Issues Of Environmental Degradation Research Articles

A Study on Hydrated Phases of Ternary Blended Binder via Thermal Analysis

Replacing the cement content with alternatives material such as GGBS is a wonderful way to solve the issues of environmental degradation caused by cement manufacture. However, the concrete produced using GGBS has some drawbacks such as lower initial strength and higher dry shrinkage. Thus, the ternary blended binder replacement was proven to improve the properties of concrete due to its synergistic effect. RHA is an agricultural waste achieving broader awareness because of its considerable impact on the microstructural properties as well as improving the strength of the concrete. Therefore, in this study, cement as a primary binder containing high-volume GGBS was prepared with RHA via adiabatic temperature (steam curing) and normal curing conditions. The effects of increasing the amount of RHA pre-treated as replacement level of the primary binder with 5%, 10%, 15%, and 20%, with a constant amount of GGBS (50% of slag) were characterized using thermogravimetric analysis (TGA/DTA). The findings showed that RHA reacted as a filler and can be used as a secondary source of SiO2 in cement containing high-volume GGBS production. The inclusion of 60% replacement of RHA-GGBS improves the CSH gel due to CH consumption with SiO2 which is more prominent in long terms ages.

The Role and Practices of Traditional Culture in The Tibetan Plateau Ecosystem: A Systematic Review

The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP) is known as the roof of the world. Climatic conditions and living environments in the QTP are extreme. Yet, its environment is vital for species conservation, freshwater resources and local livelihood. In recent years, the Tibetan Plateau’s ecological environment has been degraded by climate change and human activities. Traditional Tibetan culture offers a new perspective on this issue of environmental degradation. Tibetan people, motivated by religion and custom, are kind to living beings as well as mountains and lakes. The sacred sites are therefore relatively well-preserved ecosystems. However, traditional knowledge alone is inadequate for preserving this endangered environment and should therefore be combined with modernity. An ecosystem service-based economy has the potential to balance culture, techniques, ecosystem health and economic growth.

OPTIMAL LOCATION OF WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANTS CONSIDERING MULTIPLE FACTORS: A CASE STUDY OF PHNOM PENH

Abstract. Urban wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) as an important engineering facility for urban water pollution prevention and control, the appropriate location selection for the WWTPs is the most important stage in the process of wastewater treatment. Improper site selection can lead to degradation of the water environment. Phnom Penh is located in the delta between the Mekong River and Tonle Sap River, with dense population, and most residents are religious. There are no sufficient and proper WWTPs available in many areas resulting in the environmental degradation and human health issues, so it is used as the study area. In the article, we proposed a new indicator system to select the location for WWTPs. The indicator system is established from RS/GIS data, which integrates social-cultural and multiple others factors, and more comprehensively analyzes the spatial distribution of suitable and demand areas for WWTPs. Finally, the minimize facilities and maximize coverage model are further used for spatial location selection of WWTPs, which can supply scientific plan and technological support for location selection of the WWTPs.

ICTs, growth, and environmental quality nexus: dynamic panel threshold regression.

ICTs (information and communication technologies) have emerged as a potent new force. Digitalization, modernization, and automation of the manufacturing process are expected to facilitate ICT adoption, resulting in increased genuine environmental concerns. This research aims to examine the impact of ICTs on environmental quality and the relationship between ICTs, environmental quality, and economic growth. Dynamic panel threshold regression was employed, and the sample countries comprised 69 developing countries from 2010 to 2019. The threshold technique will identify the precise threshold value of ICTs and highlights the impacts of ICTs on the environmental quality nexus when above and below the threshold value in developing countries. Empirical evidence suggests that ICTs positively impact environmental quality (CO2) when above the ICTs threshold value. However, ICTs provide a positive but insignificant impact on environmental quality when below the ICTs threshold value of 4.699. Additionally, ICTs affect the economic growth and environmental quality nexus, with increasing economic growth resulting in a decrease in CO2 emissions in developing countries when ICTs are below the threshold value. Thus, the ICTs threshold value should be used to ensure that ICTs adoption promotes sustainable economic growth and resolves environmental degradation issues in developing nations.

