Major Cause Of Environmental Degradation Research Articles

Energy Consumption, Economic Growth and the Environmental Degradation in Asian Countries

Environmental pollution is an emerging issue in Asian countries. It affects quality of life and is dangerous for human life. It has been observed that carbon emissions from Asian countries are speedily increasing. The major factors causing environmental degradation are GDP per capita, industrialization, urbanization, and energy use. This study is an effort to highlight the causes of environmental degradation in eight Asian countries by using 10 years of data. Moreover, the study has used the fixed effect method to highlight the significance of major causes of environmental degradation in the concerned economies. Results show that urban population, energy consumption, economic growth, and financial development increase carbon emission CO2 (i.e., environmental degradation) in Asian countries. The result suggested that the Government must reduce the carbon emission level in these countries and must provide a better environment to the population.

Advances in Growth-Promoting Rhizobacteria Function on Plant Growth Facilitation and Their Mechanisms

In modern times, agriculture has been a major cause of environmental degradation due to both natural and artificial factors. However, there is a silver lining in the form of Plant Growth-Promoting Rhizobacteria (PGPR), a beneficial microbial community present in the rhizosphere soil of plants. PGPR can adjust soil pH, reduce the burden on plants, and accelerate their growth, making it an excellent choice for sustainable agriculture. This article delves into the mechanism of how PGPR promotes plant growth and highlights its impact under different environmental conditions. The aim is to promote the use of PGPR biofertilizers, which could revolutionize the field of agriculture and pave the way for a greener future.

Investigation of resource curse hypothesis: the role of renewable energy and urbanization in realizing environmental sustainability in China.

This research investigates the resource curse hypothesis and environmental sustainability by integrating China's natural resources, renewable energy, and urbanization. However, the EKC N shape describes the complete picture of the EKC hypothesis for the growth-pollution relationship. The findings of FMOLS and DOLS show that economic expansion positively drives carbon dioxide emissions in the beginning, then negatively so after the target level of growth is reached. Continuing economic expansion in China does not maintain the intended level and again has a beneficial impact on the country's carbon dioxide emissions. However, the EKC U, inverted U, and N shapes persist in the growth-pollution connection over the long term. Although adopting renewable energy and urbanization help reduce carbon dioxide emissions, the formation of fixed capital worsens environmental conditions. Natural resource rents are a major cause of environmental degradation and the resource curse that has plagued China. Economic growth, as well as its square and cube, has a causal effect on CO2 emissions, as shown by the frequency domain causation. Carbon dioxide emissions at frequencies of 0.05, 1.50, and 2.50 are momentarily predicted by the use of renewable energy and urbanization. The investigation recommends switching to renewable energy sources owing to low cost and the potential to limit the overuse of non-renewables. To balance the overdo of natural resources and ensure continued long-term growth-environment sustainability, technological advancement is recommended as a countermeasure as a mitigating mechanism.

The impact of energy efficiency in reducing environmental degradation: does renewable energy and forest resources matter?

The vast utilisation of energy sources in promoting economic growth has been identified as the major cause of environmental degradation (through carbon emission). Therefore, the efficient utilisation of energy ensuring the minimisation of any wastages is vital in reducing environmental degradation. The current research aims to investigate the importance of energy efficiency, forest resources, and renewable energy in reducing environmental degradation. The major novelty of the research is that it seeks to investigate the impact of forest resources and energy efficiency on carbon emissions. Literature shows that there is still a dearth on the association of forest resources and energy efficiency, with carbon emissions. We employ data of the European Union countries for the time frame ranging from 1990 to 2020. The CS-ARDL technique depicts that raising GDP by 1% raises carbon emissions by 5.62% in the short run and 2.93% in the long run, raising renewable energy by 1 unit reduces carbon emissions by 0.098 and 0.03 units in the short and long run, respectively, whilst raising energy efficiency by 1% reduces carbon emissions by 6.29% and 3.29% in the short and long run, respectively. The Fixed Effect and Random Effect tools support the outcomes of the CS-ARDL tool on the negative effect of renewable energy and energy efficiency, and the positive effect of GDP on carbon emissions, and also depict that raising non-renewable energy by a single unit raises carbon emissions by 0.07 and 0.08 units, respectively. Forest resources, in this present research, do not significantly impact the emissions of carbon amongst the European nations.

