Potential Impacts of Environmental Pollution on the Growth and Metabolism of Medicinal Plants
Azamal Husen in Environmental Pollution and Medicinal Plants, 2022
Climate change, as defined by various environmental organizations and governmental agencies (IPCC 2007), is a measure of significant changes in climate, i.e. temperature, precipitation, or wind, over a prolonged period, for decades or even longer. Global warming refers to a rise in atmospheric temperature that can contribute to change in global climate patterns. This climate change over time may occur due to natural unpredictability or as a result of anthropogenic activities. According to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) definition, climate change is a change in climate, attributable directly or indirectly to human activity, that changes atmospheric composition. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) projected a global average temperature rise of 4.2°C towards the end of the twenty-first century.
Into the Anthropocene
Clive R. Hollin in An Introduction to Human–Animal Relationships, 2021
On a smaller scale, each individual can take steps to reduce their impact on the environment by changing the produce they buy, how often they drive their car, recycling their waste, and curtailing aeroplane travel. Pet owners can also play a role in curtailing the damage that some pets do to the environment. Woods, McDonald, and Harris (2003) conducted a UK survey of the wildlife killed by domestic cats. With a sample of 618 households containing 696 cats, they found that the cats accounted for 14,370 animals: the most common victims were 20 species of mammals (69 percent of all prey), then 44 species of wild birds (24 percent), and three species of amphibian amphibians (4 percent); other prey included reptiles, fish, and invertebrates. Assuming a UK population of 9 million cats, the 5-month period spanned by the study of an estimated 92.1 million animals – 57.4 million mammals, 27.1 million birds, 4.8 million reptiles, and amphibians and 2.8 other animals – were killed by cats. Similar concerns about the predatory behaviour of cats are evident in other countries. Woinarski et al. (2017) reviewed 93 studies and estimated that an average of 272 million birds are killed annually in natural landscapes in Australia by feral cats, increasing to 377 million birds when those killed by feral cats in modified landscapes such as rubbish dumps and by pet cats are added to the total. This figure equates to an astonishing million birds a day.
‘New’ Recombinant Ecologies and their Implications – with Insights from Britain
Kezia Barker, Robert A. Francis in Routledge Handbook of Biosecurity and Invasive Species, 2021
The case study is based largely on Britain but in a context of global environmental change. At a worldwide level, the same basic observations apply as ecologies are transformed by globalisation, human activities and environmental stresses. Displacement and extinction of island ecologies is well known throughout the world, and many areas (such as Jamaica, for example) already have systems dominated by imported species. European-style agriculture and forestry have been spread around the globe and have transformed landscapes, and increasingly the global human population lives in urban areas dominated by exotic and recombinant ecological communities. In the wider environment, removal of native vegetation, erosion of soils, pollution by fertilisers, etc. combine with species displacement and extinctions to transform the remaining ecological systems. Here, too, the future ecology seems to be increasingly a recombinant one.
Dynamics of environmental pollution, socio-economic factors, and total fertility rate in MENA, ECOWAS, and ASEAN regions
Published in Health Care for Women International, 2023
Pollution is one of the core causes of other environmental issues such as biodiversity and climate change (Uchudi, 2001). Although pollution can come in terms of air, light, thermal, noise, water, and soil pollutions with its devastating effects on the global environment. The devastating consequences could seem more prevalent in the developing and middle-income countries or regions like the Middle East and North Africa (MENA); Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), and the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) regions (Skirbekk, 2008). Eventually, such components of pollution are interlinked as one particular form of pollution influences the other. Again, a substantial degree of hazardous industrial gas and agricultural emissions such as chlorofluorocarbons, carbon monoxide, Sulfur oxide (SO2), nitrous oxide (NO2), methane (CH4) emissions as well as carbon dioxide (CO2) became more pronounced in the environment following a significant level of economic growth recorded after the World War II (Ghadar, 2006).
Facilitation of non-indigenous ascidian by marine eco-engineering interventions at an urban site
Published in Biofouling, 2023
Nina Schaefer, Francisco Sedano, Melanie J. Bishop, Kate Dunn, M. Hank Haeusler, K. Daniel Yu, Yannis Zavoleas, Katherine A. Dafforn
Differences in community structure between natural and artificial structures have been attributed to several factors, including differences in their structural complexity (hereafter referred to as ‘complexity’) and material type. Complexity refers to the different types, numbers and arrangements of structural elements in a given area (McCoy and Bell 1991, Tews et al. 2004, Tokeshi and Arakaki 2012). Biodiversity is generally posited to increase with complexity, because complexity enhances the surface area of substrate for organismal attachment, can provide protection from environmental stressors and from predation, and can enhance environmental heterogeneity and hence the range of niches species can occupy (Moreira et al. 2007, Strain et al. 2018). Artificial structures typically lack the complexity of natural rocky shores, and thus tend to be less diverse (Aguilera et al. 2014, Aguilera et al. 2022, Browne and Chapman 2014, Loke and Todd 2016, Vozzo et al. 2021). On marine substrates, complexity has been found to influence growth of biofilms (Jackson et al. 2013, Jackson et al. 2010), reduce predation upon sessile invertebrates (Strain et al. 2018) and increase cover of sessile taxa (Bradford et al. 2020, Vozzo et al. 2021).
Genes drive organisms and slippery slopes
Published in Pathogens and Global Health, 2022
David B. Resnik, Raul F. Medina, Fred Gould, George Church, Jennifer Kuzma
A key moral question here is whether – or to what extent-one should regard unspoiled nature as a valuable resource that should be preserved. This is not a new question in environmental ethics and policy. An assortment of environmental issues, including, land use, energy extraction, and agricultural and urban development, reflect a tension between preserving and exploiting nature.[87] [83–85], While the issues raised by the bioengineered world scenario are not entirely new, they do raise some novel questions about what constitutes ‘unspoiled nature’ or why we should care about it [81]. Most people regard the environment as a valuable resource because it can provide humanity with material things needed to sustain life, health, and economic prosperity, such as clean air and water, food, fuel, and so on [77]. Some also view the environment as important for non-materialistic purposes; for example, as a source of moral, aesthetic, or spiritual inspiration; as a place to meditate or relax; to commune with nature; and so on [81,86,87]. Even if genetically engineering a substantial proportion of the biosphere does not interfere with the capacity of the environment to serve as a material resource, it might interfere with the interests of those who regard it as important for non-material purposes. Respecting this viewpoint implies that there is an obligation to take appropriate steps to protect these interests.
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