Over the past 50 years, human activities have warmed the planet to a great extent. Such global warming is largely the outcome of greenhouse gas emissions. The greenhouse gases trap the heat passing through Earth’s atmosphere. Carbon Dioxide and water vapor are two of the natural greenhouse gases present in abundance on the planet.

However, human activities have added more quantities of such gases. Here are a few human activities that are causing climate change in recent times:

1. The use of household appliances and gadgets

We use a wide range of appliances and gadgets at home, not knowing its impact on the environment. For instance, several hours of internet usage on your desktop or smartphone releases additional carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Every single email that you send, every movie that you watch, and every search on Google matters.

Upon reading this, you might think that these are rather insignificant activities for increasing carbon emissions. However, it’s essential to consider such activities on a global scale to understand their impact on the world. All such activities amount to significant greenhouse gas emissions every year.

2. Deforestation

A mature tree has the ability to absorb up to 46 pounds of carbon dioxide every year. A forest spread across roughly two acres of land can absorb a significant amount of this greenhouse gas. It is almost equal to the carbon dioxide produced by annual mileage of an average car. The presence of trees can regulate the climate to a great extent by absorbing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

The greenhouse gas that they’ve absorbed goes back into the atmosphere when the trees are felled. The forest cover has shrunk by about 200 million acres globally since 1990. In recent years, efforts have been made to restore 420 million acres of lost forests by the year 2030.

3. Road, rail, and air transport

Fossil fuels were the source of more than 70% of energy consumed in the United States in 2020. Coal, natural gas, and oil are different kinds of fossil fuels. The burning of such fuels produces greenhouse gases such as nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide.

We’ve relied on motorcycles, cars, buses, trains, and planes for our transportation since many decades. All of these transport modes are powered by the burning of fossil fuels. So, it’s obvious they’re some of the major sources of damage to the environment.

4. Livestock farming

Cattle are among the major producers of greenhouse gases from the agriculture industry worldwide. This was revealed by the University of California at Davis. There has been an increase in methane gases over the years due to an increase in livestock farming. While digesting their food, the sheep and cows produce methane. One cow belches more than 200 pounds of methane every year.

Methane warms the atmosphere in a more damaging way than carbon dioxide despite having a relatively shorter shelf life. There has also been a considerable increase in the global meat consumption. So, it’s hardly a surprise that the greenhouse gas emissions would increase significantly towards the end of 2050.

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Those massive casino complexes appear far from being eco-friendly. The ones who carry this impression about casinos in their minds are not at fault. For many years, they’ve been one of the many establishments responsible for carbon emissions. Today, most of these casinos have begun valuing eco-friendliness. Here are some of the big names in casinos that have moved towards sustainability. Also online casinos are contributing to preserve sustainability by their virtual nature. You want know more about real money online casino? Have a look at casinosjungle.com.

Caesars Palace

Caesars Palace has been friendlier to Mother Nature since 2010, when it won the Environmental Leader Award. This massive casino resort has become a shining example of sustainability, prompting several other casinos to follow its footsteps. Among the most commendable efforts that Caesars has taken is the partnership of the corporation with ‘Clean the World’.

It is an organization that donates discarded or unused toiletries to the underdeveloped places of the world. Wherever possible, Caesars has also taken tremendous efforts to reduce waste. The staff members of the casino have been educated and trained to sort waste efficiently. This makes it easier for recycling plants to collect all the waste materials.

Mandalay Bay

This giant casino resort has been receiving a lot of praise for its eco-friendly outlook since a long time. Over the years, it has taken systematic efforts in reducing food waste. To help the environment, they source the food items that are grown locally. Mandalay Bay does the recycling work right at the casino, thus sorting its waste. It also keeps a close eye on its energy efficiency.

It’s pretty obvious that a massive amount of energy is needed to power this casino resort. However, Mandalay Bay does its best to ensure that it operates as efficiently as possible. It also takes great efforts to help the local community. For instance, it donates discarded bed sheets and pillows to the Nevada charity, which prevents cruelty to animals.

Mandalay Bay is home to the Shark Reef Aquarium, which is one of Las Vegas’s biggest attractions. This magnificent aquarium also operates in an environment-friendly manner. The proceeds from this attraction go towards initiatives for education and conservation.

The Venetian Macau

In Macau, the newest casino capital of the world, this casino resort is a leader in sustainability. It has recently come up with exclusive spaces for parking electric vehicles. With this, The Venetian Macau has taken a great step towards eco-consciousness. Bringing in the Tesla-driving crowd would certainly impact the air-quality positively over the long term.

