World Climate Change Research Articles

Spatial and temporal patterns of indicators of climate change and variability in the Arab world in the past four decades

A comprehensive assessment of the spatial and temporal patterns of the most common indicators of climate change and variability in the Arab world in the past four decades was carried out. Monthly maximum and minimum air temperature and precipitation amount data for the period 1980–2018 were obtained from the CHELSA project with a resolution of 1 km2, which is suitable for detecting local geographic variations in climatic patterns. This data was analyzed using a seasonal-Kendall metric, followed by Sen’s slope analysis. The findings indicate that almost all areas of the Arab world are getting hotter. Maximum air temperatures increased by magnitudes varying from 0.027 to 0.714 °C/decade with a mean of 0.318 °C/decade while minimum air temperatures increased by magnitudes varying from 0.030 to 0.800 °C/decade with a mean of 0.356 °C/decade. Most of the Arab world did not exhibit clear increasing or decreasing precipitation trends. The remaining areas showed either decreasing or increasing precipitation trends. Decreasing trends varied from −0.001 to −1.825 kg m−2/decade with a mean of −0.163 kg m−2/decade, while increasing trends varied from 0.001 to 4.286 kg m−2/decade with a mean of 0.366 kg m−2/decade. We also analyzed country-wise data and identified areas of most vulnerability in the Arab world.

Intermediary structure of paradiplomacy: examining sister-city links in Japan

ABSTRACTRecently, subnational-level international engagement, referred to as paradiplomacy, has garnered widespread attention globally. Many cities worldwide recognise paradiplomacy as an effective tool for addressing policy issues, such as world peace and climate change, unlike state-level diplomacy, which has struggled to offer solutions. Agreements and memoranda of understanding do not automatically develop while exercising paradiplomacy. In terms of implementation, it intrinsically requires two-dimensional dynamics: inter- and intra-city. Despite extensive research, few studies have argued for intra-city arrangements to implement paradiplomacy based on public administration theories stressing public policy capability. This study focused on sister-city agreements and clarified the significance of international exchange associations as intermediaries for intra-city cooperation arrangements from the perspective of policy implementation and network research. This study used multiple regression with data from a questionnaire survey on small- and middle-sized Japanese municipalities having the sister-city relationships with Australian counterparts. It concluded that an international exchange association was a significant antecedent to sister affiliation development, identifying the significance of budget size. The results of the study have theoretical and practical implications that stress the necessity of intermediary arrangements in policy implementation.

An epidemiological study of mental health problems related to climate change: A procedural framework for mental health system workers.

The Arab region has witnessed different biological hazards, including cholera, yellow fever, and the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, changes in rainfall and increased vegetation cover led to locust outbreaks in Tunisia, Libya, Morocco, and Saudi Arabia. This problem still exists and affects more than 20 countries and concerns indicate food shortages and food insecurity for more than 20 million people. This study aimed to detect mental health problems related to climate change in the Arab world. A cross-sectional descriptive survey was applied to determine the prevalence of mental health problems related to climate change (MHPCC). A random sample consisted of 1080 participants (523 male and 557 female), residents in 18 Arab countries; their ages ranged from 25 to 60 years. The Mental Health Problems related to Climate Change Questionnaire (MHPCCQ) was completed online. The results indicated average levels of MHPCC prevalence. The results also revealed no significant statistical differences in the MHPCC due to gender, educational class, and marital status except in climate anxiety; there were statistical differences in favor of married subgroup individuals. At the same time, there are statistically significant differences in the MHPCC due to the residing country variable in favor of Syria, Yemen, Algeria, Libya, and Oman regarding fears, anxiety, alienation, and somatic symptoms. In addition, Tunisia, Bahrain, Sudan, and Iraq were higher in climate depression than the other countries. The findings shed light on the prevalence of MHPCC in the Arab world and oblige mental health system workers, including policymakers, mental health providers, and departments of psychology in Arab universities, to take urgent action to assess and develop the system for mental health to manage the risks of extreme climate change on the human mental health.

