The Future of Water

2019 ◽  
pp. 227-232
Author(s):  
Edward B. Barbier

This concluding chapter looks at the future of water. There are two possible paths for managing water. First, if the world continues with inadequate governance and institutions, incorrect market signals, and insufficient innovations to improve efficiency and manage competing demands, most chronic water and scarcity problems will continue to worsen. The world will see a future of declining water security, freshwater ecosystem degradation, and increasing disputes and conflicts over remaining water resources. The alternative path to managing water is the one offered by this book. If, in anticipation of the coming decades of increasing water scarcity, humankind is able to develop appropriate governance and institutions for water management, instigate market and policy reforms, and address global management issues, then improved innovation and investments in new water technologies and better protection of freshwater ecosystems should secure sufficient beneficial water use for a growing world population.

Author(s):  
Nadiye Gür

Today, there are many studies about the problems that may be faced in the context of World Water Day. In this chapter, the structure, pollution, quality grading, and human health effects of water; possible pollution prevention measures; and water safety are discussed. It is expected that the world population, which is about 7 billion currently, will rise to 9 billion by 2050. Water consumption is expected to increase at a higher rate, which is a major problem for the environment. By 2025, it has been estimated that two-thirds of the world's population will deal with water shortage. The world is not as rich in water as once thought and, hence, is at high risk for water shortage. For these reasons, we must all fulfill our responsibility to leave a habitable world to future generations.


1968 ◽  
Vol 61 (2) ◽  
pp. 175-201 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gordon D. Kaufman

The concept, “act of God,” is central to the biblical understanding of God and his relation to the world. Repeatedly we are told of the great works performed by God in behalf of his people and in execution of his own purposes in history. From the “song of Moses,” which celebrates the “glorious deeds” (Ex. 15:11) through which Yahweh secured the release of the Israelites from bondage in Egypt, to the letters of Paul, which proclaim God's great act delivering us “from the dominion of darkness” (Col. 1:13) and reconciling us with himself, we are confronted with a “God who acts.” The “mighty acts” (Ps. 145:4), the “wondrous deeds” (Ps. 40:5), the “wonderful works” (Ps. 107:21) of God are the fundamental subject-matter of biblical history, and the object of biblical faith is clearly the One who has acted repeatedly and with power in the past and may be expected to do so in the future.


1878 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 130-154
Author(s):  
Gustavus George Zerffi

The principal component elements in the progressive struggle of the historical development of Idealism and Realism were, “Hellenism ” on the one side, and a misunderstood “Christianity” on the other. Hellenism, in spite of its Platonic idealism, still represented the embodiment of the forces of nature, while Christianity strove for the spiritualization and “disembodiment” of all phenomena, and of man himself. This tendency, which took its origin in the ascetics of India and the mystic priests of Egypt, produced that grand and mighty phenomenon of monasticism, the aim of which was to retire from the world, and to attain a state of conscious blissfulness in this life. Monks were said to be able to dispense with food, to float in the air, to have intercourse with angels and sometimes also with demons, to see with bodily eyes the glories of the saints, to pierce the future, and to lead an incorporeal life in spite of their living bodies. An EgyptoBuddhistic Platonism began to sway the minds of Christian believers, and they thronged in tens of thousands to people deserts and woods, mountains and sea-shores, with anchorets, pillar saints, coenobites, and hermits. Humanity was apparently altogether absorbed in a spiritualized stoicism, applying Epicurus's principles to an ascetic life, finding joy, contentment.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 175-196
Author(s):  
Swantje Martach ◽  
Felipe Duque

New Dawn is a global arts/theories queering project, which was initiated in Berlin in 2020, and which speculates future aesthetics of the glove as “tool-to-touch.“ The present intra-view is a real ‘view-from-within,’ as it unfolds a conversation (a turning, moving, becoming [versare] together [con]) in-between the two members of this project’s theoretical section: Felipe Duque and Swantje Martach. This intra-view sets out to explore the role the glove plays within the touch. A gloved touch differs from a non-gloved touch, as the glove heightens the touch. The glove functions as a first other that is encountered in the touch, hence it is touched and touching us back. And it is a medium for and mediator of touching other others, as it is through the glove that the ordinarily touched (the world) is touched. By means of this double position in the touch, the glove emancipates from human control. It enables us humans to realize many touches that we alone would not be capable of, and in this way, it emancipates us from our limitations as humans. The glove is a very material invitation to become, that increases with every new gloves invented, a switch to which is just another un/dressing away. By focusing on the glove/hand entanglement, New Dawn can be read as promoting the haptic sense as a hitherto neglected contributor of the aesthetic. Being self-critical however, we argue that depicting the future of touch by means of the glove eventually is a rather restrictive speculation, as it limits all touch to the one we exert by and experience from hands; whereas reality disposes a multiplicity of touches (e.g. a touch between shoulders, eyes, lips). To expand future touches could thus be an interesting continuation for New Dawn.


2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 128-139
Author(s):  
Anne O'Byrne

Of all the terms Jean Améry might have chosen to explain the deepest effects of torture, the one he selected was world. To be tortured was to lose trust in the world, to become incapable of feeling at home in the world. In July 1943, Améry was arrested by the Gestapo in Belgium and tortured by the SS at the former fortress of Breendonk. With the first blow from the torturers, he famously wrote, one loses trust in the world. With that blow, one can no longer be certain that “by reason of written or unwritten social contracts the other person will spare me—and more precisely stated, that he will respect my physical, and with it also my metaphysical, being.” In a vault inside the fortress, beyond the reach of anyone who might help—a wife, a mother, a brother, a friend—it turned out that all social contracts had been broken and torture was possible. His attackers had no respect for him, and no-one else could or would help.


