Ecology and its problems

The Problems of Ecology, Protection of the Environment

2011-04-09T07:57:00.000-07:00

Does all of population- nature, animals, birds, fish, and insects live happy and healthy lives in our common "home" nowadays? Unfortunately not. Since ancient times nature has served man, giving him everything he needs: air to breathe, food to eat, water to drink, wood for buildings and fuel for heating his home. For thousands of years people lived in harmony with the environment and it seemed to them that the resources of Nature had no
end or limit. The 20th century is known to be the century of scientific and technological progress. The achievements of mankind in mechanization and automation of industrial processes, in chemical industry and conquering outer space, in the creation of atomic power stations and ships are amazing. With the industrial revolution, our negative influence on Nature began to increase. This progress gave birth to a very serious
problem: the poisoning of our planet, its land, its air and water. Large cities with thousands of steaming, polluting planets and factories can be found nowadays all over the world. The by-products of their activity affect all
living beings. Much is spoken now about acid rain, global warming and ozone depletion caused by tons of harmful substances emitted by industrial enterprises.

Every year the atmosphere is polluted by about 1000 tons of industrial dust and other harmful substances. Big cities suffer from smog. Transportation is one of the main offenders in poisoning the environment. Cars with their engines have become the main source of pollution in industrial countries. Vast forests are cut down in Africa, South America and Asia for the needs of industries in Europe and the USA. The loss of the forests upsets the world's oxygen balance. As a result, some species of animals, birds, fish and plants have disappeared andcontinue disappearing. Many of them are on the brink of extinction, many have been written down into the "Red Book of Nature". People continue to kill animals to wear fur coats. We kill many animals just for their fur. Some of these animals, such as the fox, are in danger of extinction. Every hour some kinds of animals and plants die. Rivers and lakes dry up. One of the most recent examples is the Aral Sea, which has become much smaller due to man's activity. The pollution of the air and the world's oceans and the thinning of the ozone layer are other problems arising from man's careless attitude towards ecology. The protection of the environment is a universal concern. Active measures should be taken to create an international system of ecological security. Some progress has been made in this direction. 159 countries, all members of the United Nations Organization, have set up environmental protection agencies. A lot of conferences have been held by these agencies to discuss ecological problems, some of which are of extreme urgency.

The EARTH is our HOME. The world around us is wonderful. Our aim is to make it more beautiful and to preserve it for ourselves and for future generations.

The Apple app ecology gets some greased wheels

2011-04-09T06:56:00.000-07:00

Ever since the launch of the App Store in 2008, developers have been looking for ways to bring some of the cool features they implemented for the iPhone back to the Mac. Then, with the 2010 launch of the Mac App Store, a whole new group of developers began looking for ways to port their iOS apps to the Mac for the first time. Now, two prolific developers have teamed up to create Chameleon, an open source project that aims to make it simpler to bring iOS work over to the Mac.
Pull back the curtain on the Chameleon Project and you’ll find developers Sean Heber and Craig Hockenberry, both of Iconfactory fame. The two say their motivation for creating Chameleon was the latest version of Twitterrific for the Mac, which ended up bringing over many of the popular features from Twitterrific for iOS. According to the project page, Iconfactory faced only being able to use 25 percent of its code from the iOS version on the Mac, but was able to turn that into 90 percent after porting the iOS UIKit into a new framework on the Mac. That new framework is Chameleon.

One of the great innovations of the Apple ecosystem is that iOS developers have an ability to relatively easily move their apps from mobile devices to desktop ones. Perhaps a month worth of work.

Now we see some developers that are working to make it even easier. Chameleon may actually be able to just be dropped into the iOS app in order to permit the proper shift from a touch-based to a mouse-based system.

They recognized that Apple has other needs and purposes than to develop this themselves so this Open Source project filled the gap.

It would be nice if Apple helped support the effort. It’ll only make its efforts more successful, creating an even stronger ecosystem for developers. Create something for the iOS app economy and then, once it has the buzz and interest, move it to the desktop, where a premium can still be asked.

Beauty of Nature

2010-11-13T09:11:00.000-08:00

People, look at this beauty. And think before destroying them!!!

Climate change - Lots of talk, very little action

2010-11-11T05:04:00.000-08:00

Many people have already accepted the fact that climate change is the biggest environmental threat of all time but still world leaders fail to agree upon the new climate deal that would oblige countries to reduce carbon emissions. The worst possible future climate change scenario includes frequent droughts, floods, extreme weather events, major sea level rise, and hunger across the globe.

If we want to avoid such catastrophic scenario world needs to significantly reduce CO2 emissions on global level. The best thing to do so would be to burn less fossil fuels, since fossil fuels like coal and oil contribute most to the excessive levels of harmful CO2 emissions. This is easy to say but very difficult to do because world still heavily relies on fossil fuels as fossil fuels are dominant energy sources.

Many will say that the solution to reduce the dependence on fossil fuels is renewable energy but renewable energy sources like wind and solar energy have only started developing, and they will need at least couple of decades before being able to compete with fossil fuels. We must not also forget the fact that fossil fuel lobbies are extremely powerful, and they are anything but reluctant to use their political influence to get major political decisions going their way.

