have huge invest in America, creating jobs, economic opportunities and increasing mutual improvements driven by more and more Asian immigration to the US.
Economic growth is a powerful instrument for empowering people and reducing poverty in the developing world. It is essential for creating jobs and market opportunities for people to support their families and build more sustainable futures. However, many developing countries face particular challenges and threats to achieve and maintain sustainable economic growth because of weak institutions, high unemployment, poor infrastructure for key public and private services (education, health, security, transport, water and energy), also a severe lack of access to financial services and unsuitable laws and regulations.
The importance of rural communities and their engagement in promoting sustainable socio-economic developments is gaining an increasing attention. Improving the quality of life in rural regions and integrating them in the ongoing urbanization is imperative for achieving sustainability goals on the global scale. Initiatives similar to “World Bank Helps Communities Adapt to Climate Change Risks” (see the given link) can be taken in other region that suffer high risks for severe impacts from climate and environmental changes.
Hydro-electric power is classified among Renewable Energy Sources where no contributions to man-made global warming. But what how friendly is hydro-electric power? and what are the environmental threats associated with this source of energy?. So far, our accumulated knowledge demonstrates that the environmental threats were under-estimated. The hydropower seems to be viewed more favorably, despite historical concerns over biodiversity loss, long-term environmental impact and the social repercussions of massive community resettlement. Natural erossion at upstream lands that deliver fertile soils to low laying-land downstream has long-term impacts on soil quality with consequences for continuous use of fertilization, e.g. the case of the Nile delta. Inceasing of evaporation at the water-bodies behind dam constructions which is dominant in arid and regions, e.g. Lake Naser on the Nile. Dam building is expected to give rise to changes in local and regional hydrology of groundwater with risks for increasing salination, if this takes place in combination with increased use of groundwater. Also, power plants at upstream countries are usually associated with increasing waste and pollution from the industries, urbanization activities and household. Such emissions in many cases do not follow strict environmental protection recoomendations.
See more at:
http://chinawaterrisk.org/resources/analysis-reviews/hydropower-environmental-disaster-or-climate-saver/
Achieving sustainable socio-economic developments world-over depends on our understanding of the “Water-Energy nexus”, I call it WE-nexus. This is by no means the most important nexus for promoting golbal sustainability with considerable saving of WE-resources in terms of quality and quatity. How to use this nexus to get the magic-mix for best “quality and quantity” savings has no universal solution, it is dependent on how such resources can be managed through different levels of cooperation and shared responsibilty, e.g. on local, national, regional and global levels. Also, through adapting appropriate practices with consideration the geo-climatic conditions.
SHAI OSTER in his article “China: New Dam Builder for the World” says: “African and Asian delegations visiting China are taken each year to see the Three Gorges Dam as a model project even though it has been dogged by problems ranging from spiraling costs and unrest caused by forced relocation of more than a million citizens to rapid land erosion and increased pollution. Criticism of the dam — which is the largest in the world by many measures — has become so persistent that the Chinese government has recently begun to acknowledge the issues. But environmentalists and human-rights activists fret that China will repeat many of the same mistakes it has made with dams at home as it leads a dam revival abroad.”
Follow the story and join the discussion on how to improve achieving sustainable socio-economic developments around the world, in particular in the developing countries with very limited knowledge on environmental and climatic impacts and the how the ongoing manipulations in major transboundary water-bodies may mean for future generations.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119880902773554655.html
Without access to water resources no country on the earth can survive and provide its population with the basic needs for life and development. Sovereignty of nations or populations over geographically existing natural resources in their territories did not exist duing the era of colonialism, phrases such as “equitable rights” were not recognized by colonialism who held control over the global natural resources through military power. Our understanding of equitable rights for sharing transboundary water resources, by being common natural resources, has emerged through centures and intensified in the past decades with the complete transformation of the world form colonialism to sovereign nations.
This world most powerful hydro-electric dam on our planet has faced several challenges and difficulties before and during its construction. However, when completed it remains to be among the most successful trabsboundary projects with minimum negative consequence on all involved partners.
POWER-GIN Africa will consist of a conference and exhibition dedicated to the needs, resources and issues facing the power generation sector across sub-Saharan Africa.
See more at:
http://www.powergenafrica.com/index.html
The shift in energy demand to growth economies and the increasing competition from unconventional production represent both opportunities and threats for oil and gas producers in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).
As new geopolitical realities emerge, policymakers and producers in the MENA region have the task of meeting growing domestic energy demand while maintaining export prices at a level that can sustain national economic goals and aspirations.
See more at:
http://www.chathamhouse.org/Mena_energy14
A documentary about the Aswan Dam on the Nile river in Egypt. It tells the historical beckground, political and economical struggle to build the dam, the difficulties, benefits and threats.
Africa is the continent most vulnerable to current climate variability and extremes and the one most likely to suffer adverse effects of climate change. Adaptation policies and actions will be most effective if based on the best possible knowledge concerning current and future climate. Policymakers need access to the best available science to effectively respond to local, national and regional challenges. Scientists need, also, feedback from policy makers and other users of scientific data and information to develop their research priorities and to respond to stakeholder needs.
