scholarly journals Smart Energy Consumption Could Preserve Natural Resources

ICR Journal ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 420-422
Author(s):  
Shahino Mah Abdullah

Energy plays an important role in our lives. It comes in several forms which can be utilised to keep people warm during cold weather, provide foods, improve transportation, and increase productivity. When energy is utilised efficiently, it brings great comfort to our lives. However, energy consumption has been increasing in recent decades as the world population keeps growing. According to a United Nation (UN) report, the current world population of 7.4 billion is projected to increase by 1 billion over the next 10 years and reach 9.6 billion by 2050. Besides population, the standards of living for many people in developing countries is increasing, which in turn results in growing energy demand.

2005 ◽  
Vol 1 (1/2) ◽  
pp. 70-80
Author(s):  
R. Şeminur Topal

At the beginning of the new millennium, looking through national / international perspectives and analysing different projections and conclusions, investigation of future, interrogation of systems and ourselves will be useful. It is necessary to talk about the past and the future in a global perspective when the world population is more than 6 billion and expected to increase around another 2 billion in the next 25 years. Natural resources are limited instead of increased population in the world around. However the growth of technology and communication level, there are so many hazard factors in the life for many developing countries. Simply maintaining current levels of food availability will require rapid production increases without destroying natural resources. Having a good nutritional status for all human societies, everybody must have to think “us” as instead of “myself”. The world has expanded beyond the global village to include the global market where there is ever‐increasing mobility of capital, labour and goods, in the recent years. Globalisation is not only a question of size, but also of kind: it is inextricably linked to privatisation. It stimulated major economic restructuring in both developed and developing countries, and has greatly changed the balance of public and private sectors. Mostly agricultural production for export is seen as one of the driving forces of development. Harmonisation through the setting of international regulations and standards still needs considerable efforts. So that potential benefits and defects, the outcomes of globalisations are mixed and also demographic and production relationship correlations are changed dramatically. In the world natural food and water sources have been reduced, when population increased speedily and environments pollution has become dramatic. In spite of urbanisation the majorities are in rural areas. The information revolutions and scientific / technological challenges also created a major difference between developed and developing countries. Genetically modified organisms and foods are the most important question at this time in the world. Again the differences about sharing chance of the sources between rich and poor countries are another important inequity. “Food insecurity” means that “lacking access to sufficient amounts of safe and nutritious food and are therefore not consuming enough for an active and healthy life”. There are so many reasons for the unavailability of food, inadequate purchasing power or inappropriate utilisation at household level. The linkages between demographic motivations, poverty and environmental degradation, their relationships and implications according to the development programs and planning will try to be discussed in this article. Nutritional and energy requirements, some nutritional deficiencies, reflections on the commercial life, food security programs, and better information systems on “Food Insecurity and Vulnerability (FIVIMS)”, “National Nutrition Country Profiles (NFC)”, farseeing of UN's, Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) and World Trade Organisation (WTO) will be summarised. Also it is planned to make small statistical tour on the national and international past, status, and near future on problems and expected reflections, some of the solution offers are improving strategies and increasing consciousness to consumers, developments of health ‐ agriculture — education politics will be summarised. Governmental responsibilities and financial supports will try to be discussed. Finding food, improving life, preparing a better world must be a primer responsibility for all countries, governments, sectors and for everybody in this millennium.


Author(s):  
L. M. Sintserov

The article deals with international migration during the last decades of the 20th and at the beginning of the 21st centuries and its economic-geographical analysis. The paper provides an overview of opinions about the dating of the contemporary era of global migration. It is shown that only after completion of spatial restructuring of migration processes and with the transition to sustainable growth of the share of international migrants in the world population, the modern increase of migration begins. On the basis of the UN statistics the main sources of migrants to the countries of Western Europe have been determined as well as shifts in the geographical structure of migrant population of the region that have taken place in the last quarter of a century. Two migration waves directed to the core of the European region from its southern and then from the eastern periphery are determined. The transformation of the USA population structure caused by the migration inflow from Latin America and Asia is described. The ratio of the main directions of global migration is shown: South-South, South-North, etc. At the same time, it is noted that a rather limited part of international migrations is associated with the asynchrony of demographic processes in the regions of the world. The article also discusses the remittances of migrants from developing countries to their homeland, forming powerful financial flows, which are second only to foreign direct investment. They play an especially important role in the economies of developing countries. The calculations show that the contribution of international migrants to the world economy far exceeds their share in the world population.


