Fighting Mother Nature?

2020 ◽  
pp. 337-346
Author(s):  
Alan McHughen
Keyword(s):  
Global Climate ◽  
The Public ◽  
Mother Nature ◽  
Farming Communities ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Global Climate Changes ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Human Ability ◽  
The Face ◽  
And Control

This chapter explores how the human ability to understand and control life at the fundamental level of DNA might influence the Earth and its inhabitants. Humans are the first (and likely final) species capable of fighting Mother Nature and changing the face of the planet physically, chemically, and biologically. Early humans defaced the Earth when they gave up their Mother Nature’s assigned natural role as hunter-gatherer and settled into farming communities, tilling the earth and displacing the local flora and fauna with species chosen by humans for their sole benefit. Modern humans continue the practice of of betraying Mother Nature through activities that drive global climate changes and pollute the air, waters, and land. The questions of how or whether to use tools developed from the knowledge of DNA must be grounded in science but involve political processes to benefit the public good.

scholarly journals Diffusion of CO2 in Magnesite under High Pressure and High Temperature from Molecular Dynamics Simulations

Geofluids ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Lei Liu ◽  
Longxing Yang ◽  
Chunqiang Zhuang ◽  
Guangshu Yang ◽  
Li Yi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Molecular Dynamics ◽  
Carbon Cycle ◽  
Anisotropic Diffusion ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Extreme Condition ◽  
Global Climate Changes ◽  
Co2 Diffusion ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Earth Condition ◽  
Dynamics Simulations

CO2 transports in the Earth’s interior play a crucial role in understanding the deep carbon cycle and the global climate changes. Currently, CO2 transports inside of the Earth under extreme condition of pressure and temperature have not been understood well. In this study, the molecular dynamics (MD) calculations were performed to study CO2 transports under different CO2 pressures in slit-like magnesite pores with different pore sizes at 350~2500 K and 3~50 GPa are presented. Diffusion of CO2 in magnesite was improved as the temperature increases but showed the different features as a function of pressure. The diffusion coefficients of CO2 in magnesite were found in the range of 9 × 10 − 12   m 2   s − 1 ~ 28000 × 10 − 12   m 2   s − 1 . Magnesite with the pore size of 20~25 Å corresponds to the highest transports. Anisotropic diffusion of CO2 in magnesite may help to understand the inhomogeneous distribution of carbon in the upper mantle. The time of CO2 diffusion from the mantle to Earth surface was estimated to be around several tens of Ma and has an important effect on deep carbon cycle. The simulation of CO2 transports based on the Earth condition provides new insights to revealing the deep carbon cycle in the Earth’s interiors.

scholarly journals Could Protected Areas in Brazil’s Semi-Arid Conserve Endangered Birds Facing Climatic and Land Cover Changes?

2020 ◽  
pp. 50-70
Author(s):  
Tiago Castro Silva ◽  
Lara Gomes Côrtes ◽  
Marinez Ferreira de Siqueira
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Land Cover ◽  
Protected Areas ◽  
Land Cover Change ◽  
Ecological Niche ◽  
Climate Changes ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Global Climate Changes ◽  
The Face

Protected areas act as pillars on which conservation strategies are built. Besides human activities, global climate changes are an additional concern to species’ conservation. In northeastern Brazil, climate change should lead to a replacement of the current native vegetation by semi-desert vegetation. This study evaluates whether the protected areas of the Caatinga can contribute to the maintenance of suitable climatic conditions for endangered birds over time in the face of global climate changes and land cover change. We used ecological niche models as input layers in a spatial prioritization program, in which stability indices were used to weight the targets. Results predicted that most taxa (18) will have their suitability lowered in the future, and all taxa (23) will have their ecological niche geographically displaced. However, our results showed that the Caatinga’s protected areas system integrated with a set of priority areas can maintain suitable climatic conditions for endangered birds in the face of climate change and land cover change. On average, Caatinga’s protected areas system could protect climatic stability areas at least 1.7 times greater than the scenarios without it. This reinforces the importance of protected areas as a biodiversity conservation strategy. 
  

scholarly journals Discussões sobre as mudanças climáticas globais: os alarmistas, os céticos e os modelos de previsão do clima

