The number of ways
in which man and environment entwined are numerous. The history
of man and the development of civilization itself, in many
aspects, has been fashioned and shaped by the physical environment:
the presence (or absence) of mountains, deserts, rivers, and
oceans determine who settled where and how easily. The flow
of Europeans westward on the American continents was determined
by which mountains were easiest to cross, which soils were
most fertile, or where water was to be found. Power struggles
and wars were fought and, of course, will continue to be fought
over natural resources like gold, oil, and water.
But
man from the beginning tried to tame the environment, to control,
rather than to be controlled by our physical environment.
We dug and later drilled wells so we could survive in the
desert. We ploughed the land, so we could use it for sedentary
agriculture. We began to build dams and straighten rivers
to control flooding and provide a more secure source of water.
We cover the land with asphalts and concrete. We erected earthquake-proof
buildings and stabilized slopes. Even the laying of the roofs
changed as per the climatic equability.
And
with control come challenges. As the population grows, and
technology advances, natural resources are threatened. Water
supplies become scarce and water quality is degraded. Home
sites are frequently located in areas that are incompatible
with the environment, resulting in greater efforts to control
the land by engineering it. The ever-increasing use of fossil
fuels result in fears of climate change. New roads must be
built and new airports to accommodate increased travel. Heavy
metals from abandoned computers poison landfills.
It's
a complicated world with intricate problems. But the underlying
root of the problems is actually pretty simple. It is overpopulationan
environmental issue that isn't talked about nearly as much
as it should have been. It took all of human history up to
about 1860 AD for the world population to reach one billion.
The second billion came in about 50 years. Then it took 30
years for the third billion. The sixth billion of population
arrived in only ten years, and the seventh will come even
faster.
When
animal population increases beyond the carrying capacity of
their environment, natural controls take over, primarily in
the form of disease and starvation. Natural population controls,
such as disease, flooding, famine, earthquakes and wars, worked
for a time with people too, but tended to be harsh and frightening,
and we devote tremendous energy to conquer them. But we are
not yet successful at replacing traditional population controls
with gentler techniques like birth-control.
What
will happen when the human population irrevocably exceeds
the carrying capacity of planet earth? That's the terrifying
question that environmentalists ask themselves. And so far,
the answer is .silence.
Here
are some suggestions to begin that work:
Teach
our children to cultivate an ethical perspective towards the
environment: This means avoiding both extremes: purely
secular environmentalism or over spiritualizing that undercuts
good stewardship
Become
informed on environmental issues: A number of books and
other publications by scientists are now available. Take care
of our property, e.g., unused landscapes. These pieces of
the environment should be demonstration plots for our concern
for God's world.
Recycle:
Here is where good ecology and good economics meet.
Keeping
in view the aforementioned attributes, the present issue of
the journal has come up with new interpretations of environmental
change together with new approaches to environmental management,
leading to more integrated research agendas which encourage
interdisciplinary, interrelationships between social and natural
processes and connections between different scales of enquiry.
It brings together perspectives from a wide range of disciplines
and methodologies in both the social and natural sciences
in an effort to develop integrative knowledge about the processes
responsible for environmental change. This issue contains
six articles.
The
first article "Contaminant Source Identification Using
Dating and ANN Techniques", explains the usage of conventional
dating technique vs. advanced artificial neural networking
techniques in identifying a contaminant source. The later
technique is found to be superior in eliciting both source
strength and its explicit location in a finite difference
grid system.
The
second article "Heavy Metal Concentrations in the Soils
and Shrubs Near a Metal Processing Plant in Peninsular Malaysia",
evaluates the concentrations of selected heavy metals (zinc,
chromium and copper) in the soils and leaves of a shrub species,
Melastoma malabathricum, around a metal processing
plant of peninsular Malaysia.
The
third article "Mercury Exposure in Coastal Communities
of Kedah and Kelantan, Malaysia", examines the mercury
concentration in the hairs of two rural communities of coastal
Malaysia. The study reveals age factor and fish consumption
appeared to have significant effect on hair mercury levels.
The
fourth article "Studies on Surface Water Quality Evaluation
and Soil Nutrient Status of Bellary Nala Catchment, Belgaum",
investigates the extent of soil and water contamination in
the locality caused by the prevailing adverse factors.
The
fifth article "Study of Hydrological Characteristics
and Level of Metals Present in Four Sites of Sewage Released
into Holy River Saryu of Ayodhya-Faizabad", presents
a laboratory study carried out to understand the hydrological
characteristics and the level of metals in city sewage water
which is released into holy Saryu River through four major
discharging sites.
The
sixth article "Rainwater Chemical Characteristics for
Climate Change Studies", examines the rainwater chemical
composition at different sites in the Kadapa district of Andhra
Pradesh. The study reveals that the chemical nature of rainwater
is alkaline which may be due to excessive anthropogenic activities.
-
G S Brahma
Consulting
Editor
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