Integrating Ecosystem Management and Environmental Media for Public Policy on Public Health and Safety

Over the past three decades, the relationship between ecology and public policy has changed because of the increasing role of scientific uncertainty in environmental policy making. While earlier policy questions might have been solved simply by looking at the scientific technicalities of the issues, the increased role of scientific uncertainty in environmental policy making requires that we re-examine the methods used in decision-making. Previously, policymakers use scientific data to support their decision-making disciplinary boundaries are less useful because uncertain environmental policy problems span the natural sciences, engineering, economics, politics, and ethics. The chapter serves as a bridge integrating environmental ecosystem, media, and justice into policy for public health and safety. The chapter attempts to demonstrate the linkage between the environmental policy from a holistic perspective with the interaction of air, water, land, and human on public health and safety.

Climate Change Impact on Agriculture and Food Security

Research on the impact of climate change on agriculture and food security is important, especially in the agricultural economies, not only to know the severity of impact but also the policies to be adapted to halt climate change and the technology to be used to mitigate the impact of climate change. The study was conducted in Kapiri Mposhi district of Central Province in Zambia to find out the impact of climate change on agriculture and food security. The objectives of study include to know the intensity of climate change and its impact on area under cultivation, late sowing of seed and damage of seed due to lack of water, fertilizer absorption reduction, food shortage, livestock, and productivity. The chapter also focuses on the sources of credit to the farmers.

Preparing for Refugee Exodus in Crisis

Using macro-, exo-, meso-, and micro-level framework for assessing interdependencies in crisis management system in Poland, this chapter addresses expansion of planning and preparedness to novel hazards and threats such as precipitated mass movements of populations due to environmental changes. The Ukrainian refugee crisis served as backdrop for Poland's crisis management system testing. Benefits of planning and preparedness for mass displacements highlighted (a) an emerging all-hazard approach to crisis management, (b) proactive threat identification and assessment, (c) issuance of acts, laws, and regulations based on novel threats, (d) comprehensive multi-jurisdictional exercises, and (e) increasing importance of mutual aid agreements.

Internally Displaced Persons and Emergency Management in Nigeria

Internally displaced persons (IDPs) are men, women, and children who are uprooted from their ancestral homes as victims of natural disaster or manmade occurrences for reasons often beyond their control and comprehension. The Boko-Haram insurgency in the North-East of Nigeria has caused over two million Nigerians to be internally displaced. The crisis has created management problems for the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) due to paucity of funds. Secondary data and human needs theory were used for the analysis. The incessant use of improvised electronic devices has created a security lacuna in the IDPs camps, which have become targets for terrorists. The concomitant is confidence deficit between the IDPs and NEMA resulting in accusations of neglect and corruption. The chapter concludes that the failure to manage IDPs is tantamount to human rights abuse and security lapse.

Global Natural Hazard and Disaster Vulnerability Management

This chapter examines both concept of global hazard and disaster and its management in the lights of its vulnerability. It categorized the different types of hazards and disasters and their components. From the research findings, it is observed that hazards and disaster are two sides of a coin. They occur at the interface between human systems and natural events in our physical environments. This chapter highlights that the major environmental changes driving hazards and vulnerability to disasters are climate change, land-use changes, and degradation of natural resources. After presenting a typology of disasters and their magnitude globally, management of disaster has transited from just being a “response and relief”-centric approach to a mitigation and preparedness approach.

Assessing the impact of Transportation on Climate Change

India's North-East Region has greater demand for road and personalized modes of transport powered by fossil fuels. And due to emissions, there has been evidence of climate change. It has been found that diesel cars cause greater emissions (per kilometer travelled) as compared to petrol cars; therefore, the use of diesel should be discouraged. The chapter suggests that the emissions in case of public transport passenger-km are lesser than other modes of transport. However, in the North-East Region, there is negligible share of public transport due to poor infrastructure and service facilities. Therefore, improvements should be made with regard to public transport system so that considerable number of passengers shifts to public transport modes. Further, it is inferred that use of alternate vehicle or fuel technologies like hybrid electric vehicles, biofuel, biodiesel, hydrogen fuel need to be initiated to mitigate the climate change.

Environmental Security Threats and Policy Response in the Niger Delta, Nigeria 1990-2016

In recent years, environmental security in the coastal Niger Delta has had a growing scholarly interest from divergent perspectives seeking for broader elucidation and understanding of State policy response. These security threats notably oil spill, water and land pollution, gas flaring, acid rain, mangrove deforestation, etc are linked to the Multinational Oil Corporations (MNOCs)and oil resource exploitation. These have been perverse, resulting in ecological breakdown, vulnerability, emergency and environmental insecurity challenges since at least the 1970s when oil in the region became the main stay of Nigeria's economy. This conceptual paper builds on the political ecology framework which discusses the impact of global power asymmetry on natural resource extraction and extensive body of work in the broad field of environmental security to explore salient indicators which demonstrate the evidence of environmental insecurity threats and poor State policy response and made some recommendations.

Natural Resources Management

As a result of the rapidly growing population in the last century, the pressure of people on natural resources has considerably increased. Excessive and wrong use of natural resources leads to occurrence of various human-induced disasters. Global warming, deforestation, floods, air pollution, loss of biological diversity are some of such threats that can be treated within the framework of emergency management. Minimization of human-induced disasters and prevention of such disasters can only be achieved by means of efficient and sustainable management of natural resources. In this chapter, the emphasis will be put on the definition of natural resource management that plans the sustainability of economic activities governing the relationship between humans and the use of nature, such as land use plan, water management, biological diversity and agriculture, mining, tourism, fishing, and forestry, and its importance within the context of emergency management will be discussed.

Climate Change and Sustainable Development in Nigeria

The chapter assesses the nature and effects of climate change on sustainable development in Nigeria. It observes that climate change has a multifarious effect not only on the environment but also on the socio-economic life of the people. Therefore, if sustainable development is to be realized in the country, climate change should be properly managed through extant public policies. However, if government track records on policies and program implementations is anything to go by, the future of sustainable development is gloomy. This makes an interrogation of the interface between climate change and sustainable development germane. The chapter observes that while government has shown willingness to manage climate change for the sustainability of the environment and its people, certain limitations stand on its path. These include poor policy or program implementation, inadequate funding of climate change management, poor sensitization program on environment management, among others. However, there are opportunities that can be harvested at the state and individual levels.

A Review of Psychological Resilience as a Response to Natural Hazards in Nigeria

Natural hazards are potential threats to lives, properties, and the society at large. This chapter discusses psychological resilience as a strategy in overcoming the aftermath of natural hazards, which are known as natural disasters in Nigeria. Resilience consists of individual behaviours, cognitions, actions, and attitudes that enhance personal wellbeing. The ability to exhibit resilience is important in overcoming the adverse consequences of natural hazards. A review of the concept of resilience in this chapter covers an introduction to the concept of resilience and natural hazards, cases of natural hazards in Africa and Nigeria, conceptual definition and issues relating to resilience, theoretical underpinning, recommendation, and conclusion. The various factors that are critical to the development and utilisation of psychological resilience are discussed. Relevant authorities can thus be advised on the need to set up platforms on which communities can devise methods of educating individuals on methods of developing resilience in preparation for impending natural hazards.