GeoTextos ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Francisco Ronnieplex De Moura Cruz ◽  
Letícia Andrade da Silva ◽  
Elisiene De Macêdo Pereira ◽  
Rebecca Luna Lucena
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Climate Change ◽  
Climate Changes ◽  
Climate Models ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Intergovernmental Panel ◽  
Global Climate Changes ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Scientific Papers ◽  
Forecast Models

Este ensaio traz à tona questões intrigantes e dúvidas que permeiam as pesquisas voltadas às mudanças climáticas globais, enfatizando as discordâncias existentes entre as distintas correntes de cientistas e os prognósticos elaborados pelos modelos de previsão do clima. Para tanto, tomou-se por base as teorias propagadas por alarmistas e céticos, bem como o prognóstico do Painel Intergovernamental sobre as Mudanças Climáticas (IPCC) de 2007. O ensaio se baseou na análise de livros, relatórios técnicos e artigos científicos, além da interpretação dos gráficos contidos nos mesmos. Os resultados mostraram que sempre houve variação na temperatura da atmosfera, mesmo antes do surgimento do homem e em níveis bem mais elevados do que os atuais. Contudo, alarmistas e céticos concordam que a Terra passou por um aquecimento de cerca de 0,6ºC no século XX, havendo divergência no que diz respeito às causas desse aquecimento, suas consequências, e se ele ainda está ocorrendo. Entretanto, um aspecto que põe em xeque a confiabilidade de ambas as correntes diz respeito ao problema da previsão, pois são muitos os fatores e elementos envolvidos na complexidade do sistema climático, tornando, assim, previsões climáticas exatas praticamente impossíveis, e deixando o debate, até o momento, no campo das suposições. Abstract DISCUSSIONS ABOUT GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGES: THE ALARMISTS, THE SKEPTICS AND CLIMATE FORECAST MODELS This paper aims to discuss difficult questions and doubts about researches regarding global climate change, showing discordances about what different scientific groups and the forecasts elaborated by forecasting climate models. Therefore, we take for basis the theories formulated by the two scientific groups: the alarmists and skeptics, and the prognostic showed by the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (IPCC), 2007. This work was based in a research of books, technical documents and scientific papers, and the interpretation of graphs and data within these works. The results showed that oscillating temperatures always existed in the Earth’s atmosphere before human existence and the oscillation was larger than today. However, alarmists and skeptics believe that the earth atmosphere’s temperature elevated by approximated 0.6º C in the XX century, but there is a big divergence about the causes that rise and the consequences. Finally, an issue that questions the reliability of both groups, concerns the problem of forecast mainly because there are many factors and elements involved in the complexity of climate system thus making accurate climate predictions virtually impossible and leaving the debate so far, in the field of assumptions.

Internal Recurrence

Dialogue ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 155-162
Author(s):  
Don Ross
Keyword(s):  
Neural Networks ◽  
Recurrent Neural Networks ◽  
Folk Psychology ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Paul Churchland

Paul Churchland does not open his latest book,The Engine of Reason, the Seat of the Soul, modestly. He begins by announcing, “This book is about you. And me … More broadly still, it is about every creature that ever swam, or walked, or flew over the face of the Earth” (p. 3). A few sentences later, he says, “Fortunately, recent research into neural networks … has produced the beginnings of a real understanding of how the biological brain works—a real understanding, that is, of howyouwork, and everyone else like you” (p. 3). The implicit identification here of “me and you and everyone” with “the biological brain” might lead an uncharitable reader to view Churchland's book as “Eliminativism for the non-specialist,” that is, as an attempt to popularize the view of the mindbody problem with which, among his professional peers, Churchland has long been identified. However, I think that such a readingwouldbe uncharitable. He is, of course, frequently sceptical about the utility of folk psychology, but in this book he is much less concerned to disparage folk psychology as a failedtheory(by contrast with, for example, the arguments in Churchland 1979) than to urge the more modest view that the more we understand the brain, the better we shall be at helping those whose brains are damaged in ways that interfere seriously with the fulfilment of their lives. Hence, I am inclined to take him at his word when he says in the Preface that “The book is motivated first of all by sheer excitement over the new picture that is now emerging … [and] … also by the idea that this is information that the public needs to know” (p. xi). What excites Churchland so, at least overtly, is not the negative thesis he has defended elsewhere that folk-psychological terms fail to refer; his enthusiasm is mainly reserved for the positive thesis that minds are, essentially, interacting assemblies of recurrent neural networks. It is therefore this positive thesis, and Churchland's defence of it, that I will assess in the following discussion.