Green growth, natural resources and sustainable development: Evidence from BRICS economies

Most economies are shifting towards green growth to lower climate change and environmental degradation issues. Yet the question prevails regarding the nexus of green growth and economic performance. This study investigates the impact of green growth, green innovation, natural resources, and renewable energy on the economic performance of the BRICS economies. This study employs second-generation panel data approaches covering the period from 1991 to 2014. Slope heterogeneity, cross-section dependence, and unit root test is used. All the variables possess a long-run equilibrium relationship. While the method of moments quantile regression asserted that green growth exhibits a heterogeneous impact on economic performance. Green innovation is found in a negative association, while renewable energy consumption and natural resources are the prominent factors of economic performance in the region. The results are robust as the mean group estimator validates the findings of the earlier estimator. This study suggests appropriate policies for green growth to stabilize its positive influence on economic performance, enhancement of renewable energy consumption, and optimal use of natural resource rents to encourage economic performance in the region.

Is it only about science and policy? The 'intergovernmental epistemologies' of global environmental governance.

Although international actors operating under the United Nations umbrella put much faith in the possibility of bridging science and policy through various institutional arrangements, research in the Science and Technology Studies (STS) tradition suggests that different civic epistemologies revolve around environmental degradation issues. Civic epistemologies, which imply peculiar understandings of knowledge across cultures, are not easily bridged. This paper contends that conflicting (civic) epistemologies inevitably emerge in epistemic debates at the intergovernmental level, with strong implications for how science and knowledge are dealt with and understood in environmental negotiations. Drawing on the experience of global soil and land governance and building on the idiom of civic epistemologies, the concept of intergovernmental epistemologies is introduced as an analytical tool to capture the diverging ways of appreciating and validating knowledge in intergovernmental settings. Placing state actors and their perspectives center stage, intergovernmental epistemologies account for the tensions, contestations and politicisation processes of international institutional settings dealing with environmental issues. The paper concludes discussing the consequences of intergovernmental epistemologies for the study of global environmental governance: it cautions about overreliance on approaches based on learning and all-encompassing discourses, emphasizing the value of using STS-derived concepts to investigate the complexity of international environmental negotiations.

The relationship between renewable energy consumption, technological innovations, and carbon dioxide emission: evidence from two-step system GMM.

Large amount of energy use for rising economic growth leads to high carbon dioxide discharge that worsens environmental quality which is a challenge for countries in achieving sustainable development. Improved level of technological innovations and renewable energy consumption might overcome the issue of environmental degradation and achieving sustainable development. This study examines the effect of technological innovations on renewable energy consumption and carbon dioxide emission in the belt and road initiative countries for the period of 1995 to 2019. Two-step difference and two-step system GMM models were employed for analysis where the results indicate that technological innovations increase renewable energy consumption and carbon dioxide emission. The effect of renewable energy consumption and trademark applications on carbon dioxide is negatively significant that raises environmental quality. Furthermore, this study confirms the validity of Environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis in the sample countries. The findings of this study have considerable policy implication for the sample countries on rising technological innovations and renewable energy consumption in achieving environmental sustainability.

Ground-based measurements of atmospheric NH3 by Fourier transform infrared spectrometry at Hefei and comparisons with IASI data