Going green for politics is still more connected with the color of the money then helping our environment, and for many world's leaders ecology still has a very low value.

When it comes to doing something for ecology and environment what have we seen in the last twenty years or so? Lots of talk, lots of promises, and very little if any real efforts to actually protect our environment from climate change.

Just look at the big Copenhagen failure, it is more than enough to show you what politics is all about, namely the game of different interests. Climate deal should be one of the biggest global decisions in human history but current global political climate is anything but suitable for big global decisions.

This is because each country looks at its very own political and economic interests, and this is not the surroundings needed for global agreement.

World still hasn't acknowledged how serious climate change issue is. Do world leaders really need some disaster of major proportions to start believing?

What is climate change doing to our oceans?

2010-11-11T05:02:00.001-08:00

Oceans are massively important for all life on our planet but rising greenhouse gas emission are doing great damage to them which will likely result in great damage to many marine ecosystems and breaking down the entire food chain. The worst fact is that once these changes occur they will be irreversible meaning that we could be well on the way for yet another great extinction event.

Due to the increased levels of greenhouse gases (most notably carbon dioxide) in the atmosphere our oceans are rapidly warming becoming more acidic in the process because they are absorbing much larger quantities of greenhouse gases. This has led to altered water circulations and creation of many ocean dead zones that look to be constantly expanding.

Oceans currently absorb around 30% of man-made carbon emissions but further strengthening of climate change impact will in years to come likely significantly disrupt this ability of theirs.

For many thousands of years climate on our planet was pretty much stable but in the last 100 years or so man-made greenhouse gas emissions have changed this stability forcing everything on this planet to adapt to these rapid changes. We still do not know how will oceans cope with this need for rapid changes but first signs are not very good (ocean dead zones, ocean acidification, huge damage to marine ecosystems).

Marine scientist John F. Bruno at the University of North Carolina recently said that "we are becoming increasingly certain that the world's marine ecosystems are approaching tipping points and these tipping points are where change accelerates and causes unrelated impacts on other systems".

It is estimated that today more than 3 billion people depend upon the ocean for their primary source of food, and by the year 2050 this number could even reach the 10 billion mark.

It is of vital importance that world responds to these problems and does everything what it takes to protect our oceans. We need our oceans much more than they need us because without the continuation of services they provide it will be very difficult to survive.

Will world be able to curb carbon emissions?

2010-11-11T05:01:00.003-08:00

The only logical solution against climate change is to curb carbon emissions on global level, and this means that world needs to cut dependence on fossil fuels, and use clean energy to satisfy its ever-growing energy needs. China, the world fastest developing economy, has recently overtook US and became the world's biggest carbon emitter, and therefore a lot will depend upon China's ability to curb carbon emissions in years to come.

Last November China made a promise to cut its carbon dioxide emissions per unit of gross domestic product by 40 to 45 percent by 2020 compared with the level from 2005, and it is good to know that China really wants to make this happen. According to the China's Minister of Environmental Protection, Zhou Shengxian, "the old path of economic growth based on environmental pollution implemented in developed countries over the past 300 years is not feasible in China, and China can not afford the losses brought by this development mode".

China still heavily relies on coal and other fossil fuels but renewable energy is also becoming increasingly important. China is already world's largest manufacturer of solar panels as well as wind turbines, and continues to heavily invest in clean energy, energy efficiency, and other ecological solutions to curb carbon emissions.

China's government is really trying to maximally stimulate the development of clean and low-carbon energies, including hydroelectric, nuclear, wind and solar power. China's current clean energy goal is to get 15 percent of power from non-fossil sources by 2020, and if China continue this current path, it will make it happen.

It has to be said that China is not the only country that needs to work on ways to reduce carbon emissions, United States must do the same. U.S. is the country that mainly contributed to climate change problem after being world's biggest CO2 polluter for so many years, and thus should lead the way when it comes to solving climate change issue.

Climate change is global issue, and requires global efforts that should result in the form of new climate deal. Copenhagen infamously failed, will it be better luck next time?

Climate change issue shows how little we care about our planet

2010-11-11T05:01:00.001-08:00

If there's one thing that clearly shows our lack of care and love for our planet then this is no doubt climate change issue. Despite the scientific warnings that climate change impact is approaching a tipping point where changes will become irreversible (eventually leading to disaster of gigantic proportions) world is still nowhere near agreeing on new climate deal, and world leaders are still more worried about industry and finance than our planet's health.

The latest reports suggest that political games and individual interests are still too big obstacle for one major global agreement such as new climate deal. Every country looks how to protect its own interests, and all of them seem to be blind when looking at the big picture. In these circumstances new (effective) climate deal is impossible, and Copenhagen may not turn to be the last huge blow when it comes to climate change deal like many environmentalists hoped it would be.

As long as there is such a discrepancy between agreements made by world leaders for reductions in emissions by 2050 needed for the world to be on a 2°C path and the comparatively weak targets pledged for 2020 we can forget about the effectiveness of new climate deal. The scientists have calculated that is we continue this current path we can expect a temperature increase of of 3.5°C by the end of this century, and such increase would cause a real disaster in many parts of our planet.

