scholarly journals Genetic Engineering in the Twenty-First Century: Genetically modified organisms

2021 ◽  
pp. 073-075
Author(s):  
Quintyn Conrad B
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Engineering ◽  
Natural Environment ◽  
Genetically Modified Organisms ◽  
Genetically Modified ◽  
First Century ◽  
Long Term Effects ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
Clear Idea

In agriculture, animals and plants are engineered to produce pharmaceuticals, and crops are modified to be nutritious, tolerant of herbicides and the natural environment, and resistant to disease. While these goals may seem practical, is it wise to modify plant systems without a clear idea of the long-term effects of genetic engineering in animals and humans? [1].

Indicating Reasons for National GM “Opt-Outs”: The Way Forward or a Dead End Street?

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 241-244 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karolina Zurek
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
European Commission ◽  
Genetically Modified Organisms ◽  
Genetically Modified ◽  
Economic Importance ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Long Term Effects ◽  
Flexible Approach ◽  
Dead End

Cautious skepticism rather than euphoric joy surrounds the activities of the European Commission developing its new – flexible – approach towards cultivation of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs). Following its announcement in the summer of 2010, new elements of the reform unravel at the beginning of 2011.GMO regulation has experienced a rather uneasy track in the European Union. The specificity of the sector, with its economic importance, its social controversies as well as the high levels of uncertainty as to the long-term effects, have all contributed to various political and regulatory troubles in Europe and worldwide. After the revision of the first wave of regulation in 2001-2003, the de facto moratorium, and ensuing conflicts under the WTO adjudication, the situation seemed to be settling down.

Climate change, ‘Anthropocene unburials’ and agency on a thawing planet

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 375-393
Author(s):  
Dawn Keetley
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Nuclear Energy ◽  
Global Capitalism ◽  
First Century ◽  
Television Series ◽  
Long Term Effects ◽  
Nuclear Testing ◽  
The Us ◽  
Twenty First Century

Three narratives from different historical moments - the US film The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953), the US/Canadian film The Thaw (2009) and the first season of the British television series Fortitude (2015) - disclose shifts in the imagining of prehistoric creatures emerging from thawing ice, and all three thus intervene in evolving discourses surrounding climate change, nature and agency (both human and nonhuman). Beast was released at what many scientists have declared the very beginning of the ‘Anthropocene’ - that geological era marked by humans as primary shapers of planetary life. An iconic film of the Atomic Age, Beast features a thawed creature from Earth’s prehistory, and the fault-lines are sharply drawn between it and the humans who unknowingly unleashed it. Although the consequences of nuclear testing (along with the notion of the ‘Anthropocene’) were decades in the future, Beast imagines those consequences with startling and destructive clarity. In the twenty-first century, the long-term effects of nuclear energy, and industrial global capitalism more generally, have become strikingly evident. The thawed creatures of both Fortitude and The Thaw have neither the visibility nor the separateness of the ‘Beast’ from 1953, however. Tracing increasingly entangled notions of existence, culpability and responsibility in the Anthropocene era, these twenty-first-century creatures incubate within human hosts, becoming interwoven with the human, and thus complicate familiar notions of agency.

scholarly journals Is it Better to be Safe than Sorry? The Cartagena Protocol versus the World Trade Organisation

2005 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 427
Author(s):  
Anais Kedgley Laidlaw
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Engineering ◽  
Adverse Effects ◽  
World Trade ◽  
Genetically Modified Organisms ◽  
Genetically Modified ◽  
World Trade Organisation ◽  
First Century ◽  
Cartagena Protocol On Biosafety ◽  
Cartagena Protocol ◽  
The World

One of the most important developments of the twenty-first century has been the emergence of biotechnology and genetic engineering. In response to this development, the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety was negotiated, and entered into force in September 2003. The Cartagena Protocol sets up a regime governing the international movement of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) that aims to protect biodiversity from any adverse effects of genetically modified organisms. However, the Cartagena Protocol is not the only regime governing such movement. The World Trade Organisation (WTO) also covers the trade in GMOs, but has a different aim: to prevent limitations on such movement.  As a result it is almost inevitable that a dispute concerning the trade in GMOs will occur.  Therefore, harmonisation of the two agreements is highly desirable.  One way to achieve this, which would then avoid the need for WTO reform, would be for the Cartagena Protocol to be used by the WTO as evidence of internationally accepted standards in relation to GMOs.  However, given that the WTO would be unlikely to accept such a proposal, other solutions need to be explored.