scholarly journals Biodiversity of the Arctic Ocean in the Face of Climate Change

2011 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-91
Author(s):  
Jan Węsławski
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Arctic Ocean ◽  
Climate Changes ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Arctic Seas ◽  
Global Climate Changes ◽  
The Arctic Ocean ◽  
The Face

Biodiversity of the Arctic Ocean in the Face of Climate Change Global climate changes which has been observed over the recent years affects organisms occurring in the Arctic seas and the functioning of the whole maritime ecosystems there. The research note presents and briefly analyses the biological diversity of the Arctic Ocean and the most important factors which change the relations between organisms and the environment in the Arctic.

scholarly journals Discussion on Core Technique and General Software Platform of River Water Resources Regulation in China

2018 ◽  
Vol 246 ◽  
pp. 01011
Author(s):  
Zhiguo Gan ◽  
Siyu Cai ◽  
Xianhao He
Keyword(s):  
Water Resources ◽  
Water Cycle ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Second Phase ◽  
Software Platform ◽  
Global Climate Changes ◽  
Existing Problems ◽  
Current Water ◽  
Water Problems ◽  
And Control

Due to the aggravation of human activities and global climate changes in recent decades, catchment water cycle has experienced strong variation. The world is faced with profound water crisis, and water problems are especially severe and water disasters are of high frequency in China. Water problems have become significant obstacle factors for realizing sustainable development, which greatly threatens national economy and ecological safety. Given the scientific background of catchment water cycle evolution and water resources comprehensive regulation, we propose the method of solving water problems through water resources operation based on dualistic water cycle theory and discuss the developing status and existing problems of current water resources operation in China. On this basis, we also put forward the technical framework and key process of water resources regulation, which integrates the six links of monitoring, simulation, evaluation, forecasting, regulation and control. Furthermore, aiming at the background of the second phase of National Water Monitoring Capacity Building Project, we introduce a nationwide general software platform for water resources regulation. This platform will realize business collaboration and information sharing among three-scale platform of Ministry of Water Resources, basin authorities and provincial level, so as to overall improve the ability of water resources regulation and decision-making.

scholarly journals Cultural Stewardship Accountability of Seed Bank Institutions for Indigenous Knowledge

2016 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Mark L Shepheard
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous Knowledge ◽  
Plant Traits ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Seed Banks ◽  
Global Climate Changes ◽  
Wild Crop Relatives ◽  
Fodder Crops ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Subject

A growing emphasis among seed banks in Australia and globally is the collection of seed and information associated with wild crop relatives of food and fodder crops. This is part of scientific efforts to store and document plant traits that may prove useful to deal with risks to food and bio security in the face of global climate changes. This has implications for indigenous communities because of the risk that indigenous knowledge may be collected and included as ‘data’ rather than as knowledge with significant cultural tethering. This articl provides a theoretical context for institutional seed banks to engage with indigenous people and specify indigenous knowledge stewardship accountability. This should help seed banks to operate with sensitivity to cultural wellbeing and minimise the risks from failure to satisfy accountability for indigenous knowledge stewardship. The article identifies four interrelated dimensions of indigenous knowledge stewardship, and identifies a tentative process for institutions to adapt this to indigenous knowledge stewardship strategy and practice. The process for realising indigenous knowledge stewardship accountability is the subject of further research.

scholarly journals Comparative effectiveness of agricultural advisory services rendered by public and private sectors in the Punjab, Pakistan

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Safder Abbas ◽  
Ghazanfar A. Khan ◽  
Babar Shahbaz ◽  
Muhammad T. Siddiqui
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Private Sector ◽  
Best Interest ◽  
Agricultural Technologies ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
The Public ◽  
Advisory Services ◽  
Farming Communities ◽  
The Face

