Environmental Issues and Small Enterprises

Promote research, education and training in the environmental sciences. romote the systematic application of all relevant scientific disciplines to the evaluation of chemical hazards. articipate in the scientific interpretation of issues concerned with hazard assessment and risk analysis. upport forums (meetings and publications) for communication among professionals in government, business, and academia and other segments of society involved in the use, protection, and management of our environment. SETAC's success reflects not only the foresight and soundness of the original concept, but also the priorities and changes in society at large during the last several decades. Society's awareness of environmental problems and issues grew tremendously from the mid-1970s through the 1990s. A more informed public demanded that environmental hazards be addressed and that corporations accept responsibility for environmental impacts caused by action or negligence. As government and industry responded to the public's demand for prevention and better environmental solutions, SETAC was uniquely positioned to contribute. The Society provided a venue for presenting data, discussing scientific questions, and working on practical solutions to complex problems, with participants able to transcend affiliations with industry, government, or academia. As the science and technology for addressing and solving environmental problems grew more sophisticated, so did SETAC, and this was reflected in its journal Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, at annual meetings, and by the increasing number and complexity of problems considered at workshops. As developments in information technology and global travel occurred, the Society kept pace, increasing the number, quality, and frequency of publications; communicating more rapidly and effectively to more individuals, institutions, and organizations; and improving member services overall. As SETAC matures, the focus, aspect, and breadth of vision of the Society continue to evolve. SETAC's membership is increasingly international. Much of the international growth of SETAC reflects the response of scientists worldwide to a winning model for furthering environmental science and solving environmental problems. Members have different priorities, needs, and contributions, largely dependent on their cultural, economic, geographical, and political context. Additionally, the scale and pace of environmental issues are changing worldwide. Many environmental management decisions must be made on a spatially large scale or a temporally significant one. Research is needed at all levels of complexity, from the subcellular level to that of the global ecosystem, to support these decision needs. Although the spatial scale creates difficulties in problem formulation, data collection, and interpretation, it increases the likelihood that studies are designed and data collected to answer the large-scale and/or long-term questions key to protecting and managing ecological and natural resources. The internationalization of SETAC and the need to address environmental problems on a large-scale, prospective basis present the Society with challenges and exciting opportunities as it enters its 20th year. The challenges and opportunities involve growing in a manner that continues to further environmental science and contributes to informed environmental management—and is also satisfying to individual members during the journey. onducting efficiently the Society's business around the world and equitably allocating costs. nsuring that the Society speaks with a consistent voice in keeping with its mission, when so many different cultural, political, geographical, and technical backgrounds represent it. ransferring the SETAC culture of balanced representation across disciplines and sectors in membership, scientific events, and leadership. aintaining the continental/regional autonomies that have worked so well while growing as a united, single Society with worldwide membership. etaining the quality and relevance of our publications while responding to the needs of members in countries at various stages of economic development. eeting the demand to review and publish original, fast-breaking science promptly, given the increasing volume and changing breadth of environmental science. Based on these considerations and many others, changes in how the Society is managed and administrated may occur. Decisions for specific changes will require affirmative responses to the following: Does the change better serve members? Is this the best way to achieve the Society's long-term goals of furthering science and promoting informed environmental management? Under most definitions, sustainable development provides an umbrella under which many of the difficult environmental, economic, and social issues that must be faced by society in the coming years can be addressed. The world population is expected to double by 2050, with 90% of the increase in developing countries. To simply maintain the current standard of living in those countries will require economic growth. The challenge will be to deliver an acceptable standard of living for many more people while ensuring that the ecological foundations upon which society depends are protected and are themselves sustainable. Successfully integrating economic growth, social enhancement, and environmental improvement on a local scale while understanding the broader consequences of decisions on a national or regional scale will be required. The most exciting opportunities for the foreseeable future of the Society stem from participating and contributing to progress toward sustainable development. The priorities for SETAC involvement and action identified by the long-range planning activities of the SETAC Board and Long-Range Planning Committee during 1997 and 1998 are directly related or relevant to this topic. Sustainable development encompasses much more than the science or technologies that are the traditional purview of SETAC and that fit the expertise of most SETAC members. It involves integration of social, ethical, political, economic, and environmental issues. Environmental toxicology and chemistry are relevant for only a subset of sustainable development discussions. They are, however, relevant to the environmental component of sustainability. The culture, history, and scientific focus of SETAC position it to contribute meaningfully. A larger international membership and more global perspective bring additional value to the Society's traditional strengths. Solving the most complex (and often most important) environmental problems facing society and the planet today demand the multi-and interdisciplinary and multisectoral approaches that are the strength of SETAC. The scale and linkages required will stretch even SETAC. Two areas of SETAC's strength with particular relevance for contributing to sustainability are the experience of working effectively across boundaries of expertise and affiliation to solve environmental problems and the development and use of science-based methodologies to aid decision makers. SETAC has been crossing boundaries and building bridges since its inception. The scientific questions and management decisions required for sustainable development are ones that will require multidisciplinary, multistakeholder input. Boundaries between scientific disciplines, between scientists and managers, between scientists and policy makers, and between people (specifically scientists) of different languages and cultures need to be crossed to achieve sustainability. Partnerships between ecologists versed in the complex questions of how ecological communities function, as well as closer partnerships with soil scientists, microbiologists, biochemists, and geochemists, need to be cultivated with SETAC's toxicologists and chemists. Issues to be addressed include ecosystem management, ecosystem restoration and rehabilitation, resource valuation and management, assimilation capacity, and biodiversity. In ecosystems on every continent, species exist that have not yet been discovered, much less studied to understand