What can we expect from the next round of climate talks in Bonn? Given the current political situation we might as well forget some meaningful action on global level. The most recent political analysis suggests that leading politicians still believe that costs of significantly cutting emissions would hurt our industries too much. In other words world leaders still prefer to sacrifice our planet's health to keep industry happy. In world where everything is measured through money this really doesn't come as a big surprise. It just shows one sad reality we live in.

Is climate change really inevitable?

2010-11-11T05:00:00.001-08:00

Climate change is the most talked about ecological issue in the last decade. Many scientists agree that climate change is inevitable, and that we are no longer able to stop global warming. The only thing we could do is to adapt, and to make sure we do not make things even worse. The future outlook doesn't look good, and scientists predict floods, droughts, rising sea levels, and extinction of many animals as the worst climate change consequences.

Many scientists also agree that our only chance to prevent the worst possible climate change scenario is to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions on global level. This will however be very hard to achieve because neither Kyoto nor Copenhagen were able to unite global political will in form of legally binding international climate deal.

Our industries and economies are based on fossil fuels, and fossil fuel burning is the main source of carbon emissions on our planet. In order to cut our dependence on fossil fuels we would need a quick development of clean, renewable energy sources but this sadly doesn't look like happening any time soon.

Will climate change leave us enough time for transition to renewable energy?

Difficult to tell, but if temperatures continue current warming trend at one time we will pass the point of no return, and we will not be able to prevent the worst of climate change. Many scientists are convinced that if we fail to significantly reduce emissions in the next few decades, we will see this point of no return very soon, even before the end of this century.

World leaders still fail to find a mutual language when discussing climate change issue, and each country wants to promote its own interests before and against the global interests. In such atmosphere new climate change deal is impossible and this was clearly shown last year in Copenhagen.

The stakes are really high, and yet the politicians continue to gamble with our planet's health like this is some stock on the market. This needs to change very soon. Or else...

Why are forests and rainforests so important to humanity?

2010-11-11T03:43:00.000-08:00

Forests and rainforests around the world are still disappearing at an alarming rate, and in general very little has been done to prevent deforestation in developing countries. World seems to be constantly forgetting how important forests and rainforests really are, and so rapid deforestation continues in many parts of the world.

Many people are not aware that forests play extremely important role in regulating climate, and because of their carbon-sinking ability they act as natural weapon against climate change. Currently, rainforests absorb around 20 percent of the total CO2 emissions every year, but sadly heavy deforestation is also releasing an extra 17 percent of CO2 emissions each year. Deforestation has really become large source of CO2 emissions, in fact it is the third biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions so it is really no wonder that many environmentalists describe deforestation as "one of the biggest threat to the global climate".

Deforestation is worst in Africa, Amazon, and Indonesia. For instance if current rates of deforestation are about to continue in Amazon in years to come, more than half of the Amazon rainforest will be lost in the next 25 years. The last thing world needs in fight against climate change is deforestation, what we really need is reforestation, and rich countries should really ensure funds for reforestation in poor countries.

Deforestation is taking heavy toll in Amazon rainforest. If current rates of deforestation continue in less than 25 years more than half of the Amazon rainforest will disappear.

Global climate deal looks to be couple of months away but still there are not enough talks about rainforests and forests protection. CO2 emissions that origin from deforestation are not negligent and should be really treated the same as industrial CO2 emissions. The solution for climate change is not only clean energy sector but also to stop deforestation and ensure funds for reforestation. Let me remind you that forests are not only nature's weapon against climate change, they also store water, regulate rainfall and not to mention how they provide a home to over half of the planet’s biodiversity.

By destroying rainforests and forests we are really heading towards one very bleak future - future in which humanity could pay extremely high price for not caring enough for our planet. The only question that remains to be answered is "how much of our abuse can our planet still take?"

Arctic warming and increased shipping

2010-11-11T03:42:00.000-08:00

If Arctic continues to warm at current rate this will lead to further decline of Arctic summer sea ice. Arctic ice melting will not only lead to global sea level rise, and less habitats for polar bears but will also open the door for increased ship traffic which will likely accelerate climate change effect.

The increased Arctic ship traffic will not only mean more greenhouse gases in the atmosphere but will also bring with it air pollution in form of engine exhaust particles which could increase warming in this part of the world by some 17-78 percent.

James J. Corbett, professor of marine science and policy at UD said that "One of the most potent 'short-lived climate forcers' in diesel emissions is black carbon, or soot, and ships operating in or near the Arctic use advanced diesel engines that release black carbon into one of the most sensitive regions for climate change."

These tiny air pollutants are produced by ships as the result of incomplete burning of marine fuel. Once released, these particles act like heaters because they absorb sunlight, both directly from the sun, and reflected from the surface of snow and ice.

In order to give more clearer image on the potential impact of black carbon and other ship pollutants on climate the scientists produced high-resolution (5-kilometer-by-5-kilometer) scenarios that not only account for growth in shipping in the region through 2050, but also outline potential new Arctic shipping routes.

The scientists found that:

* Global warming potential in 2030 in the high-growth scenario suggests that short-lived forcing of around 4.5 gigatons of black carbon from Arctic shipping may increase the global warming potential due to ships' carbon dioxide emissions (around 42,000 gigagrams) by some 17-78 percent.