Atmospheric ammonia (NH3) plays an important role in the formation of fine particulate matter, leading to severe environmental degradation and human health issues. In this work, ground-based Fourier transform infrared spectrometry (FTIR) observations are used to obtain the total columns of atmospheric NH3 at Hefei, China, from December 2016 to December 2020. After the presentation of the retrieval algorithm and uncertainty budget, we perform a spatio-temporal analysis of the dataset. Over the four years, NH3 columns have been increasing by 15.82% (2017–2018), 3.83% (2018–2019) and 3.68% (2019–2020). A clear seasonal cycle is observed, with the largest surface concentrations (12.93 ± 6.40 ppb) observed in June to August, and the lowest (4.08± 2.66 ppb) in November to January. The diurnal cycles of NH3 exhibit increased morning and afternoon concentrations. Interpretation of the diurnal cycles is difficult, however, the absence of a peak during rush hours, and the absence of correlation with CO and NO2 suggest that agriculture and not traffic is the main source of NH3 at Hefei. The polar plots of NH3 columns with wind and back trajectories of air masses calculated by the HYSPLIT model confirmed that agriculture was the dominant source of ammonia in four seasons, while urban anthropogenic emissions contributed to the high level of NH3 in summer over the Hefei site. We end this paper with a short validation exercise of NH3 columns retrieved from measurements of the IASI satellite data with the FTIR measurements over Hefei. Correlation coefficients (R) between the two datasets are 0.79 and 0.75 for IASI-A and IASI-B, with the slope of 0.96 and 1.10, respectively. The mean difference is −3.44 × 1015 and −3.96 × 1015 molec cm−2, with standard deviation of 7.16 × 1015 and 8.10 × 1015 molec cm−2, respectively. These results demonstrate the IASI and FTIR data, over Hefei, are in broad agreement.

Attitude of Peri-Urban Households towards Environmental Protection in Rivers State, Nigeria

The study focused on the Attitude of peri-urban households towards environmental protection in Rivers State. Specifically, the study described the socio-economic characteristics of the respondents, identified areas of environmental issues, identified the peri-urban households’ sources of information on environmental issues, ascertained the strategies adopted by periurban households for environmental protection, examined attitude of peri-urban households towards environmental protection strategies and identified the factors affecting the periurban household’s attitude towards environmental protection strategies in the study area. Multi-stage sampling was used to select a sample of 200 respondents. Data were collected with the use of questionnaire and analyzed using frequency, percentage and mean. The hypotheses were tested using Regression Analysis and t -test and results obtained were 6.60 and 0.33 which implied that there was significant relationship between peri-urban households’ sources of information on environmental issues in the study area, a nd there is no significant difference between peri-urban households’ attitude towards environmental protection in the three senatorial district, respectively. The result revealed that 61.51% of the respondents were male, 63.0% of them were married with mean age of 47 years old. Air, water, soil and other forms of pollution ( ̅ 3.57),increased threat on public health ( ̅ ), loss of biodiversity ( ̅ , ocean becoming more acidic ( ̅ ), rapid and steady depletion of atmospheric ozone layer ( ̅ , increase cases of deforestation ( ̅ etc were agreed by the respondents to be environmental degradation issues in the study area. The respondents agreed that their sources of information on environmental issues were mostly radio programmes ( ̅ , print media ( ̅ ), television programmes ( ̅ friends and neighbours ( ̅ The strategies adopted by the respondents for environmental protection include reuse of nylon and other carry bags, protect and use natural resources in an appropriate and cost effective manner. The factors affecting respondents attitude towards environmental protection were media and family influence. It was recommended that Peri-urban, urban and rural dwellers should adopt the various environmental protection strategies to ensure the safety of the environment.

The Influence of Economic Growth and Energy Consumption on Environmental Degradation in Pakistan

Globalization has substantial influence on the environmental issues and consequently on the economic activities of a country. Environmental problems are more prominent in developing countries. With the growing development, the issue of environmental degradation is also enhanced. The non-renewable energy consumption is the main cause of environmental degradation and this problem can’t be ignored. Therefore, the main objective of this research is to analyze the connection among energy consumption, growth of an economy, and emission of carbon dioxide gas in Pakistan. The data is collected from World development Indicators. Autoregressive Distributed-Lag Model (ARDL) is used for the analysis. The outcomes of ARDL technique stipulate that energy consumption and growth of an economy rise the emission of CO2 in Pakistan. On the basis of these results, it is suggested that policy makers in Pakistan must implement and encourage different sources of energy, which are renewable and will support to fulfill the huge demand of energy to boost the economy and to contribute in a sustainable environment of Pakistan.