Engineering α-carboxysomes into plant chloroplasts to support autotrophic photosynthesis

The growth in world population, climate change, and resource scarcity necessitate a sustainable increase in crop productivity. Photosynthesis in major crops is limited by the inefficiency of the key CO2-fixing enzyme Rubisco, owing to its low carboxylation rate and poor ability to discriminate between CO2 and O2. In cyanobacteria and proteobacteria, carboxysomes function as the central CO2-fixing organelles that elevate CO2 levels around encapsulated Rubisco to enhance carboxylation. There is growing interest in engineering carboxysomes into crop chloroplasts as a potential route for improving photosynthesis and crop yields. Here, we generate morphologically correct carboxysomes in tobacco chloroplasts by transforming nine carboxysome genetic components derived from a proteobacterium. The chloroplast-expressed carboxysomes display a structural and functional integrity comparable to native carboxysomes and support autotrophic growth and photosynthesis of the transplastomic plants at elevated CO2. Our study provides proof-of-concept for a route to engineering fully functional CO2-fixing modules and entire CO2-concentrating mechanisms into chloroplasts to improve crop photosynthesis and productivity.

Environment in Veterinary Education.

Environmental concerns have become priority issues over the last third of the 20th century. The EU's common agricultural policy (CAP) has gone from rules which supported the farming sector after years of famine to being oriented towards looking at environmental aspects. Therefore, it has evolved not only to react to a changing market and consumer demands but also to respond to climate change and the need for sustainable development. Environmental education is an important pillar for responding and adapting to climate change. The CAP policies oriented towards optimizing the use of natural resources, residue management, antimicrobial use reduction, the decrease of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), and animal welfare need linked educational programs. In this context, veterinarians, being experts in animal production, welfare, and food safety and its technology and public health under the One Health concept, are scarcely informed in environmental aspects, which would help them to understand and face the consequences of climate change in the rural world. Future veterinarians must be able to quantify the effects of animal production on the environment, optimizing the use of natural resources, minimizing GHG emissions, and managing the risks associated with climate change by using different analysis tools that need to be included in their learning programs.

Developing a prototype centre using agricultural smart sensors to promote agrarian production with technology

This article presents the development of a model center using agricultural intelligent center technology. The goal of this research is 1. To develop a wireless sensor network. 2. To be a source of learning on the use of sensor technology in agriculture. For local and nearby farmers Using the Sufficiency Economy Learning Center, according to King's Science. The Rajamangala University of Technology Suvarnabhumi is a research area. With the problems faced in farming today. It found that the world's climate change whether it's drought. Rains leave ranges and toxic airborne particulate matter caused by farming to match current problem conditions. The researchers then designed a two-part system: 1. Node Moisture Sensor that measures soil moisture and commands the opening – It also controls on-off with a manual switch. Wind speed and wind direction sensors, light intensity sensors, temperature, and humidity sensors, and Particulate Matters Sensor 1.0, 2.5, 10 with environmental reports within the growing area via Wi-F signals to (Sever) Raspberry Pi record real-time data. Every 30 seconds According to research, node moisture sensors can measure soil moisture and record results, and the station measures the environment within the growing area via a Wi-F signal to (Sever) Raspberry Pi. Rainfall values measured by local rainfall sensors measuring up to 35.3 mm are within the threshold of heavy rain. The maximum wind speed measured is 8.5 km/h, the maximum temperature of 35.8 degrees Celsius, and the maximum humidity of 99.9 percent, the light intensity is up to 58,002 Lux, and the Final Particles, with pm 1.0 up to 40.1 microns, PM 2.5 up to 51.3 microns and PM 10 up to 63.5 microns. Apply agriculture to 50 interested farmers after receiving knowledge transfer of smart sensor technology. The expansion has resulted in 3 farmers and will continue to expand in the future. Promote the use of agricultural technology. Intensifying communities and supporting global climate change

Wild emmer wheat, the progenitor of modern bread wheat, exhibits great diversity in the VERNALIZATION1 gene.