* Ship traffic diverting from current routes to new routes through the Arctic is projected to reach 2 percent of global traffic by 2030 and 5 percent in 2050.

* A Northwest Passage and Northeast Passage through the Arctic Ocean would provide a distance savings of about 25 percent and 50 percent, respectively, with coincident time and fuel savings. However, the scientists said that tradeoffs from the short-lived climate forcing impacts must be studied.

* With controls, the amount of Arctic black carbon from shipping can be reduced in the near term and held nearly constant through 2050.

How can we help our planet?

2010-11-06T04:53:00.001-07:00

Many scientists agree that from environmental point of view our planet is in big trouble because of many ecological problems that now look much bigger than ever before. If you ask average person what is the biggest environmental threat we are facing today it is very likely that this person will say climate change. Climate change problem looks to be indeed the biggest ecological problem because it presents great threat to our way of life. Majority agrees that if we don't do something about it our future generations will suffer because we fail to act. In this article I will leave beside the question whether we are really responsible for climate change or would climate change happen in any scenario, the main thing is that climate change is happening, and we simply have to do something to tackle it. Science is telling us that there are too much greenhouse gases in the atmosphere that are making greenhouse effect much more powerful, which in the end results in increased average temperature on our planet and causes climate to change. If we accept this fact then we definitely have to ensure that we do not add even more impact to greenhouse effect by further emitting large CO2 emissions into the atmosphere since this could lead to a total environmental disaster in form of floods, hurricanes, droughts, and even some new diseases.

Oil spills are great threat to animals

2010-11-06T04:52:00.001-07:00

Many of you know that oil spills are extremely dangerous for wildlife. The most devastating oil spill still remains Exxon Valdez oil spill with huge number of animals dying because of it. Exxon Valdez oil spill is responsible for deaths of thousands of animals,the best estimates include number of 250,000 to as many as 500,000 seabirds, at least 1,000 sea otters, approximately 12 river otters, 300 harbor seals, 250 bald eagles, and 22 orcas, as well as the destruction of billions of salmon and herring eggs.

The latest oil spill could also cause big problems for animals living in Australian waters. Accident on a rig in the Timor Sea has caused oil spill and oil is flowing from the West Atlas platform to Australian waters for three weeks with up to 400 barrels of oil per day making their way into the Timor Sea to Australia's north. Oils slick is about 170km (100 miles) from the Australian coast posing a great threat as it continues its way towards Australia's north.

Oil is already affecting areas inhabited by dolphins and whales, and some fishermen have reported seeing endangered flatback turtles covered in oil, and many fish have been poisoned. Things are really not far away from real ecological disaster because according to latest reports at least two more weeks are needed to break the spill with chemicals. Of course many of these chemicals are also environmentally unfriendly.

Ecological issues - Is world really ready to go green?

2010-11-06T04:44:00.001-07:00

Many environmentalists believed when Obama was elected that this would be the start of the "new green revolution" where ecology would be at least equal to industry if not above. After couple of months we can clearly see that green revolution is distant future thing, and not something that miracle man Obama will achieve overnight. I said already before how Obama is first of all politician, and then everything else (including environmentalist), and politics is game of interests, and art of negotiation. Sadly these negotiations are still in favor of industry.

All you have to look at the latest Climate bill that barely passed the first hurdle, namely the House of representatives. With so many concessions to industry and still it barely passed the first hurdle. If scientific estimates of required greenhouse gas emissions cuts prove to be right than this climate bill will really be useless because it is nowhere near the required cuts, especially for short-term targets. And yet Obama celebrates this bill as the historical one. Well when you look at the traditional U.S. dependence on fossil fuels than this bill really looks monumental, because even with such small CO2 emission cuts (17 % by 2020) this still represents a move away from fossil fuels, something that was not imaginable during the Bush era. So this is definitely the step in the right direction, small step however but still in the right direction.

In reality our hopes were too high because we expected "green revolution" to happen overnight, and all the politics can offer us in this time are grounds to build on. Are these grounds strong enough it still remains to be seen, and Copenhagen deal later this year could give us a quick action to this interesting question. Of course we are far from the reality where politics accepted ecology as the ultimate guide for important international agreements but ecology has finally stepped out of the shadow where it was captured for so long. Of course that top spot under the light still belongs to industry and economy but at least ecology is getting some shiny rays from time to time.

What green revolution really requires is the green way of thinking and this is something that is still not possible in western society. Our civilization is too much covered in greed to accept radical changes that are needed for green revolution. Our "green way of thinking" only applies to green color of dollar. Nor grass nor forests aren't green enough in our eyes when compared to almighty dollar, and money is still the main force that rules the world.

Before the green revolution we need to create global ecological conscience and this is something that will take time. But how much time do we have with so many different ecological problems? I would say not too much, and we should really get our values straight as soon as possible. Or else? Let me just say that once we run out of time all the money in the world won't be enough to get us out of the trouble.

Endangered animals - Koalas

2010-11-06T04:42:00.000-07:00

Koalas are lovable, tree-dwelling animals that are like kangaroos national symbol of Australia. Koalas are small bear-like animals, averaging about 9kg (20lb) in weight, they have thick ash grey fur and found in Queensland, Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia. But like many other animals too, koalas are also threatened by climate change as the new study carried out by Australian scientists clearly pointed out.

