scholarly journals The global environmental problem of the XXI century, new realities

2020 ◽  
Vol 208 ◽  
pp. 01019
Author(s):  
Natalya Frolova

The article analyzes the global environmental problem in its traditional aspects, such as a decrease in forest area, degradation of land resources, air pollution, as well as in its new features - a global pandemic. The article initially presents the concept of a global environmental problem from the perspective of foreign and domestic scientists, as well as international organizations. Further, the analysis of the manifestation of the global environmental problem is carried out in terms of quantitative indicators: reduction of forest area, land degradation, air pollution. The author outlines such an aspect of a global environmental problem as zoonotic infections, that is, the transfer of viruses from animals to humans. Under new conditions, the spread of viruses is accelerating, they easily overcome the species barrier, cause infection of the human body. The transmission of viruses on a global scale is becoming a new reality. At the same time, there are also “side” manifestations of the virus associated with its impact on the socio-economic development of individual countries, the impact on the policy of world economic relations. In conclusion, the author describes specific ways of solving the global environmental problem, both for individual countries and the world in general.

Author(s):  
Emmanuel Mensah Aboagye ◽  
◽  
Nana Osei Owusu ◽  

Air pollution continues to be an environmental problem that poses a lot of health risks to the young and aged. Developed countries have invested heavily to curb this environmental problem, causing severe threats to human lives, yet the results do not look convincing. In developing countries, the situation is difficult than they can imagine, resulting in governments borrowing to fight what looks like a lost battle [1-3]. The in-depth study of this environmental menace - air pollution, suggests that the government enacts stringent measures to help fight this battle. This is because air pollution has natural (volcanic eruption) and anthropogenic (human activities) causes. In December 2019, the deadly Coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak was soon declared as a global pandemic by the World Health Organisation (WHO) [4]. Majority of countries have had their share of the impact of this outbreak. Many countries resorted to city lockdown to strictly control the movement of people and economic activities as recommended by WHO.


2020 ◽  
Vol 217 ◽  
pp. 11004
Author(s):  
Galina Semenova

Air pollution is an environmental problem that is familiar to residents of absolutely all corners of the earth. It is especially acutely felt by residents of cities where enterprises of ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy, energy, chemical, petrochemical, construction, pulp and paper industries operate. In some cities, the atmosphere is also severely poisoned by vehicles and boiler houses. These are all examples of anthropogenic air pollution. The subject of the study is the emissions of carbon dioxide into the environment. The purpose of the study is to solve the problem of environmental pollution by harmful substances and preserve the ecology in the world. Methodology. The main indicators characterizing the impact on the environment - CO2 emissions in the global energy sector - have been systematized; two indicators have been identified that determine the level of atmospheric pollution. Results - the scale of the influence of atmospheric air pollution on human health and the entire ecosystem as a whole was revealed.


2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nora Amberg ◽  
Robert Magda

Abstract Our research deals with environmental pollution, sustainability, and the impacts made by international cosmetic companies on the motivation of purchasing organic cosmetics. Unfortunately, our environment is becoming more and more polluted, which affects our planet Earth on a global scale. It is everybody’s responsibility to decrease the environmental load, diminish our ecological footprint and leave a much cleaner and safer environment to the future generation in line with the principles of sustainable development. We have examined global environmental problems, the efforts made by international cosmetic companies to protect the environment and their impact on the preference, selection and purchase of environmentally friendly cosmetics. Nowadays, efforts of significant importance are prioritised that are more and more shifted to health and environmental consciousness regarding both corporate and consumer behaviour.


Environments ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 21
Author(s):  
Alfredo Ricardo Zárate Valencia ◽  
Maximino Reyes Umaña ◽  
Hilda Janet Arellano Wences ◽  
Antonio Alfonso Rodríguez Rosales ◽  
Columba Rodríguez Alviso ◽  
...  

