The world around us is moving steadily  and rapidly towards different distinations to meet the growing challenges for post oil and fossil-fuel era or even more seriously stated towards what we can call the post natural resources era. One exception is the solar energy which will outdate all other natural resources on earth including water and the life itself. 

This does come with a surprise as all existing knowledge and research predictions indicate that all natural resources on planet earth are, or sooner or later will be, going through peak-consumption followed by gradual decline and even annihilation. In the case of water and life it is about peak-quality and peak-life as we are also facing peak-waste and peak-pollution in this very century. However, it is only our collective human intelligence, integrated worldwide innovation and coherent hardwork combined with systematic planning and above all sustainable policies and management strategies that can save our planet from total collapse and annihilation. 

Successful transformation to sustainable future for planet Earth can not and will not be achieved without effective global dialog, shared knowledge and expertise combined with worldwide solutions and work for implementation of innovative and sustainable policies and management strategies. We can not imagine that this can be achieved by “business as usual” where only a small and localized portion of the world population has access to knowledge and expertise while the large majority of the global population lack the resources and capabilities to contribute constructively in saving planet Earth. 

It is not about finding false and destructive solutions for erasing poverty (only filling the hungry stomachs) since we will be overloading planet Earth with more blind consumption, generating and accumulating enormous waste and pollution everywhere. It is about empowering the majority of the world population with resources and capabilities to actively share the heavy responsibility for preservation and protection of our collective natural resources on earth. This is only possible if we have collective vision and mission for more sustainable future for our planet Earth. 

It is interesting to see how some first-class universities (http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm) are taking major steps for the globalization of knowledge and increasing the mobility of expertise around the world.

The post industrial revolution era was  geared to lifestyle based on production and consumption engineering technology. While our global lifestyle is moving on new tracks to revert what went wrong in the post industrial era new concepts are being emerging. Future  technology will involve the expansion of the so-called “Reversed Engineering” where 12 GREEN Engineering Principles would be absolutely imperative for getting our planet on large-scale and long-term sustainability roads. 

Read more about this: http://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/es032373g

In science there is far big gaps between theory, reality and technological applications. The same holds as well for existing enormous gaps between what the UN is wishing to implement in terms of the so-called Sustainable Developments Goals “SDG” and the reality we lived in and we still have to live with. The environmental and ecological situation, in particular water quality around the world, as it exists today did not develop over night and will not disappear over-night. Such reality is the core of lost generation in the past and for decades to come in the future (see earlier posts in http://sustain-earth.com). The real challenges for having sustainable management policies around the world need practical solutions with strong underlying educational and public awareness infra-structures. 

There are huge needs in all education and public awareness systems around the world for basic information and practice on hygiene and sanitation issues (http://www.infonet-biovision.org/content/introduction-hygiene-and-sanitation) with systems for strict guidelines for solid implementation in all small communities and villages in rural areas in the developing countries, e.g. Guidelines for Assessing the Risk to Groundwater from On–Site Sanitation “ARGOSS” (http://www.indiawaterportal.org/articles/guidelines-assessing-risk-groundwater-site-sanitation-argoss).

Indeed, achieving sustainable quality in surface water and groundwater systems and thereby improving ecological and human life qualities in many developing countries, in particular Africa, depend on succsseful sanitation policies as sanitation is an accelerating global threat for water quality, hygiene and health as well as life quality in general.

Water should be on the top agenda for promoting good quality of life in Africa. The reality of many people is far from being acceptable and the world should revise their tools what regards how to assess poverty. It is shameful that poverty is still assessed on terms and criteria that do not match modern living conditions on earth.

http://people.rit.edu/~avm4454/105/project3/africa.html  

Water management explained simply means “water care” where water is being cleaned after using it and before injected it again to the environment. Water in nature is meant to be clean and fresh, and that is the way water ends it global natural cycle in the form of rain. 

