Download or read book Environmental Crises in Central Asia written by Eric Freedman and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-10-23 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Environmental conditions do not exist in a vacuum. They are influenced by science, politics, history, public policy, culture, economics, public attitudes, and competing priorities, as well as past human decisions. In the case of Central Asia, such Soviet-era decisions include irrigation systems and physical infrastructure that are now crumbling, mine tailings that leach pollutants into soil and groundwater, and abandoned factories that are physically decrepit and contaminated with toxic chemicals. Environmental Crises in Central Asia highlights major environmental challenges confronting the region’s former Soviet republics: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. They include threats to the Caspian and Aral seas, the impact of climate change on glaciers, desertification, deforestation, destruction of habitat and biodiversity, radioactive and hazardous wastes, water quality and supply, energy exploration and development, pesticides and food security, and environmental health. The ramifications of these challenges cross national borders and may affect economic, political, and cultural relationships on a vast geographic scale. At the same time, the region’s five governments have demonstrated little resolve to address these complex challenges. This book is a valuable multi-disciplinary resource for academics, scholars, and policymakers in environmental sciences, geography, political science, natural resources, mass communications, public health, and economics.
Download or read book Environmental Change and Human Security Recognizing and Acting on Hazard Impacts written by Peter H. Liotta and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2008-07-31 with total page 483 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Environmental and Human Security: Then and Now 1 2 ALAN D. HECHT AND P. H. LIOTTA * 1 U. S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of Research and Development 2 Pell Center for International Relations and Public Policy Salve Regina University 1. Nontraditional Threats to Security The events of September 11, 2001 have sharpened the debate over the meaning of being secure. Before 9/11 there were warnings in all parts of the world that social and environmental changes were occurring. While there was prosperity in North America and Western Europe, there was also increasing recognition that local and global effects of ecosystem degradation posed a serious threat. Trekking from Cairo to Cape Town thirty years after living in Africa as a young teacher, for example, travel writer Paul Theroux concluded that development in sub-Saharan Africa had failed to improve the quality of life for 300 million people: “Africa is materially more decrepit than it was when I first knew it—hungrier, poorer, less educated, more pessimistic, more corrupt, and you can’t tell the politicians from the witch-doctors” (2002). While scholars and historians will debate the causes of 9/11 for some time, one message is clear: An often dizzying array of nontraditional threats and complex vulnerabilities define security today. We must understand them, and deal with them, or suffer the consequences. Environmental security has always required att- tion to nontraditional threats linked closely with social and economic well-being.
Download or read book State Making and Environmental Cooperation written by Erika Weinthal and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2002 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A study of the relationship between environmental cooperation and state building in post-Soviet Central Asia.
Download or read book Central Asia Atlas of Natural Resources written by Asian Development Bank and published by Asian Development Bank. This book was released on 2010-04-01 with total page 578 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This atlas brings together a wealth of information related to living and nonliving natural resources in the five countries of Central Asia---Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. It contains an array of maps based on geographic information systems and remote sensing images, numerous photographs, tabulations of important data, and extensive descriptive text that together illustrate and describe the region's bountiful natural resources, its diversity of peoples, and their progress toward sustainable development. Highlights include geographic and climatic features; environmental, economic, and social profiles; energy, minerals, and water resources; ecoregions and ecosystems; major fauna and flora; agriculture and fisheries; peoples and cultural traditions; and economic and social statistics.
Download or read book Ecosystem Health written by Robert Costanza and published by . This book was released on 1992 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As environmental regulatory and management agencies (most notably the Environmental Protection Agency) move toward a broad set of management goals to protect ecosystem health, developing an adequate definition for "ecosystem health" has become increasingly important. This work is a multidisciplinary collection of perspectives on the concept of health as it relates to ecosystems. The contributors - leading ecologists, philosophers, and economists - analyze the normative, conceptual, and biological issues surrounding the idea of ecosystem health. They examine both theoretical and practical aspects of the issues, and look at philosophical and ethical underpinnings as well as implications for public policy and ecosystems management. Ecosystem Health is a groundbreaking attempt to formulate an understanding of the quality and health of natural environments so that regulatory mandates can be brought in line with legislative goals. Ultimately, it seeks a new ethic of sustainability that will serve to protect the vital processes of nature.
Download or read book Golden Aging written by Maurizio Bussolo and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2015-06-23 with total page 363 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Compared to other regions, Europe and Central Asia are by far the oldest. Moreover, population aging is set to accelerate further over the coming decades as large segments turn old. Additionally, some countries such as Russia and certain Eastern European countries are facing a shrinkage of their population. Against this backdrop, this report investigates what stands in the way of societies reaping the full benefits of increased longevity--that is, longer lives and potentially prolonged payoffs from human capital--and what can help to mitigate the possible negative impacts of a smaller and older workforce. Beginning with a focus on demographic trends, the report puts the rapid decline in fertility and contrasting migration trends in the region in a historical perspective and looks forward to the varying paths that population change may follow in the region. Next, it examines the evidence on the likely impact of demographic change on growth and savings, the labor force, firm and economy-wide innovation, poverty and inequality, and intergenerational solidarity. Finally, the report goes beyond diagnostics and puts an emphasis on what we know regarding successful policy interventions, presenting evidence on what has and has not worked in the past.--Publisher description.