Ultimately, the necessity to supply food, energy, habitat, infrastructure, and consumer goods for the ever-growing population is responsible for the demise of the environment. Remedial actions for pollution abatement, and further technological progress toward energy efficiency, development of new crops, and improvements in manufacturing processes may help to mitigate the severity of environmental deterioration. However, we can hardly hope for restoration of a clean environment, improvement in human health, and an end to poverty without arresting the continuous growth of the world population. According to the United Nations count, world population reached 6 billion in mid October 1999 (1). The rate of population growth and the fertility rates by continent, as well as in the United States and Canada, are presented in Table 14.1. It can be seen that the fastest population growth occurs in the poorest countries of the world. Despite the worldwide decrease in fertility rates between 1975–80 period and that of 1995–2000, the rate of population growth in most developing countries changed only slightly due to the demographic momentum, which means that because of the high fertility rates in the previous decades, the number of women of childbearing age had increased. Historically, the preference for large families in the developing nations was in part a result of either cultural or religious traditions. In some cases there were practical motivations, as children provided helping hands with farm chores and a security in old age. At present the situation is changing. A great majority of governments of the developing countries have recognized that no improvement of the living standard of their citizens will ever be possible without slowing the explosive population growth. By 1985, a total of 70 developing nations had either established national family planning programs, or provided support for such programs conducted by nongovernmental agencies; now only four of the world’s 170 countries limit access to family planning services. As result, 95% of the developing world population lives in countries supporting family planning. Consequently, the percentage of married couples using contraceptives increased from less than 10% in 1960 to 57% in 1997.


Author(s):  
Saundarjya Borbora ◽  
Mrinal Kanti Dutta

Economic development and information and communication technology (ICT) are found to move together in the present day era of globalization. ICT can contribute significantly in economic development of a region by providing adequate information at the minimum of time and cost, thereby enhancing productivity in different sectors of an economy. This fact is substantiated by several studies (Kraemer & Dedrick, 2001; Pohjola, 2001). Some country specific studies like that of Singapore (Wong, 2001) also highlighted similar results. ICT diffusion in the world has been quite rapid since the mid 1990s. While the developed countries have benefited substantially from the ICT growth, the developing countries could not reap similar benefits out of it which has resulted in emergence of a digital divide across the countries (Economist, 2000; Nkrumah, 2000; Norris, 2001). This divide is noticed not only across countries but also within a country and this is more prominent in developing economies like India. ICT diffusion is another area which needs more attention in India as it will lead to ICT access and application of ICT in real sectors to increase productivity and output. During the past one decade India has made rapid advances in ICT growth as reflected in the increase in the number of Internet connections and users. The growth of Internet connections and users in the country is shown in Table 1.


Author(s):  
Huma Lodhi

Millions of people are suffering from fatal diseases such as cancer, AIDS, and many other bacterial and viral illnesses. The key issue is now how to design lifesaving and cost-effective drugs so that the diseases can be cured and prevented. It would also enable the provision of medicines in developing countries, where approximately 80% of the world population lives. Drug design is a discipline of extreme importance in chemoinformatics. Structure-activity relationship (SAR) and quantitative SAR (QSAR) are key drug discovery tasks.


2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 29-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kim Jim F. Raborar

