Ecological Destruction Research Articles

The Coupling Coordinated Relationship Between New-type Urbanization, Eco-Environment and its Driving Mechanism: A Case of Guanzhong, China

As an important platform for participating in international competition and cooperation, supporting economic growth and promoting coordinated regional development, urban agglomeration plays an important role in China’s economic, social and urbanization development. At this time, the Guanzhong Plain urban agglomeration (GZPUA), as the second largest urban agglomeration in western China, has a moderate population density. The high demand and high input of resources for population growth make the regional ecological destruction and environmental pollution more prominent. Therefore, it is of great practical significance to study the coordinated development of urbanization and ecological environment in GZPUA. By using the panel data of the GZPUA of China between 2008 and 2017, this study constructed evaluation index system of new-type urbanization and ecological environment quality and calculated the weights of the indices within the evaluation system via the improved entropy weight method, finally determined the new-type urbanization and ecological environment quality of each city. Then the coupling coordination degree model was used to analyze the coupling coordination relationship between two systems of GZPUA and their coupling stages and levels. In addition, the driving mechanism of their coordination degree was explored by using geographic detector method. The results show that: 1) The GZPUA new-type urbanization quality is characterized by both slow growth except Xi’an by a rapid increase. The ecological environment quality is characterized by both slow growth and fluctuations, except Qingyang by a decrease. There are spatial differences between the quality of new-type urbanization and the quality of ecological environment. 2) The 11 cities can be divided into high-high type (Xi’an), high-low type (Xianyang, Yuncheng, Linfen), low-low type (Pingliang, Weinan), and low-high type (Shangluo, Tianshui, Qingyang), different types should take different development paths. 3) The coordination degree between urbanization and ecological environment quality in GZPUA showed an upward trend, and formed a spatial distribution pattern with Xi’an as the core and decreasing to the outer circle cities, with regional differences. 4) The coordinated development of new-type urbanization and ecological environment is a process in which various driving factors act on different driving forces. These driving forces can be summarized as market driving force, endogenous driving force, outward driving force and administrative driving force. Based on the current situation of coordinated development of new-type urbanization and ecological environment in the GZPUA, it is recommended to promote the coordinated development of urbanization and ecological environment according to local conditions, strengthen the urbanization market mechanism, and optimize the industrial layout. Further, guide the flow of various factors across regions, strengthen technological innovation on the basis of breaking regional divisions, narrow the gap between urban and rural areas, establish the concept of coordinated development, and give play to the government’s “visible hand” role.

The Zhenhua Case: the emergence of civil environmental public interest litigation in China

Abstract In 2015, the All-China Environment Federation v Dezhou Jinghua Group Zhenhua Corporation Limited case was the first civil environmental public interest litigation (CEPIL) against air pollution in China. Constituting a milestone in the field of air pollution control in China, this case (i) confirms the eligibility of a non-governmental organisation (NGO) to file civil public interest litigations; (ii) discusses remedies for the ecological destruction caused by air pollution; (iii) assesses the ecological and environmental damage using the ‘virtual restoration cost’ method; and (iv) uses public apology as an innovative way for Zhenhua to assume liability. By applying and interpreting several important rules under the Environmental Protection Law of China (EPLC) for the first time, this case sets an example for future CEPILs against air pollution in China.

Ecological impact assessment of land use in eco-industrial park based on life cycle assessment: A case study of Nanchang High-tech development zone in China

As the main unit of developing a circular economy, and an important way of realizing the ecological industry (eco-industry), the eco-industrial park (EIP) is the way forwards for industrial park development in China. As land is the carrier of industrial parks, the ecological effects brought about by its use patterns, and the evolution process play an important role in the sustainable park development. Based on 3S technology, using Nanchang High-tech Development Zone as a case-study, the life cycle assessment (LCA) is used to quantitatively analyze the ecological impact of land use change, and the characteristics of its evolution or laws at different stages of the EIP life cycle. The results showed the following: (1) In the life cycle development period, the annual average ecological effect was −2.15 × 104 CNY, and during the mature life cycle period, the value rose to −2.01 × 104 CNY, an increase of 6.44%; (2) During the mature period, as a result of changes in quantity and quality, the cultivated, forest, and unutilized land types, had all increased in both total value and annual average value of the ecological effect, showing an improvement in the overall ecological environment of the park. These three types of land were the main contributors to the improvement of the ecological effect. The contribution size was: forest land > cultivated land > unutilized land. On the contrary, the construction land and grassland showed negative ecological effects compared with the previous life cycle stage. Construction land was the main contributor to the decline in ecological park quality, and its negative ecological effect increased by 1.66 times; (3) In the two life cycle stages, amongst the ecological effects caused by the transformation of various land usees, only the conversion to forest land brought significant ecological benefits. Others showed either a certain degree of improvement, or the accumulation of negativizes in ecological effects. Therefore, the EIP generally showed the state of ecological destruction; (4) Finally, there is a relevant discussion about the applicability, scientificity, and innovation of the LCA applied to evaluate the ecological effects of industrial land.