Successful water management policies are not only essential for life on earth but it is imperative and should be composed of many dynamic key issues involving the effective removal of waste and pollution from joining the water cycle in all its stages. Waste and pollution management, public awareness, education, protection of water bodies and associated monitoring programs are typically carried out through major, strict and comprehensive national strategies, directives and regulations. These have to be in place all the time, anytime and everywhere, it is not a matter of being done now and then as the costs involved in rehabilitation are very huge and time consuming with complicated procedures and actions.

A typical case to illustrate is The Citarum River, indonesia, which is known as the dirtiest river in the world. The Roadmap for the rehabilitation of the river system is an extensive plan with many components and phases that is to be completed by 2023 at a total cost of $3.5 billion. This will be a huge undertaking by people and government of Indonesia for empowering communities to better plan and manage their water resources for a more sustainable future.

The importance of waste management and fresh water resources: Looking at Indonesia’s Citarum River

Can Ecologists and Engineers Work Together to Harness Water For The Future? This is indeed among key questions for  the sustainable managements of water resources in the Pangani River catchment. As in many river catchments in Africa constrains from climate changes and the increasing pressures on water uses call for appropriate water management strategies, policies and regulations. In particular considerations to the dynamic nature of climate change versus water resources availability and affordability for diverse needs and services has to be taken into account.

Information on the hydrology and water resources of the Pangani River, Tanzania, is given at (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pangani_River#/media/File%3APangani_Town.jpg) 

Can Ecologists and Engineers Work Together to Harness Water For The Future?

Nany of us have many questions about tap water and bottled water in terms of quality, access and affordability? Is bottled water more pure than tap water? What is most appropriate for a state or a country in terms of water management policies and services provided to the citizen? What regulations and directives that control water quality? What feedback impacts of the quality of natural waters on household needs in particular drinking water? 

The quality of water varies considerably around the world. So, you better learn about sources and quality of your water. Even in countries with high tap water quality people still go for bottled water. In the U.S. popularity of bottled water is  exploding again. During 2014 Americans consumed about 270 single-serving bottles of water per person with total value of bottled water sold of approximately $13 billion. Within the next two years bottled water in the U.S. is expected to become the most consumped packaged beverage in the United States. Water delivered by public water supplies in the U.S. is regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) while bottled water is regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). These two agencies have different standards for the water. In general, EPA’s quality standards are higher while FDA does have strict standards of purity and labeling that must be met by all manufacturers.

Is Bottled Water High Priced Tap Water?
It often is. About 25% of the bottled water sold in the United States comes straight out of a tap. This is also the case in many other counties around the world. It can cost over 1000 times as much as tap water. The FDA requires bottlers to identify what type of water is in every bottle. If it is marked  “from a community water system” or “from a municipal source” or something similar, you are buying the equivalent of tap water. The bottler might treat municipal or community water so that it meets the United States government’s definition of “purified water”, “demineralized water”, “deionized water”, “distilled water” or “reverse osmosis water”. It can then be labeled with those names. All steps of processing, bottling and labeling have a cost.

In the U.S. some bottled waters are specially produced and marketed as being from natural water sources. These are also regulated and labeled according to FDA definitions. Some of the more common water identities are: Mineral Water, Spring Water, Artesian Water, Sparkling Water, Ground Water and Well Water. 

In the U.S. if you are drinking bottled water because you think that it is more pure, better for your health or safer than community or municipal water you are probably not getting your money’s worth. 
One concern that motivates many people to drink bottled water instead is “taste” as some don’t like the taste of tap water.