Sign language is a visual language that uses body postures and facial expressions. It is generally used by hearing-impaired people as a source of communication. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), around 466 million people (5% of the world population) are with hearing and speech impairment. Normal people generally do not understand this sign language and hence there is a communication gap between hearing-impaired and other people. Different phonemic scripts were developed such as HamNoSys notation that describes sign language using symbols. With the development in the field of artificial intelligence, we are now able to overcome the limitations of communication with people using different languages. Sign language translating system is the one that converts sign to text or speech whereas sign language generating system is the one that converts speech or text to sign language. Sign language generating systems were developed so that normal people can use this system to display signs to hearing-impaired people. This survey consists of a comparative study of approaches and techniques that are used to generate sign language. We have discussed general architecture and applications of the sign language generating system.


2021 ◽  
Vol 64 (5) ◽  
pp. VO547
Author(s):  
Lisetta Giacomelli ◽  
Roberto Scandone ◽  
Mauro Rosi

   In 79 A.D. Vesuvius buried entire cities in a few days under a blanket of pumice and ashes. It was a sudden event, which occurred after centuries of inactivity, heralded only by earthquakes that repeated periodically, for many years, creating addiction rather than alarm. After the event, the vegetation covered the volcanic products, and the memory of the disaster was lost. The first excavations began in Herculaneum in 1738 and in Pompeii ten years later, in times when archeology still did not exist. Much was destroyed, given away, thrown away. Almost intact buildings emerged, with all their contents, with many inhabitants caught on the run. The arduous process of recovering the sites has had important and not always happy stages, accompanied by continuous progress in the excavation methods.  Volcanology has drawn from those experiences as much as it could, setting itself the goal of reconstructing the story of an explosive eruption, the first in the world to be described, by Pliny the Younger, the one that most left its mark on buildings, vegetation, animals and humans. Without the eruption, Pompeii and Herculaneum would have disappeared. The details on how the romans lost their lives in the tragedy is an important component to be offered to Pompeii’s visitors and that is at present largely imperfect. Knowing it and reconstructing its impact on people and the territory, going beyond the archaeological site, is an experience of the past and a warning for today and for the future. 


2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 116-127 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tatiana S. Akhromeeva ◽  
Georgy G. Malinetsky ◽  
Sergey A. Posashkov

The article considers the interaction of science and art, as well as the development of Science Art from the standpoint of the theory of self-organization and the theory of humanitarian-technological revolution. The world is at the point of bifurcation defining the future. The choice of the further trajectory will be largely determined by what is happening in the emotional and intuitive spaces. This, in turn, depends on the deve­lopment of art, science, philosophy. The article discus­ses alternative futures and the role of culture in them.Charles Snow wrote about a gap between the two cultures — natural science, answering the question “How?” and looking into the future, and humanities, answering the question “What?” and often reflec­ting on the past.The growing gap between the two cultures prevents the civilization from relying to the necessary extent on scientific knowledge and leads to its devaluation. The authors show the importance of the “exchange of metaphors” between science and art, allowing to build bridges over the gap of two cultures. Another way to connect these two spaces is the development of interdisciplinary approaches, in particular, the theory of self-organization, or synergetics. In the 1970s, synergetics was conceived as a language that allowed humanitarians, specialists in natural sciences and mathe­maticians to discuss, formulate and pose common problems, while remaining, nevertheless, in the space of science. Now the central interdisciplinary problem is the study of not only the rational (as du­ring the last three centuries), but also the emotional and intuitive space of human and society.Currently, there are two forecasts materializing — the one of D. Bell, on the transition from the industrial phase of development to the post-industrial, from the world of technology to the world of people, and the one of N.A. Berdyaev, on the transition from the Se­cond Antiquity to the Second Middle Ages. The article shows how this will change the culture itself and its place in society.


2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (5) ◽  
pp. 422-429 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rahaf M. Ajaj ◽  
Suzan M. Shahin ◽  
Mohammed A. Salem

Climate change and global warming became a real concern for global food security. The world population explosion is a critical factor that results in enormous emissions of greenhouse gasses (GHGs), required to cover the growing demands of fresh water, food, and shelter. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is a significant oil-producing country, which is included in the list of 55 countries that produce at least 55% of the world’s GHGs and thus involved in the top 30 countries over the world with emission deficits. At the same time, the UAE is located in an arid region of the world, with harsh environmental conditions. The sharp population increases and the massive growth in the urbanization are primary sources, lead to further stresses on the agricultural sector. Thus, the future of the food production industry in the country is a challenging situation. Consequently, the primary objective of this work is to shed light on the current concerns related to climate change and food security, through describing the implications of climate change on the food production sector of the UAE. Tailored solutions that can rescue the future of food security in the country are also highlighted.


2013 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 19-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Corina Ene

The complexity of purchase decision process goes beyond economic and human rationality boundaries, leading to increased amounts spent inappropriately, including, implicitly, significant quantities of post-consumer waste. Excessive waste of resources, reflected in massive quantities of abandoned goods on the one hand, and on the other - insufficient access to resources for a significant part of the world population - are topical issues that are based on overall irrational behavior of consumers and society, requiring global and local optimization by strategies involving all interested parties. The paper aims to formulate and emphasize actual problems and prospects regarding the rationality of consumer behavior towards waste creating and disposal, trying to answer the following question: given that the actual society is facing a series of irreversible ecological problems, what needs to be done in order to reduce post consumer-waste and to promote environmentally and resources friendly behaviors?


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document