Advances in Ethnobotany, Synthetic Phytochemistry and Pharmacology of Endangered Herb Picrorhiza kurroa (Kutki): A Comprehensive Review (2010-2020).

Picrorhiza kurroa Royle ex Benth. (Family: Plantaginaceae) is a well-recognized Ayurvedic herb. It is commonly called "Kutki" or "Kurro" and 'Indian gentian'. Iridoid glycosides are the plant's bioactive constituents accountable for the bitter taste and medicinal properties of the plant. The iridoid glycosides such as picrosides and other active metabolites of the plant exhibit many pharmacological activities like hepatoprotective, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anticancer, immunomodulator, anti-ulcerative colitis, antimicrobial, etc. This review aims to provide updated information on the ethnobotany, synthetic phytochemistry, pharmacological potential, safety and toxicology of P. kurroa and its active metabolites. Indiscriminate exploitation, ecological destruction of natural habitats, slower plant growth and unawareness regarding cultivation and uprooting of plants have brought kutki an endangered status. Therefore, various techniques used for the conservation and production of bioactive metabolites from P. kurroa have also been reported. Information on the plant has been collected from Science Direct, Google Scholar, PubMed, Scopus using 'Picrorhiza kurroa', 'Picroside-', 'Picroside-II', 'Picroliv', 'Immunomodulator' keywords. All studies on ethnobotany, phytochemistry and pharmacology of plant from 2010- 2020 were comprised in this review article. The possible directions for future research have also been outlined briefly in this review article.

Student Meaning-Making of an Allegorical Picturebook in Social Studies

Participation in a classroom-based study provided Grade 4 students with multiple opportunities to develop their visual meaning-making skills and competences, as well as their aesthetic understanding of and critical thinking about multimodal ensembles. Intentionally-designed instruction during the multifaceted research included a variety of activities focused on a selection of elements of visual art and design. Student participants read and discussed, and wrote about picturebooks during Language Arts, Science and Social Studies. The Rabbits, a picturebook that has been interpreted as a powerful and unsettling allegory of colonization, industrializaiton, and ecological destruction, was one selection of literature featured during a Social Studies unit on European exploration. The content analysis of the students’ responses to The Rabbits revealed how the students identified, described, and interpreted Shaun Tan’s use of color, visual point of view, and typography as fulfilling multiple, and often simultaneous, meaning-making purposes. The responses provided evidence of student engagement in sophisticated visual analysis and symbolic interpretation that deepened their critical understanding and appreciation of The Rabbits, as well as enhanced their understanding of curriculum. Overall, the findings extend the limited research on how student knowledge about and interpretation of elements of visual art and design in the artwork in picturebooks used for Social Studies pedagogy can simultaneously develop students’ visual reading skills, enhance their comprehension of curricular content, and build their higher-order thinking skills.

The Genocide-Ecocide Nexus in Sudan: Violent “Development” and the Racial-Spatial Dynamics of (Neo)Colonial-Capitalist Extraction

