The need for a vision

2003 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harry F. Recher
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Degradation ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Human History ◽  
Human Enterprise

ALL of us are aware of the changes to our lives and surroundings brought by growing numbers of people and by new and improved technologies. Many of these changes have brought opportunities undreamed of by past generations; for many of us our lives are healthier and longer than at any time in human history and we share unimaginable wealth and prosperity. Unfortunately not everyone shares in these benefits. The growth of human populations, the exploitation of resources, and new technologies have contributed to a growing gap between rich and poor. Pollution and environmental degradation affect all people and all parts of the planet. Wilderness and nature have retreated before the expansion of the human enterprise.

The Paradoxes of Racism

1993 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 512-525 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Dunn
Keyword(s):  
Human Populations ◽  
Human History

IN ITS MOST ELABORATELY ARTICULATED FORM RACISM IS AN array of theoretical views about the epistemic clarity and human import of the practice of individuating human populations in terms of their presumed biological descent. In this form the term can refer with some precision, and largely independently of context, to a quite specific body of beliefs. In far more diffuse and far less theoretical forms, however, and in forms which are also far more widely distributed in human history, it can and does refer just as readily to the highlighting of distinctions which are certainly at least as much cultural as they are genetic, and which are inextricably located in a context of more or less intimate and painful confrontation between human groups. In this second form there cannot in principle be anything comparably determinate for the term racism to refer to.

Digital Economy, Business Models, and Cloud Computing

2019 ◽  
pp. 19-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abbas Strømmen-Bakhtiar
Keyword(s):  
Cloud Computing ◽  
Business Model ◽  
Business Models ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Sharing Economy ◽  
Rapid Expansion ◽  
Human History ◽  
Recent Past ◽  
Digital Revolution ◽  
Technological Revolution

From the invention of writing to the steam engine and to computers, human history has been one of technological inventions and change. In our relatively recent past we have witnessed several technological revolutions which rapidly replaced one set of technologies by another, and in the process created what Schumpeter called the creative destruction. Today, we are witnessing a technological revolution that is changing the way we live, work, and communicate. We call this the digital revolution which brings with it new technologies, methods, and business models. This chapter discusses the digital revolution and the platform business model. This business model is used by many “sharing economy” businesses such as Airbnb and Uber. The success of this business model is dependent on the rapid expansion of its user-base. This business model requires infrastructure and applications that can cope with this rapid expansion. Cloud computing has been providing these services.

scholarly journals Innovation and the growth of human population

2017 ◽  
Vol 372 (1735) ◽  
pp. 20160415 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. P. Weinberger ◽  
C. Quiñinao ◽  
P. A. Marquet
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Positive Feedback ◽  
Human Population ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Biological Species ◽  
Technological Innovations ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Green Technologies ◽  
Positive Effects

Biodiversity is sustained by and is essential to the services that ecosystems provide. Different species would use these services in different ways, or adaptive strategies, which are sustained in time by continuous innovations. Using this framework, we postulate a model for a biological species ( Homo sapiens ) in a finite world where innovations, aimed at increasing the flux of ecosystem services (a measure of habitat quality), increase with population size, and have positive effects on the generation of new innovations (positive feedback) as well as costs in terms of negatively affecting the provision of ecosystem services. We applied this model to human populations, where technological innovations are driven by cumulative cultural evolution. Our model shows that depending on the net impact of a technology on the provision of ecosystem services ( θ ), and the strength of technological feedback ( ξ ), different regimes can result. Among them, the human population can fill the entire planet while maximizing their well-being, but not exhaust ecosystem services. However, this outcome requires positive or green technologies that increase the provision of ecosystem services with few negative externalities or environmental costs, and that have a strong positive feedback in generating new technologies of the same kind. If the feedback is small, then the technological stock can collapse together with the human population. Scenarios where technological innovations generate net negative impacts may be associated with a limited technological stock as well as a limited human population at equilibrium and the potential for collapse. The only way to fill the planet with humans under this scenario of negative technologies is by reducing the technological stock to a minimum. Otherwise, the only feasible equilibrium is associated with population collapse. Our model points out that technological innovations per se may not help humans to grow and dominate the planet. Instead, different possibilities unfold for our future depending on their impact on the environment and on further innovation. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Process and pattern in innovations from cells to societies’.

scholarly journals The emergence of longevous populations

2016 ◽  
Vol 113 (48) ◽  
pp. E7681-E7690 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fernando Colchero ◽  
Roland Rau ◽  
Owen R. Jones ◽  
Julia A. Barthold ◽  
Dalia A. Conde ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Expectancy ◽  
Full Range ◽  
Primate Evolution ◽  
Human Experience ◽  
Japanese Women ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Human History ◽  
Human Lifespan ◽  
Sociocultural Processes ◽  
Straight Lines

The human lifespan has traversed a long evolutionary and historical path, from short-lived primate ancestors to contemporary Japan, Sweden, and other longevity frontrunners. Analyzing this trajectory is crucial for understanding biological and sociocultural processes that determine the span of life. Here we reveal a fundamental regularity. Two straight lines describe the joint rise of life expectancy and lifespan equality: one for primates and the second one over the full range of human experience from average lifespans as low as 2 y during mortality crises to more than 87 y for Japanese women today. Across the primate order and across human populations, the lives of females tend to be longer and less variable than the lives of males, suggesting deep evolutionary roots to the male disadvantage. Our findings cast fresh light on primate evolution and human history, opening directions for research on inequality, sociality, and aging.