The benefits of bottled water are mainly convenience and novelty. Instead of buying bottled water you can carry a canteen or a drinking cup and save lots of money by using tap water. For lits of reasons drinking tap water will also help the environment.
Water has no calories, no dissolved sugar, no alcohol and no caffeine. If you regularly drink water as a replacement for soda, beer, coffee or iced tea you are probably making a healthy choice. There are many real benefits of bottled water or tap water. It’s easy to drink water as an alternative beverage. So, start thinking of water as an alternative beverage. Drink bottled water when you need convenience. Drink tap water to save money and preserve the environment.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/03/100310/why-tap-water-is-better/

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/11/19/health/upwave-bottled-water/

http://www.cbc.ca/m/news/health/bottle-vs-tap-7-things-to-know-about-drinking-water-1.2774182

http://abcnews.go.com/US/mississippi-delta-state-university-lockdown-dead/story?id=33748843

http://geology.com/articles/bottled-water.shtml

Human innovation never halts and it’s not only a matter curiosity but in most cases a matter of survival. Indeed, both curiosity and survival are very much related on long-term perspective. Curiosity can generate solutions for survival and our survival instinct fuels our creativity and curiosity. 

I enjoyed very much being a student and I still love to learn as it is the only tool to refresh and jog myself forward in a turbulent and an ever changing world. For successful navigation in life you need a compass to direct yourself but there are no such ready-make compasses that are tuned for everyone. So, I created one for myself, “a survival compass driven by curiosity”. Survival makes my everyday living while curiosity gives the momentum to cope with changes and unexpected obstacles in everyday living. 

During my studies at school and even in many parts of my university education there were no luxury things like electricity, machines and modern ICT-solutions. Everything were done manually, e.g. to go long distances, solve mathematics using paper-based tables, write personal notes after teachers, and not to mention never ending stories of searching and waiting for literature for days, weeks or even months through local and national libraries and book-stores as well as personal contats. Every technical and scientific transitions in the society were met with great curiosity and my compass has to recalibrated to continue safe and secure navigatation, just because of my very instinct for survival.

In late forties and the fifties came the amazing semi-conductor technology (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semiconductor) and the invention of transistors which gradually changed our life in terms of bringing about intelligent tools, calculators and semi-intelligent machinery, ….. and so on. Advances never stop once humans open small doors that keep creating big inventions and changes. The whole semi-conductor technology moved forwards more and more towards automation and control. The new era of ICT-revolution has started its definite journey that no one expected that it will bring about enomous changes that we are experiencing today in modern houses and in all service-sectors. Here is an example regarding ICT applications for agriculture risk management for micro-scale farming:

http://www.ictinagriculture.org/sourcebook/module-11-ict-applications-agricultural-risk-management

UN has projected that world population could reach 9.6 billion by 2050 and debate has emerged about how best to support farmers between advocates of large-scale agricultural projects and those who prefer more targeted, small-scale efforts. Global food production must double by 2050 to feed the world. Smallholder farmers provide up to 80% of Asia and sub-Saharan Africa’s food, where the vast majority of the world’s poor people live. Long-term food security has to be based on food sovereignty in national, regional and international policies that influence food systems where small-scale farmers are important in this context. In order to thrive, farmers in the developing world need access to seed, fertiliser, microcredit and microinsurance, as well as rights to land and union representation: http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2015/feb/19/feed-the-world-small-farmers-big-agriculture-mdgs

WWW is without hesitation a historical invention that changed and still changing the fate of all humans anywhere, at anytime and in every nanosecond on planet Earth. Information Communication Technology “ICT” is moving faster and faster to involve more and more active coupling of humans and machines.

With the birth of World Wide Web “WWW” in May 1993 new generations from 1990 and beyond are now shaping out planet and our lives. The Internet seems like it has always been around and with us …. isn’t it? In this short two decades, or so, is has affected us and changed our lives far more than anything else in the whole intergrated human history with no similar parallels. The question is what this ICT-revolution will take us to and what would the world be like in say 2020 and beyond (https://ispanico82.wordpress.com/2013/05/22/happy-birthdat-www/)