their functions within their ecological community or potential values to humans. There are gaps in knowledge with regard to understanding the sources, mechanisms of action, and means for mitigating the effects of ecosystem stressors (biological, chemical, and physical). The toxicological effects of the chemical synergy or antagonism are not well defined for many combinations of chemicals in the laboratory, and much less well defined in the environment, where, to name a few, the influences of temperature, moisture, soil type, shelter, and species interactions are present. Significant challenges exist in elucidating the spatial and temporal extent of environmental contamination on a large scale. Physical alterations, such as loss of habitat, can be more important to species survival and ecosystem sustainability than chemical contamination and yet are rarely considered when assessing ecological risk. It must be acknowledged that human beings are part of, not separate from, the environment. The assumption of interconnections between human health and ecosystem function is a given; it is intuitive and significant [1]. While this may be so, recognition by many SETAC members that our Society has a role to play in the assessment of risk to human health has been slow. Equally slow has been recognition by mammalian toxicologists and human/public health experts that surrounding (natural) environments must be considered when assessing risk to people. Bridges are already being built in this area, with SETAC members actively engaged in making scientific contributions in both toxicology and ecotoxicology as well as to ecological and human risk assessments. SETAC has formally begun enhancing its relationships with professional societies on both sides of our traditional boundaries, including the Ecological Society of America and the Society of Toxicology. The theme of the 1998 annual meeting, The Natural Connection: Environmental Integrity and Human Health, clearly demonstrates the commitment to expanding activities and collaborations in this area. In addition to communication and cross-fertilization between scientific communities, more interaction and mutual learning experiences are needed between environmental specialists and environmental managers in both business and government. Better and deeper understanding of science needs to be inserted into environmental management and decision making. Every day people in governments and multinational corporations use readily available knowledge and experience acquired over the years to make decisions that have long-lasting, and in some cases permanent, impacts on the environment. Not only does basic science need to be conducted, results and interpretations must also be communicated in a meaningful way to policymakers, regulatory experts, and business leaders to ensure that state-of-the-art science plays an appropriate role in decision making. Transcending boundaries, even those between scientific disciplines, has not been without controversy within SETAC. Even more controversial is moving into the realm of policy. Out of the comfort zone of our laboratories, study sites, and offices, we are in a world that in large part lacks environmental literacy [2]. SETAC has already moved in the last five years toward being much more engaged in communicating “good or sound” science and crossing the boundary between scientists and policymakers. Examples include the Science Fellow Program and Technical Issue Papers. Another recent initiative is the Peer Review Program, where SETAC will facilitate balanced, objective peer reviews of environmental programs or documents for governmental or other organizations. In all cases thus far, when SETAC has moved towards bridging gaps, the results have been beneficial for the Society and the issues have been better served by the diversity of environmental expertise and outlook. SETAC members have been instrumental in developing and bringing into common usage methodologies for evaluating different aspects of human-initiated impacts on the environment: ecological risk and life-cycle assessment (LCA). Ecological risk assessment provides a systematic method for estimating the nature and likelihood of adverse effects on the environment. It provides a structure for interaction and cooperation and makes it more likely that management decisions will be science-based, transparent, objective, and ecologically relevant. Although many criticisms can be made of ecological risk assessment, it is the best tool available now. Improvements continue to sharpen the inputs for both exposure and effects. LCA is a tool for evaluating the potential impacts resulting from the use of resources and the potential environmental impacts associated with a product or process. Practitioners of LCA recognize its limitations (implementation and interpretation of results can be difficult), but it is a structured methodology already accepted as a tool for furthering sustainable development. Life-cycle considerations are included in the basic principles of a framework for eco-efficiency indicators [3] and are being used in some industries to evaluate process inefficiencies and in others to provide information for product design and specification. These tools will continue to be refined to provide better (more precise, more accurate, more relevant) answers for environmental management questions. Additional tools are needed to be able to evaluate and compare global environmental performance by measuring appropriate environmental indicators within and across industries. Better tools are needed for translating ecological knowledge to models that will give reliable predictions of the consequences and potential for recovery to environmental changes. Despite the sophistication that exists, better models for predicting the fate and transport of chemicals through and across media, across geopolitical boundaries, and on a long-term temporal scale are needed. Tools are also needed to help understand and manage some of the broadest and most complex environmental issues facing society today. These issues, including climate change, drought, famine, ozone layer depletion, uncontrolled population growth, transboundary pollution, natural resource exploitation, water quality and availability, and waste transport and disposal transcend the boundaries of any scientific discipline, professional organization, or governmental body. Although we are continuing to support and nurture the science that is the foundation of the Society, we are now poised to contribute more directly to the creation of environmental policy used in environmental management. Every opportunity for participation will require serious and cautious evaluation to ensure that we never compromise the integrity of our science or the reputation of the Society. The need for engagement is real and in some cases, the time frame for intervention is short. Although very few management or policy decisions are based on science alone, science should inflluence the decision, and to do that its representatives must be present at the table. This is equally true whether the debates are within industries or governments or between them. Many of these decisions will affect the long-term viability of the natural environment (managed or pristine) and should not be based solely on political expediency, economic priorities, or emotional responses to perceptions of risk. Many specific examples can be given of large-scale or complex environmental problems that will need considerable technical and political skill to resolve. Although many of these problems appear to fall outside of the traditional purview of SETAC, many are squarely in our court. There are others to which we can make considerable contributions, in conjunction with scientists of different expertise. While few simple solutions exist, the paths forward are discernible. The leadership of SETAC over the next several years will make decisions regarding the commitments of the Society toward many of these issues. I hope we continue moving toward policies of engagement and education, taking advantage of opportunities to advance environmental science and the informed management of our environment.