The Mediterranean: marine protected areas and the recovery of a large marine ecosystem

2000 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 95-97 ◽  
Author(s):  
RAQUEL GOÑI ◽  
NICHOLAS V.C. POLUNIN ◽  
SERGE PLANES
Keyword(s):  
New Technologies ◽  
Marine Ecosystem ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Mediterranean Population ◽  
Market Demand ◽  
Small Vessels ◽  
Target Populations ◽  
Near Shore ◽  
Large Marine Ecosystem ◽  
The Mediterranean

In the Mediterranean, fishing is an ancient tradition and signs of its presence can be found everywhere along its coasts. In early times, most fishing was carried out from land with small nets and traps and only a portion of the fishing operations was carried out from boats away from the coast. Over time, growth of human populations along the Mediterranean coasts led to the expansion of sea fishing and gradual depletion of many near-shore stocks. Until recently, fishing in the Mediterranean retained its artisanal character. The type of small vessels, the fishing gears and labour-intensive character of the operations had changed little from generation to generation. However, some fishing practices benefited greatly from the advent of new technologies, such as those that replaced sails by powered engines, or the incorporation of fish-finding devices and efficient gear-handling techniques. These developments added to a growing market demand from the booming Mediterranean population, and led to overfishing of the most vulnerable target populations.

scholarly journals Environmental Health Education: From Museum Specimens and Math Word Problems to Virtual and Augmented Reality

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 117863022110663
Author(s):  
Sotirios Maipas ◽  
Anastasia Konstantinidou ◽  
Andreas Ch. Lazaris ◽  
Nikolaos Kavantzas
Keyword(s):  
Health Education ◽  
Augmented Reality ◽  
Environmental Health ◽  
Environmental Degradation ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Animal Health ◽  
Urban Air Pollution ◽  
Educational Interventions ◽  
Virtual And Augmented Reality ◽  
Environmental Health Education

Environmental degradation and its severe impact on human health has revealed the necessity for effective educational interventions. Given the importance of “Environment,” “Health,” and “Education,” as key pillars for the achievement of sustainable development, the education for environmental health is evolving into a main component of current strategies against environmental health threats, such as climate change and urban air pollution. Environmental Health Education, which must be considered as a strategical response against environmental degradation, offers vast capacity for innovation alongside every educational stage. For instance, the application of new technologies, such as virtual and augmented reality applications, the adoption of innovative interdisciplinary educational approaches, and the incorporation of Arts are evolving into a new era’s educational perspectives. All the new trends in formal, non-formal and informal Environmental Health Education should be captured and assessed, in favor of protecting both local and global natural environment, human and animal health, and promoting sustainability.

scholarly journals Integrated Microfluidic-Based Platforms for On-Site Detection and Quantification of Infectious Pathogens: Towards On-Site Medical Translation of SARS-CoV-2 Diagnostic Platforms

Micromachines ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (9) ◽  
pp. 1079
Author(s):  
Andres Escobar ◽  
Phyllis Chiu ◽  
Jianxi Qu ◽  
Yushan Zhang ◽  
Chang-qing Xu
Keyword(s):  
Rapid Detection ◽  
Diagnostic Techniques ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Human History ◽  
Laboratory Equipment ◽  
Operational Costs ◽  
Economic Downturns ◽  
Medical Translation ◽  
Infectious Pathogen ◽  
Detection And Quantification

The rapid detection and quantification of infectious pathogens is an essential component to the control of potentially lethal outbreaks among human populations worldwide. Several of these highly infectious pathogens, such as Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), have been cemented in human history as causing epidemics or pandemics due to their lethality and contagiousness. SARS-CoV-2 is an example of these highly infectious pathogens that have recently become one of the leading causes of globally reported deaths, creating one of the worst economic downturns and health crises in the last century. As a result, the necessity for highly accurate and increasingly rapid on-site diagnostic platforms for highly infectious pathogens, such as SARS-CoV-2, has grown dramatically over the last two years. Current conventional non-microfluidic diagnostic techniques have limitations in their effectiveness as on-site devices due to their large turnaround times, operational costs and the need for laboratory equipment. In this review, we first present criteria, both novel and previously determined, as a foundation for the development of effective and viable on-site microfluidic diagnostic platforms for several notable pathogens, including SARS-CoV-2. This list of criteria includes standards that were set out by the WHO, as well as our own “seven pillars” for effective microfluidic integration. We then evaluate the use of microfluidic integration to improve upon currently, and previously, existing platforms for the detection of infectious pathogens. Finally, we discuss a stage-wise means to translate our findings into a fundamental framework towards the development of more effective on-site SARS-CoV-2 microfluidic-integrated platforms that may facilitate future pandemic diagnostic and research endeavors. Through microfluidic integration, many limitations in currently existing infectious pathogen diagnostic platforms can be eliminated or improved upon.