Air pollution is a global environmental problem that affects the population. This work demonstrates the perception of air quality by the population of the urban area of the municipality of Acapulco, Guerrero, Mexico. To meet the objective, a survey of 36 questions was applied to a sample of 382 people living in the main crossing points of vehicles, where there is more traffic and more severe pollutant concentration problems. We decided to apply the grouping method within a radius of 500 m around the selected intersections, where 95% of the respondents are aware that the air they breathe has a certain degree of contamination.


Author(s):  
Marcello Vultaggio ◽  
Daniela Varrica ◽  
Maria Grazia Alaimo

At the end of 2019, the first cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) were reported in Wuhan, China. Thereafter, the number of infected people increased rapidly, and the outbreak turned into a national crisis, with infected individuals all over the country. The COVID-19 global pandemic produced extreme changes in human behavior that affected air quality. Human mobility and production activities decreased significantly, and many regions recorded significant reductions in air pollution. The goal of our investigation was to evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on the concentrations of the main air pollutants in the urban area of Palermo (Italy). In this study, the trends in the average concentrations of CO, NO2, O3, and PM10 in the air from 1 January 2020 to 31 July 2020 were compared with the corresponding average values detected at the same monitoring stations in Palermo during the previous five years (2015–2019). During the lockdown period (10 March–30 April), we observed a decrease in the concentrations of CO, NO2, and particulate matter (PM)10, calculated to be about 51%, 50%, and 45%, respectively. This confirms that air pollution in an urban area is predominantly linked to vehicular traffic.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1si) ◽  
pp. 70
Author(s):  
Lulukatin Nasikhah ◽  
Aditya Sukma Pawitra

Introduction: WHO has announced coronavirus Disease 2019 (Covid19) as a global pandemic at the immune decline, one of which is due to chronic exposure to ambient air pollution. This literature review aims to describe the impact of ambient air pollution toward the risk of being infected by Covid19. Discussion: Covid19 can be found in a bat (host primer), and can be contagious through a person, also possible from pets. The symptoms that sufferers will perceive are fever, cough, diarrhea, myalgia, fatigue, headache, nausea, vomit, abdominal pain, loss of appetite, and some asymptomatic people. The body’s immunity affects a person’s susceptibility to Covid19 infection. The body’s immunity can be affected by ambient air pollution (with PM10, PM2,5, and O3 are the most pollutant in the air in various countries) for an extended period could be the reason for chronic illness (especially, respiratory tract) could reduce immune resistance. Furthermore, it might be happened on increasing at ACE2 activity and can cause increasing infected by Covid19. Prevention action can be done by contributing from all of the sectors at an observance in guarding, physical distancing, quarantine, and maintaining the ambient air quality in the future. Conclusion: Ambient air pollution must be considered as one effort to prevent chronic illness that can reduce immunity, which can increase the risk of being infected with Covid19. Furthermore, future studies will be carried out on ACE2 activity in people infected with Covid19 in order to get more valid results and following current conditions.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 2746
Author(s):  
Rong Gao ◽  
Hua Ma ◽  
Hongmei Ma ◽  
Jiahui Li

Air pollution has become a global environmental problem that directly affects the living quality of city residents. It not only does damages to the physical health of the human body but also has adverse effects on mood, outdoor activities, and social interactions, which further reduces the vitality of the city. Dining out is an important way of social interaction for city residents. Using Beijing as an example, this paper aims to study the impacts of different air pollutants on dining-out activities and satisfaction of urban and suburban residents. The results show that: (1) Air pollution can significantly reduce dining-out frequency and satisfaction; (2) Due to differences in environmental and health awareness, the impact of air pollution on dining-out behaviors varies among urban and suburban residents; and (3) O3 pollution has a greater emotional impact on suburban residents than urban residents, possibly because of the differences in defense strategies and levels of pollution exposure in the workplace. The findings imply that improving air quality can obtain not only health benefits but also long-term social and economic vitality. The publicity of environment and health information should be strengthened on key urban air pollutants, especially on particulate matter and O3, and on disadvantaged groups to enhance environmental justice.


