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

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.

From generation to generation, from country to country, from disaster to disaster, from suffering to suffering, ……  We hear deep cries from humanity that never stop, that only pile-up with strong echos “Imagine” and “I Have a Dream”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Epi7USIi-po&feature=youtu.be

Evolution of the global bio-diversity and the social life in natural eco-systems around us has long-standing histories. Yet our knowledge is not complete and many secrets remain to be mostly unknown.

Sperm whales are the most hunted species, then for generations it took a great many men to kill few whales but the technology has now reversed the problem. The problem before was to find sperm whales and kill them, but the problem now is to find how many sperm whales than can be killed without endangering the species. In a world full of hunger production doesn’t slow down for science, the only means to find out the proper answers. The ultimate fate of the whales and the industry depends on the accuracy of science to shape sustainable management policies in an ever-increasing complexity and fragmentation of “industry-society” sectors.

Sperm whales have the largest brain of any animal and probably dive deeper than many other mammals. We know little about why they sing, we even don’t know how, how much they sleep and even if they need to sleep at all. They have complex social life of which we know very little about. 

Biologists collect much raw material for the construction of their re-productive cycle. In which, the age of the whales are key component to follow the biology and ecology of whale populations. Sperm whale carries its life calendar in their teeth. Teeth, in this context, are true age-indicators of the whales as they consist of alternating “drack-light” layers. When the age is known, it is then correlated with other information from the soft parts of whales and by computer simulation (size, range and reproductive capacity for various whale populations) knowledge on, how many whales can be safely harvested, can be gained. Biologists make the statistics but the whaling industry take care of the rest.

In a separate “POST” we will tell more about the threats facing “pilot whales”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0azqjk8Wgw&feature=youtu.be

I came a cross an old whaling film (in two parts) aboard U.S. ship “The Viola” from 1916 describing the hard working condition during the early years of the growing industrialization. The ships used for whaling were built even earlier, i.e. around 1850 or so. The whaling work required too much work, labor and the tools and techniques used at that time were simple or even primitive as judged by current western standards. However, these were the conditions and what was available at that time. This in addition to too long fishing journeys for little outcome; this is how people worked hard for getting their food and income at that time. All modern industrial technologies, including film-industry and ICT-based machinery that replaced difficult, ineffective and time-consuming man-power were gained mostly after WW-II, i.e. the later part of 1900. However, human struggle to get enough, affordable and healthy food will never end as there are always new pressures, threats and challenges. Education and research are always needed for better conservation and management policies.

(Part 1) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWA4HDFASAo&feature=youtu.be

(Part 2) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_qebW9vLzI&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

Many countries in the developing countries, in particular Africa, were unfortunate by being left in a state of political chaos after their independence. The independence of Uganda in 1963 brought the country, with the help of the British officers, in the hands of Idi Amin, an uneducated illiterate commander. The U.K. was the first country to recognize Idi Amin’s regime after the shift of power from Milton Obote, Uganda’s socialist political leader. The U.K. Prime Minister Edward Heath, during the days of the cold war, welcomed the change from “communist government”. The people of Uganda though it is a new addition of social and political life as Idi Amin promised Uganda’s population to return to democracy after his overnight coup in 1971. Since that time Uganda sank in a very unpredictable history full of state corruption, nation-wide killing and mass execution by weapons, guns and airplanes brought from the U.K. to surprise Idi Amin’s enemies. Uganda’s middle class who built Uganda’s services, economy and businesses, i.e. the Asians and Indians previously brought by the British colonialism to build railways, were asked by Idi Amin to leave Uganda within one week. This was done in a move to further humiliate the British, to hand over the wealth of Asians and Indians, about 50 000 people, and to run the country affairs by Idi Amin’s supporters. This brought Uganda in enormous economic collapse as a result of destruction of Uganda’s infrastructure of services, entrepreneurs, commercial people, bankers, also the doctors were suddenly expelled out of the country. Those who started to run the country didn’t know how to run it with severe shortage of services. The collapse of Uganda’s services and economy followed a chain of public executions by Idi Amin of the critics and opposition of regime and further state corruption through black-market trade with coffee and alcohol.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyaTWKv44Hs&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

An African farmer, who out of nothing, created a whole bio-diversity in a dry desert. An innovation “Yacouba’s Zai-techniques” that proved effective for fighting against desertification. The word Zai comes from the original word Zaigre which means to left up the land and dig holes, a simple approach that can very well compete with high-tech solutions. Yacouba’s innovation, also, a revolution that can be used for mitigation of climate change by bringing people together in friendly mobile workshops to turn the desert, and stony land, to cultivated land where farmers can invest in trees, improve there food security and also help people to adapt to climate change. These are emerging new possibilities for young people.

