Earth – the blue planet: lots of water-lots of algae-lots of oxygen. The most important and oldest single cell plants on earth “The Algae” and the very reason of our existence. These single cells carry lots of secrets and many of them are still unknown to us though they played important roles in the evolution and development of life on earth. They have micro- and nano- devices with complex molecular structures and diversity of biochemical metabolic reactions, e.g. photosynthesis and nitrogen fixation, production of amino acids and lipids. Algae with thousands and thousands of species can be very small or very large in size with different colors and can be useful or harmful. Algae remains, diatoms, can be preserved in sediments for millions of years. The most important is that algae are the origin of gas and oil and recently that  algae can be used for production and a source of biofuel!

Agricultural production is very much dependent on land-water resources and in recent decades there have been trends towards new agricultural solutions either to substitute the increasing degradation in land-water qualities or to find new agricultural alternatives more suitable for arid and semi-arid climate.

Degradation in water quality resulting from waste, pollutions and sanitation on the one hand, and reduced land quality due to decreasing soil fertility, man-made technological interferences “dams”, soil erosion and climate change on the other, triggered new shifts in agricultural technologies. Traditional agricultural techniques are becoming more and more dependent on artificial fertilization either to compensate for decreasing soil fertility and/or to increase soil productivity.

Chemical pesticides are still in use, inefficient irrigation routines and further pressures on water resources have, also, caused gradual degradation in land-water resources in particular the large-scale and long-term negative impacts on water resources.

These trends have forced shifts towards new agricultural technologies that either rely on less land and indoor green-house solutions and/or what is known as “complete liquid fertilizers” as well as clean sterilized organic-fertilization. These solutions, foliar spray, fertigation programs, hydroponic solutions, aireal/soil application of “liquid complete” and/or “sterilized clean organic” ferilizers” have new advantages. However they either shifted focus to alternative solutions that may require additional costs, i.e. making food production less economic, or made farming and agriculture that can not afford the new technologies to continue their “business-as-usual” traditions.

http://www.behance.net/gallery/A-COMPLETE-LIQUID-FERTILIZER/2283468

This natural documentary gives some clues about the very origins of human behavior. Bonobos do resemble chimpanzees but they are completely different species diverged from each other around two million years ago. Where chimpanzees fight and murder bonobos are peacemakers and unlike chimps it is not the bonobos males but the females who have the power. So, bonobos social life tells us a different story about kindness and empathy and that these characters do not belong to people alone. The bonobos are deeply intelligent apes, relaxed, highly social and develop life-long friendships. These and many other reasons explain why they are so peaceful and from where we get our gentler side of our behavior. Knowledge that is largely unknown to the rest of the world.

Two groups of researchers set up study camps in Lomako and Wamba in the rain forest of the Congo to do forest observation and document the social behavior of bonobos, our nearest relatives. The work of these researchers was interrupted during a decade of political instabilities and civil strive in the Congo with major threats for the life of bonobos as they were hunted for meat of a starved population. After the end of these instabilities the researchers started to return to see if there were still hopes and chances to complete their research and to get more answers from the bonobos.

Air pollution has become the world’s single biggest environmental health risk. According to WHO it is linked to around 7 million death or nearly one in eight death in 2012. The new figures are more double previous estimates and suggest that outdoor pollution from traffic fumes and coal-burning, and indoor pollution from wood and coal stoves, kill more people than smoking, road death and diabetes combines.

The document is WHO’s Air Quality Guidelines Global Update 2005. These Guidelines offer guidance to policy-makers on reducing the effects on health of air pollution for the four most common air pollutants – particulate matter, ozone, nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide.  Also, issues affecting the use of the guidelines in risk assessment and policy development.

This document contains Part (1) Application of air quality guidelines for policy development and risk reduction; Part (2) Risk assessment of selected pollutants (Particulate matter, Ozone, Nitrogen dioxide, Sulfur dioxide).

Click to access E90038.pdf

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; PM_2.5) , 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.

http://www.salon.com/2013/09/23/infographic_shows_air_pollution_deaths_around_the_world_newscred/

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.