Minerals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 405
Author(s):  
Valentina Dentoni ◽  
Battista Grosso ◽  
Francesco Pinna

The disposal of industrial and mineral processing residues represents a major concern for human health and the environment as a whole. In order to reduce the impact on soil and groundwater due to the waste leachability, the implementation of environmental regulations worldwide has favored the conversion of the disposal techniques from wet to dry (i.e., dry stacking or dry disposal). Such a change in the storage practice may cause the increase of particulate matter (PM) emission from the dry surfaces of the tailings exposed to wind erosion. Considering the significance of the environmental issue on a global scale and the increasingly stricter orientation of environmental policies, the need for modeling tools capable of estimating the contribution of tailing basins to air pollution becomes apparent. The paper deals with the disposal of red mud resulting from the bauxite processing in the alumina industry. An experimental research was carried with an environmental wind tunnel to estimate the Emission Factor (EF) of the basin surfaces as a function of the main affecting variables (i.e., residue water content and wind velocity). The article reports the results of the experimental test carried out on the red mud from a major basin located in Sardinia (Italy).


Author(s):  
Yuan Meng ◽  
Man Sing Wong ◽  
Hanfa Xing ◽  
Mei-Po Kwan ◽  
Rui Zhu

The impact of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) on cause-specific mortality has been investigated on a global scale. However, less is known about the excess all-cause mortality and air pollution-human activity responses. This study estimated the weekly excess all-cause mortality during COVID-19 and evaluated the impacts of air pollution and human activities on mortality variations during the 10th to 52nd weeks of 2020 among sixteen countries. A SARIMA model was adopted to estimate the mortality benchmark based on short-term mortality during 2015–2019 and calculate excess mortality. A quasi-likelihood Poisson-based GAM model was further applied for air pollution/human activity response evaluation, namely ground-level NO2 and PM2.5 and the visit frequencies of parks and workplaces. The findings showed that, compared with COVID-19 mortality (i.e., cause-specific mortality), excess all-cause mortality changed from −26.52% to 373.60% during the 10th to 52nd weeks across the sixteen countries examined, revealing higher excess all-cause mortality than COVID-19 mortality in most countries. For the impact of air pollution and human activities, the average country-level relative risk showed that one unit increase in weekly NO2, PM2.5, park visits and workplace visits was associated with approximately 1.54% increase and 0.19%, 0.23%, and 0.23% decrease in excess all-cause mortality, respectively. Moreover, compared with the impact on COVID-19 mortality, the relative risks of weekly NO2 and PM2.5 were lower, and the relative risks of weekly park and workplace visits were higher for excess all-cause mortality. These results suggest that the estimation based on excess all-cause mortality reduced the potential impact of air pollution and enhanced the influence of human activities compared with the estimation based on COVID-19 mortality.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paola Cecchi-Dimeglio ◽  
Raphaela Kitson-Pantano ◽  
David Luu ◽  
Yann Cabon

The COVID-19 crisis has seen over a third of the world population locked down and this article has sought to understand human behaviour in response to a historical and unprecedented global pandemic. Through the analysis 18 behavioural mechanisms present on the landing pages of the websites of 33 institutional governments from March 1st til May 1st 2020 compared to the WHO data on the number of COVID-19 cases and deaths per million for each country, the authors show that a behavioural consensus was observed across all 33 countries and that Individual and Social nudges had no impact. Whilst the decisions in essentially every country on Earth, were taken with the same aim: to limit population movements and social life, two aggravating factors of the spread of the virus, only the environmental nudges effectively helped slow the virus growth scale. The authors explain the rationale behind these results and suggest that people seek information beyond governmental websites that they generally mistrust. They further suggest using Scientists as role models to encourage governmental website's traffic and designing recursive nudges to increase the impact of individual and social interventions. Together with the new phases of the spread of the virus will come new rules and guidance. Public health policies need to address behavioural change of the population on a global scale in a more targeted manner and it is hoped that this paper will provide some insight on how to do so.


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