However, illiteracy is major obstacle in developing countries that brings with it new threats for any new idea thus are endangering what has been achieved so far. Whenever threats appear wise people without power always appeal to intellectuals and authorities rather that verbal violence that doesn’t benefit anybody rather than damage and losses for everybody including authorities.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wezxNnkcsW8&feature=youtu.be

The keywords in all outstanding civilizations and democracies are knowledge and literacy. These are magic keywords for mitigating the risks for further increase in unemployment and hunger as natural consequences of the expansion of population, accelerating pressures on natural resources and the associated increase in consumption, waste and pollution. In no other era of human history, knowledge and literacy are becoming more and more inevitable, and even imperative, as instruments for any socio-economic developments. In particular, what regards sustainable management and use of natural resources by being our capital and reserve for a sustainable life. With the evolution of science and technology and the associated enormous transformation to knowledge-based societies, the only solution for erasing poverty is education in sustainable forms. It is education and research that have to be adapted to the society and not the contrary. Knowledge, through education and research, is an instrument and not a goal in itself. Throughout history, from ancient Egypt to modern civilizations, humans demonstrated how to use knowledge to turn the impossible to possible, i.e. through home-made inventions appropriate for there environments, people and for trade with other societies and cultures as well. In situations where humans were not always successful to manage conflicts, science and technology were/are being used for mass-destruction, control and abuse of natural resources.  Even without traditional schools, universities and research institutes, by our current standards and detailed management systems, ancient Egyptians succeeded to engage people to run and manage one of the very top civilizations in human history. What were possible thousands of years ago is still possible the only difference is how to shape knowledge to solve our needs, no more no less.

http://www.sgiquarterly.org/feature2003Jan-6.html?goback=%2Egmp_4399281#%21

Feed-Food-Fibre-Fuel from agriculture, forest and farming are all dependent on landuse and water resources. However in arid and semi-arid areas, unlike temperate regions, water scarcity can be a major problem and energy are frequently required to use underground water for agriculture and farming. In all cases, i.e. even when water is available, waste from agriculture, farming and associated household applications can result in degradation of water quality. Energy is, always, required for treating used water and because of this “food-energy-water” are usually treated as essential policy-components for achieving sustainable socio-economic developments in many countries around the world and whenever necessary. This requires long-term and large-scale coordination of inter-disciplinary and inter-sectorial solutions with involvement of all stakeholders both on vertical and horizontal levels. These policies and solutions require appropriate public awareness, capacity building and skilled expertise with the suitable monitoring and management infra-structures and assessment instruments. These combined actions will have long-term positive feedback on economy, affordability and accessibility of food. An example on the interplay between food, energy and water is given below.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/energy/2012/04/120406-food-water-energy-nexus/#!

By Farid El-Daoushy

Knowledge is an essential part of our consciousness, emotion and behaviour. Human beings have been, and still, in constant search about knowledge to understand themselves, their environments and their needs. Only in recent decades, education and research became indispensable global instruments for acquiring and producing knowledge where both of which involve “understanding” rather than “consuming” knowledge. Well-established and gained knowledge are continuously structured and coordinated in packages and sub-packages “the so-called disciplines”, e.g. mathematics, natural science, astronomy, medicine, economy, political science, agriculture, veterinary, animal husbandry, human sciences, law, environment…. etc., to serve education with feedback impacts on technology, industry and consumption. Beyond existing knowledge there have been increasing interests for research, i.e. search about new knowledge and for extension of our knowledge stocks. But why do we need research, isn’t it enough with what we already know? Isn’t “business as usual” what makes the market stable and keeps the machinery of production spinning fast without interruption? Why do we need to question the knowledge we already know, improve our technology and modify or even re-shape our industry? With these arguments in mind, how and where can we do research? And who can do research, and what and where are the end-users of research?

Knowledge has no barriers and the expansion of knowledge, i.e. through research, is a necessity driven by curiosity, search about the absolute reality, and the needs to uncover the very secrets of life. To understand such secrets, needs and make use of them, in particular to support and improve our lives and to comprehend the driving forces of life, penetrate in their details in order to protect it from the degradation and damage that can eventually lead to unavoidable collapse. As life on earth is part of a larger universe and an important consequence of its evolution, this makes knowledge inclusive with almost unlimited boundaries. Also, as humans and populations keep expanding in terms of growth, culture mosaic, divergence in life-style and emotions, complex consumption pattern, diminishing natural resources and an ever-increasing problems of waste and pollution. Also, our constant search about suitable means “sustainability” for survival, communication and interactions, research becomes not essential but even imperative. Education, in this context, is a pre-requirement to pursue research. Without good education, in particular high quality education, it would not be possible to maintain our knowledge in high-quality, advance and improve our knowledge for the well being of humans and future generations.