ABSTRACT This article works with and develops the framework of the genocide-ecocide nexus to examine the relationship between environmental destruction, capitalist expansion, and genocide in Sudan. Arguing that they are more fundamentally interconnected than has tended to be recognized, it discusses how multiple rural, primarily subsistence and place-based communities on Sudan’s exploited peripheral regions have been affected by these dynamics over several decades, especially from the 1970s. To demonstrate this, three domains of ecologically destructive extraction are examined: large-scale mechanized agriculture, exploitation of water resources, and oil extraction. These cases, the article contends, show how genocide in Sudan is constitutively intertwined with racialized and class-based “development”-driven ecological destruction in ways that are direct and indirect, short-term and long-term – but always systemically related to (neo)colonial-capitalist extraction. Theoretically, the article builds on existing frameworks on the genocide-ecocide nexus. It also expands these frameworks by emphasizing, firstly, the inherently racialized dynamics of these processes in Sudan, and secondly, the devastating fragmentation of socioecological worlds brought about by the expanding frontier of violent development. The analysis highlights blind-spots and limitations with a number of other accounts of genocide in Sudan, including those which frame it as an issue of ideology or identity-based intercommunal tensions, and those which explain it as a form of counterinsurgency.

Re-grounding Human Rights as Cornerstone of Emancipatory Democratic Governance.

Envisioning democratic and internationalist ways of exercising peoples’ sovereignty beyond local and national borders requires the enrichment of human rights thinking with non-European cosmovisions, normative and legal thinking. Integrating human rights, environmental and climate law and the rights of nature plays a key role in building institutions and policies that can genuinely address the root causes of ecological destruction. Likewise, human rights should be at the forefront of the struggle to re-shape financial capitalism and its destructive economic model. They can guide transition processes towards more sustainable ways of production, distribution and consumption, but also towards the necessary protection of and support for care work. Finally, there is an urgent need for innovation in human rights institutions and practices. This goes from securing funding for independent work and combating corporate capture, addressing the colonial legacy still present in international law and human rights architecture, rebalancing the local, national, sub-regional, regional and international dimensions of human rights work, and finding ways to address the dilemmas of a state-centric human rights accountability and governance which do not fall into the traps of multi-stakeholderism.

THE ROLE OF INDIGENOUS ECONAMING SYSTEMS IN ECOLOGICAL CONSERVATION: A CASE OF LUBUKUSU AND LUKABARASI LANGUAGES IN WESTERN KENYA

This paper endeavours to bring fresh insight into the role of African indigenous languages in the global campaign against environmental degradation. It examines how linguistic practises impact the natural environment. In this respect, the paper reports on the findings of an investigation that focused on the Econaming system in Kabarasi and Bukusu societies that sought to ascertain the role of Econames in mitigating ecological destruction. The rationale for this position is that such practices have the potential to mitigate the disruption of the ecosystem. Furthermore, the linguistic systems of the Bukusu and Kabarasi indigenous societies cherished different plants and animals by naming new-borns after them. By doing so the ecosystem earned a special place and was therefore venerated. The paper also aimed at comparing the meanings and representations associated with the Econaming systems in both Kabarasi and Bukusu naming systems. A combined method of data elicitation from Lubukusu-Lukabarasi and the native speaker’s intuition was used to collect data. Animal and plant Econames that relate to the environment were inferred for analysis. The indigenous Lubukusu and Lukabaras names were correlated with the associated ecosystems among native speakers of these languages. The analysis revealed that the meanings associated with the Econaming system among the Kabarasi and Bukusu is one of the strategies that can be employed to ensure more sustainable and acceptable environmental preservation measures. The collected data revealed that indigenous language practices are found to be more appropriate and applicable in ecological preservation among the rural communities. The paper, therefore, recommends that the government and other policy-stakeholders should pay more attention to the Econaming practises so that local people's conservation practises are recognised to enhance global environmental conservation measures.

Trace elements in aquatic environment. Origin, distribution, assessment and toxicity effect for the aquatic biota

Trace elements contamination and accumulation in bottom sediment represents a risk to environment and aquatic biota. Their anthropogenic or natural discharge, extension and cumulation can cause large scale of ecological destructions. Bioaccumulation and biomagnification is capable of leading to toxic level of these chemical substances in fish and other fresh water organisms (benthos, zooplankton), even when the exposure is low. The fish contamination through trophic structure can cause serious consequences to human health.The aim of the manuscript was to assemble and summarize the latest literature on the environmental and the aquatic biota effects of trace element contamination of bottom sediments. The article is also a review of new methods for trace elements elimination and their assessment to impact on aquatic organisms. Based on collected scientific publications in last 20 years the most common and important trace elements in aquatic ecosystem are Chromium, Arsenic, Mercury, Cadmium and Copper. These compounds are dangerous for living organisms and can disrupt their homeostasis as well as a cardiovascular, nervous and digestive system. Nowadays exist many instrumental methods, which are available to determine the trace element concentration such as PMF, INNA, BCR, XRF and bioassay. In searched studies the most preferred and used analyse of trace element concentration in aquatic bottom sediments is bioassay. This biological method is good complement to physical and chemical analyses in procedures of sediment quality assessment. Bioassay method can indicate sensitive response of planktonic organisms to various trace elements and provide information about the real risk to aquatic life.