Clean Energy as an Alternative: Identification of Factors Determining the Willingness of Slum Dwellers

Increasing trends towards globalization and modern lifestyle are going to deplete, energy resources rapidly. Increasing trends towards energy use directly harness the environment and ecosystem of the earth, depicting that energy will be one of the most important future problems of the world. Clean and sustainable energy alternatives are required to meet this demand in order to combat the antagonistic environmental problems. Renewable energy sources have the potential to fulfill the energy gaps without affecting the ecosystem and the greenhouse gases emittance. The transformation of people causes the generation and creation of slum areas in the cities due to ever-increasing urbanization. Presently around one billion people are residing in slum areas. Most slum dwellers are found in less economically developed countries, which makes it 30% of the total population. The inhabitants of slum dwellers are more likely to be increased by two billion by 2030 and to three billion by 2050. Pakistan is facing a severe energy deficiency. The energy gap between energy supply and demand is widening with time. Limited fossil fuel resources allow the country to import nonrenewable energy resources to fill this gap. Gas connection problems and energy shortfalls compel urban households to use nonrenewable energy resources. The need of the hour is to diversify the energy resources like biogas, hydropower, solar, and wind to overcome the energy shortfall in the country. Fossil fuel usage for an energy source in households is the major cause of environmental degradation in urban households. Owed to bad smoke and insufficient ventilation, health-related problems like respiratory issues, stomach problems, and other contagious diseases are associated. The smoke that is caused by the combustion of biofuels impacts residents health badly, especially respiratory problems. The primitive aim of this research is an assessment of energy sources being used and to dig out reasons for their impacts on the health conditions of residents of slum dwellers in Pakistan stratified random sampling is used for data collection and correlation analysis was performed to find out the result.

Evaluating a pathway for environmental sustainability: the role of energy mix and research and development in European countries.

Within the European Union (EU), the majority of countries are considered developed, and the level of economic activity is rising. As a result, carbon dioxide emissions have increased. If the European Union wants to maintain long-term, sustainable growth, it must act quickly to find solutions to pollution. Population, wealth, renewable energy, nuclear energy, and research and development (R&D) are all factored into the STIRPAT model to determine their respective environmental impacts. Slope heterogeneity and cross-sectional dependence are explored in panel data for 30 European nations from 1990 to 2021 using a newly developed Cross Section Autoregressive Distributed Lag (CS-ARDL) method. The study found that population growth and the continued use of fossil fuels are major causes of environmental degradation. Alternately, employing renewable and raising incomes both have the potential to significantly cut pollution over the long run. Likewise, investments in R&D assist lessen the damage done to the environment. The nuclear energy coefficients, however, are insignificant. However, fossil fuels have negative effects on the ecosystem. If the EU wishes to stop the degradation of the environment, the analysis demonstrates that renewable energy is the best way to do it. The time has come for the EU to make a gradual transition away from fossil fuels and toward more environmentally friendly alternatives. Economic growth should be matched by decreased CO2 emissions, and increasing investment in R&D can serve as a catalyst for environmental sustainability. The results were reviewed using three different estimators: the augmented mean group (AMG), the mean group (MG), and the common correlated effects mean group (CCEMG). Important policy recommendations for a sustainable European environment are also suggested by the research.

Asymmetric effect of environmental cost of forest rents in the Guinean forest-savanna mosaic: The Nigerian experience.

Several studies have identified deforestation as a major cause of environmental degradation, but little is known about the asymmetric effect of the environmental cost of forest rents. To fill this gap, our study uses the nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) model and asymmetric causality test to examine the environmental implication of forest rents in the Guinean Forest-Savanna Mosaic of Nigeria over the period 1990:Q1 to 2016:Q4. The empirical results show that forest rents increase CO2 emissions when the shock to forest rents is positive and decreases CO2 emissions when the shock to forest rents is negative. The results further show evidence of asymmetric effects of crop production, fossil fuel energy consumption, and economic growth on CO2 emissions. Moreover, the effects of both positive and negative shocks in economic growth are elastic, suggesting that CO2 emissions respond in a larger magnitude to a 1% positive or negative shock in economic growth. While the positive shock to crop production and economic growth stimulates CO2 emissions, their negative shocks dampen CO2 emissions. In addition, the positive (negative) shocks to fossil energy consumption exert upward (downward) pressure on CO2 emissions. Furthermore, the asymmetric causality test divulges that a positive change in forest rents causes a negative change in CO2 emissions and a negative change in forest rents causes a positive change in CO2 emissions. Based on these findings, the study recommends the need for policymakers to formulate sound policies to protect the forests and transit toward clean energy consumption to minimize energy-related CO2 emissions in the country.