Cleaning up Fukushima

Geothermal energy is among potential “semi-global” natural energy resources, as it is only accessible and affordable in economic terms in hot and limited areas around the globe. It is also considered to be relatively user friendly, more energy-intensive in comparison to solar energy, has less threats in case of technical failure as compared to nuclear power, simple and more safe production-technology in terms of drift and above all more durable and lasing natural source. It is indeed a form of “fossil resource” as being a remainder from the Big Bang. However, unlike energy produced in stars such as in the sun (solar energy) through fusion-reactions, energy in planets such as the earth is being produced through decay processes of the primordial radio-activity. Actually, without the embedded sources of heat in the earth’s body, i.e. the energy emitted through the decay of natural radio-activity, e.g. the radio-active members of the U and Th series, and many other radio-active isotopes of other elements that can have half-lives much longer than the age of the universe itself, e.g. Te-128 of half-life of 2.2 exa millions (billion billion millions) of years.

The most interesting issue in energy production and use is that water in always involved in these processes with two main impacts what concerns WE-resources, i.e. Water and Energy.  For energy we are consuming more energy resources and thereby less we are gradually facing less access to energy resources and as a consequence increasing prices of energy production. As energy production, use and consumption create more waste and pollution as well as bring water to more open systems and interactions there is continuous and gradual degradation in water quality and thereby increasing threats to all life forms on the earth.

So, production and use of geothermal energy can be, also, associated with negative impacts on water resources, environment and bio-diversity.

Making a Difference through Geothermal Energy

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.

Water is the natural environment for the life quality of fish and hence water quality is of prime importance for fish production and the quality of fish as well. Even in aquatic eco-systems, one can simply say “what goes around comes around”. Understanding how to improve the conditions in fish farming in terms of production and quality have very much to do with understanding the functioning and metabolism in natural aquatic systems. There are key issues that are essential to be understood about water quality in aquatic systems (fresh, brackish and marine), in particular the physical (e.g. density, stratification and mixing as well as turbidity, mineral particulate, light transmission) and chemical (e.g. pH, solubility of gases such as oxygen, carbon di-oxide, ammonia, salt concentration, dissolved matter, organic and inorganic particulates) properties and characteristics in these waters at different temperatures. The physical and chemical conditions of water determine to large extent the water quality status, along with toxic anthropogenic compounds that originates from pollution and water from industrial, agricultural and household sources. The impacts of all these conditions, factors and properties on water quality, the response and feedback effects on fish in terms of production and quality are to large extent summarized in the following document, it can be used as a guide for fish farmers.

http://www.extension.purdue.edu/extmedia/AS/AS-503.html

Knowledge on the World Energy Resources “WER” is much more important to know as compared to the World Water Resources “WWR”. In both cases management policies in terms of quantity and quality are IMPERATIVE.

While knowledge about Climate Change is essential for implementation of sustainable long-term and long-term management policies of the Water Resources, there are relatively more aspects to be considered for the sustainable management of the Energy Resources. Humans cannot manipulate “WWR” or Global Water Resources “GWR” in terms of quantity. What we get, we will get, and we can do nothing about it. However, regarding the quality of GWR it is the responsibility of humans to keep track on quality at all levels and on different scales, i.e. in terms of location and occasion “spatio-temporal scales”. So, what regards “GWR” management policies, technology is primarily coupled to consumption priorities of sectors, stakeholders and users as well as waste and pollution issues with consideration to climatic issues.

Management of “WER” involves production, consumption, and waste and pollution issues taking in consideration sectors, stakeholders and users. But “WER” require global players for import-export of both raw material and processed energy as well and in both cases waste and pollution aspects are involved. The dynamic balance of fossil versus renewable energy resources are very much technology related. Even in this case, Climate Change is becoming an important factor regulating how the dynamic balance of fossil versus renewable energy should look like, i.e. on “spatio-tempral” scales.

http://www.worldenergy.org/data/resources/

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 .

http://www.earthonlinemedia.com/ebooks/tpe_3e/hydrosphere/future_geographies_water_resources.html

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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRqAS4Eow-c&feature=youtu.be