The casino resort has also taken considerable efforts in reducing its food waste. It is yet another step in the direction of reducing the establishment’s carbon footprint. When the casino changed to LED lighting, it saved enough electricity to power thousands of homes every year.

It has received the Macau Green Platinum Award for all the efforts it has taken towards eco-friendliness. Although China is not known for being a nation that’s environment-friendly, this casino resort has surely set an example. Hopefully, all its eco-friendly initiatives would inspire other industries in the country.

MGM Grand

This casino recently joined the game of eco-friendliness by getting rid of to-go containers and plastic straws completely. With this significant shift, the corporation managed to reduce several thousand pounds of waste from all its properties. MGM has now become the face of sustainability and reduced carbon footprint in the industry.

The corporation has built its corporate structure with eco-friendliness as one of its major goals. Even its high-level executives work towards making their properties run with greater energy-efficiency. This would completely transform the way business is done in the world of casinos.

Resorts World Sentosa

A vast property spread across 121 acres, Resorts World Sentosa is an immensely popular casino resort in Singapore. It is a relatively new casino resort. Right from its inception, the necessary steps were taken to construct it in an eco-friendly way.

It houses the SEA Aquarium, which donates a part of its proceeds for the protection of wildlife and aquatic habitats. This is only one among the other measures that it has taken for saving the environment. Resorts World Sentosa can host more than 15,000 guests. It recently made a move to use paper straws instead of the ones made of plastic. This might not seem like a significant move to you, but it has a big impact.

The simple move will save more than 2,700 pounds of plastic from going to landfills. Resorts World Sentosa is constantly looking for new ways of helping out Mother Earth that are also financially viable. This casino resort is a leader in the country’s casino and tourism industry. So, any of its moves would surely have a trickle-down effect.

Turtle Creek Casino

This elegant casino is located in the state of Michigan in the United States. For several decades, this casino has served as a great venue for gambling enthusiasts. Recently, it has done something that’s quite similar to a tactic used by grocery stores and retailers. Since quite a long time, the clockless and windowless design has been the industry standard.

This had began long before the first casinos came up in the desert landscape of Las Vegas. It was a part of the casinos’ strategy to keep the players at the games for a longer duration. The casinos without clocks and windows made the players lose track of time. They were so hooked on the games that they forgot about the attractions, meals, and even sleep.

Turtle Creek thought of a different way of doing business. In the year 2008, the casino installed big skylights, which utilized the natural light to a great extent. This simple move from the casino reduced half of its energy consumption in the years that followed.

Sibaya Casino

This casino located in the South African coastal city, Durban. It takes its adherence to sustainability very seriously and has implemented it in every single area of its operations. The casino encourages its guests as well as staff members to recycle and reuse. It uses all of the food wastes for compost.

This leaves almost no waste as the compost pile also acts as a wormery, thus speeding up the process. Such measures adopted by the casino to reduce food wastes have brought down its carbon footprint considerably. They’ve also enhanced its beauty and elegance.

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In recent times, this cycle has been under some serious threat. This is largely due to pollution and the uncontrolled use of natural resources by the humans. However, we humans can take some effective measures to ensure that the planet maintains the ecological balance. Here are some of them:

1. Population control

Human beings don’t have any natural predators that can keep their population under control. It is, therefore, extremely necessary that we take some urgent steps to control our population. Action needs to be taken at the individual as well as government level. The uncontrolled growth of population can severely upset the ecological balance in the days to come.

This is just like the scenario where too many fish spoil the quality of water in an aquarium. Earth’s overall population would reach 9 billion by the year 2050 according to the latest estimates. The only way to control such an increase in population is to reduce the birth rate. This can be done through family planning and contraception.

2. Careful management of resources

Fossil fuels, minerals, and other natural resources won’t be here forever. Their continued use by an ever-increasing population of humans places a heavy burden on the ecosystem. Besides this, over-fishing and habitat destruction causes a considerable loss of biodiversity.

This can negatively impact the ecosystem in the long term. An entire marine ecosystem can be under threat by the loss of a few species. It is the need of the hour to use all such natural resources in a sustainable way.

3. Preventing water pollution

Manufacturing units, agricultural runoffs, and sewage are some of the major sources of water pollution. Algae grow rapidly in lakes and streams owing to the run-offs of agricultural fertilizers and sewage. This leads to the blockage of sunlight and depletion of oxygen in the water bodies. As a result, the amount of natural plant life reduces in the marine ecosystem.

It causes a reduction in the population of marine beings feeding on these plants. The population of marine creatures consuming these plant-eating beings also reduces as a consequence. There’s an urgent need, therefore, to prevent the contamination of waters from various sources.

