Agroecosystem energy, ecological human imprint and economic sustainability: Analysis and impacts

2021 ◽  
pp. 147-177
Author(s):  
Safwat H. Shakir Hanna ◽  
Gian Paolo Cesaretti

Agroecosystem energy is an essential part of the natural resources available to humans for use and the continuation of Earth's life cycle. Without energy, life on this Earth will stop, and the drivers of all ecological life cycles will not be able to continue function. Energy is an essential factor that makes the working process of human survivability possible. According to World Population Clock, the current status of human population growth is in an alarming situation (i.e., 7.81 billion people and continues to increase) [World Population Clock 2020 Accessed September 20, 2020][ World Population Clock, 2020). Therefore, the ecological human imprint will impact all Earth's natural resources, in the forms of more consumptions and demands that will have impacts on the global social and economic issues globally. Sustainability will be accomplished if we live within the concept of Nature, controlling our human population growth to reduce the impacts on natural resources' demands. In this respect, sustainability will not be achieved by economic growth alone; instead, the biosphere natural resources must replenish it and allow the natural resources to regenerate itself to support the growing human population. The present paper will assess the agroecosystem energy continuing ongoing demands and availability concerning human population growth by modeling different scenarios. According to our model, the human population growth will reach 10 billion people or more by the year 2050 at the current trend, and we may be faced with shortening the availability of energy. It is important to stress that the energy should be replenished through non-tradition energy supply, and we have to concentrate on renewable energy, which we can develop to the extent of harvesting this energy in efficient ways. An example of the needs of energy in the agroecosystem is to calculate how much enough the Earth has to support the human beings. In this regard, if each human being is in need of 2000 calories/per day on average, this means that globally the Earth has to produce more than 5694 trillion calories per year. The question is whether the Earth can create these calories to support 7.81 billion people, and we need more calories when the human population grows to be more than 7.81 bil lion people. Therefore, engineering of the Earth agroecosystem should be significant, and we have to think about how we accomplish it. Additionally, we need to sustain our environment by conserving our water resources and keeping our global climate environmentally in the best condition to maintain international economic and social standards. Further, in this paper, we will discuss the impacts of changing different parameters that affect global agroecosystem energy.

Author(s):  
Keri R Stevenson

     This article approaches the science fiction series Tales of the Continuing Time from an animal studies perspective: examining Daniel Keys Moran’s future earth which uses the means of respecting other intelligent species (artificial intelligences, genetically engineered beings, and aliens) rather than enforced bans on fertility to stop human population growth. Moran’s world government, the Unification, does not enforce such bans effectively, despite taking over the Earth for this purpose. Moran’s novels offer a picture of what happens when the rhetoric around population growth, and possibly justified fear, obstructs human will and human self-restraint. Resumen      Este artículo aborda la saga de ciencia ficción Tales of the Continuing Time desde la perspectiva de los estudios de los animales. Así, se investiga la Tierra futurista de las novelas de Daniel Keys Moran, en las cuales se representa un respeto hacia otras especies inteligentes (inteligencias artificiales, seres humanos genéticamente modificados, y extraterrestres) para parar el crecimiento poblacional, en vez de narrativizar políticas de prohibición la fertilidad. El gobierno planetario de las novelas, la Unificación, no impone tales prohibiciones de manera eficaz, a pesar de tomar el control del planeta con este fin. Las novelas de Moran ofrecen una imagen de lo que ocurre cuando la retórica sobre el crecimiento poblacional y el terror posiblemente justificado obstruyen la voluntad y el autocontrol humanos.


1998 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 170
Author(s):  
Sondi Bootle

A much-heated debate has evolved over the past few decades regarding the future of human population growth and the number of humans that the planet Earth is able to sustain. Some claim that Earth has already reached its human carrying capacity, where others argue that the carrying capacity of the planet is limitless given modern technology. What is clear is that the carrying capacity of the Earth and the future of human population growth is a subject of much uncertainty.


2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 262-265
Author(s):  
Dr.Navdeep Kaur

Since its evolution environment has remained both a matter of awe and concern to man. The frontier attitude of the industrialized society towards nature has not only endangered the survival of all other life forms but also threatened the very existence of human life. The realization of such potential danger has necessitated the dissemination of knowledge and skill vis-a-vis environment protection at all stages of learning. Therefore, learners of all stages of learning need to be sensitized with a missionary zeal. This may ensure transformation of students into committed citizens for averting global environment crisis. The advancement of science and technology made the life more and more relaxed and man also became more and more ambitious. With such development, human dependence on environment increased. He consumed more resources and the effect of his activities on the environment became more and more detectable. Environment covers all the things present around the living beings and above the land, on the surface of the earth and under the earth. Environment indicates, in total, all of peripheral forces, pressures and circumstances, which affect the life, nature, behaviour, growth, development and maturation of living beings. Irrational exploitation (not utilization) of natural resources for our greed (not need) has endangered our survival, and incurred incalculable harm. Environmental Education is a science, a well-thought, permanent, lasting and integrated process of equipping learning experiences for getting awareness, knowledge, understanding, skills, values, technical expertise and involvement of learners with desirable attitudinal changes about their relationship with their natural and biophysical environment. Environmental Education is an organized effort to educate the masses about environment, its functions, need, importance, and especially how human beings can manage their behaviour in order to live in a sustainable manner.  The term 'environmental awareness' refers to creating general awareness of environmental issues, their causes by bringing about changes in perception, attitude, values and necessary skills to solve environment related problems. Moreover, it is the first step leading to the formation of responsible environmental behaviour (Stern, 2000). With the ever increasing development by modern man, large scale degradation of natural resources have been occurred, the public has to be educated about the fact that if we are degrading our environment we are actually harming ourselves. To encourage meaningful public participation and environment, it is necessary to create awareness about environment pollution and related adverse effects. This is the crucial time that environmental awareness and environmental sensitivity should be cultivated among the masses particularly among youths. For the awareness of society it is essential to work at a gross root level. So the whole society can work to save the environment.


2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Brandt ◽  
Kjeld Rasmussen ◽  
Josep Peñuelas ◽  
Feng Tian ◽  
Guy Schurgers ◽  
...  

2015 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 21-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pramila Bakhati

Human beings are considered as the most intellectual living beings in this Universe because they are able to cope with all the natural resources for their personal needs and preserving the things as well. Due to the growing population and immense using of resources, the things which we get from the nature are being destroyed by using in improper way. Our common home: the Earth is now in crisis as a result of limited awareness, egotism and understanding about the real values of nature and natural resources. In this problematic situation, Sustainable Development (SD) is emerged as a window of hope and later Education for Sustainable Developed (ESD) is appeared to promote the SD. However, if the knowledge is not transformed into behavior and practical life, the knowledge will be nothing or the meaningless.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/jtd.v1i0.13086 Journal of Training and Development Vol.1 2015: 21-26


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