scholarly journals Facing human interconnections: thinking International Relations into the future

2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 267-289
Author(s):  
Charalampos Efstathopoulos ◽  
Milja Kurki ◽  
Alistair Shepherd
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Environmental Degradation ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Introductory Article ◽  
The Future ◽  
And Shifts

Communities on the planet are faced with complex challenges: changing relations within and between human communities, changing relations with ecological and climatic conditions, and shifts in technology-human interconnections. The complex interconnections across issue areas – migration, environmental degradation and new technologies, for example – demand that scholars increasingly think across theories, paradigms, specialisms and disciplines. But how should we ‘hold things together’ as we try to make sense of complex realities in International Relations (IR)? This introductory article to the Special Issue ‘Facing human interconnections: thinking International Relations into the future’ discusses the open thematic of ‘human interconnections’ that is used to loosely structure the contributions. Analysis of human interconnections, as understood here, does not have a precise or fixed definition but is considered an open-ended notion with varied meanings and dimensions. Indeed, the authors engage it here in varied ways to explore their empirical, theoretical and political concerns. Yet, this notion also allows for interesting new questions to be posed on the potential and limits of IR as it faces the future, and debates around how we see interconnections between issue areas and ‘-isms’, how IR constructs ‘humans’ or ‘non-humans’ in interconnections, and what is at stake in bringing to our attention unacknowledged interconnections. Here we set out why human interconnection is an interesting notion to work with and why we need to keep its meaning open-ended. We also provide an account of six different orientations we observe amongst the authors tackling the dynamics of human interconnections in this Special Issue.

scholarly journals Climatic and cultural changes in the west Congo Basin forests over the past 5000 years

2013 ◽  
Vol 368 (1625) ◽  
pp. 20120304 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Oslisly ◽  
Lee White ◽  
Ilham Bentaleb ◽  
Charly Favier ◽  
Michel Fontugne ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Eleventh Century ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Pennisetum Glaucum ◽  
Central Africa ◽  
Congo Basin ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Cultural Changes ◽  
The Past

Central Africa includes the world's second largest rainforest block. The ecology of the region remains poorly understood, as does its vegetation and archaeological history. However, over the past 20 years, multidisciplinary scientific programmes have enhanced knowledge of old human presence and palaeoenvironments in the forestry block of Central Africa. This first regional synthesis documents significant cultural changes over the past five millennia and describes how they are linked to climate. It is now well documented that climatic conditions in the African tropics underwent significant changes throughout this period and here we demonstrate that corresponding shifts in human demography have had a strong influence on the forests. The most influential event was the decline of the strong African monsoon in the Late Holocene, resulting in serious disturbance of the forest block around 3500 BP. During the same period, populations from the north settled in the forest zone; they mastered new technologies such as pottery and fabrication of polished stone tools, and seem to have practised agriculture. The opening up of forests from 2500 BP favoured the arrival of metallurgist populations that impacted the forest. During this long period (2500–1400 BP), a remarkable increase of archaeological sites is an indication of a demographic explosion of metallurgist populations. Paradoxically, we have found evidence of pearl millet ( Pennisetum glaucum ) cultivation in the forest around 2200 BP, implying a more arid context. While Early Iron Age sites (prior to 1400 BP) and recent pre-colonial sites (two to eight centuries BP) are abundant, the period between 1600 and 1000 BP is characterized by a sharp decrease in human settlements, with a population crash between 1300 and 1000 BP over a large part of Central Africa. It is only in the eleventh century that new populations of metallurgists settled into the forest block. In this paper, we analyse the spatial and temporal distribution of 328 archaeological sites that have been reliably radiocarbon dated. The results allow us to piece together changes in the relationships between human populations and the environments in which they lived. On this basis, we discuss interactions between humans, climate and vegetation during the past five millennia and the implications of the absence of people from the landscape over three centuries. We go on to discuss modern vegetation patterns and African forest conservation in the light of these events.

Epidemics

2018 ◽  
pp. 120-148
Author(s):  
Ricard Solé ◽  
Santiago F. Elena
Keyword(s):  
Easter Island ◽  
Indigenous Australians ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Human History ◽  
Epidemic Modeling ◽  
Sis Model ◽  
Scale Free ◽  
Scale Free Networks ◽  
Hiv 1

It has been argued that epidemics have played a major role in human history. For example, the arrival of the British in Australia triggered a deadly wave of smallpox infections, with the estimated death of half of the indigenous Australians. The same virus wiped out the population of Easter Island, and measles eliminated a third of the inhabitants of Fiji. New threats have also emerged as human populations explode and pressure on ecosystems crosses sustainability thresholds. In order to understand how to deal with epidemics and eradicate them, there is a need to first understand how they spread. This chapter begins with a discussion of epidemic modeling, specifically the SIS model. It then covers the SIS model in space and graphs, modeling HIV-1 transmission, and halting viruses in scale-free networks.

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