The geography of climate migration

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-37
Author(s):  
Michał Burzyński ◽  
Frédéric Docquier ◽  
Hendrik Scheewel
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
International Migration ◽  
First Century ◽  
Long Term Effects ◽  
Mobility Data ◽  
Rural And Urban ◽  
Working Age ◽  
Internal Mobility ◽  
Almost All

Abstract In this paper, we investigate the long-term effects of climate change on the mobility of working-age people. We use a world economy model that covers almost all the countries around the world, and distinguishes between rural and urban regions as well as between flooded and unflooded areas. The model is calibrated to match international and internal mobility data by education level for the last 30 years, and is then simulated under climate change variants. We endogenize the size, dyadic, and skill structure of climate migration. When considering moderate climate scenarios, we predict mobility responses in the range of 70–108 million workers over the course of the twenty-first century. Most of these movements are local or inter-regional. South–South international migration responses are smaller, while the South–North migration response is of the “brain drain” type and induces a permanent increase in the number of foreigners in OECD countries in the range of 6–9% only. Changes in the sea level mainly translate into forced local movements. By contrast, inter-regional and international movements are sensitive to temperature-related changes in productivity. Lastly, we show that relaxing international migration restrictions may exacerbate the poverty effect of climate change at origin if policymakers are unable to select/screen individuals in extreme poverty.

The New Baloch Militancy: Drivers and Dynamics

2021 ◽  
pp. 097492842110272
Author(s):  
Shakoor Ahmad Wani
Keyword(s):  
Resource Sharing ◽  
First Century ◽  
Structural Factors ◽  
Distinctive Character ◽  
Armed Struggle ◽  
Twenty First Century

Since the early 2000, Balochistan is yet again embroiled in a cobweb of violence after a hiatus of more than two decades. The Baloch nationalist militancy began to reinvigorate after the seizure of power by General Pervez Musharraf in 1999. Musharraf marginalised the moderate Baloch nationalists and repressed dissident voices. The differences over power and resource sharing escalated quickly into a full-blown armed struggle once Musharraf used indiscriminate force to subdue opposition against his regime. This article examines the proximate and long-term structural factors that led to the resurgence of armed militancy at the turn of the twenty-first century. It analyses the new drivers and dynamics of the present conflict that make it more virulent and lend it a distinctive character.

scholarly journals The Impact of Climate Change on the Water Balance of Oil Sands Reclamation Covers and Natural Soil Profiles

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (11) ◽  
pp. 1731-1752 ◽  
Author(s):  
Md. Shahabul Alam ◽  
S. Lee Barbour ◽  
Amin Elshorbagy ◽  
Mingbin Huang
Keyword(s):  
Oil Sands ◽  
Weather Generator ◽  
First Century ◽  
Soil Profiles ◽  
Percentage Increase ◽  
Climate Data ◽  
Historical Climate ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
The Impact

Abstract The design of reclamation soil covers at oil sands mines in northern Alberta, Canada, has been conventionally based on the calibration of soil–vegetation–atmosphere transfer (SVAT) models against field monitoring observations collected over several years, followed by simulations of long-term performance using historical climate data. This paper evaluates the long-term water balances for reclamation covers on two oil sands landforms and three natural coarse-textured forest soil profiles using both historical climate data and future climate projections. Twenty-first century daily precipitation and temperature data from CanESM2 were downscaled based on three representative concentration pathways (RCPs) employing a stochastic weather generator [Long Ashton Research Station Weather Generator (LARS-WG)]. Relative humidity, wind speed, and net radiation were downscaled using the delta change method. Downscaled precipitation and estimated potential evapotranspiration were used as inputs to simulate soil water dynamics using physically based models. Probability distributions of growing season (April–October) actual evapotranspiration (AET) and net percolation (NP) for the baseline and future periods show that AET and NP at all sites are expected to increase throughout the twenty-first century regardless of RCP, time period, and soil profile. Greater increases in AET and NP are projected toward the end of the twenty-first century. The increases in future NP at the two reclamation covers are larger (as a percentage increase) than at most of the natural sites. Increases in NP will result in greater water yield to surface water and may accelerate the rate at which chemical constituents contained within mine waste are released to downstream receptors, suggesting these potential changes need to be considered in mine closure designs.

The Future of Order

2020 ◽  
pp. 228-244
Author(s):  
Kyle M. Lascurettes
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
International Relations ◽  
The United States ◽  
International Order ◽  
First Century ◽  
Relative Power ◽  
The Future ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
Near Term

Chapter 9 (“The Future of Order”) reviews the empirical findings of the book and discusses their implications for the study of international relations. It then leverages these findings to address the two most important questions for international order in the twenty-first century: In the near term, what changes to the existing liberal order will the United States advocate as it continues to decline in relative power? And in the long term, what is its projected hegemonic successor, China, likely to do with the existing order when it finds itself in a position to fundamentally recast its underlying principles?

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document