Global Environmental Change Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Global Environmental Change - Essay Example Serious threat from oil exploration on the eastern slopes of the Andes and the adjacent Amazonian lowlands of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia have led to a conflict between hydrocarbon hotspot and biodiversity hotspot. Loss of biodiversity and associated ecosystem services is one of the most challenging problems ecologist face. Advances in information technology, featuring computer simulation models built on digital databases and satellite imagery incorporating GPS and GIS can go a long way to identify problems, evaluate risks and design counter measures. Accurate maps are created using remote sensing technology that can play an important role to monitor the environmental effects of human activities on land and water resources. We are passing through the defining moments of human development challenges of the 21st century. Failure to respond will not only stall but also reverse international efforts to reduce poverty. The earth's ecosystems and the biosphere's life-supporting sy stems need to be understood for survival of mankind. The poorest countries are most vulnerable and will be the first to suffer from global environmental change, though they have contributed least to the problem. Large-scale global environmental hazards to human existence include climate change, stratospheric ozone depletion, biodiversity loss, changes in hydrological systems and the supply of freshwater, land degradation and stresses on food-producing systems (WHO, 2008) 1. Their influence on the earth's ecosystems and the biosphere's life-supporting systems needs to be understood for survival of mankind. It also brings the complexity of the systems upon which we depend. Though there are many factors affecting global environmental changes, in this paper we shall discuss the impact of "desertification" and "dwindling biodiversity" on the earth. Desertification Approximately one-third of the earth's land surface is arid desert land with scanty rainfall, sparse vegetation and limited population (Walker, 1997) 2. Deserts are formed by a combination of factors that change over a period of time and will vary with locations. Unscientific land use practices leads to deterioration in vegetation, soil erosion and salinity directly affecting soil fertility and leads to soil compaction and crusting. Population pressure, socioeconomic factors, globalization, unbridled urbanization and merciless mining indirectly induce desertification. The inability to logically and technologically respond to such demands sets off a downward spiral of land degradation. It is very difficult to distinguish whether desertification was caused by reckless land management practices or from climatic turbulence. Due to its vastness, discussing desertification on a global scale require copious deliberations. This discussion is, therefore, being confined to China, which is big enough and favorably positioned in the northern mid latitudes for such a study. China also suffers from a very patchy distribution of water resources 3. China's Environmental Protection Agency has reported that Gobi Deserts expanded by 52,400 km2 during 1994-99 and is now within striking distance from Beijing. Scientists fear if this rate continues complete desertification will arrive within 15 years. Satellite pictures forewarns how two deserts in North central China are

Emil Durkheim Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Emil Durkheim - Essay Example A change in any part is seen as leading to a certain degree of imbalance, which in turn results in changes in other parts of the system and to some extent to a reorganization of the system as a whole. The development of functionalism was based on the model of the organic system found in the biological sciences. (Theodorson and Theodorson 1969, page 167) Accordingly, the three elements of functionalism are: 1) The general interrelatedness, or interdependence of the system's parts; 2) The existence of a "normal" state of affairs, or state of equilibrium, comparable to the normal or healthy state of an organism; and 3) The way that all the parts of the system reorganize to bring things back to normal. In analyzing how social systems maintain and restore equilibrium, functionalists tend to use shared values or generally accepted standards of desirability as a central concept. Value consensus means that individuals will be morally committed to their society. The emphasis on values is the second most important feature of functionalism. As such, it contrasts directly with the other major macro-sociological perspective, the conflict theory. Whereas functionalism emphasizes the unity of society and what its members share, conflict theorists stress the divisions within a society and the struggles that arise out of people's pursuits of their different material interests. (Wallace and Wolf 1999, page 19) The Collective Conscience (later called Collective Representations). Another key theory that Durkheim developed was The Collective Conscience. In his own words - Of the totality of beliefs and sentiments common to average citizens of the same society that forms a determinate system which has its own life, one may call it the collective or common conscience (Durkheim [1893] 1947, pages 79-80). People are born into the collective conscience, and it regulates their perceptions and behavior. What Durkheim was denoting with the concept of collective conscience, then, is that social systems evidence systems of ideas, such as values, beliefs, and norms that constrain the thoughts and actions of individuals. Durkheim was concerned with morality and moral facts. This area is now termed culture. Durkheim was concerned with the systems of symbols - particularly the norms, values, and beliefs - that humans create and use to organize their activities. In the course of his analysis of the collective conscience, Durkheim conceptualized its varying states as having four variables: 1) Volume, which denotes the degree to which the values, beliefs, and rules of the collective conscience are shared by the members of a society; 2) Intensity, which indicates the extent to which the collective conscience has power to guide a person's thoughts and actions; 3) Determinateness, which denotes the degree of clarity in the components of the collective conscience; and 4) Content, which pertains to the ratio of religious to purely secular symbolism in the collective conscience. Functionalism in action. Functionalism is macro-sociology. An airport is an example of the interrelatedness expressed within the functionalism framework. There are the pilots, maintenance crews, air traffic controllers, baggage handlers, and ticketing and reservation personnel .What could cause "disequilibrium" of the airport