Koalas' main food are eucalyptus leaves and if current climate change continues, these leaves will become inedible which could make koalas life very difficult since there wouldn't be enough food for them to survive. Koalas also receive more than 90 % of its hydration from eucalyptus leaves, since it drinks only when ill or when there's not enough moisture in leaves and eucalyptus really plays key role in their survival.

Global warming and climate change are mainly the result of excessive carbon-dioxide emissions and carbon dioxide has negative impact on eucalyptus since it reduces nitrogen and various other nutrients in eucalyptus leaves. And the shortage of this nutritions means that there is significantly less proteins in these leaves forcing koalas (as well as some other animals) to eat more nutritionally-poor eucalyptus leaves to survive.

Entire food chain of which koalas' survival depends could soon be put in jeopardy since koalas will have to eat ever-increasing quantities of eucalyptus leaves which will lead to food shortage. And there is also battle against competition since koalas aren't only animals that depend on eucalyptus. There are also some other animals like greater gliders, a large gliding possum, many different insect species, all desperately dependent on eucalyptus leaves for their food.

Tropical forest ecosystems under great threat

2010-11-06T04:40:00.001-07:00

Tropical forests are areas of the richest biodiversity on our planet, and they hold around half of all the plants and animal species on Earth. There are however many negative effects that threaten tropical forests such as climate change and deforestation. The latest scientific report from Carnegie Institution's Department of Global Ecology states that by 2100 only 18% to 45% of the plants and animals making up ecosystems in tropical forests may remain as we know them today. The others will likely perish into history books.

This research combined fresh deforestation and selective logging data with climate-change projections, and this is the first study to involve all these effects for tropical forest ecosystems.

This study could be of great help to conservationists because by pinpointing main negative impact they would be able to find the most effective solutions against it.

Greg Asner at the Carnegie Institution's Department of Global Ecology explained this by saying "For those areas of the globe projected to suffer most from climate change, land managers could focus their efforts on reducing the pressure from deforestation, thereby helping species adjust to climate change, or enhancing their ability to move in time to keep pace with it. On the flip side, regions of the world where deforestation is projected to have fewer effects from climate change could be targeted for restoration."

Climate change impact is becoming increasingly stronger, and many plant and animal species will have to adapt to survive. Failure to adapt will mean extinction, and we should at least try to create adequate conditions that would give these species decent chance to adapt and survive.

If we continue our current industrial policy that involves excessive greenhouse gas emissions conservationists will be very limited in their efforts to protect many plant and animal species from going extinct. The other big threat to tropical ecosystems is deforestation that is taking heavy toll in many areas around the globe (Africa, Indonesia, Amazon rainforest).

Tropical forest ecosystems will be mostly affected by climate change and deforestation because they are a home to so many plants and animals. The huge biodiversity loss is something that we must avoid at any price, and failure to do so could only result in one gigantic environmental disaster.

Talk is not enough to stop biodiversity loss

2010-11-06T04:36:00.001-07:00

Many countries are doing a lot of talk when it comes to stopping huge biodiversity loss but very few of them are actually doing something to preserve rich biodiversity of our planet.

The famous Nagoya protocol was signed by 190 countries, and according to this protocol these countries have committed to increase the amount of land-based protected areas and national parks from 12.5% to 17% of the Earth's surface while also expanding marine protected areas to 10%.

Agreeing the protocol is one thing but actually doing something to stop biodiversity loss is completely different thing, and many countries have yet to come up with the funds needed to manage these bigger protected areas.

Current global efforts are definitely not enough to halt biodiversity loss because there are so many different environmental problems that make conservation efforts extremely difficult such as climate change, deforestation and different forms of pollution.

Biodiversity loss is not only doing huge environmental but also huge economic damage, and world is each year losing billions of dollars because of biodiversity loss.

Many people are still blind when it comes to seeing that biodiversity is key to all life on this planet, including ours. Biodiversity is all about interconnection between people, animal and plant species, and our way of life will cease to exist if the world fails to do something to halt biodiversity loss.

World leaders must turn their promises into real action and provide funds to protect the life on Earth. This is our moral duty because our planet must be able to sustain our future generations. If we continue our ignorance towards our environment what kind of legacy will this leave to our children and grandchildren?

10 things world needs to do to tackle climate change

2010-11-04T10:41:00.001-07:00

1. World must agree on new international climate deal that would oblige countries to significant cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.

2. Rich countries should provide funds and other help for developing world to adapt to changes which climate change will bring in years to come.

3. World must significantly decrease fossil fuel consumption and create much stronger renewable energy sector.

4. World must stop deforestation of Amazon rainforest and other large rainforests because these ancient forests absorb large quantities of CO2 from the atmosphere.

5. United States and China need to find a mutual language as the two largest energy consumers in the world, in order to give the positive example to other countries.

6. The influence of fossil fuels lobbies on global politics needs to be significantly smaller to give renewable energy sector a decent chance to grow.

7. Adequate international as well as domestic renewable energy policy and legislation that would make renewable energy use more attractive.