The role of financial development and institutional quality in environmental sustainability: panel data evidence from the BRI countries.

The belt and road countries are mostly emerging and developing countries and heading to attain economic prosperity; however, this development process leads to ecological footprint. The factors of ecological footprint need to be identified and sound level of quality institutions might be helpful to overcome the issue of environmental degradation. Utilizing data from 1985 to 2019 of the belt and road initiative (BRI) countries, this study explores the effect of institutional quality indicators and financial development on carbon dioxide emission by including energy consumption and economic growth to the model. By using OLS, fixed effect, and two-step generalized method of moments, the results indicate that financial development, economic growth, and energy consumption increase carbon dioxide emission and degrade environmental quality. Three out of six institutional quality indicators that include government effectiveness, voice and accountability, and corruption control effect carbon dioxide emission positively, while the other three that include rule of law, regulatory quality, and political stability significantly rise environmental quality. The interaction terms of voice and accountability, government effectiveness, and political stability with financial development also give negative coefficients and reduce emission; however, the interaction of control of corruption with financial development is positive and the interaction of rule of law and regulatory quality with carbon dioxide is insignificant. The findings have considerable policy implication for the sample countries on each individual institutional quality indicator and financial institutions in rising environmental sustainability.

PARADIGMA EKOLOGIS DALAM TAFSIR AL-QUR’AN

This paper provides a detailed analysis of the Qur'an's teachings on environmental protection. First, the Qur'an provides an overview of the creation of the universe through its verses. The verses also define numerous natural terms, such as living things, plants, soil, and water, among others. Second, the Qur'an explains that human intervention is necessary to maintain the balance of nature. Therefore, the Qur'an emphasizes that humans are responsible for maintaining, caring for, and preserving their living environment. Even the Qur'an provides a stern warning to humans who harm the environment. The Qur'an provides several concepts of environmental sustainability, including gratitude for the gift of natural resources, respect for nature, and stewardship of the natural environment. The way these ecological verses are explained demonstrates that the Qur'an is highly relevant and even contextual to the issue of environmental degradation. To protect and preserve nature, it is necessary to conduct a study of interpretation using an ecological paradigm

Environmentalism in India: Issues and Legal Measures

„Environmentalism‟ is a term that denotes the concern for the preservation, restoration, or improvement of the natural environment, such as the conservation of natural resources, prevention of pollution, certain land use actions and shaping a better human life by keeping the purity of the nature. It supports efforts and struggles of people, organizations and institutions against the spread of the objects and means of environmental degradation, such as exploitative and destructive misuses of natural resources that end up the ecological balance and creates multi-dimensional pollution to their way of life, which are seen as less harmful to the environment. For the last four decades, the world has continuously struggled to reach a new beginning to initiate a united journey with the growing need to protect the environment and natural systems that support all life. The present study aims to discuss issues of environmental degradation and significant administrative trends in India. It reveals a comprehensive range of legal provisions adopted by the government to balance the environment with the development of the nation. The people should recognize the environmental problems and change their attitudes and behaviour suitably to devote themselves to helping the mother earth to renew. Hence, implementing strict constitutional and legal environmental laws, educating the young generation, and organizing awareness programmes are the crucial and motivating steps that will help in increasing the people‟s concern for nature and boost the public to participate in programs organized to protect the environment. Awareness and participation can efficaciously help society to develop sustainability.

Electrospun nanofibrous ZnO/PVA/PVP composite films for efficient antimicrobial face masks

Air pollution is a major concern for the global community due the environmental degradation and human health related issues. Along with vehicular gaseous discharges, there are microbial contaminants in our atmospheric air causing health problems. Different types of innovations have been carried to produce efficient face masks suitable to filter both particulate and microbial contaminants. In this paper, low cost and highly stable nanofibrous ZnO/PVA/PVP composite films created utilizing electrospinning technique, and their various properties, including antimicrobial activities are reported in the first time. Zinc Oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles dispersed homogeneously mixed PVA/PVP polymer blend solution was used in the electrospinng system to prepare ZnO/PVA/PVP composite nanofiber. The nanofiber properties have been investigated utilizing scanning electron microscope (SEM), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, UV–Visible spectroscopy and X-Ray Diffraction (XRD). Antimicrobial activity study conducted on the fibers showed good results, indicating the usefulness of the prepared nanofibrouse material for antimicrobial face masks.