Man-made environmental problems are increasing in numbers with time. A study based on cause-effect relationships of man-made environmental problems developed by the methodology of “theoretical sampling”. Here, published literature sources were referred to recognise the environmental issues. The causes and their effects were recognised as a chart. The chart was then transferred into the “Concept diagram” with the principles of the visualisation tools of Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) of United Nations Environment Management Group (EMG), which depicts a complete “mental map” of relationships among the man-made environmental problems. For instance, manmade climate change is caused primarily as a result of deforestation, draining of wetlands, intensive farming and air pollution (greenhouse gas emission), and each of these problem such as air pollution is caused by intensive farming (methane), burning of fossil fuels (due to global energy crisis), urbanisation, methane emission from solid waste dumps, etc.Furthermore, deforestation is mainly caused by increasing human population, poverty, overexploitation of natural resources, urbanisation, mining minerals, intensive farming, establishment of dams, wild fires during El Nino, acid rain and global warming (cyclic as cause and effect). In addition, each of these manmade environmental problem may causes various other environmental problems, for instance, air pollution causes ocean acidification, ozone depletion, acid rain, disease, visual pollution (smog), etc. Similarly, deforestation causes issues such as biodiversity loss, land degradation, human animal conflict, etc. Thus, manmade environmental problems are interconnected as causes and effects. 228 links between 39 defined environmental crises from real world events (stated in published literature) have been identified, in this web certain causative environmental problems establish keystone links. Solving a keystone issue would result in the extermination of one or more linked manmade environmental problems. But when a man-made environmental problem is caused by more than one man-made environmental problem then their causative environmental problems cannot be considered as keystone links such as air pollution causes human-caused global warming, ocean acidification, acid rain, ozone depletion, respiratory diseases, etc. and mitigating air pollution could halt all the resulted environmental issues, thus, air pollution is a keystone environmental issue.However, in case of draining of wetlands, this is one of the cause for global warming (stored carbon in peat wetlands get released to atmosphere), but it is not a keystone issue, because global warming is caused by many other problems such as air pollution, deforestation, intensive farming, etc. In this approach study found seven manmade environmental problems as keystone links such as air pollution, deforestation, population explosion, overexploitation of natural resources, global energy crisis, intensive farming and urbanisation, urban sprawl and settlements.Keywords: Environment, Environmental problems, Man-made environmental problems, Keystone environmental problems, Interconnected environmental problems