The fast global progress in ICT within the vast landscape of WWW has benefited enormously from all previous stages of developments. Future possibilities are very huge with increasing degree of digital and wireless communication, combined sences, embodied interactions and with computer technology that took us from central computer and many users in early 1940s to smart cities in 2020. We are heading more and more towards smarter solutions, e.g. smart homes, smart factories, smart space, smart classrooms, smart shops, and much much more. ICT for the rich, the poor, the young, the old, and furthermore between communications between humans over the whole globe, humans and machines, and machines and machines: http://www.ourcommonfuture.de/fileadmin/user_upload/dateien/Reden/wahlster_opening.pdf

Policy-makers in Europe and the U.S. have addressed major concerns about the failure of integration of immigrants brought into their labor-markets after the rapid industrial and technology transfer post WWII, e.g. for more information visit the following websites (http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/home-affairs/e-library/documents/policies/legal-migration/general/docs/final_report_on_using_eu_indicators_of_immigrant_integration_june_2013_en.pdf) and (http://m.immigrationpolicy.org/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.immigrationpolicy.org%2Fissues%2Fcitizenship&utm_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.se%2F#2887).

With these experiences in mind and the fact that Europe and the U.S. passed through a wide-scale of urbanization and modernization especially after WWII, we can already expect similar negative consequences and impacts in the developing countries because of the ongoing fast urbanization, in particular Africa. With the exception that the negative consequences and impacts in Europe and the U.S. were/are relatively very much smaller than the observed trends and the expected future changes in the developing countries. Currently, there is already gradual and intensive internal migration due to the enormous urbanization process that is taking place in many developing countries around the world. This process is certainly resulting from the severe failure of integration of rural and urban regions and the core reason for the expansion of poor communities around major/mega cities. This indeed, has two major future impacts: (1) gradual degradation of the basic public and private infra-structures of newly urbanized regions; and (2) shortage of the relatively experienced local and native labor in rural regions on many levels in general and collapse of the agriculture, in particular, with associated negative impacts on food and agro-industries.

This is a very ignored issue in Africa though many severe impacts are already observed in big and mega cities in Africa, e.g. Cairo, Lagos, Nairobi, Bamako……

IMMIgration is an integral part of human experience and always existed throughout human history. In a dynamic world of continuous changes and unlimited needs for successful globalization IMMIgration would always exist. However, the motivations, dynamics and mechanisms are never the same. In this context, there are many critical questions that need to be answered not only at individual levels but also on the larger socio-economic landscape.

Shortly after WW-II immigration was very popular, and people and countries around the world benefited from the unlimited needs and diverse market possibilities that existed at that time. However, the current global situation what regards IMMIgration and INTEgtation is very much different than what it used to be after WW-II. Why the INTEgration of IMMIgarnts did not take a sustainable path, as it was wished, is among most important global political and socio-economic issues (http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/home-affairs/e-library/documents/policies/legal-migration/general/docs/final_report_on_using_eu_indicators_of_immigrant_integration_june_2013_en.pdf).

Full integration of immigrants in the U.S. is still an issue and most immigrants want to be Americans and fully participate in social and civic life. We can expect naturalization and integration programs to be an important part of comprehensive immigration reform. Immigrant integration has benefits for everyone because it enables immigrants to realize their full potential, contribute more in economy and develop deeper community ties. While the United States encourages legal permanent residents to become citizens, there is no national strategy for facilitating integration with sufficient infrastructures to smooth transition from immigrant to citizen. Failure to address this problem in the context of comprehensive immigration reform could lead to endless delays for the millions who currently seek services from USCIS and the millions more who will become part of the applicant pool following legalization.

Another important issue is the internal migration in many countries due the enormous urbanization process that is currently taking place around the world. This process is certainly resulting from the severe failure of integration of rural and urban regions and the core reason for the expansion of poor communities around major/mega cities. This indeed, has two major impacts: (1) gradual degradation of the basic public and private infra-structures of urbanized regions; and (2) shortage of labor in rural regions on many levels in general and collapse of the agriculture, in particular, with associated negative impacts on food and agro-industries.

http://m.immigrationpolicy.org/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.immigrationpolicy.org%2Fissues%2Fcitizenship&utm_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.se%2F#2887

We leaned in our daily life experiences that “no fire without smoke”. Indeed, many of us started to lose confidence in food quality and have observed on many occasions disappointing situations. That doesn’t come without reasons or surprises as we are already familiar about many environmental abuses on several levels. In additions to this, violations of rules and quality guide-lines are existing worldwide as economic terms in production and services have sometimes higher priorities than quality standards. 