8. Find solution to stop ocean acidification because oceans are the largest CO2 absorbers on our planet.

9. Stop the decline of many animal species by helping them adapt to climate change as much as possible.

10. World needs to develop global ecological conscience, and all countries must act united when it comes to caring for our environment, and our planet in general.

Is there something positive in today's ecology?

2010-11-04T10:36:00.000-07:00

Ecological problems on one hand are more serious than ever before, especially climate change, while on the other hand there are lot more people that realize how important ecology really is. The main problem in the whole ecology story is the fact that things always have to become serious (sometimes even critical) before we take some action. It is like we think that luxury of time is always on our side, and that all solutions can be made at the very last moment. However, it is very difficult knowing this very last moment to take action, especially if we are talking about serious ecological problems.

What ecology would really need is the appropriate action as soon we spot some ecological problem. This way we would always be sure that time is really on our side, and we would not have to rely mostly on hope and luck, like we do today. This is very easy to say but very hard to do. It is because ecology is not as important as economy, and is very much depending upon economy and current political views. Scientist can give numerous warnings, offer irrefutable proofs and we still won't get anywhere without the political support. And politics is of course all about money and profit, things that ecology isn't often related to.

So what is the positive thing in today's ecology? Positive thing is definitely that number of people that are aware of ecological problems is showing constant increase, and there is lot of media attention that helps spreading the word. The negative thing is that politics still doesn't show enough interest to help ecology. Politicians are still more primarily oriented on talking, instead of really doing something. Like some fancy words and "honest" promises can solve everything. How many time how we heard words like: "It is our duty", "We must do our best", "We need to act", and how many times have we seen some real action?

The time has come for all of us to step out of the shadows of promises and miracles, and take matter into our own hands. We know what are the problems, and we even know the solutions. So all cards are in our hands. All we have to to is play them. Is this really so difficult?

Ecological problems need to be taken seriously

2010-11-04T10:23:00.000-07:00

Ecological problems like climate change, deforestation, endangered animals, and different forms of pollution are causing great damage to our environment. Each new day means more negative reports about damage that has been done to our environment, and yet so few people take this problems seriously. Why is that? I believe this has to do with the lack of ecological conscience. In this world everything is about money and making profit, and economy doesn't seem to fit into such concept so very few people think about it.

People seem to be only thinking about damage that is done to our environment once world becomes witness to some huge environmental disaster, the fresh example to this is of course the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico that is getting lot of media attention. What is wrong with us? Do we really have to wait for worst to happen before being able to think straight? Sadly, the answer to this question may indeed be yes, and climate change definitely supports this thesis.

Imagine this, thousands of scientists across the globe have warned world leaders that they need to act immediately to stop further strengthening of climate change impact by drastically reducing carbon emissions on global level, and still there is no new climate deal.

In politics everything is about interests, money and power, and neither of the big players wants to make the exception, and show the world that global interests are more important than individual benefits. United States are afraid that they will lose their dominant position in the world as the world's top economy, China fears that new climate deal might jeopardize its tremendous economic development, and so on.

As you can see it's all about economy and industry, or to play it simple about money and power. If ecology were only half as important as economy we wouldn't be talking about climate change problem because we probably wouldn't now what that is. But world is so far from being the perfect place.

Lets get back to last year and the great recession that caused global financial crisis. What exactly happened? Politicians and world leaders were in great hurry to find the adequate solutions to stop the negative economic trend by all means possible because the almighty money was on the line.

And when they needed to do something similar to protect our planet and life of our future generations by agreeing new climate deal nothing happened. It was yet another political game of false promises that ended in one huge disappointment.

World leaders, despite their statements of how much they care for our planet and our environment, still remain blind when they have to look at the current ecological problems world is facing today. This is because they look into everything through the eyes of economy, and in this view our planet's health is nowhere to be seen.

