Plastic ingestion as an evolutionary trap: Toward a holistic understanding

Science ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 373 (6550) ◽  
pp. 56-60
Author(s):  
Robson G. Santos ◽  
Gabriel E. Machovsky-Capuska ◽  
Ryan Andrades
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Fundamental Question ◽  
Plastic Pollution ◽  
Predominant Role ◽  
Acceptance Threshold ◽  
Evolutionary Trap ◽  
Holistic Understanding ◽  
Main Factors ◽  
Living Organisms ◽  
Natural Foods

Human activities are changing our environment. Along with climate change and a widespread loss of biodiversity, plastic pollution now plays a predominant role in altering ecosystems globally. Here, we review the occurrence of plastic ingestion by wildlife through evolutionary and ecological lenses and address the fundamental question of why living organisms ingest plastic. We unify evolutionary, ecological, and cognitive approaches under the evolutionary trap theory and identify three main factors that may drive plastic ingestion: (i) the availability of plastics in the environment, (ii) an individual’s acceptance threshold, and (iii) the overlap of cues given by natural foods and plastics.

Re-thinking “Smart City” – transferring urban climate research into city planning processes

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joachim Fallmann ◽  
Hans Schipper ◽  
Stefan Emeis ◽  
Marc Barra ◽  
Holger Tost
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Smart City ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
City Planning ◽  
Transport Model ◽  
Urban Climate ◽  
Metropolitan Region ◽  
Air Pollution Control ◽  
Urban Greening ◽  
Holistic Understanding

<p>With more and more people residing in cities globally, urban areas are particularly vulnerable to climate change. It is therefore important, that the principles of climate-resilient city planning are reflected in the planning phase already. A discussion of adaptation measures requires a holistic understanding of the complex urban environment, and necessarily has to involve cross-scale interactions, both spatially and temporally. This work examines the term “Smart City” with regard to its suitability for the definition of sustainable urban planning based on urban climate studies over the past decade and own modelling work. Existing literature is assessed from a meteorological perspective in order to answer the question how results from these studies can be linked to architectural design of future urban areas. It has been long understood that measures such as urban greening, or so-called "Nature Based Solutions", are able to dampen excess heat and help reducing energetic costs. As numerous studies show however, integrating vegetation in the urban landscape shares a double role in regional adaptation to climate change due to both cooling effect and air pollution control. Using the state-of-the-art chemical transport model MECO(n) coupled to the urban canopy parametrisation TERRA_URB, we simulated a case study for the Rhine-Main metropolitan region in Germany, highlighting mutual unwanted relationships in modern city planning. Hence, we oppose the so-called compact city approach to an urban greening scenario with regard to the potential for both heat island mitigation and air quality.</p>

scholarly journals Role of sustainomics and external climate forcing mechanism in biodiversity extinction : An overview

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 223-226
Author(s):  
Neerja Upadhyaya ◽  
Ruchi Jain ◽  
R. Upadhyaya
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Fossil Fuel ◽  
Wide Distribution ◽  
Complex Problem ◽  
Climate Forcing ◽  
Sensitive Issue ◽  
The Government ◽  
Social Scientific ◽  
Living Organisms

Over millions of years, physiology and anatomy of the living organisms has been changed due to internal climate forcing mechanism. This has influenced the world wide distribution of species. External climate forcing mechanism has caused rapid rise in earth’s temperature and it is expected to rise by 2-4 °C by the end of the century. It has now been recognised as the most complex problem of present scenario and being concerned in almost every field of science. Climate change is the most sensitive issue which is a challenge not only for the government and society but also for each individual. In the present communication impact of external climate forcing mechanism on biodiversity and its extinction is being analysed and role of sustainomics for the same is overviewed. Studies reveal that the rate of speciation of flora and fauna is not in the accordance with the rate of externally enforced climate change. Thus, the increased rate of climate change has caused catastrophic mass extinction threat for plants, animals and insects in the anthrapocene era. The pattern of extinction and threatened species are not yet known. Various solutions for the problem have been suggested by the multidisciplinary researches, rooted by the sustainomics. These suggestions include to diverge from fossil fuel, to use renewables, to make and apply rules for 3Rs etc. Only cooperative involvement of social, scientific and industrial bodies may resolve the problem.

“Every Act of Preservation is an Act of Creation”: Paul Schrader’s Eco-theology in First Reformed

2020 ◽  
pp. 171-188
Author(s):  
Tatiana Prorokova
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
The Other ◽  
Complex Relationship ◽  
Health Issues ◽  
Current State ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Living Organisms ◽  
The One

This chapter scrutinizes the complex relationship between climate change and theology, as represented in First Reformed, as well as Paul Schrader’s understanding of humanity’s major problems today. Analyzing the issue of ecological decline through the prism of religion, Schrader outlines the ideology that presumably might help humanity survive at the age of global warming. Through the complex discussions of such issues as despair, anxiety, and hope, Schrader deduces the formula of survival in which preservation is the key component. Equating humans to God, Schrader, on the one hand, censures those actions that led to progress but destroyed the environment, yet, on the other hand, he foregrounds the fact that humans can also save the planet now. Schrader portrays both humans and Earth as living organisms created by God. He draws explicit parallels between the current state of our planet and the problems that we experience – from political ones, including war, to more personal ones like health issues.