Wild emmer wheat is an excellent reservoir of genetic variability that can be utilized to improve cultivated wheat to address the challenges of the expanding world population and climate change. Bearing this in mind, we have collected a panel of 263 wild emmer wheat (WEW) genotypes across the Fertile Crescent. The genotypes were grown in different locations and phenotyped for heading date. Genome-wide association mapping (GWAS) was carried out, and 16 SNPs were associated with the heading date. As the flowering time is controlled by photoperiod and vernalization, we sequenced the VRN1 gene, the most important of the vernalization response genes, to discover new alleles. Unlike most earlier attempts, which characterized known VRN1 alleles according to a partial promoter or intron sequences, we obtained full-length sequences of VRN-A1 and VRN-B1 genes in a panel of 95 wild emmer wheat from the Fertile Crescent and uncovered a significant sequence variation. Phylogenetic analysis of VRN-A1 and VRN-B1 haplotypes revealed their evolutionary relationships and geographic distribution in the Fertile Crescent region. The newly described alleles represent an attractive resource for durum and bread wheat improvement programs.

Food composition databases in the era of Big Data: Vegetable oils as a case study.

Understanding the population's dietary patterns and their impacts on health requires many different sources of information. The development of reliable food composition databases is a key step in this pursuit. With them, nutrition and health care professionals can provide better public health advice and guide society toward achieving a better and healthier life. Unfortunately, these databases are full of caveats. Focusing on the specific case of vegetable oils, we analyzed the possible obsolescence of the information and the differences or inconsistencies among databases. We show that in many cases, the information is limited, incompletely documented, old or unreliable. More importantly, despite the many efforts carried out in the last decades, there is still much work to be done. As such, institutions should develop long-standing programs that can ensure the quality of the information on what we eat in the long term. In the face of climate change and complex societal challenges in an interconnected world, the full diversity of the food system needs to be recognized and more efforts should be put toward achieving a data-driven food system.

Research of daily stock closing price prediction for new energy companies in China

<abstract><p>Nowadays, China is developing new energy industries to reduce carbon emissions to meet the challenge of world climate change, so investors can consider to invest in stocks of Chinese new energy companies to gain income. In order to study how to forecast stock closing prices of new energy companies in China, we have chosen 12 representative companies, and first used autoregressive univariate time series models to predict the trends of the stock closing prices in the next month. The results show that Seasonal Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average model has the best out-of-sample trend prediction effect. Second, we use multivariate time series forecasting models to predict the stock closing prices of each day through external variables. The results show that Temporal Convolutional Attention Neural Networks has the best effect of out-of-sample prediction. We recommend that investors who are interested in investing in new energy companies in China first use the Seasonal Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average model to predict the short-term stock closing price trend in the future, and then use the Temporal Convolutional Attention Neural Networks model to predict the stock closing price on the next day to decide whether to invest.</p></abstract>

Integration of a heating and cooling system driven by solar thermal energy and biomass for a greenhouse in Mediterranean climates

World population growth, climate change, and water scarcity will increase food vulnerability, especially in developed countries. Therefore, increasing crop productivity is one of the main challenges to be addressed in the next years. In this sense, intensive horticulture will play a key role to supply the growing demand for food. In greenhouse farming in Mediterranean climates the passive control of the greenhouse ambient conditions is insufficient and, therefore, the use of active heating/cooling systems is required.The status of solar thermal, biomass, and absorption heat pump technologies makes the active management of greenhouse climate conditions technically feasible. At the same time, the utilization of solar thermal and biomass energies allows reducing, as much as possible, the consumption of natural resources and the generation of waste.In this study, we present a system based on solar thermal energy, biomass, and an air-cooled absorption chiller that are integrated to control the temperature of a greenhouse for tomato production in Mediterranean climates. The greenhouse thermal demand is firstly modelled with the TRNBuild tool and validated with real data obtained from a monitored greenhouse in southern Spain. The validated model is used to both study the system operation and determines the annual heating and cooling demands of a greenhouse with tomato crop (26.31 kW·h·m−2, and 61.97 kW·h·m−2, respectively), the energy performance of the system (solar fraction 54.92 %, and absorption chiller seasonal COP 0.624), and the annual biomass operational cost (2.70 €·m−2). This study also provides the specification of the main components (absorption chiller capacity, solar collector technology, absorbance area, biomass boiler thermal capacity, and water tank volume…) that can achieve these results. Moreover, the control for different typical days is shown.