Download or read book Adapting to Climate Change in Eastern Europe and Central Asia written by Marianne Fay and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2010-01-28 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Adapting to Climate Change in Eastern Europe and Central Asia presents an overview of what adaptation to climate change might mean for the countries of the region of Eastern Europe and Central Asia (ECA). The next decade offers a window of opportunity for ECA countries to make their development more resilient to climate change.
Download or read book Environmental Health in Central Asia written by Dilorom Fayzieva and published by Computational Mechanics. This book was released on 2004 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the last few years new directions in environmental health research have been successfully developed in the Central Asian republics. This volume contains a broad scientific review of possible influences of environmental conditions such as ambient air quality, water supply, sanitation, nutrition, and industrial and agricultural activity on the health of those living in the Aral Sea Basin. Promoting a better understanding of current environmental health problems in this region, the book includes the following chapters: ambient air quality and dust exposure; water quality, water supply and sanitation; industrial activity and health; epidemiological studies of non-infectious diseases; infectious diseases, microbiology and immunology; nutritional aspects; children's health; use of pesticides in agriculture and health effects; and strategies for the future.
Download or read book Asian Atmospheric Pollution written by Ramesh P. Singh and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2021-08-31 with total page 582 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Asian Atmospheric Pollution: Sources, Characteristics and Impacts provides a concise yet comprehensive treatment of all aspects of pollution and air quality monitoring, across all of Asia. It focuses on key regions of the world and details a variety of sources, their transport mechanism, long term variability and impacts on climate at local and regional scales. It also discusses the feedback on pollutants, on different meteorological parameters like radiative forcing, fog formations, precipitation, cloud characteristics and more. Drawing upon the expertise of multiple well-known authors from different countries to underline some of these key issues, it includes sections dedicated to treatment of pollutant sources, studying of pollutants and trace gases using satellite/station based observations and models, transport mechanisms, seasonal and inter-annual variability and impact on climate, health and biosphere in general. Asian Atmospheric Pollution: Sources, Characteristics and Impacts is a useful resource for scientists and students to understand the sources and dynamics of atmospheric pollution as well as their transport from one continent to other continents, helping the atmospheric modelling community to model different scenarios of the pollution, gauge its short term and long term impacts across regional to global scales and better understand the ramifications of episodic events. - Covers all of Asia in detail in terms of pollution - Focuses not only on local pollution, but on long-term transport of these pollutants and their impacts on other regions as well as the globe - Includes discussion of both particulate matter and greenhouse gases - Serves as a single resource on Asian air pollution and Impacts from the most current research across the globe including the US, Asia, Africa and Europe
Download or read book Understanding the role of ruminant systems on greenhouse gas emissions and soil health in selected Central Asian countries written by Lopes, J.C., Dondini, M., Zhumanova, M., Rulli, M., Falcucci, A. and published by Food & Agriculture Org.. This book was released on 2021-05-27 with total page 72 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Like many other economies in transition, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan face the dual challenge of promoting development and reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and ruminant systems are central for achieving both goals. Given the important economic, nutritional and environmental roles that ruminant systems play in Central Asia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, we conducted a GHG assessment (based on Tier 2 methodology according 2006 IPCC Guidelines) to understand the role of ruminants and grasslands in emissions and soil organic carbon sequestration in the region. This study found that enteric methane and manure management are the predominant sources of emissions from cattle systems; however, the study found that regions with high GHG emissions from the cattle systems also had the highest soil carbon stocks. This is mainly due to the high apportion of carbon into the soil from manure and organic amendments. Thus, in these regions, tailored practices could likely reduce GHG emissions through practices that can increase organic carbon storage. This project was the first step in understanding the role of ruminants through advanced GHG accounting methods and serve as a basis for these countries to take on larger climate investment projects and catalyse climate action through sustainable livestock development.
Download or read book Growing Green written by Uwe Deichmann and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2013-04-12 with total page 426 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Economic Benefits of Climate Action shows how well-designed policies can reduce the ECA region s carbon footprint while promoting growth opportunities and protecting the living standards of lower income households.