Neoliberal extraction and aquatic resistance in Helon Habila’s Oil on Water

ABSTRACT Helon Habila’s Oil on Water (2010) addresses the literal and metaphorical invisibility of oil in mainstream discourse, and depicts the ways it influences social order, material infrastructure, and territorial sovereignty. Existing scholarship on the novel focuses on the end-effect of petro-development (ecological destruction) but does not comprehensively address the neo-liberal logic that perpetuates such destruction through its limited modes of seeing and understanding water. The present article studies the novel’s depiction of the way the petro-infrastructure exploits the Niger Delta for resource extraction and causes the disintegration of bodies of water into inert spaces. It goes on to analyse the novel’s structure to emphasize how elemental disintegration is countered through depiction of the agential qualities of water such as biodiversity, morphology, and immersion. In this way, Oil on Water highlights the role of water as a life-source and posits it as a space resistant to the logic of ecological domination.

Ecotheological Dimensions of Roko Molas Poco in the Tradition of Making Traditional Houses of the Manggarai Community - NTT

This article aims to show and introduce ecotheological values of “roko molas poco” ritual in the tradition of making traditional houses of Manggarai people – west Flores – East Nusa Tenggara (NTT). The approach used in collecting information about these rituals is qualitative, using ethnographic method. The result of this research is that the “roko molas poco” ritual ini the tradition of making traditional houses of Manggarai people has very rich messages and ecothelogical values. These values can be used as important themes for inculturation of environmental theology in Manggarai people who are mostly Catholics and generally still adhere to their ancestors’ traditions and culture. These values can be used as important themes for inculturation of environmental theology in Manggarai people who are mostly Catholics and generally still adhere to the traditions and culture of their ancestors. It is believed that by strengthening ecotheological inculturation, ecological pastoral efforts in preventing a massive influx of ecological destruction can be easily carried out.

Ecological Destruction and Consumerism

Literature that engages with the theme of anthropogenic climate change carries the potential of awakening the reader’s curiosity by creating a dimension in which the effects and impacts of the crisis are tangible. The urgency and unpredictability of climate change are articulated through reflections that combine societal, cultural and political issues associated to the phenomenon, hence encouraging a deeper understanding of the environmental crisis in today’s society. The article examines the novel EistTau by Ilija Trojanow to navigate the political and economic aspects of anthropogenic climate change. I reflect on the employment of fiction in finding ways to develop attentiveness to nature, whilst exposing how EisTau questions the power relations between culture, politics and economy, in a bid to influence the current state of affairs. I argue that the depiction of the effects of climate change and the melting of glaciers enable public agency, whilst encouraging the rethinking of the environmental crisis and the acknowledgment of its connection to capitalism and to the constant accumulation of goods. I observe how the exposure of the interconnectedness of climate change and capitalism encourages behavioural changes that lead to the adoption of alternative lifestyles that can halt the disastrous effects of climate change and prompts readers to develop a sense of care for the non-human world.

Literary visions of post-apocalyptic worlds in the works of Mary Shelley, Margaret Atwood and Maggie Gee

Once hailed as the pinnacle of evolutionary progress, the human subject has more recently been under severe attack due to the destructive potential that has been unleashed by humans, especially in the last two hundred years. As a result, contemporary literature and art is replete with images of a utopia without humans. Many writers see humans, or rather human destructiveness, as the real plague on the planet and offer visions of utopia placed in the post-apocalyptic post-human era. Drawing on Patricia Vieira’s seminal article titled “Utopia and Dystopia in the Age of the Anthropocene”, I will first discuss how Mary Shelley portrayed ecological awareness in her The Last Man. I will then move on to examine how increasing ecological destruction leads to (post)-apocalyptic visions in the works of Margaret Atwood and Maggie Gee. My aim in juxtaposing two contemporary writers with Mary Shelley is to show that despite their different socio-historical contexts, these women writers have produced works that can not only be read as visionary and cautionary tales but that also promote heightened ecological awareness as an antidote to destructive and – ultimately – self-destructive tendencies of humankind.