Macroeconomic Effects of Climate Change in an Aging World

Macroeconomic Effects of Climate Change in an Aging World

Role of digitalization in environment, social and governance, and sustainability: Review-based study for implications.

Digitalization gives people access to a vast network of untapped data, which has the potential to help society and the environment. Smart systems connected to the internet can systematically provide a unique opportunity to solve difficulties related to long-term sustainability. The goals are to create an egalitarian, ecologically sustainable, and healthy society. Technological resources are envisioned as game-changing instruments. Three key concerns integration benefits are highlighted here: (i) sustainable development goals, (ii) socio-economic development, and (iii) the role of digital technology in environmental sustainability. This viewpoint describes the potential that digitization can create a future sustainable society. The technological network would unite the urban and rural worlds under a shared banner of sustainable development, keeping all social elements in the loop. Nations that take a comprehensive strategy will be able to provide equitable growth and an efficient, sustainable, and digital existence for their citizens. As a result, digitization provides better living conditions, active public involvement, clean governance, and transparency in public welfare programs and processes. People who are well-informed, self-aware, and digitally equipped will be better learners, thinkers, reformers, participators, and change and growth agents, marching forward on sustainable progress. The advantages of digitization in hastening the transition to sustainable industrial processes and improving people's health and happiness are explored. Finally, the perspective encapsulates the advantages of digitization by offering a holistic vision of how technology could aid in addressing major challenges such as endangered world biodiversity and climate change.

Regenerative Braking Optimization Using Particle Swarm Algorithm for Electric Vehicle

In recent years, the topic of reducing fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emission has become one of the major focuses on the automotive industry leading toward the development of electric vehicles to create awareness of environmental protection. Thus, the development of hybrid electric vehicle (HEV), plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV), and fully electrical vehicle (EV) has started growing up to replace the gasoline car, which is fully depends on fuel to operate, to help fight against the world climate change issues. This research is mainly focused on solving the problem of charging period of traditional used batteries pack, energy storage system of EV, and the limitation on travel distance for EV with the use of batteries pack as an energy source. The proportional-integral (PI) controller based on particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm is implemented in this simulation to optimize the speed of BLDC motor by obtaining an optimized parameter of Kp and Ki. The MATLAB/Simulink software is used for graphical modelling, simulating, and analyzing the behavior of supercapacitor in various condition. The simulation results represent the proposed PSO-based energy management method can achieve greater energy efficiency as compared to the traditional method. All in all, moving forward in developing a fully electric buses or vehicles can bring society into a new generation of zero greenhouse gas emissions. In this paper, the optimization of the PI controller based on PSO algorithm is applied and the results show that there is an increment of 6% in total distance traveled by the EV. Besides, there is the 3.69% of improvement for maximum speed and peak to peak speed of the EV and 14.57% of improvement in terms of average speed of EV within the total travel duration of 1300 s.

An overview of the socio-economic impacts of the green hydrogen value chain in Southern Africa

The green hydrogen economy offers synthetic green energy with significant impacts and is environmentally friendly compared to current fossil-based fuels. Exploration of green hydrogen energy in Southern Africa is still in the initial stages in many low-resourced settings aiming to benefit from sustainable green energy. At this early stage, potential benefits to society are yet to be understood. That is why the socio-economic impact of green hydrogen energy must be explored. This paper reviews the current literatures to describe the potential socio-economic effects in the Southern African Development Community (SADC). The review supports the view that green hydrogen will be beneficial and have great potential to revolutionise agricultural and industrial sectors, with advanced sustainable changes for both production and processing. This paper also examines how sustainable green hydrogen energy production in Southern Africa will provide economic value in the energy export sector around the world and support climate change initiatives. Further, it discusses the impacts of the green hydrogen value addition chain and the creation of green jobs, as well as the need for corresponding investments and policy reforms. It is also noted that the green hydrogen economy can contribute to job losses in fossil fuel-based industries, so that the workforce there may need re-skilling to take up green jobs. Such exchanges may deter efforts towards poverty alleviation and economic growth in SADC.