Public and private extension sectors are meant to effectively disseminate agricultural technologies among farmers in order to improve the living standards of farmers through adoption of site specific and improved technologies. This study was conducted in 2018 to explore the effectiveness of Agricultural Advisory Service rendered by the public and private sectors in the Punjab province of Pakistan. Total 400 farmers, purposively selected from the two tehsils (sub-districts) of Multan District were interviewed through the face-to-face interview technique on a structured and pre-tested interview schedule. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to analyse the collected data. T-test was the key technique used to compare the two sectors. The results show that one-fourth (25.5%) of respondents had acquaintance with the Extension Field Staff (EFS) of the private sector as compared to 15.5% of respondents knowing about the public sector EFS by face only. Regarding contact, one-fifth (19.9%) of the respondents made a contact with the EFS of public sector twice a month while in contrast, more than half (53.1%) of respondents contacted EFS of private sector twice a month. The performance of the public sector (x̅=2.50±1.902) regarding the safe use of pesticides was comparatively better than private sector (x̅ =2.08±1.824). Farmers were more satisfied with the private sector in context of getting advisory services about harvesting of crops (x̅ =1.88±1.604) as compared to the public sector (x̅ =1.62±1.597). Study concluded that services provided by private EFS were comparatively effective as compared to public sector for many reasons. The study urges more development and institutionalization to the public sector in order to improve the performance of the public sector in best interest of farming communities.

scholarly journals Comparative effectiveness of agricultural advisory services rendered by public and private sectors in the Punjab, Pakistan

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Safder Abbas ◽  
Ghazanfar A. Khan ◽  
Babar Shahbaz ◽  
Muhammad T. Siddiqui
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Private Sector ◽  
Best Interest ◽  
Agricultural Technologies ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
The Public ◽  
Advisory Services ◽  
Farming Communities ◽  
The Face

Public and private extension sectors are meant to effectively disseminate agricultural technologies among farmers in order to improve the living standards of farmers through adoption of site specific and improved technologies. This study was conducted in 2018 to explore the effectiveness of Agricultural Advisory Service rendered by the public and private sectors in the Punjab province of Pakistan. Total 400 farmers, purposively selected from the two tehsils (sub-districts) of Multan District were interviewed through the face-to-face interview technique on a structured and pre-tested interview schedule. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to analyse the collected data. T-test was the key technique used to compare the two sectors. The results show that one-fourth (25.5%) of respondents had acquaintance with the Extension Field Staff (EFS) of the private sector as compared to 15.5% of respondents knowing about the public sector EFS by face only. Regarding contact, one-fifth (19.9%) of the respondents made a contact with the EFS of public sector twice a month while in contrast, more than half (53.1%) of respondents contacted EFS of private sector twice a month. The performance of the public sector (x̅=2.50±1.902) regarding the safe use of pesticides was comparatively better than private sector (x̅ =2.08±1.824). Farmers were more satisfied with the private sector in context of getting advisory services about harvesting of crops (x̅ =1.88±1.604) as compared to the public sector (x̅ =1.62±1.597). Study concluded that services provided by private EFS were comparatively effective as compared to public sector for many reasons. The study urges more development and institutionalization to the public sector in order to improve the performance of the public sector in best interest of farming communities.

scholarly journals Public Views of the Economy of the Renewable Energy Sources: Evidence from Russia

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 256-266
Author(s):  
Dalia Streimikiene ◽  
Victoria Akberdina
Keyword(s):  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Renewable Energy Sources ◽  
Public Support ◽  
Energy Sources ◽  
The Public ◽  
Global Climate Changes ◽  
Public Views

Recent worldwide growing awareness of the global climate changes stressed the importance of developing and supporting the renewable energy sources (RES). However, the public support for RES varies across various countries and regions, especially those abundant in traditional fossil fuels. This paper presents the analysis of the public views of the economics of the renewable energy using the results of the online survey (N = 750) conducted in several regions of the Russian Federation, a country abundant in natural gas and oil. Our results indicate that there is a mixed opinion on trust in RES as opposed to the traditional energy sources. Even though we found some support for the renewable energy technologies, it appears that it is correlated with the respondents’ concerns about the environmental protection and sustainable development as well as with some demographic variables. The outcomes of the regression analysis confirmed that positive attitudes towards climate protection predetermined the support for various types of RES, while the financial or political gains did not come through as significant. The results indicate that public views on the renewable energy sources could and should be shaped by the information campaigns and presentations in mass media conducted by relevant policymakers and public authorities.

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