Ecological zones of Azerbaijan

2010-10-04T07:08:00.000-07:00

Diversity of orography, soils and vegetation are characteristics of the environment of the Azerbaijan Republic. The climatic conditions of the Republic are diverse in particular the microclimates which do not require large homogeneous areas.
According to the character of orography, vegetation and topsoil, Azerbaijan is roughly divided into 5 climatic zones: the Greater Caucasus, the Lesser Caucasus, Nakhchivan, Lenkoran and Kura-Araks; each of these zones is characterized by different natural conditions, which serve as a basis for identifying the physical-geographic districts. There are 19 physical-geographic districts. The territory of Azerbaijan belongs to 2 physical-geographic countries: the Caucasus and the Front-Asian plateau. The Caucasus includes 4 regions: the south-eastern part of the Greater Caucasus, Lesser Caucasus, the Kura intermountain hollow, the Lenkoran zone. The Front-Asian plateau coveres the Middle Araks zone.
From the geological history of the Caucasus it is known that all the steppe area of Azerbaijan approximately till the second part of the Tertiary period was under the waters of a large sea.
The Greater and LesserCaucasus,which protruded from the sea, as well as the
Talysh Mountains, were covered bysubtropical vegetation, the remains of which are preserved in certain zones to this day (the Talysh region). They are evidence of a mild, warm and humid climate which dominate at that time.
With the retreat of the sea, gradually increasing areas of land appeared on the surface of the Caucasus. Upon these areas the modern climatic conditions of the central steppe region and the Nakhchivan region were formed.
While analyzing the modern state of the climatic zones it is necessary to note that anthropogenic factors play an important role in the formation of the micro-climate, relevant orography and vegetation. For the description of ecological districts it is necessary to identify the extent and duration of population pressure.
The task of this section is to analyze the state of the environment, to define priorities and the range of environmental problems. Their selection was based on two criteria:
· whether the problem creates a serious threat to human health
· whether the problem may cause irrevocable changes in ecosystems, that will result in the reduction of biodiversity and the degradation of landscapes.
Work on the assessment of the ecological situation has been carried out in the Republic with the use of the following indices: reproductive capacity (on oxygen and water), demographic capacity, power consumption level, a module of hazardous substances discharged into the atmosphere, an integrated index of the municipal construction impact on the environment.
The reproductive capacity of the Republic's territory of oxygen was determined on the basis of the biological productivity of plant ecosystems, the coefficiency of a transition from biological productivity to free oxygen.
The total oxygen production of Azerbaijan is estimated at 36.2 million tons per year without taking into consideration the oxygen production of the Caspian ecosystem. The maximum productive capacity being in the central part of the Greater Caucasus inthe Sheki-Zakatali region ( over 6 million tons), the lowest reproductivity being in Nakhchivan and the Apsheron Peninsula (0.7 and 0.8 million tons per year respectively). The reproductivity index of atmospheric oxygen as applied to specific territories varies from 1.4 in Nakhchivan and 6.6 in the Karabakh zone. Among the administrative districts the index value ranges from 0.04 in Baku city to 13.7 in Sheki district.
In terms of surface waters the reproductive capacity of the Republic's territory constitutes 7.6 billion m3. The Lenkoran and Sheki-Zakatali regions of the Republic are distinguished due to the highest reproductive capacity, which is 2.5 and 2.4 billion m3 respectively. The lowest value of reproductive capacity falls in the following regions: Araks region -7.8 million m3, Apsheron region -10.5 million m3, Mugan-Salyan region -14.6 million m3.
As one of the integral indices of population pressure on the environment, the level of total electric power consumption (for production needs) has been used, estimated as one million km2/year in the regions of the Republic, and this has enabled us to identify the following categories of the regions of the Republic:
· with a very high level of consumption (more than 350 thousand KWatt hour/year) -the Apsheron region (6.7% of the republic's territory)
· with a high level of consumption (161 thousand -350 thousand KWatt hour/year) -Ali-Bayramli, Mingachevir and Ganja regions (16.1 % of the republic's territory);
· the rest of the territory (72.2% ) belongs to regions with an average and low level of power consumption.
The amount of contaminants per km2 is shown in the module of hazardous effluents to the atmosphere. By this index, the territory of the Republic is differentiated into the following groups: slightly contaminated (18 districts), contaminated (25 districts), highly contaminated (14 districts), critically contaminated (14 districts), as well as the territories of Baku, Sumgait, Ganja, Mingachevir, Nakhchivan and others.
Proceeding from the seriousness of the ecological consequences, the problematic situations have been classified into 4 categories: very serious, serious, average and weak. Such a classification has enabled an understanding of the priorities of the ecological problems, and has also outlined the ecological districts.
According to the state of the ecological situation and the character of the landscape and climate, the territory of the Republic may be classified into the following categories:
· with the most acute ecological situation (the Apsheron Peninsula with Baku, Sumgait cities, the Kura River with Ganja, Mingachevir, Ali-Bayramli cities), where more than 70 % of the Republic's population lives
· with a serious ecological and town-planning situation (Nakhchivan and practically all of the Kura-Araks lowland) with a total population of 315 thousand people
· with individual ecological problems -the remainder of the Republic's territory.
The main sources of contamination and degradation of the natural environmental components are:
· water resources -industry , agriculture, municipal domestic sector, energy, heating, recreation;
· air basin -industry, mainly petrochemistry, motor transport, municipal-domestic sector;
· land resources -agriculture, industry, water supply system, town planning activity, transport, engineering infrastructure, recreation;
· flora and fauna -agriculture, recreation, transport, engineering infrastructure and industry.