Over the last few decades, environmental issues such as global warming, acid rain, air pollution, urban sprawl, waste disposal, ozone layer depletion, water pollution and climate change have facing concern among prominent world organisational annual meeting and occasions. Almost media covers the environmental and sustainability issues in their daily publications. Malaysia as a developing country starving to survive with annual climate change issues such as flash floods, haze, water and air pollution and increasing seasonal sicknesses. In conjunction, government, policymakers, learning institutions, and Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) play their role in educating people to attain sustainability lifestyle. Specifically, institution leaders as a change agent encourage adapting environmental behaviour to enhancing environmental attitude and behaviour among their stakeholders. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to test the reliability of environmental responsive behaviour, specifically among school leaders in Malaysia. For this study, 503 samples were used to test reliability. The findings indicated that all examined variables consistently reflect the construct it is measuring. Hence, adapted measurement items are reliable to use in future studies.

Education needs to emphasize more attention to environmental issues. The school is an active place to provide actual knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behavior towards environmental issues such as global warming dan the greenhouse effect. This study aimed to investigate seventh-grade students' cognition in the context of a climate system. This study was descriptive, involving the collection of qualitative data. These qualitative data were then analyzed for their content inductively to identify concepts and patterns of student responses. This study indicated that students believed that global warming caused by six factors involving the greenhouse effect, depletion of the ozone layer, fossil fuel usage, forest fires, use of chemicals, and industrial air pollution. Also, they convinced six segments of the global warming impacts: ocean, soil, air, plants and animals, humans, and weather and season changes. The student thought about the climate system was substantially linear, where the contribution of human activities caused global warming that finally have an impact on humans themselves.