The Building Information Modeling (BIM)-Based System Framework to Implement Circular Economy in Construction Waste Management

The tremendous quantity of waste produced from construction and demolition is a major cause of environmental degradation. This quantity tends to increase due to the rapid growth of building development and renovation. Meanwhile, construction waste management is a complex and costly process due to the fact that it requires different kinds of resources such as money, land, and technology. It is often ignored by all project participants even though it is an essential element of construction project management. However, it has been discovered that modern construction waste management is structured based on the concept of circular economy which focuses on eliminating construction waste and maximizing the value of materials. Therefore, this research proposes an innovative framework to implement the circular economy using building information modeling (BIM) in order to improve the construction waste management process. This involved a thorough review of past literature to identify the implementation of the concept of circular economy, waste management, and the application of BIM, also the research gaps observed were used to develop the functionality of the proposed framework. The five functionalities include (1) visualization and data integration, (2) direct construction waste quantity take-off, (3) BIM-based sorting system and selection of appropriate disposal parties, (4) estimating cost and schedule of waste disposal, and (5) simulation and monitoring report. This BIM system was designed to analyze material waste, quantity, disposal time, and waste treatment based on project conditions, material quantities, and schedule. It can also be used to plan and monitor the construction waste process, thereby making it possible to avoid the disruption of productivity and project time usually caused by unplanned waste management activities. Moreover, the proposed on-site sorting system also has the ability to facilitate the adoption of the circular economy concept during the construction phase.

Progress or Regress? A Systematic Review on Two Decades of Monitoring and Addressing Land Subsidence Hazards in Semarang City

Land subsidence is a major cause of environmental degradation. It increases the exposure of global sea level rise-related disasters in coastal cities lying on young sediment. Ample monitoring, adaptation, and mitigation measures have been taken to tackle the impact of such coastal hazards for decades in Semarang City. However, to date, land subsidence still has a negative impact on people’s quality of life. This brings us to the question of whether the measures are progressing towards better management or going to the opposite side. This paper is aimed to answer that question through an extensive literature review using PRISMA Guidelines to 125 scholarly articles and quantitative supporting analysis. We found that land subsidence is overlooked. Although the monitoring measures are progressing towards better technology utilization, it was not properly integrated into mitigation and adaptation measures. Instead of investing more on developing better urban water management, groundwater extraction still became the preferred water source. Thus, there is a major shift needed with regard to urban activities that need to pay more heed to the environment.

A community-GIS supported dryland use and cover change assessment: The case of the Njemps flats in Kenya

Land use and Land Cover Changes (LULCC) are a major cause of environmental degradation in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) drylands and hence a serious problem to sustainable utilization and development of...

Indigenous Land Grabbing and Forests Right Defilement by Small Farm Holders in Nguti, Cameroon

Land grabbing from small farm holders of Nguti is the major cause of environmental degradation and forest right violation. This article posits how the rural communities of Nguti are experiencing a range of political skirmishes resulting from large scale land acquisition which is threatening local land-use practices and access to land. The paper divulges that oil palm enterprises have encouraged the proliferation of small grab farm holders. This has forced members to engage in illegal sale of large portions of forest land leading to environmental degradation and distortion in their livelihood activities. A three-component integration method of questionnaire administration, GPS recordings and interview/ field observation were used for data collection. The data was analysed using the Microsoft excel spread sheet and the maps realized through the QGIS software. Results from findings adhere to the fact that 61% of land acquisition by the minor farm holders comes from local chiefs, 26% bought land from the indigenes while 13% obtained it from elites and family. Land conflicts occur between the small farm holders and the local community because they have intruded in land without authorisation from the traditional council leading to boundary conflicts. Some 10% of the small farm holders have acquired land influentially as a violation of the indigenous land rights. The activity has caused environmental squalor in the form of habitat loss as forests and plants are at risk of extinction. There is water resource depletion as the streams used by the villagers for portable water have completely withered. Inappropriate water management, fertilizers and pesticides run-off from fields to adjacent rivers and lakes and contaminate groundwater sources. This article acclaims that there is a need to sensitise the communities, especially the youths, on illicit land sales and incessant monitoring of the Nguti area against environmental degradation.

Reg(u)arding Indigenous Environmental Discourses in Philippine (F)laws

The main proposition of this research is to establish the inherent overlap of environment and culture in the Agta-Dumagat consciousness, and how this influences environmental policy-making. To answer this, this research sought to locate the cultural angle in overarching laws on environmental protection and establish the influence of these laws on how the Agta-Dumagats frame their material-symbolic discourses. RA 7942 and PD 705, focused on mining and forestry management, contain conflicting views both on state and indigenous ownership and utilization of natural resources—two of the major causes of environmental degradation identified by the Agta-Dumagats. Interviews with SAGIBIN-LN council of leaders and surveys on human-nature relations showed that their narratives are characterized by a sense of desperation as they shared stories replete with oppressive themes. If they are regarded as minorities in situ, the Local Government Units would be hard-pressed to consider their legitimizing indigenous voice on climate change.