Employees' Green Enterprise Motivation and Green Creative Process Engagement and Their Impact on Green Creative Performance.

Based on the recent surge in environmental degradation issues mainly caused by the manufacturing industry and the inadequacy of the measures taken to respond to them, this research focuses on investigating whether employees’ motivation to protect the natural environment leads to their green creative performance (GCP) at work. It also examines the role of green creative process engagement (GCPE) as a mediator between green motivation (GM) and GCP. Structural equation modeling (SEM) is used to examine the hypotheses which indicated that employees’ GCP appears to be significantly influenced by their GM. Moreover, GCPE is also found to act as a mediating factor between the two. Moreover, industry type and gender are found to play significant roles in the studied variables. The current research is among the pioneer studies that focus on involving employees in the pro-environmental creative process through green motivation, leading towards GCP, an essential element for achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The study’s findings can help companies promote GCP to solve today’s most pressing environmental issues and achieve sustainable development goals.

Do financial development and energy efficiency ensure green environment? Evidence from R.C.E.P. economies

The issue of climate change and environmental degradation has been prevailing for the last few decades. Yet economies are further expanding due to free trade agreement which accelerates the trade of energy and carbon intensive commodities across the regions. A prominent example of such free trade is the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (R.C.E.P.), which mostly remains ignored. The current research study explores the influence of financial development (F.D.) and energy efficiency (E.N.E.F.) on carbon emissions in the R.C.E.P. economies. Also, this study analyses the role of economic growth and renewable energy on environmental quality during the period from 1990 to 2020. Panel data approaches such as slope heterogeneity, cross-section dependence, and the second-generation panel unit root test are used. The non-normally distributed variables are found cointegrated. Therefore, a novel method of moments quantile regression is used. The results demonstrate that F.D. and economic growth are positively associated with CO2 emissions. At the same time, E.N.E.F. and renewable energy consumption (R.E.C.) significantly reduce the emissions level and promote a green environment in all quantiles. The environmental Kuznets curve is found valid in the R.C.E.P. economies. These results are robust as validated by Fully-Modified Ordinary Least Square – a parametric approach. A two-way significant causal association exists between carbon-economic growth, carbon-F.D., carbon-R.E.C., and carbon-E.N.E.F.. The findings suggest an enhancement in R.E.C., improvement in the E.N.E.F. approaches, and implications for green F.D. in the region.

Financial Risk, Renewable Energy Technology Budgets, and Environmental Sustainability: Is Going Green Possible?

Since the industrial revolution, countries have been facing the issue of climate change and environmental degradation. It is widely believed that the investment in research and development of renewable energy can play a pivotal role in fighting against climate change. However, the financial risk also increases, which can influence renewable energy technology R&D budgets and environmental sustainability. Nevertheless, the current literature is silent on the linkage between financial risk, renewable energy technology budgets, and environmental quality. Against this backdrop, this article attempts to explore the dynamic linkage between financial risk, renewable energy technology budgets, and ecological footprint under the Environment Kuznets Curve (EKC) framework in Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries. For this purpose, yearly data from 1984 to 2018 is employed using the advanced panel data estimation methods that address the slope heterogeneity and cross-sectional dependence issues. The results indicate that improvement in the financial risk index significantly decreases footprints, and renewable energy technology budgets also promote environmental sustainability. Economic globalization poses a significant negative effect on the ecological footprint, while energy consumption adds to the footprint. Moreover, the findings validated the EKC hypothesis in OECD countries. In addition, a unidirectional causality is detected from financial risk to renewable technology energy budgets, while bidirectional causality exists between financial risk and ecological footprint, and between financial risk, and economic growth. Based on the empirical findings, policy suggestions are presented to promote environmental sustainability.