Research, as also the case of education, requires dedication, motivation and discipline, and above all transparency and a good deal of inspiration. It requires focus, hardworking and strong self-steam. Ancient civilizations demonstrated that even without high-tech it was possible to overcome the threats from nature and even to grow exponentially but with increasing damage to nature. So, with better attention to education, research and technology we must be better prepared to face future challenges.  Research is a mean to structure, compile and coordinate existing knowledge to find out gaps, limitations and weaknesses in all available knowledge. It involves setting-up goals and objectives to create plans and to seek solutions and strategies for either extending knowledge, fundamental research, or making use of knowledge, applied research. Development of new knowledge may lead to discoveries where existing unknowns can be turned to known, but research may also result in new unknowns. Turning unknowns to known and new unknowns is how our knowledge stock keeps expanding. This, however, creates a paradox both in the landscape of education and research as the expansion of knowledge may seem as a process of divergence. In reality it is, also, so as the expansion of knowledge involves production of new fragments of knowledge which at the same time makes knowledge more coherent and consistent. In this context, understanding the existing knowledge and searching about new knowledge both require convergence. Though this is evident in research, it is far from being obvious in education, which is a pre-request for research. This paradox, is the very reason for increasing problems, difficulties and failure in education and the enhanced frustration of students to perceive and recognize the coherent nature of science and thereby the direct relevance to the market in particular in the developing countries where the gap between science, technology and the market are enormous. The “apparent” divergence and fragmentation in science, and the complex and unclear connection with market and human needs, creates increasing barriers in education and promote major obstacles for students especially what regards motivation and setting-up their own Career-Development-Plans. This has, also, promoted accelerating gaps in universities what regards education contra research. For students education and reseach require patience, strong motivation and early interest which is directly linked to early stage in school education, education environments and tight follow-up and engagement by parents. For universities and schools, education and teaching should, as much as possible, involve coupling to the market and society needs, strong focus on raising scientific motivation and market awareness as well as seeking linearity in knowledge through smooth transitions and remediation of gaps.

 The upper figure – Ph.D. work involves improving and refining existing knowledge; here the author of the article Farid El-Daoushy performing some research experiments in the early 1970s.

The lower figure – Environment and climate research involves field studies for observations, collection of data and samples, for laboratory analyses, to uncover the evolution of life and to assess and understand natural and man-made impacts. Farid El-Daoushy on the right, in a scientific discussion during a Scandinavian earth-science excursion in the late 1980s.

The journey of science, to understand the very secret of the universe and the natural evolution of life, and the behavior of humans and the feedback impacts of technology on the fundamental drivers of life and its quality, never stops. A journey that fuels itself to complete Darwin’s “Unfinished Business”, and to search about a new vision of nature, a “Metanoia rather than Affluenza”. A journey directed by science and technology for sustainability and preservation of life, rather than for consumption and collapse of life, would help nature to resume rather than to relapse from the natural path of evolution.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ff1Z8nGGebs&feature=youtu.be

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.

ABOUT Sustain-Earth.com

ABOUT Sustain-Earth.com

Scientific discoveries and production of new knowledge involve a long chain of systematic steps where publication of science work in top-tier journals is becoming an essential step. Randy Schekman, a US biologist and Nobel Prize winner in physiology or medicine 2013, is warning the scientific community about the role of leading academic journals in distorting the scientific process. There have been long-standing debates about assessment of scientific publication especially in terms of originality, quality and credit. Scientific journals have grown in number dramatically in the past decades. However, only few journals, e.g. Nature, Cell and Science, have kept very high reputation through their restricted referee and publication policies, in particular the number of papers they accept. This, however, has promoted high “impact factor” for these well-established journals. “Impact factor” is very widespread for judging the quality, originality and credit of scientific publications, also, in the process of judging the quality/standard of scientific applications for funding. Randy Schekman, and many others, are very critical about the existing rules for judging science as the “impact factor”, which is used for marketing top-tier journals and for ranking scientific applications for funding, can not be regarded as an absolute indicators and a fair instrument in these aspects.

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/dec/09/nobel-winner-boycott-science-journals

Colonialist convinced once colonized African nations that democracy was the way, but who truly determines the definition of democracy and how did it appear in Africa?
http://globalfusionproductions.com/globalfusionist-blogs/does-democracy-in-africa-work-or-is-it-time-to-look-to-our-homegrown-form-of-governance/

Poverty did not develop over-night. It is a non-sustainable pile-up of inequalities
in a history driven by fear to become poor and managed by the rich for the rich.
http://docunow.blogspot.se/2013/06/poor-us-animated-history-of-poverty.html?m=1

How would new Africa look like? Africa is not the poorest continent on earth. Though there is poverty and hunger in Africa, it has a huge capital of natural resources, enough to provide sustainable socio-economic growth if properly managed. Trading Africa’s natural resources against its poverty and hunger is a shortsighted strategy. It would in the long-run lead to more poverty and hunger.
http://www.africaw.com/the-future-of-africa-the-new-africa