Tourism-Energy-Environment-Growth Nexus: Evidence from India

This paper examined the dynamic linkages between tourism development, energy consumption, environmental degradation and economic growth in the context of the Indian economy. The short-run findings establish a chain-link between tourism development, economic growth, energy consumption and environmental degradation. Foreign tourist arrivals positively contribute to economic growth which in turn increases per capita energy use thereby raising CO2 emissions – a major cause of environmental degradation and consequential adverse effects on tourism development. The long-run findings, although inconclusive, are only indicative of short-run observations. Therefore, the policy focus should be on devising promotional strategies for encouraging the extensive use of clean energy for environmental protection. Such a policy base can be instrumental in fostering the development of India tourism and also, be pivotal for achieving sustainable economic growth.

An Effectual Model of Collective Action for Addressing Sustainability Challenges

Market failure has been cited as a major cause of environmental degradation due to business activity. Yet entrepreneurs often play an active role in tackling environmental issues and developing sustainable solutions for them. Whereas a rising literature on sustainable entrepreneurship seeks to investigate how they do this, rigorous microfoundations for such investigations do not yet exist. With a view to developing such microfoundations, we reanalyzed Nobel laureate Elinor Ostrom’s historical case study of governance structures for managing water basins in the Los Angeles area. Our analysis allowed us to bring together Ostrom’s institutional analysis and development framework and effectuation to show how effectual entrepreneurs transform market failures into sustainable solutions by self-selecting stakeholders. The resulting integrated model of collective action serves both as a practical guide for entrepreneurs seeking to tackle sustainability issues and as a theoretical framework for researchers to develop rigorous microfoundations for future empirical work.

Tax Incentives for Green Industries: Determinants of Performance between Green Building Index (GBI) and Non-Green Building Index Firms in Malaysia

Industrialization, urbanization, and economic growth are among the major causes of environmental degradation. These factors are closely related to the construction sector. To curb the issue, the government has initiated tax incentives to encourage developers embracing green technology. Developers who entitled to these tax incentives should enjoy a considerable amount of tax savings, which can be employed for capital reinvestment. Consequently, this study aims to determine whether firms that specifically involve with the construction of green buildings and have received the tax incentives are more likely to achieve relatively better financial performance, as a result of tax benefits gained from the government assistance. For the empirical analyses, secondary data was employed. A total of 138 firm-year observations from 2015 until 2017 used to measure the firm’s characteristic of board size, asset tangibility, deferred tax balances, and leverage against financial performance. The Theory of the Growth of the Firm was used to interpret the relationship between the financial characteristics and firm performance. We obtain evidence that indicates there is no significant difference in the financial performance between the GBI and non-GBI firms. The deferred tax balance, a proxy of the investment tax allowances granted by the Malaysian government to the GBI firms, is shown to be ineffective in improving the financial performances of these firms. The finding of this study suggests that any form of tax assistance from the government for the construction sector has not benefitted its recipients and requires remodeling.

Nitrogen application rates need to be reduced for half of the rice paddy fields in China

Increasing nitrogen (N) application to croplands in order to support growing food demand is a major cause of environmental degradation. However, evaluations of suitable N application rates based on environmental benefit have rarely been carried out for paddy-rice at a national scale in China. To address this challenge, we investigated the current status of N management in 1531 counties, covering the primary agro-ecological regions of Chinese rice production in 2008, and conducted 12 field experiments with six N level practices for 3 years (2011–2013). Results showed that the highest yields for rice were 5.8–8.6 Mg ha−1 with N rates of 209.4–289.8 kg N ha−1. Compared with the N rate for the highest yield (YHN), the environmentally optimal N rate (EnON) was lower by 20–39% and the corresponding N loss was reduced by 21–45%, while ensuring 95–99% of the highest crop yield. In China, the N inputs to paddy fields exceeded the YHN and EnON rates by 10% and 45%, respectively. After adjusting the N rate to paddy fields to the EnON rate, the N amount used in China and the corresponding N lost would be reduced by 0.9 and 0.5 Tg N yr−1, respectively, which enable highly efficient production of food with the lowest N loss possible. Thus, we suggest that N use rates for 45% of rice paddy fields in China, for which N application rates exceed the EnON rate, need to be reduced to mitigate environmental damage, and this can be done while still meeting China’s food demand.

