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

Asbestosis is known to affect the tissue of lungs as a consequence of the inhalation and retention of asbestos fibers. This usually occurs after high intensity and/or long-term exposure to asbestos from mining, manufacturing, handling, or removal of asbestos. This is, also, the case for people in houses or areas contaminated by asbestos.  Sufferers may experience severe dyspnea (shortness of breath) and are at an increased risk for certain malignancies, including lung cancer but especially mesothelioma.

As the damage to lungs occur from contaminated air, early investigation were carried out through measurements of asbestos levela in air samples, which is suspected to have caused asbestos-related lung problems.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wy-p_DvM6Jw&feature=youtu.be

Life on earth, and its origin, has been a puzzle and still. Classically humans believed that the essential “elements” upon which the constitution and fundamental powers of anything are based are: Earth, Air, Fire and Water. In the past the concept of Energy was unknown to humans though fire was very much needed for life. It is as early as in stone-ages where humans discovered how to make fire, it came by accident. People at that time both appreciated and hated fire, however from that time humans went on to explore the whole range of energy forms, including production and consumption. Full benefits of Water and Energy resources for life on earth required/requires the other two “elements”, i.e. earth and air. However, there are specific requirement for the properties and qualities of earth and air for the life to exist. Even for humans, the full benefits of energy and water were/are only possible through earth and air with given specifications and qualities.

Through science and technology the classical four “elements” were developed and expanded to an enormous amount and spectra of knowledge that allowed all possible application and inventions. The most common feature of modern educated and intelligent humans and stone-age illiterate humans is how to solve the dilemma of mastering energy and water in sustainable matter. The difference is illiterate and ancient humans discovered energy “fire” by an accident but intelligent and modern humans will, at some stage, consume all energy resources on earth to a level that makes further life on earth difficult.  Are we gradually moving to stone-ages?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChxvN4WjxWg&feature=youtu.be

Efficient heating and cooling technologies with little or no carbon dioxide within residential, commercial and public buildings can dramatically reduce the world energy consumption and thereby considerable saving can be achieved. This can generate positive feedback effects on energy prices, global warming and life quality. This will promote more sustainable developments worldwide.

However, strong policy and awareness actions on all levels, sectors and stakeholders are needed to bring coherent solutions in the fragmented building sectors. In this context, increased technology RD&D is necessary to bring about new and affordable solutions that are suitable for different climate zones along with the environmental, cultural, social and economic conditions during the life-cycle financial benefits.

http://www.renewableenergymagazine.com/article/new-report-sees-potential-for-dramatic-energy

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

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.

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

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?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1R5T9xEiOT0&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

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/#!