Being one of prominent figures in the field of fiqh, Yusuf al-Qaraḍawi is one of the contemporary scholars who initiates the ideas and thoughts about fiqh bīʻah (fiqh of environment). The current global environmental crisis ranging from global warming, climate changes, ozone layer depletion, acid rain, exploitation of natural resources, illegal logging, deforestation, floods, droughts, landslides, extinction of biodiversity, and so forth, have been becoming global crucial problems until now. These phenomena become a serious issue since they endanger and threaten the sustainability of the earth. This paper is aimed to study the Islamic perspective on safeguarding the nature and its contents in order to realize maṣlaḥah al-‘ammah (the public benefits) to the entire population of the earth. The thoughts of Yusuf al-Qaraḍawi need to be disseminated in order to realize the values of maṣlaḥah al-‘ammah so that the purpose of realizing Islam as the religion of raḥmatan li al-‘ālamīn (a blessing to all of the universe) may come true. Keywords: Fiqh Bīʻah, Jurisprudence of Environment, Maṣlaḥah al-‘Ammah, Public Benefits

Everything that surrounds or affects an organism during its lifetime is collectively referred to as its environment. It comprises both living (biotic) and nonliving (abiotic) components. Human civilisation and globalisation are the dominant culprits of constant change in the global environment in present scenario. Various processes that can be said to contribute to the global environmental problems include pollution, global warming, ozone depletion, acid rain, depletion of natural resources, overpopulation, waste disposal, deforestation and loss of biodiversity. Almost all these processes are the result of the use of natural resources in unsustainable manner. These processes have highly negative impact on our environment. One of the major impacts is the release of large quantities of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in atmosphere as the result of burning of fossil fuels by industries and automobiles. The result is the worldwide pollution problem, temperature fluctuation of our planet, ozone hole and possible change in Earth’s climate. Loss of forests, damage to water bodies (lakes and ponds) and their ecosystems by acid rain, over-exploitation of natural resources, massive extinction of species due to habitat destruction and other well-known causes worldwide are connected with environmental issues globally. The rapidly growing demographic structure and globalisation are leading to a number of environmental issues because of the uncontrolled urbanisation, industrialisation, deforestation and loss of useful agriculture land. The global environmental health impact remains profoundly perturbing. Unsafe water, poor sanitation and hygiene conditions, air pollution and global climate change accounts for nearly a tenth of deaths and disease burden worldwide. Due to above-mentioned environmental issues, our planet is facing severe environmental crisis. Current environmental problems lead to disasters and tragedies now, will also be the reason of casualties in future and require urgent attention from the responsible authorities/nations to frame appropriate laws to overcome these issues and also by making people aware to use natural resources in sustainable manner.

28 - Air pollution

Environment and environmental issues are high on the agenda of an enlightened and engaged public — and consequently on that of a seemingly worried international community of policy-makers. The shrinking of time and space, inherent concomitant of the globalization process, has caused new and unprecedented common concerns about the present state and past as well as future developments of our globe. If we accept the somewhat simplistic approach according to which everything that happens on a local scale has global impacts and — vice versa — that everything happening on a global scale will cause local consequences, then not only the term “environment”, but even more so the topic “environment across cultures” gains momentum. We begin to understand that our Western European perception and meaning of the term “environment” may be entirely different from that in Africa or Asia. But we begin to materialize that environmental changes anywhere in the world will cause consequences in other parts of our globe: global environmental degradation in Africa, overpopulation and urbanization in Asia, depletion of the ozone layer and increases of America’s or Europe’s CO2-emissions and the loss of Amazonia’s biodiversity are no longer merely regional events. On the contrary, all of them have global consequences. Their effects are felt in terms of environmental refugees, in the collapse of terrestrial ecosystems and food shortages, in global warming and sea-level rise, in a global increase of natural hazards and other environmental changes on a world-wide scale.

Pollution is a global phenomenon, which has been proven responsible for countless untold havoc to the environment and ecosystem at large resulting into global warming, climate change, deterioration of the ecosystem, and scarcity of resources. Industrial activities have as a whole been proven to be an ardent contributor to the global menace of environmental pollution worldwide, with a contribution percentage of 61%, and the cement industry in particular has been ranked as the third most polluting in the industrial sector. As countries look towards a more sustainable future, radical gains and changes have been necessitated in the industry, and though strides have been made in terms of energy consumption with 6% gains and emission reduction between 20-40% gains, yet pollution is still on the rise in the industry. This review paper delves into the subject matter and examines the underlying links between pollution rise and industrialization and then the cement industry; key correlations, the current and potential gains made, current and future projections and the factors facilitating the increased rate of pollution in the cement industry.