Commodity traders in a storm: financialization, corporate power and ecological crisis

Commodity trading firms occupy a central position in global supply chains and their activities have been associated with financial instability, social upheaval and manifold forms of ecological devastation. This paper examines these companies in the context of debates regarding corporate financialization. We find that since the 2003–2011 commodity boom, trading firms have become less financialized in terms of the source of their profits as they have shifted away from financial activities. However, they have become more financialized in terms of the destination of profits, with dividend and share repurchase commitments reaching new heights after 2015. In view of this finding, we inquire into whether trading firms’ growing commitment to shareholder payouts will encourage them to continue to prioritize short-term returns, or whether instead these firms’ linkages to financial markets will lend clout to financial activists concerned by the long-term environmental and social consequences of their operations. Ultimately, we find several sources of commodity trader resilience which insulate them from shareholder resolutions and divestment campaigns aimed at curbing ecological destruction and human rights abuses in their supply chains. We accordingly suggest that pressures from activist investors must be complemented with more wide-ranging efforts to defend living systems across the planet.

De-confining borders: towards a politics of freedom of movement in the time of the pandemic

ABSTRACT This article, primarily focused on Europe, charts some of the momentous transformations in bordering practices, migration and global mobility that have been sparked by the new coronavirus pandemic. In a first part it argues that since the onset of the pandemic, the enduring ‘global mobility apartheid’ which uses citizenship and visa restrictions to police the differential access to mobility founded on race and class, has been supplemented by a fluctuating ‘sanitary apartheid’, seeking to separate populations designated as at risk of Covid-19 infection from those designated as Covid-free. While these logics are distinct, where states have conflated them, we have seen eruptive and mutating border violence. In a second more normative part the article seeks to rethink the demand for freedom of movement in the context of the pandemic, arguing that allowing migrants who today are illegalised to move in safe and legal ways is also the condition to implement sanitary measures to protect the health of migrants and sedentary populations alike. Adopting a mobility justice approach, the article also argues that the excessive mobility of the privileged through air travel that has been a major factor in spreading the virus and contributes to ecological destruction should be limited. Ultimately this article calls for re-thinking the politics of (im)mobility in the context of the pandemic as part of the process of transformation towards a more just and sustainable world.

Environmental Management of Shale Gas Development in China: Status and Challenges

Shale gas, as a clean energy, can save and substitute for a lot of coal and oil resource, reduce carbon emissions and further improve ecological environment. However, gas shale exploration has led to cause environmental issues such as air pollution, water pollution and ecological destruction etc., Through the method of literature study, social investigation and systematic analysis, the main challenges for the shale gas exploitation were studied, including the research on environmental impact of the shale gas development is not deep enough, pollution control technologies are still immature, and development techniques for deep shale gas aren’t master yet. The environmental management practices of shale gas development were systematically sorted out. First, strengthening basic research and key technologies tackling. Second, optimizing development planning and sequence of shale gas, promoting strategic environmental impact assessment and planning environmental impact assessment, the third, clarifying the management ideas and system of environmental impact assessment (EIA) and strengthen EIA supervision. The main problems still to be solved in the environmental protection of shale gas development, advices on both technical and management will be proposed, and it will offer experience for the shale gas exploring in China.

Masdar City: A Study of Energy, Infrastructure, and Technological Hope Hope

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has been a major supplier of fossil fuel for the world economy for decades, which has allowed the country to thrive economically. But global concerns over ecological destruction and climate change is prompting the UAE’s leaders to pursue alternative sources of energy. From this ecological fear, Masdar City was born, an ambitious project that hopes to create the world’s first “zero-carbon” emission city. The project’s goal is to utilize energy in a socially, economically, and environmentally sustainable system without sacrificing modern lifestyles. This case study will utilize theory on energy and infrastructures to analyze the implications of the project’s innovations, as well as to explore the rising intersection of neoliberalism and environmentalism to understand how a project like Masdar came to be. In 2016, ten years after its initial construction, the city still had not achieved net zero-carbon emissions, but a mere 50%. The project’s ambitions included the creation of a new energy-based currency to account for consumption, and the integration of a massive data vault that stores all consumption of energy.What is found is a complex and highly integrated information system that could lead to the selling of information and the corporate/governmental manipulation of data for control over populations.