Current and Future Trend Opportunities of Thermoelectric Generator Applications in Waste Heat Recovery

Today, with the increase of industrialization, the waste heat emitted by the industrial machines used has started to increase. Therefore, the energy efficiency of these devices also decreases. In addition, this waste heat remains a bad factor that plays a role in the world's climate change. Governments are implementing incentive policies to increase energy efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore, both scientists and engineers strive for a cleaner environment and energy. Thermoelectric generators (TEGs) are one of the devices that contribute to energy efficiency and sustainable energy production by ensuring the recovery of a certain part of the waste heat emitted by these machines to the environment. The TEGs have found traditional uses from the waste heat of microprocessors to the waste heat of stoves. However, their proliferation is limited by their efficiency less than 10% and their high purchasing costs. Academicians and engineers continue to work without slowing down to overcome these. The semiconductors with low thermal conductivity and high electrical conductivity are the main subjects studied in this field. With overcoming these difficulties, it is aimed to use thermoelectric generators in the future to convert the waste heat of almost all devices into electrical energy. Therefore, the main purpose of this study is to investigate the current innovations of TEGs and to determine the future trend. Among the main findings of this study, it is predicted that TEGs will be widely used in areas where there is a need for silent and maintenance-free energy in the future.

Wildlife 3D multi-object tracking

The study of wildlife populations and species has gained increased relevance due to significant endangerment, loss of habitats and world climate change. Using camera traps for monitoring is a common method to estimate species diversity, occupancy and relative abundance. We present a 3D multi-object tracking method for wildlife camera trapping using RGB-D cameras. We infer precise three-dimensional pose estimations of individual animals (i.e. locations and orientations) and also three-dimensional estimations of their observed movements, including velocity estimations. More precisely, we achieved a scaled Average Multi-Object Tracking Accuracy (sAMOTA) of 88.43%. The code is available athttps://github.com/m-klasen/3D_wildlife_tracking.

In-depth and feedback analysis of the relationship between human activities, the environment and economic growth in Africa

PurposeThe literature argues that human activities are responsible for environmental pollution and world climate change. Africa is the second-largest continent by population and its socio-economic conditions are adversely affected by climate change due to environmental pollution. Therefore, this study investigates the relationship between human activities, the environment and the economic growth of 38 African countries from 2000 to 2018.Design/methodology/approachThis study employs a simultaneous equations model called Seemingly unrelated regression.FindingsHuman capital development (HDI) and environmental health (EH) have a positive and non-linear relationship, while HDI and ecosystem vitality (EV) are negative and non-linear. The relationship between gross domestic product per capita (GDPPC) and EH is negative and non-linear. However, the GDPPC-EV link is insignificant. Trade openness (TO) and EV have a negative and non-linear relationship, but trade significantly improves EH. Urbanisation-EV relationship is positive and non-linear. However, urbanisation significantly reduces EH. Technology has a positive and non-linear relationship with EH and EV. The study also found that EH and EV positively affects the economy.Originality/valueThis is the first study to analyse the most concerned countries in-depth. Thus, it provides appropriate and sound policies that consider the unique characteristics of the nations. Moreover, it uses a robust estimation technique that overcomes the endogeneity problem and offers insight into the relationship between the variables, including the feedback effect of the environment on growth.

The Impact Of The United States Foreign Policy During The Donald Trump Government On Global Climate Governance

The problem of climate change is one of the most crucial issues today. The various impacts that have occurred due to climate change have increased the world community's awareness of the effects in the future. This was exacerbated by the existence of U.S. foreign policy when the Trump administration voted to exit the Paris Agreement. The lack of research into the impact of the U.S withdrawal from the Paris Agreement on tackling global climate issues has prompted the study. This paper will analyze the impact of what has arisen from the U.S withdrawal from the Paris Agreement during the Trump administration, using foreign policy theory in interpreting the actions or policies taken by Donald Trump in the withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, the constructivist approach used in analyzing international regime formation as a social construct, the concept of climate governance in analyzing the impacts that occur, and the Theory of International Regimes initiated by Stephen Krasner examines the world's climate change regime. The method used in this research is a qualitative research method with explanative writing techniques. This study shows that there are three significant impacts resulting from the Withdrawal of the United States from the Paris Agreement, among others, the increase in global emissions that are bad for the environment, which is indicated by increased activity that produces gas emissions in the United States region. Second is the decline of climate finance mechanisms that will affect the quality of climate change reports produced. Third, this withdrawal will also affect global climate governance, which will affect the compliance of member countries to the agreement.