An integrated development of the nation is very much desirable to ensure food, health and economic security for all the people of the country. Development projects should go on but it should not create ecological imbalance, because destruction of environment poses serious threat to the survival of human race. However, the factors such as population explosion, rapid industrialization, over exploitation of natural resources, increased transportation etc. have resulted in change of climatic conditions, depletion of ozone layer, increase in air, water and noise pollution. Under proper Environmental Management Plan, the adverse environmental effects of development projects can be mitigated to a great extent. Industrialization is recognized as the backbone for development. Availability of resources coupled with infrastructural facilities, accelerate industrial growth. The cement sector notably plays a critical role in the economic growth of the country and its journey towards conclusive growth. Cement is vital to the construction sector and all infrastructural projects. The construction sector alone constitutes about 5-7 per cent of the country's gross domestic product. The industry occupies an important place in the Indian economy because of its strong linkages to other sectors such as construction, transportation, coal and power. The Environmental impact assessment has been carried out to assess the existing base line environmental scenario of the area and based on the activities of proposed grinding unit, environmental management plan has been suggested. The plan will identify and address the impacts and design imitative measures to manage such impacts in a manner as to conserve environment and ecology of the area. The EMP has been prepared with a view to ultimately ensure that the adverse impacts can be minimized if these cannot be prevented altogether.

“Access of anything is bad” Mahatam Gandhi suggested to store only the basic required goods and services. To avoid the excess. Global warming and ozone depletion are clear examples of “Excess” exploitation of nature. These are times of great volatility and anxiety from the melting of polar ice caps to the meltdown of financial markets, numerous common challenges compete for the attendance of the human race. However, the major question for the survival of humans is the challenge of a sustainable environment. As the world is facing issues like climate change, global warming, and ozone depletion. Now, we have reached at the times when sustainable development should be the sole mission for all the nation. If different countries of the world will not change their current patterns of consumption and production, the negative consequences will outweigh the economic benefits soon. To achieve a sustainable environment on must adopt Green Growth Strategy. Green Growth approach aims to put environmental issues at the forefront of policy decisions, which, in line with current issues and challenges, cannot be overstated. That is why the Green Growth strategy is extremely pertinent. The extent and rate of global environmental changes are driven largely by rapid population growth, uncontrolled urbanization, and unplanned industrialization. According to 2011, Gujarat is a highly urbanized state with 42 percent of the population resides in the urban region of the state. The case study of Ahmedabad- now mega-city and Financial hub of Gujarat, cultural city Baroda and the rapidly growing Surat will help to throw some light on the current scenario of Environmental Issues and probable solution. Although on 31st August 2009, Gujarat Government makes a very important announcement i.e. “PLASTIC FREE GUJARAT” which surely is a step towards Sustainable Development. The current epidemic of COVID-19 is also result of the exploitation of natural resources.

Climate change, acid rain, depletion of the ozone layer, species extinction—all of these issues point to one thing: environmental health is a global issue that concerns all nations of the world. Now add environmental justice to the list. From South Bronx to Soweto, from Penang to El Paso, communities all over the world are finding commonality in their experiences and goals in seeking environmental justice. Environmental justice was defined by Robert Bullard, director of the Environmental Justice Resource Center at Clark Atlanta University, in his seminal 1990 work Dumping in Dixie: Race, Class, and Environmental Quality as “the principle that all people and communities are entitled to equal protection of environmental and public health laws and regulations.” In countries around the world, the concept of environmental justice can apply to communities where those at a perceived disadvantage—whether due to their race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, immigration status, lack of land ownership, geographic isolation, formal education, occupational characteristics, political power, gender, or other characteristics—puts them at disproportionate risk for being exposed to environmental hazards. At a global scale, environmental justice can also be applied to scenarios such as industrialized countries exporting their wastes to developing nations. In either case, “environmental and human rights have no boundaries, because pollution has no boundaries,” says Heeten Kalan, senior program officer of the Global Environmental Health and Justice Fund of the New World Foundation in New York City. “Environmental justice organizations are starting to understand that they are working in a global context.”