4. Recycling

Manufacturing of new products using recycled materials is a good way of lessening the demand for natural resources. It also reduces the need to over-harvest natural resources, thus maintaining the balance of ecosystems on the planet. Recycling the waste materials reduces pollution to a great extent. Since there are no new raw materials involved, there are no additional wastes generated.

We can understand this better from the example of paper. Recycling paper can help save many trees from being felled, thus conserving the forest areas. Aluminum cans, glass containers, and egg cartons are a few examples of materials that can be recycled.

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The purpose of his journey was to study various plants, fossils, and animals. The populations of living organisms adapt and change through a natural process. Charles Darwin popularized this process while also giving it the term ‘natural selection’.

In a population, all the individuals are variable in some ways. In this variation, some individuals have traits that are best suited to the environment than others in the population. These adaptive traits give them better chances of survival and reproduction. Such individuals then pass on these traits to their offspring.

Over a period of time, these adaptive traits become more common in the population of the species. Let’s take the population’s height as an example. It can be observed that the heights of individuals in the population vary. This happens without any selection pressures with regards to height.

While most of the individuals in the population would be of an average height, some can be extremely tall or extremely short. This distribution would be altered when selection pressures act on a trait such as height. Now, let’s take a look at the types of natural selection:

1. Stabilizing selection

A population experiences this type of natural selection when the selective pressures select against a trait’s two extremes. For instance, stabilizing selection might act on the height of a tree. One that is too short won’t be able to compete for sunlight with other trees. However, the taller ones may be more likely to suffer damages from the winds.

The combination of these selection pressures maintain a medium height of these trees. As a result, the numbers of taller and shorter trees would decrease. On the other hand, the numbers of trees with medium height would increase.

2. Directional selection

In this type, one extreme of the distribution of a trait is subject to selection against it. This results in a shift of trait distribution in the population towards the other extreme. The mean of the population graph shifts in directional selection. We can understand this from the example of giraffe necks.

In the population of giraffes, the individuals with short necks could not reach many leaves to feed themselves. So, there was a selection pressure against the ones with short necks. As a result, the distribution of neck length went in favor of the ones with long necks.

3. Disruptive selection

The pressures of selection act against those in the middle of the trait distribution in disruptive selection. This results in a two-peaked or bimodal curve. The two extremes of this curve form their own smaller curve. Let’s take a plant species as an example here, which is of extremely variable height. In these plants, the pollination happens through three different pollinators.

One has an attraction towards shorter plants, while the second prefer the ones with medium height. The third visits only the tallest plants. Now, let’s assume that the pollinator having a preference for plants with medium height disappears from an area. In this case, the selection would be towards the shorter and taller plants.

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One of them is the small flowering sandplain gerardia, which is found in New England. Over the years, the population of bluefin tuna have also become the victims of over-fishing. Here are the top three species that have been threatened by the growing population of humans:

1. Florida panther

The Florida panther was in the 1967 list of endangered species. This was because the urban sprawl had caused the destruction and fragmentation of the habitat of these endangered animals. These panthers were once found throughout the southeastern United States. Today, they’re struggling for survival in South Florida’s tiny area. Their population has now reduced to only about 5% of its original number.

As the road network expanded throughout its range of habitats, large numbers of panthers disappeared. By 2011, there were only 100 to 120 Florida panthers left in the region. While their population has decreased significantly, the human population of Florida has doubled. Humans are now using the safe havens that panthers were retreating to for the development of human properties.

2. Polar bear

As the global human population has doubled since 1970, the use of polluting fossil fuels has also grown considerably. This has severely altered Earth’s atmosphere, threatening the survival of the Arctic species. Among them is polar bear, which is capable of swimming a hundred miles in search of food and mates. These days, it goes swimming to find some ice to stand on.

Polar bear is the bear family’s largest member. It has a thick layer of fat under its skin and a thick fur. This helps the bear to adapt to the Arctic conditions. These bears can survive under sub-zero temperatures owing to their remarkable features.

A study was done in 2009 on the relationship between global warming and the growth in population. According to its findings, the carbon emissions caused by a single person is quite significant. In fact, it is about 20 times more than what one individual saves by taking some carbon-reducing measures.

3. Loggerhead sea turtle

About 95% of the breeding population of loggerhead sea turtles in the United States nests in Florida. The loggerhead sea turtle was in the 1978 list as a federally threatened species. However, the population of this species increased by 24 percent between the years 1989 to 1998.

This was the result of careful management of these turtles. Later their population declined dramatically due to real estate development and recreational activities on the beach. Some conscious efforts to protect these turtles have resulted in an increase in its population once again.