Research on the coordination degree of ecological protection and high-quality development of urban agglomerations in the Yellow River Basin

The Yellow River Basin is ecologically fragile, the relationship between water and sand is unbalanced and water resources are scarce. This paper takes the urban agglomerations in the Yellow River Basin as the research object, based on the guidelines for the coordinated promotion of ecological protection and high-quality development in the basin, and uses the entropy weight method and the coefficient of variation method as the means to establish a quantitative evaluation system for coordinated development. The degree of synergy is between ecological protection and high-quality development of the urban agglomerations from the time dimension and the space dimension, and we give the optimization directions. The results show that the degree of synergy among urban agglomerations in the river basin is steadily increasing, but there are significant spatial differences in the degree of coordination of ecological protection and high-quality development of the urban agglomerations and the development index of its subsystems. The degree of synergy generally presents a cascade distribution pattern that gradually decreases from east to west and from downstream to upstream. The ecological destruction, economic fluctuations and water waste of the river basin urban agglomeration are the main factors hindering the improvement of synergy.

Perdurant Time

Sustainability is a matter of time. For years, scientists have been warning us that our time is up, if we do not “bend the curve” of greenhouse gas emissions. Thinking about future generations calls into question our inherited relationship with nature and the time-scale shift to the Anthropocene. Arguably this trend began with the Industrial Revolution around 1750 and has reached catastrophic levels with the increase of tropical cyclones, wildfires, flash flooding, and heatwaves. The question on most people’s mind is, do we have time to change? Change may occur over eons, such as geological events with the appearance or disappearance of significant life-forms. It may be momentary, such as a flash of insight where our perception of the world changes. Or, indeed, change can happen retroactively - as physicists conceptualize - time can be diffracted, changing the past. This suggests three ontological structures of time. Time is atemporal where things endure and preserve their identity through change. Time is subjective. Or entities have different temporal parts wherein entities unfold through time, referred to as perdurants. Our time is a time of a geological shift. Many geologists agree that we are moving from the Pleistocene to the Anthropocene, with the Doomsday Clock ticking ever closer to 12:00 midnight, deeply affecting the mood of the current generation. The battle cry for sustainability, already a contested word, has been appropriated by petroleum companies and big tech with promises of moving towards 50% lower carbon emissions by 2050. But when we read the fine print in their disclaimers, we find the language of “speculation,” “projection,” “forward looking,” and “risk,” rendering the term meaningless. This paper aims to extend the term sustainability to include all three ontologies of time. I will do this by (I) looking at Heidegger’s interpretation of Kant’s transcendental aesthetic in Section 3 of Heidegger’s 1929 monograph Kant and the Problem of Metaphysics, where he overcomes subjective time and the ontology of endurance that accompanies it. (II) Heidegger interchanges between endurance and perdurance in, “The Principle of Identity” (1957) and “The Onto-theo-logical Constitution of Metaphysics” (1956) navigating a knife-edge between identity and difference. (III) I will conclude by suggesting, when thought in terms of perdurance, sustainability can bend the curve in our current trajectory towards ecological destruction, by reimagining a better world.

The research on the Alication of Environmental Civil Public interest Litigation

In recent years, environmental pollution and ecological destruction are becoming more and more serious, so there is an urgent need for relevant legal regulation. Environmental civil public interest litigation takes the overall interests of the ecological environment as the core, and comprehensively uses a variety of means to deal with environmental problems. Through the review of the relevant theories and pilot implementation of environmental civil public interest litigation, there are some difficulties, such as relatively narrow litigation scope, few litigation subjects, poor connection between pre-litigation procedure and litigation procedure, and so on. We should expand the scope of litigation, expand the subject of litigation and link up the pre-litigation procedure and litigation procedure in an orderly manner, in order to achieve good overall operation effect, comprehensively protect the ecological environment, and safeguard the environmental rights and interests of citizens.