Mandatory Health Impact Assessment for Promoting Public Health in Malaysia

Indiscriminate land development activities and poorly planned built environment is the major cause of environmental degradation that impacts adversely on public health. Polluted environment can expose people to pollutants causing asthma and respiratory problems whilst improperly planned development without open space for recreation influence lifestyles that contribute to diabetes, hypertension, coronary vascular disease due to sedentary lifestyle and lack of physical movement. Public health advocates can help shape the design of cities and suburbs in ways that improve public health, but to do so effectively they need to contribute to the development planning and control process. This paper proposes for the incorporation of the health impact assessment proves as a mandatory requirement for preparation of development plans and application for planning permission. The research relies on literature review, analysis of relevant statutes and governmental policy documents providing for policy directions for formulating the legal regulatory framework.

IN THE SEARCH FOR EFFECTIVE WASTE POLICY: ALIGNMENT OF UK WASTE STRATEGY WITH THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY

Over-consumption within a linear economy has been recognised internationally as a barrier to sustainability and a major cause of environmental degradation and economic disparity. To address these issues, the transition towards a circular economy (CE) has been advocated. A broad resource efficiency concept, the CE seeks to reduce consumption, encourages the reuse and recycling of materials and products, and encompasses the three pillars of sustainable development; economic prosperity, environmental protection, and social equity. Efforts to implement the CE have seen the introduction of various hierarchies that prioritise the implementation of R-imperatives (such as the ‘3Rs’ of reduce, reuse, recycle). One such example is the waste hierarchy, originally introduced to encourage sustainable waste management and more recently reiterated by the EU Circular Economy Package as a means to stimulate the transition to the CE. Following the development of a CE Framework, this study presents a content analysis of the waste strategies of the four devolved nations of the United Kingdom. Key differences and similarities in the strategies of the four devolved nations are identified and discussed in light of CE aims, core concepts and principles (with particular focus on promotion of the waste hierarchy), enablers, and stakeholder engagement, where Scotland and Wales were found to have the most progressive strategies. This study also considers the potential impact of Brexit, where it is recommended an overarching UK-wide strategy that provides consistent and collaborative long-term objectives is required to replace the overarching objectives previously supplied by the EU policy.

Assessment of the impact of cassava mill effluent (CME) on the microbial diversity, physicochemical parameters and heavy metal concentrations in the receiving soil

Cassava mill effluent has become a major cause of environmental degradation which affects soil properties. This study revealed the impact of cassava mill effluent on microbial diversity, physicochemical parameters and heavy metal concentrations in the receiving soils collected in triplicate between April and June, 2015 from five sites in Ogwa, Edo State, Nigeria. Standard methods were used for the soil analysis. The mean heterotrophic, coliform and fungal counts ranged from 1.38 + 4.6x10 8 CFU/g to 8.90 + 5.5x10 8 CFU/g, 1.20 + 6.1x10 8 CFU/g to 9.4 + 5.6x10 8 CFU/g and 4.17 + 2.4x10 8 CFU/g to 7.90 + 2.8x10 8 CFU/g respectively (p Cu 2+ > Zn 2+ > Mn 2+ > Cr 6+ > Ni 2+ > V 2+ > Cd 2+ > Pb 2+ . The cassava mill effluent negatively affected the soil microbial diversity, physicochemical parameters and heavy metal concentrations in the impacted soils. Key words: Cassava mill effluent, Microbial diversity, Physicochemical parameters, Heavy metals, Receiving soil.

Impact of Dyeing Industrial Pollution on Farm Income and Production in Tiruppur District of Tamil Nadu

India targeted to achieve 3-4 per cent growth per annum in agricultural sector and to produce 400 million tonnes of foodgrains by 2020. To achieve this target the strategies of the green revolution are not valid. The high usage of fertilisers and chemicals did not increase the productivity of agriculture. They had caused environmental degradation. Hence, there is a need to identify new strategies to achieve the goals. Environmental degradation is one of the most pronounced problems in agriculture. The industrial pollution is a major cause of environmental degradation. The growing industries had aggravated the problems of environmental degradation in agriculture. Hence, the policies which promote sustainable agriculture, in terms of food security, rural employment and environmentally sustainable technologies are needed. The findings of the study showed that all the farmers (cent per cent) had responded that the dumping of industrial waste was the major cause of industrial pollution in agriculture. The quality of land was completely eroded and the crops were burnt due to dyeing industrial pollution. It was not able to use for drinking water of the farmers and livestock. If one additional farmer had cultivated in an area polluted industries, the farm income had reduced to the extent of ` 3, 24, 644.196. Moreover, the farmers in polluted area were not able to allocate farm inputs more efficiently. Hence less technical efficiency was observed in the production function of polluted area.