Despite this, they’re still vulnerable to destruction of their nesting habitat. In 2011, there were just 42,000 nesting attempts on the beaches of Florida. Destruction of nesting habitat on the beach and harassment while nesting are among the threats that the loggerheads face.

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An ecological overshoot is a serious threat to Earth’s biological capital. It leads to the depletion of the planet’s natural resources and results in an accumulation of waste materials. Humans continue to use the resources provided by nature in an uncontrolled manner. This would eventually exceed the planet’s regenerating abilities.

This is why there have been frequent calls for countries and their populations to reduce their ecological footprint. One of the greatest evidences of ecological overshoot is the rising water shortages in certain parts of the world. The other evidences include reduced agricultural productivity, desertification, loss of biodiversity, deforestation, and the build-up of carbon dioxide.

Efforts to reduce carbon emissions

Reducing the Earth’s carbon footprint is certainly the need of the hour. This would bring down the ecological footprint of the planet considerably. As the two have an inextricable association, decreasing the carbon footprint would have a positive effect on other components. Among them are lands that people need for timber and food production and forests that can absorb carbon.

In the year 2015, carbon sequestration was a top priority of the Earth Overshoot Day’s promoters. Carbon sequestration is the process of separating and storing carbon dioxide. Such initiatives can be effective in highlighting how important it is to reduce the planet’s carbon footprint.

The current levels of carbon emissions are quite significant. It would take twice the bio-capacity of global forests that currently exists to absorb all the carbon emissions. In recent times, the demand for carbon sequestration has been greater than ever before. In fact, it is greater than all the bio-capacity of the planet’s crop lands and grazing lands taken together.

Every year, the sustainable think tank of the world comes up with certain calculations. It estimates whether the planet’s biological resources are adequate for the world’s ecological footprint for that particular year. Until the early 1970s, Earth’s ecological footprint was below the planet’s biocapacity. The problems began showing up towards the end of the 20th century.

The current state of ecological overshoot

Today, the planet’s ecological footprint has increased drastically. If the world continues along this current trajectory, it would need the resources of two planets after a few years. The situation currently is such that it takes 1.6 Earths to support the demands of the existing population. It is absolutely necessary that the global community takes note of these facts.

There must be a consensus on the need to phase out fossil fuels as early as possible. A few other measures must be taken to maintain global warming within 2-degree Celsius. Along with this, a reduction in global carbon emissions by at least 30% is also necessary.

If this is done successfully, the ecological overshoot can be brought down significantly. Although there hasn’t been a major impact of these efforts until now, there’s still some hope. If more of such initiatives are taken globally, then things would improve to a great extent.

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For certain sociologists such as Gumplowicz and Ratzenhofer, an underlying social evolution and progress lead to conflicts among humans. Ratzenhofer was of the opinion that the struggle for life resulted in the conflict of interests. There can be several causes of human conflicts. Here we’ve listed some of them.

Inherent aggression

Sigmund Freud had hinted towards an inherent instinct for aggression in human beings. This is largely responsible for conflicts in the society. Others who shared similar views were sociologists Georg Simmel and Lorenz von Stein. Even the recent anthropological and biological studies support this view. They believe that the presence of aggressive instinct in humans is due to natural selection.

This theory has received criticisms on several grounds. It has been observed by the critics that the theory depends upon the presence of a constant aggressive instinct. They are of the opinion that it fails to explain the absence of conflict and the cycle of conflict. The only thing that the theory explains is the tendency of humans engaging in aggressive behavior.

Fear

There are some human fears that give rise to conflicts. Such fears surface when one perceives the other’s advances as some sort of invasion. It can be perceived as an invasion of personal space or property. Some individuals also fear losing a certain position or power to another person.

We can witness conflicts arising out of such fears in our daily lives and interactions. Most of them are sparked by individuals or groups struggling or competing with one another. On a wider scale, such conflicts can be of classes, races, or ethnicities.

Individual differences

No two humans are the same with regards to their nature, appearance, opinions, attitudes, and interests. Sometimes, these differences can lead to some form of conflict between them. In most of the cases, such conflicts happen due to a lack of tolerance for the other’s differences.

Cultural differences

Our world is full of societies and groups having different cultures and traditions. These differences can sometimes cause tension and conflicts between two societies or groups having different cultural backgrounds. For example, there have been wars and persecutions in history owing to religious differences. Even today, it’s not uncommon to hear about communal conflicts in some parts of the world.

Clash of interests

Interests of different individuals or groups can sometimes clash, resulting in conflict between them. For instance, the interests of employees might clash with those of their employers. This often leads to strikes or violent protests. There have been many instances in history where the violent protests led to loss of lives and property.