Environmental economics was the subject of a comprehensive research programme in the 1960s and 1970s. This programme dealt with a wide range of issues and policy problems, such as the economics of natural resources, the methods and problems in the correction of externalities, the management of common property goods, the economics of nature preservation. Against this background, suitable analytical tools were provided by the theory of non-renewable and renewable resources; the theory of missing markets; Pigovian taxation and the theory of property rights; the economics of public goods; welfare economics. All in all, the research programme was very successful and in the following decade it gave rise to several textbooks, from Baumol and Oates (1975) to Siebert (1987), Pearce and Turner (1990). At the beginning of the 1990s, no less Partha Dasgupta (1990) was claiming that environmental issues were ‘very cold’ as topics for analytical investigation and ‘dead’ as research problems.

Micro and small enterprises (MSEs) play a significant role in introducing high level of socio-economic empowerment to all levels of social beings with its huge contribution in production, export promotion, employment generation, and value addition. Besides, it is well capable in redressing off the concomitant hazards of our nation like unemployment, poverty etc. The beneficial effect of the very sector is increased sharply if it is being participated by the marginalized gender section of our society, women. Notwithstanding, the sector cannot protect itself from several down-gradation in its survival due to several controllable and/or uncontrollable causes amongst which the inadequate need-based finance is considered to be the most severe one (All India Fourth Census Report of Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), 2006-2007). In this context, the Central Bank has declared many promotional financial policies for the neediest sector of economy which has been allowed to be practiced by all the financial institutions of which the Commercial Banks (CBs) are the most significant ones. But CBs sometimes are blamed for their unfriendly partial attitude towards the very sector for their sole emphasis on commercialization. The women-owned MSEs in this context sometimes suffer a lot for the gender-discriminative credit policy of the CBs. In India, amongst different states, West Bengal (WB) is taken as a significant contributor so far as the number of women-owned MSEs and their performances are concerned. WB here specially recognizes the engineering sector of Howrah, the former Birmingham of the East, for its special contribution in socio-economic development of it. Though men-dominated sector, women-owned units here are also found to perform prestigiously irrespective of different hindrances mainly originated from need-based financial lacuna. CBs here are also found to be responsible ones reflecting the nation-wide picture over there which ultimately puts a question on proper implementation of financial policies to serve the marginalized gender section of the society. The present paper, therefore, aims at identifying to what extent the financial assistance of Commercial Banks empowers economically the women-owned micro and small engineering enterprises of Howrah and recommending some suggestions for further improvement following descriptive research methodology and relevant statistical tools and techniques.

The study examined the crux about global warming, greenhouse effect and ozone layer depletion among pre-service biology teachers. A survey questionnaire adapted from Kalipit, Yener & Ozkadif (2009); Rye, Ruba & Wiesenmayer (1997) and Boyes, Chambers & Stanisstreet (1995) was administered to 65 pre-service Biology teachers purposively selected from the Department of Science and Technology Education, Lagos State University, Lagos. This was to determine the pre-service biology teachers’ perceptions about global warming, greenhouse effect and ozone layer depletion. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results showed that pre-service Biology teachers had misconceptions that the results of thinning of ozone layer will increase greenhouse effect and the function of ozone layer is to protect the earth against excessive heat. Furthermore, majority of the preservice biology teachers had misconceptions on global warming, ozone layer depletion and greenhouse effect. It is imperative, therefore to proffer solutions to these misconceptions held by the pre-service teachers by ensuring that instructors and instructional materials emphasize the importance of these concepts to life ensuring that students have adequate knowledge about the concepts as well as ways of tackling these challenges.
 Keyword: Global warming, greenhouse effect, ozone layer depletion, pre-service biology teachers, misconceptions.