Ecology of Azerbaijan

2010-10-04T07:03:00.000-07:00

Analysis of the environment in Azerbaijan revealed that the most acute problems are in the area of environmental preservation.
From the territorial point of view, the parameters of the distribution of the negative influence of anthropogenic processes on the environment are quite different and spread to a certain extent all over the territory of the Republic.
Almost 30% of the coastal area is exposed to contamination. More than half the rivers (50.6% ) which are more than 100 km in length are considered to be contaminated. All the lakes of the low-lying parts of the Republic are exposed to the changes of the thermal, biological and chemical regimes. The lakes of the Apsheron Peninsula and the Kura Araks Lowland with a total area of more than 200 km2 are in a critical state.
Baku, Sumgait and Ganja are on the top of the list of the cities with a high level of environmental contamination. In these cities, the contamination level according to the amount of different contaminants is several times higher than the average level in the Republic. More than 60% of the Republic's territory is already exposed to erosion processes of various intensity, including 16% being strongly-eroded, 14.8% being averagely-eroded and 31.2% being slightly eroded. Up to 80% of the mountainous area and more than 45% of agricultural lands are exposed to erosion. The area of salinized lands allover the Republic is almost 1.5 million hectares or 50% of all agricultural lands. The area of technogenically damaged and contaminated regions constitutes almost 25 thousand hectares.
Among the most acute and typical problems relating to the protection of flora are: an extremely high (83.8%) share of woodless territories, pollution of forests by industrial waste (12 thousand hectares), cattle pasture (15.5 thousand hectares) and recreation activities (about 2 thousand hectares).
The strongest anthropogenic impact on forests is the felling of timber for fuel, which has become especially acute during the last years due to a rapid decrease in the natural gas supply and the lack of other types of fuel (bituminous coal, kerosene and others). Practically more than 65% of the population of the Republic suffers from a lack of fuel, and due to this, the use of timber for heating living spaces has increased 3-4 times, mainly using local resources. There has been depletion in the forest berry fields, mushroom areas and medicinal flora. Due to military hostilities and the presence of more than 1 million refugees resulting in demographic redistribution, there has been a sharp increase in population pressure on the central regions. Growth in the number of agricultural animals displaced from the territories under occupation is area threat, which may cause over-grazing, and a depletion of the main plain pastures of the Republic. The situation with fauna is in close correlation with flora. With the reduction of habitat areas and an increase in anthropogenic pressure, the abundance and variety of fauna is reduced. The list of rare and endangered species of fauna and flora to be included in the "Red Book" has been considerably extended.

The Beauty Of The Animal World

2010-10-04T06:28:00.000-07:00

Is ecology less important than industry?

2010-10-04T06:02:00.001-07:00

It shouldn't be but it is. Money is more important than environment and industry is more important than ecology? Why is that? Well it has a lot to do with our system of values where materialism rules. Money does not only make monkey dance it also makes the difference between important and less important. Money and our own greed have pushed ecology on sidelines leaving only few idealists to fight for "green cause". The rest of the pack is more interested in getting rich because that's the "right style of life".

Instead of teaching our children to respect our planet, and care for every living creature on Earth we really teach them how to become greedy, pointing the value of money above anything else. We really live in illusion that our planet can take care of itself no matter what we done to him but this is sadly not the true. Yes our planet is capable to defend itself but only up to a certain point because the environmental mess we have created over the years is simply too big. Is this stopping us from creating even bigger damage? Of course not.

So what if there are less and less available water resources across the world. So what if climate change will cause extreme weather events in years to come. So what if we chop down our forests. So what if our air, rivers and oceans are polluted. Does these all really belongs to "so what" category? Most of you would probably answer no it doesn't but what would happened if big bucks were at stake in the whole story? Would you still think how ecology and environment is much more important than money if for instance someone offers you hefty sum just to keep quiet about ecology? Or would your lips be sealed for all times?

This is really the biggest problem in this whole ecology/industry story. The problem of wrong values or to put it more precise the problem that the wrong values like money have become the right values. Industry is only one form of money so question ecology vs industry is really ecology vs money. And in this game, with our current values there can be only one winner- money.

Can this state of mind change in years to come. Yes it can but this won't be easy. Changing the values of one entire society is never easy to do and it usually takes a lot of time. But how much time do we still have to make necessary changes? Not much if you ask me. And the more we wait the worse it will be, and we may even reach the point of no return and enter the worst possible scenario. The one of total environmental disaster.

Do we really have to see the worst to know what our priorities are? If this is the true then we really haven't evolved much since the time we used to live in caves. What has really happened with moral responsibility of civilized society?

Interesting facts about ecology

2010-10-04T05:59:00.000-07:00

Ecology's main preoccupation is to study the interactions between organisms and the environment they live in, meaning that ecology is also the study of ecosystems.

Ecology as the sole study derived from the natural sciences at the end of the 19th century.

Since ecology mostly track changes in ecosystems, it often needs quite of time to reach certain conclusion because serious changes in ecosystems can be seen only after longer period of observation and studying.

Ecology is interested in both biotic as well as abiotic components of certain ecosystem, as well as the connection and interaction between these two elements.

Since the time of Darwin ecology and evolution are considered sister disciplines. The ecologists study the abiotic and biotic factors that influence the evolutionary process.

Environment is key structure in all ecological studies. Ecology is basically top environmental science, and the environment is dynamically interlinked with ecology on every possible level.

Ecology is the vital science that explains to us how the organisms on Earth interact, behave, and change through time.

Ecology studies not only present ecosystems but also includes past data which helps make future predictions about different ecosystems on our planet.

Ecology doesn't have easy job in getting the answers since organisms on our planet interact with each other in numerous, complex ways. This is why ecology often needs long time for valid scientific conclusions.

Biology is more general science when compared to ecology, biology studies generally all life on Earth while ecology is more specific study that studies relationships within any given ecosystem.

Since ecosystems are constantly changing ecology needs to grow as the science and adapt to these changes in ecosystems all the time. Without adapting ecology wouldn't be able to see many changes in ecosystems, and many processes couldn't be understand.

Is climate change really inevitable?

2010-10-04T05:56:00.000-07:00