Social change

All sections of a society don’t change with the same pace. This causes a gap between some sections or generations of people. These generation gaps lead to conflicts between two individuals belonging to different generations. The most common example is the conflict between a parent and his or her teenage kid.

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There are certain natural resources that you can’t replace after their use. Besides, you’ll also find some that can have negative impacts on the wider environment. One of these impacts is pollution, which has been constantly degrading the air quality of the planet.

It’s quite obvious that a continued access to these resources is absolutely necessary. To ensure this, people need to interact with their natural environment in the right manner. This is, perhaps, the only way for humans to have enough resources for the generations to come.

We can confront all these problems using sustainable solutions. Sustainability involves finding all sorts of ways to protect and preserve our natural environment. This would help us live our lives without worrying about not having enough natural resources for the future.

Sustainable engineering

Sustainable engineering involves designing and operating systems that ensure sustainable living. It ensures that the systems and processes that individuals and corporations use don’t compromise on the availability of resources. It plays a major role in preventing the depletion of natural resources and thus preserving them for future generations.

Sustainable engineering impacts every single aspect of our routine lives and we may not even realize it. It can be used in the irrigation systems and the removing and breaking down of waste products. It can also be used in housing and shelter, energy development and consumption, and transportation.

The responsibility of a sustainable engineer

A sustainable engineer designs technologies and implements several processes and systems to prevent and control risks to the environment. It is also the responsibility of the sustainable engineer to restore and reverse environmental damage. Such an engineer can also be called an ‘environmental engineer’. A strong foundation in science, engineering, and geography is essential for an individual in this role.

Such individuals design processes and systems that deal with many other environmental issues. These issues include pollution, climate change, and energy crisis. The daily responsibilities of sustainable engineers would depend on the industry and their specific role in it. Here are some of the tasks that are usually performed by sustainable engineers:

1. Collecting data

This involves gathering information using various methods. Some of them are on-site assessments and browsing through third-party reports and websites.

2. Evaluation of environmental impact

Once the data has been collected from the reliable sources, the next step is evaluating the environmental impact. This involves assessment and evaluation of the impacts of the projects and operations.

3. Preparing reports

After studying the impacts of various commercial operations and projects, the sustainable engineers need to present their findings. They prepare reports, which contain all their findings and recommendations. These reports then go to the stakeholders with suggestions on costs and considerations with regards to health and safety.

4. Engaging with the local communities

A sustainable engineer might also engage the local residents and organizations to communicate certain concerns. In this process, he or she may even share the details of projects to educate the local communities.

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Some of them can be a gradual process resulting from uncontrolled human activities. Others could be a natural event, which we can’t prevent even with the advanced technologies that we have today. So, here are the three possible scenarios that can end life on Earth:

1. Nuclear war

We have already seen the destructive power of nuclear weapons during the Second World War. The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the United States undoubtedly had disastrous effects. Still, they couldn’t wipe out the entire human population on Earth. A nuclear war could bring an end to humanity only under very special circumstances.

Even the exchanges larger than the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki won’t be enough to end the human race. Of course, it might wipe out the entire populations of the major countries. Despite the large-scale destruction, there would be places where the humans might survive.

The real problem would be the possibility of a nuclear winter. If a significant number of nuclear weapons are detonated, the global temperatures would fall dramatically. This would seriously effect food production, making it impossible for human life to survive.

2. Major asteroid impact

A large asteroid is believed to have caused a mass extinction event on Earth 66 million years ago. The impact of this asteroid created the Chicxulub crater, which is now buried underneath Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. This event caused the extinction of all non-avian dinosaurs.

Nearly 75% of the planet’s plant and animal species had become extinct due to the asteroid impact. There’s a possibility that there could be such an impact sometime in the future. Our only hope is NASA’s ability to keep an eye on the asteroids. They can track asteroids that are capable of seriously impacting human life.

There have been rapid improvements in the detection efforts over the years. Scientists are also trying to develop new ways to deflect asteroids from their path. One of them is crashing a spacecraft with a significant force into an asteroid.

3. Supervolcano

Large volcanic eruptions are also capable of causing mass extinctions just like the asteroids. Such large volcanoes are called supervolcanoes. The best example of a supervolcano causing mass extinction is the Permian–Triassic extinction event.

It happened approximately 251 million years ago and caused the extinction of 90 percent of the species on Earth. Such volcanic eruptions result in significant global cooling, disrupting agriculture across the planet. What makes them even more dangerous is the fact that they can’t be prevented.

An event like Permian–Triassic won’t possibly happen on human timescales. However, even a smaller eruption can also have devastating effects on the climate, food supplies, and biosphere. These events might also lead to political instability around the world.

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