Here are some few examples why our food quality can be questioned. I personally have experienced number of violations even in best shops in Europe (in this case very few) where bread and cheese can be suspected for exposure to rat droppings, see for example (http://www.raising-happy-chickens.com/rat-droppings.html). 

In developing countries sanitation and poor water quality can pose additional threats in food production as the risk of exposure of food to insets and certain dwelling animals, e.g. rats,  can be high. 

Here are some warnings about existing problems in processed food even through legally accepted quality guide-lines (http://youtu.be/T75ULFUgEPk).

Social media are web-based instruments, virtually opened for everyone with no exceptions to produce, exchange and share information. As understood by the public and agreed upon they are supposed to connect people and promote social relationships between them. We all assume that they are based on truthful, real and true facts that deserve respect. In sustainable societies using modern technologies, ICT “Information Communication Technology” as any other technology is part of complex socio-economic infrastructures that should have balanced interactions to constructively increase and enrich prosperity. The role of ICT is not to create, support or accelerate social conflicts and segregation where true and civilized communication get exchanged for network-bullying, hatred, falsehood and slander.

Everything happens online on the web have consequences for our societies at large especially the social relations between people and the interaction among citizens, family, education, technology, government, and the market in general. How these relations and interactions are dealt with and regulated is basic element of public security, safety and stability in any society. Clear rules and fair laws should exist to prevent the increased abuse of social media where everything illegal can very easily spread and strengthened. Social media has evolved tremendously to become the main source of information and knowledge where “freedom of opinion” needs not to be abused, misused and exploited to increase hate, instabilities and call for crime in modern ICT-based societies.

http://broblogger.blogspot.se/2013_02_01_archive.html?m=1

Sociala medier är till att främja sociala relationer mellan människor och borde baseras på fakta och respekt. I ett hållbart samhälle borde modern teknologi såsom ICT “Information Communication Technology” utnyttjas konstruktivt för att öka välfärden och inte skapa segregation där sann och civiliserad kommunikation bytts mot nät-mobbning, hat, lögn och förtal. Allt som händer på nätet har konsekvenser för samhället i stort särskilt sociala relationer mellan människor och samspelet mellan medborgare, familj, utbildning, teknologi, myndigheter och marknaden i allmänhet.

Tydliga regler och lagar borde finns för att hindra ökad missbruk av sociala medier där allt olaglig hat kan spridas och förstärkas. Sociala medier har utvecklats enormt för att bli den främsta källan till information och kunskap där “yttrande frihet” kan missbrukas och utnyttjas för ökad kriminalitet i samhället.

Idag föll domen i nätmobbningsmålet, det så kallade instagrammålet. Samhället har sagt sitt: Det är inte okej att förtala, mobba och sprida hat på nätet.
http://www.apg29.nu/index.php?artid=11798

YouTube is becoming more and more an inevitable global alternative of written books, magazines, journals and above all powerful marketing instrument. The voice of humans “YouTube” can be very easily embedded with other visual and texted information to show and illustrate very complex phenomena and behavior of humans, e.g. this unusual video (http://youtu.be/BTxuQwiY7eE).

Spela in föreläsningar? Lägga ut material på nätet? Använda YouTube i undervisningen? Upphovsrätt, integritet och offentlighet.
Kursutbudet är stort och omfattande, men om ni ändå inte hittar just det ni söker kan den rätta kursen för er arrangeras.

Mer information: http://www.fakultetskurser.se