7. Volcanoes, climate, and the biosphere

2020 ◽  
pp. 100-112
Author(s):  
Michael J. Branney ◽  
Jan Zalasiewicz
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Historical Record ◽  
Global Cooling ◽  
Living Organisms ◽  
Local Weather

‘Volcanoes, climate, and the biosphere’ explores how volcanism has perturbed both climate and the complement of living organisms on Earth, both locally and globally. Volcanic outbursts, depending on their nature and scale, may cause global warming or global cooling. In the historical record, even geologically modest eruptions have had dramatic repercussions. Volcanoes can affect local weather. It is possible that climate change can, in turn, affect volcanism.

scholarly journals Study of Social Vulnerability of Climate Change at the Mountain Ecosystem

2018 ◽  
Vol 73 ◽  
pp. 02023
Author(s):  
Muhammad Rifqi Maulana ◽  
Denny Nugroho Sugianto
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Social Vulnerability ◽  
Settlement Patterns ◽  
Forest Cover ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Mountain Ecosystem ◽  
The World ◽  
Main Factors ◽  
Social Measurement ◽  
The Impact

Climate change is a global phenomenon, where the impact will be experienced by all parts of the world. One of the areas studied was Indonesia. Climate change in Indonesia has the direct and indirect effect on aspects of human life. Climate change can cause ecosystem disturbances. One of which is a mountainous ecosystem on Mount Rinjani, Lombok Island. The mountain ecosystem is very similar to the climate in Indonesia, this will have a special impact on the agricultural sectors. Therefore it is necessary to know the level in their environment. This paper will discuss social measurement parameters and their impact on climate in mountain ecosystems. The main factors are ecosystems (control environment, settlement patterns), ecology (forest cover, cliff conditions) and economy (livelihood & income / natural resources).

EU foreign policy fragmentation will increase

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Southern Europe ◽  
Predominant Role ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Carbon Neutrality ◽  
Eu Foreign Policy ◽  
Competition Rules ◽  
National Champions ◽  
The Eu

Subject Structural challenges to EU foreign policy. Significance The EU lacks a consolidated foreign policy: member states play a predominant role in external affairs. However, given such domestic challenges as political fragmentation, adverse demographic change and rising populism, national foreign policy faces a future of more volatility and uncertainty. This could increase the need to bolster the EU’s foreign policy powers. Impacts Positions on Russian sanctions and the Iran nuclear deal show the Council able to form a consensus on some important external issues. Germany and France will push for changed EU competition rules to allow ‘national champions’ to emerge against Chinese and US competitors. Regional neighbours in Northern and Southern Europe may deepen inter-governmentalism and cooperation, respectively. The EU could become a global trendsetter in climate change, especially if Germany and Poland agree to carbon neutrality by 2050.

scholarly journals Environmental Analysis of Toronto Neighbourhoods

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-37
Author(s):  
Lunjun Zhang ◽  
Jenny Baek ◽  
Evgeny Bogopolskiy ◽  
Justin Palombo
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Environmental Analysis ◽  
Environmental Conditions ◽  
Industrial Pollution ◽  
Open Data ◽  
Air Pollutant ◽  
Tree Cover ◽  
Environmental Condition ◽  
Main Factors ◽  
Objective Being

The increase in the industrial pollution produced by Toronto, Ontario is negatively impacting the city’s environmental conditions. Although the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change has attempted to improve environment, efforts require continual re-focusing to remain effective. After research and discussion, four main factors that can affect the environment were identified: tree cover, pollutants released to air, pollutant carcinogenic Toxic Equivalency Potentials (TEP) score, and pollutant non-carcinogenic TEP score. A program which outputs a list of neighbourhoods in dire environmental condition was designed based on those four main factors and general analysis. This program uses an input of several datasets from the Open Data Toronto database. Possible solutions to pollution and areas of environmental improvement are ultimately suggested, with the objective being to raise environmental awareness.

scholarly journals Modeling Systemic Colorimetric Parameters as a Tool for Processing Images of Clumps of Toxic Cyanobacteria Targeted at Their Boundaries Detection

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu. G. Bespalov ◽  
K. V. Nosov ◽  
P. S. Kabalyants
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Human Impact ◽  
Global Climate Change ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Water Area ◽  
Remote Detection ◽  
Dynamical Modeling ◽  
Toxic Cyanobacteria ◽  
Living Organisms

AbstractGlobal climate change, along with other large-scale consequences of human impact upon the nature, increases the risk of biosafety threats associated with the disturbance of stability of communities of living organisms. In this regard, the topicality of the challenge of developing methods for monitoring and correcting homeostasis mechanisms that can support this stability is a problem of premium importance.The work aims at investigation of techniques of remote detection of toxic cyanobacteria clumps in water area, with the use of dynamical modeling.

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