Wasted world o sporco mondo: tradurre i testi divulgativi per ragazzi sull’ambiente

The paper focuses on the Italian translations of two English informational books for children: Wasted World (2009) and Kids Fight Climate Change (2020), which deal with environmental issues. Informational books texts result from a complex dissemination process aimed at making specialised knowledge comprehensible to young readers. To achieve this purpose, informational books rely on various discursive popularising strategies, such as an array of explanations, and various methods for eliciting readers’ engagement, such as questions and irony. Indeed, they are part of what has come to be known as “edutainment,” in which education and entertainment are intertwined to create a “hybrid genre” (Buckingham and Scanlon, 2005). As the texts examined in the paper engage with ecology and environmental issues, they have a dual purpose: to inform and to raise awareness (ecoliteracy). Despite the importance of popularising texts, the translation of such products is still an underexplored field of research. The comparative analysis of the two English texts and their respective Italian translations centres on how global warming and climate change are described in the source and target texts. It examines how the popularising strategies are translated, given their importance in knowledge dissemination for children. The findings indicate that Italian translations, though retaining the combination of education and entertainment, tend to be more precise and more complex than the source texts. This is in line with the intercultural differences identified between Low Context (LC) cultures and High Context (HC) cultures.

Establishment of heterotic groups for hybrid wheat breeding

<p indent="0mm">Hybrids utilized in maize and rice production are excellent examples of enhancing crop yield to meet the demand of the increasing world population and climate change. Similarly, hybrid wheat should provide an avenue to increase wheat yield and stress tolerance. Heterosis of wheat is relatively weak due to its allopolyploidy, narrow genetic base between varieties, and long-term varietal selection. The construction of wheat heterotic groups can improve hybrid parental breeding and selection, increase the genetic difference between parents, and enhance the performance of hybrids. To form heterotic groups, it is necessary to understand how heterotic groups are structured. The genetic mechanism of heterosis is not completely understood at present. Research shows that there is no clear relationship between heterosis-related QTL and crops. Also, there is no fixed mode of heterosis in a species. Because multiple genes control heterosis, selection with molecular markers is difficult. Heterosis can be largely attributed to non-additive effects of genes and specific combining ability (SCA) of hybrid combinations. High general combining ability (GCA) of parents plays an important role in maintaining strong heterosis between heterotic groups. Therefore, wheat heterotic group development needs to increase the GCA of parental lines within each heterotic group and select hybrid combinations with high SCA. Some desirable traits for a male heterotic group include tall or medium plant height, heavy pollen production, and strong anther extrusion. Desirable traits for female parents include dwarf or semi-dwarf plant height and large glume opening angle. Disease resistance is important in both male and female groups. Commercial production of hybrid wheat is possible only through the use of male sterility systems. Male sterility in the female parents must be restored by genes in the male parent. Pedigrees, phenotypes, combining ability, genetic distances, and genomic prediction can be used to develop heterotic groups. Genomic prediction can be used to predict heterosis and identify potential heterotic patterns/groups existing in a large number of materials, and, therefore, guide selection of parent lines for development of excellent hybrids. However, the prediction accuracy of statistical models needs to be improved. Utilization of materials from wheat core collection in genomic prediction will facilitate the formation of the training population, and has the potential to improve the prediction accuracy. Recurrent selection in both male and female groups plus reciprocal recurrent selection based on genome prediction can be used to improve wheat heterotic groups. The process of constructing heterotic groups in wheat includes primary population classification, prediction and improvement of heterotic groups, and identification of the best hybrid combination. Development of heterotic groups adaptable to different wheat production regions may utilize both domestic high performing varieties and foreign elite wheat germplasm. Wild relatives with unique traits may also facilitate hybrid wheat breeding and production in China.