Download or read book Environment and Health in Central and Eastern Europe written by Clyde Hertzman and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 1995-01-01 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report draws on lessons learned in urban development lending to build a conceptual framework for improving the delivery of services. This framework looks beyond local governments alone as the cause of poor performance and points toward reforming the incentives they face. The report examines key issues in service delivery, such as the need to clarify the division of functional responsibilities between levels of government, to make revenue sources correspond to functional responsibilities, and to establish a governmental system that balances central regulation with local incentives for responding to constituents. The book seeks to begin a global dialog on ways of improving urban service delivery and to serve as a catalyst for further learning from the rich experience of reform underway in many developing countries. The issues addressed in the report especially pertain to countries undertaking decentralization. Also available: French (ISBN 0-8213-3314-3) Stock No. 13314; Spanish (ISBN 0-8213-3315) Stock No. 13315.
Download or read book Critical Approaches to Security in Central Asia written by Edward Lemon and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-05-21 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Central Asia remains on the periphery, both spatially and in people’s imaginations. When the region does attract international attention, it is often related to security issues, including terrorism, ethnic conflict and drug trafficking. This book brings together leading specialists from a range of disciplines including geography, anthropology, sociology and political science to discuss how citizens and governments within Central Asia think about and practise security. The authors explore how governments use fears of instability to bolster their rule, and how securitized populations cope with (and resist) being labelled threats through strategies that are rarely associated with security, including marriage and changing their appearance. This collection examines a wide range of security issues including Islamic extremism, small arms, interethnic relations and border regions. While coverage of the region often departs from preconceived notions of the region as dangerous, obscure and volatile, the chapters in this book all place emphasis on the way local people understand security and harmony in their daily lives. This book will be of interest to students and researchers of Central Asian Studies as well as Security Studies and Political Science. The chapters were originally published in the journal Central Asian Survey.
Download or read book Skills Not Just Diplomas written by Lars Sondergaard and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2012 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Future growth in the countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia (ECA) will increasingly depend on innovation. And innovation requires skills. This makes it important, as countries plan for recovery, to undertake reforms to reduce the skills shortages that the previous growth episode exposed. Education systems have a very important role to play in creating the right skills. But education systems in the region fall short of the demands of their economies in two major ways. The first is that despite high levels of enrollment they do not produce enough graduates with the right skills. Students graduate with diplomas, not with skills, because the quality of the education for many students is poor. In large part this is because education systems remain focused on providing an excellent education to a few at the expense of improving the quality of learning for the majority. Moreover, the systems are still making the transition from teaching the basics to inculcating higher order skills such as critical-thinking and problem solving. The second way in which education systems fall short is that outside of a few countries in the EU there are few opportunities for adults to retrain, or acquire new skills. This book argues that generating more of the right skills requires a fundamental change of approach in the education systems in the region so that they aim for, and deliver, higher quality education for the vast majority of students (not just diplomas but skills). To start with, education systems need to turn the lights on and take seriously the measurement of what students actually learn as opposed to measurement of the inputs into the education process on the implicit assumption that learning follows. Policy makers also need to move away from the focus on inputs and processes and increase the emphasis on incentives.
Download or read book Eurasian Steppes Ecological Problems and Livelihoods in a Changing World written by Marinus J.A. Werger and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-06-14 with total page 570 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Steppes form one of the largest biomes. Drastic changes in steppe ecology, land use and livelihoods came with the emergence, and again with the collapse, of communist states. Excessive ploughing and vast influx of people into the steppe zone led to a strong decline in nomadic pastoralism in the Soviet Union and China and in severely degraded steppe ecosystems. In Mongolia nomadic pastoralism persisted, but steppes degraded because of strongly increased livestock loads. After the Soviet collapse steppes regenerated on huge tracts of fallow land. Presently, new, restorative steppe land management schemes are applied. On top of all these changes come strong effects of climate change in the northern part of the steppe zone. This book gives an up-to-date overview of changes in ecology, climate and use of the entire Eurasian steppe area and their effects on livelihoods of steppe people. It integrates knowledge that so far was available only in a spectrum of locally used languages.
Download or read book Environmental Health Perspectives written by and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 1576 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Encyclopedia of Environmental Health written by and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2019-08-22 with total page 4896 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Encyclopedia of Environmental Health, Second Edition, Six Volume Set presents the newest release in this fundamental reference that updates and broadens the umbrella of environmental health, especially social and environmental health for its readers. There is ongoing revolution in governance, policies and intervention strategies aimed at evolving changes in health disparities, disease burden, trans-boundary transport and health hazards. This new edition reflects these realities, mapping new directions in the field that include how to minimize threats and develop new scientific paradigms that address emerging local, national and global environmental concerns. Represents a one-stop resource for scientifically reliable information on environmental health Fills a critical gap, with information on one of the most rapidly growing scientific fields of our time Provides comparative approaches to environmental health practice and research in different countries and regions of the world Covers issues behind specific questions and describes the best available scientific methods for environmental risk assessment