Abstract Development is an innate manifestation on earth. It is not even surprising that the world has developed tremendously over the past decade considering the development in the previous decades. That is, development precipitates development. Therefore, even though everybody can see what risks it brings to the earth, we cannot simply restrain it. Of course, we cannot restrain it. The bottomline is that we have no choice but to be part of the development and be one of those who assist in the ever spontaneous development by trying to minimize its unwanted effects to the planet and its inhabitantants, the humans. Even looking at the ‘development’ from one’s own microcosm, we can perceive that as we go through life and gain some of what this world can offer, we produce tons and tons of wastes. These wastes, which are naturally not part of the earth, pollute and disrupt the natural processes of the planet. It is also simple to notice that the fundamental cause of the depletion of the earth’s natural resources was definitely proportional to the increase in population and to the development itself. Here lies one of the underlying global problems at hand aside from poverty, hunger, low access to education, and other socio-anthropological issues we have, this is the issue on natural resources depletion. Even to worldleaders from well-developed countries can recognize that they will also be the ones at the receiving end of this problem. It is basic that living organisms rely on their environment or the abiotic factors, to live sustainably. Considering these problems, the United Nations, with the worldleaders as its composition, has come up with strategies that advocate development while keeping the earth’s natural resources from depletion or the earth’s natural processes from disruption. This advocacy is called Sustainable Development. Sustainable Development is the development that meets the need of the present generation without compromising the ability of the next generation to meet their own needs. It is, at its core, an advocacy for futurism and the next generation. Sustainable Development is primarily anchored with the case of the “carrying capacity” of the planet Earth. It was already implied by several natural scientists as well as social scientists that indeed the Planet Earth increasingly finds it hard to sustain the needs of the human races because of overpopulation. These things result to poverty and hunger around the world. On the otherhand, it is increasing implied that most of the Natural Resources of the planet goes to the well-developed countries, leaving the developing and underdeveloped countries with meager resources. This further increases cases of hunger and poverty. Although it is deceptive that the call for a sustainable development should take its toll on the countries with bigger economy since they consume the most and pollute the most, it is very definite that there should be a much more intensive application in developing countries since we are just about to experience what the rest of the developed countries have already experienced. More importantly, developing countries should advocate Sustainable Development since it is a common knowledge that even if they contribute least to the causes of natural resource depletion and disruption of natural processes, they are the ones who suffer most from the devastating effects of unsustainable development. As citizens of the Republic of the Philippines, we are one of those who suffer most.


Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (21) ◽  
pp. 5776
Author(s):  
Rashiqa Abdul Salam ◽  
Khuram Pervez Amber ◽  
Naeem Iqbal Ratyal ◽  
Mehboob Alam ◽  
Naveed Akram ◽  
...  

India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh (IPB) are the largest South Asian countries in terms of land area, gross domestic product (GDP), and population. The growth in these countries is impacted by inadequate renewable energy policy and implementation over the years, resulting in slow progress towards human development and economic sustainability. These developing countries are blessed with huge potential for renewable energy resources; however, they still heavily rely on fossil fuels (93%). IPB is a major contributor to the total energy consumption of the world and its most energy-intensive building sector (India 47%, Pakistan 55% and Bangladesh 55%) displays inadequate energy performance. This paper comprehensively reviews the energy mix and consumption in IPB with special emphasis on current policies and its impact on economic and human development. The main performance indicators have been critically analyzed for the period 1970–2017. The strength of this paper is a broad overview on energy and development of energy integration in major South Asian countries. Furthermore, it presents a broad deepening on the main sector of energy consumption, i.e., the building sector. The paper also particularly analyzes the existing buildings energy efficiency codes and policies, with specific long-term recommendations to improve average energy consumption per person. The study also examines the technical and regulatory barriers and recommends specific measures to adapt renewable technologies, with special attention to policies affecting energy consumption. The analysis and results are general and can be applied to other developing countries of the world.


2021 ◽  
Vol 33 (9) ◽  
pp. 1985-1999
Author(s):  
K.A.V. Miyuranga ◽  
D. Thilakarathne ◽  
Udara S.P.R. Arachchige ◽  
R.A. Jayasinghe ◽  
N.A. Weerasekara

As the world population and modernization increase, energy demand increases. One of the non-sustainable energy sources is fossil fuels. However, fossil fuel consumption raises various environmental and economic issues. Most of the studies focus on sustainable energy sources, which can replace fossil fuel dependence. Biodiesel is an alternative sustainable fuel for diesel power. Biodiesel can produce through the transesterification process. Since the catalyst plays a significant role in the biodiesel yield during a defined reaction time, the addition of a catalyst can increases the reaction rate. This article is outlined the several catalysts used by multiple researchers over the years to increase biodiesel yields.


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