Minding environment, minding workers: environmental workers' mental health and wellbeing.

Climate change and environmental degradation caused by human activities are having an irrefutable impact on human health, particularly mental health. People working in the environment sector are confronted with these impacts daily. This exploratory study was conducted as a response to concern in the sector about rising levels of worry and distress, and a need for organizational knowledge about effective workplace mental health strategies. Using evidenced-based frameworks for workplace mental health and wellbeing, the study focused on the relationship between climate change, environmental degradation and mental health issues for this sector. This Australian-based exploratory qualitative study was guided by participatory research approaches. Maximum variation and criterion sampling strategies were applied to engage environmental sector senior managers (n = 8) in individual/paired interviews, followed by online focus group sessions with frontline employees (n = 9). Qualitative thematic analysis techniques were used in an iterative process, combining inductive and deductive strategies. Data was triangulated and interpretation was finalized with reference to literature and a workplace mental health promotion framework. Interview data provided new perspectives on the interconnectivity between risk and protective factors for mental health. Workers were motivated by commitment and values to continue their work despite experiencing increasing levels of trauma, ecological grief, and stress due to overwork and ecological and climate change crises. The findings highlight the need for integrated health promotion approaches that acknowledge the complex interactions between risk and supportive factors that influence mental health in this sector.

The impact of renewable energy, internet use and foreign direct investment on carbon dioxide emissions: A method of moments quantile analysis

The current era of industrial development and innovation is revolutionized using the internet, robotics, and artificial intelligence. Nevertheless, the appraisal of global economic progress shows increasing trends, there are environmental degradation issues associated with this improvement. The role of renewable energy, urbanization and foreign direct investment received a lot of attention in the literature on environmental issues, however, the simultaneity with information communication technology is missing. Therefore, the present study used data from 10 emerging countries during 1996–2015 and applied the novel Method of Moments Quantile Regression to analyze the nexus among the variables. Further, we applied the second-generation unit root test, and Driscoll Kraay standard errors to reach robust results. The findings revealed an inverted U-shape relationship between economic growth and environmental degradation; thus, the validity of the Environmental Kuznets Curve is revealed. Moreover, foreign direct investment is significant and positive at 0.05th-0.50th quantiles, however, it becomes insignificant at higher quantile levels. Urbanization enhances while renewable energy mitigates carbon dioxide emissions at all quantile levels. Information communication technology proxied by internet usage reduces environmental degradation significantly at 0.25th-0.95th quantile levels. Results of the study suggest insights for the policymakers to mitigate carbon dioxide emissions through encouraging renewable energy and internet use.

CoP nanoplates dotted with porous Ni3S2 nanospheres for the collaborative enhancement of hydrogen production via urea-water electrolysis

In order to solve the environmental degradation issues induced by the overuse of fossil energy and indiscriminate discharge of urea-rich wastewater, it is imperative to design high-performance electrocatalysts with dual functions for both hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and urea oxidation reaction (UOR) applied in water electrolysis devices containing urea. In this text, we demonstrate an interfacial engineering to prepare a heterostructure of porous Ni3S2 nanospheres decorated CoP nanoplates on NF scaffold (NF/CoP@Ni3S2). It exhibits the eminent catalytic competence towards HER (-68.9 mV at 10 mA cm−2) and UOR (1.379 V at 100 mA cm−2). Moreover, whether for HER or UOR, its performance degradation is almost negligible after working for 27 h at 50 mA cm−2. Finally, the constructed (−)NF/CoP@Ni3S2||Ni3S2@CoP/NF(+) device just needs 1.574 V to afford a current density of 100 mA cm−2 with an outstanding durability (only 4.2 % of the voltage rise is observed after electrolyzing for 27 h). This work not only provides a new possibility to fabricate metal phosphide-sulfide assemblies with advanced performance, but also offers an attractive way to mitigate water pollution in an eco-friendly way and provide an alternative energy source.