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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T53IeowjRCc&feature=youtu.be

Many pollutants are injected to the atmosphere and may have long-distant trajectories around the globe, e.g. particulate matter (PM), green-house gases (GHG), acidic oxides (sulphur and nitrogen), , volatile organic compounds (VOC), persistent organic pollutants or “polychlorinated biphenyls” PCBs, ozone, heavy metals (lead, mercury, cadmium, …. ), radioactive pollutants. In addition to degradation of air-quality as is the case in big cities and heavily populated regions, the major part of these pollutants get washed out by rain and join the hydrosphere and thereby enter the aquatic systems, e.g. oceans, seas, rivers, lakes.

Faroe Islands have long old whaling tradition, pilot whales, and whaling is part of people’s culture and among the main sources of food. However, pilot whales have low levels of mercury and PCBs toxics. It is well known that mercury in high doses could cause severe brain damage, however at low or smaller doses over a long period of time can also cause damage to the body. 2000 children were tested for the effects of chronic low level mercury exposure. It has been found that such exposure affects baby’s brain causing deficits in development and feedback impacts on regulations of the heart.

Pilot whales have long-life span and by being highest up in the food chain, they also feed on other fish, they accumulate many pollutants PCBs and metal mercury and thereby whale meat carry toxic compounds. In this context, these small North Atlantic islands grapple with how to maintain a centuries-old tradition in the face of modern environmental and political circumstances.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hfWLorQ4gs&feature=youtu.be

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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RKFqqwhtGs&feature=youtu.be

The increasing consumption of, and competition on, natural resources, in particular Water-Energy resources “WE-resources” is introducing new long-term and large-scale impacts on the sustainability of natural eco-systems and quality of life with major feedbacks socio-economic developments. Without credible environmental, social impact assessments and early-warning instruments, environmental compliance systems, rehabilitation measures and solid management policies can not be established whenever necessary. Impacts of large-scale manipulations of major river systems, as in this case, have rather slowly and unpredicted impacts on the environment and ecosystems. In addition, there are different regional consequence on re-location of population, water hydrology, farming and forests. Since the industrial revolution, and because of the ongoing globalization, there had been an accelerating consumption of energy and water resources. Currently, there are major threats, in some critical regions, resulting from transformations in energy policies, global warming, pollution and waste from industrial sectors as well as increasing consumption of natural resources.

http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2013/aug/10/china-india-water-grab-dams-himalayas-danger

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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLMeA3M_PaU&feature=youtu.be

Trans-boundary water systems are hot issues as pressures on water resources are enormous especially shared trans-boundary systems. Utilization of surface water and groundwater resources differs in many aspects; also the negative impacts resulted from using these two water resources may differ. While surface water, e.g. rivers and lakes, are renewable, some groundwater are known to be of fossil origin, i.e. not renewable. In general, the rest of all water resources have specific residence times depending on the nature, structure and composition of their drainage areas as well as the hydrology of the systems. Rivers have the shortest residence times, typically few days, while lakes can vary from days or months for small ones up to several decades for large lakes. Sallow gravel aquifers may have residence times of few days, while deep aquifers may have very long residence times of some millions of years. Residence time of water, and particles therein, is simply the average time that a water/particle spend in a given system. Residence times of water have many important engineering applications in particular time-space hydrological, hydro-chemical processes, e.g. water budget, water balance and flow-rates as well as contamination and pollution studies. Also, in other water engineering disciplines such as biological, biochemical, biogeochemical, environmental and geological engineering as well sd rehabilitation actions.

For the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System (NSAS), shared by Chad, Egypt, Libya & Sudan, which is one of the largest aquifer systems in the world, an agreement were conducted during the 1989-1999 “Constitution of the Joint Authority for the Study and Development of the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer Waters”. This agreement is more an institutional agreement than merely a water management one. However, the outcome of two projects that were conducted following this agreement, 1998-2006, identified key transboundary concerns what regards declining water levels, damage or loss of ecosystems and biodiversity, and deterioration of water quality. Based on these studies common management actions with adopted vision for the NSAS were concluded.

Adoption of Regional Strategic Action Plan on the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer