Contemporary Environmental Issues and Challenges in Era of Climate Change

Climate change is perhaps one of the major critical problems of recent times. It has become a subject of international concern since its increase at an alarming speed. Although atmospheric gases, surface solar radiations, volcanic activity, cosmic rays and alterations in earth’s orbit are targeted as the potential causes of climate change, their consequences or impacts are not well documented. Sea level rise, flooding, extreme weather patterns, heat waves and drought are some of the pronounced consequences of climate change. Changes in biodiversity, ecosystem and ecosystem services and health caused by climate change have received minimal attention. A healthy ecosystem requires a wide diversity of microorganisms, plants and animals at different trophic levels. Removal of a single species from the niche or introduction of an invasive species might lead to ecosystem destruction. Abnormal changes in the climate pattern can alter the ecosystem health through loss of species, extinction of species, migration of species and changes in behavioural pattern. However, these changes are invisible till a species get extinct or endangered. Further the change in ecosystem health due to alterations in climate is difficult to record unlike other impacts. Sustainable practices that can reduce, sequester or capture the greenhouse gas emissions may halt the biodiversity loss, protect the ecosystem from further destruction and restore them. This chapter comprehensively describes the impacts of climate change on the health of various aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. The detrimental effects, short- and long-term responses like changes in physiology, phenology and life cycle of organisms, loss of productivity and loss or migration of species have also been elaborated in detail for every single ecosystem.

Heavy metal contamination has an adverse effect on the aquatic, terrestrial, and atmospheric environment. These may be natural or anthropogenic in origin and not easily degradable. Anthropogenic activities have unwantedly transferred these heavy metals in our food chain and food web. Directly or indirectly these heavy metals have entered in our food through irrigation by wastewater effluent released by industries; scarcity of available freshwater for irrigation, usage of fertilizers and insecticide, and other anthropogenic activities have caused acute and chronic diseases. The dose–response relationship suggests that the heavy metals have a narrow level of lethal concentrations which pose a threat to the target population. Anthropogenic sources of heavy metals generally dominate natural sources, and foreseeing the synergy of this with the degrading environmental conditions, the health of people is a matter of concern. When these heavy metals get accumulated in the human food, it results in abnormalities affecting human survival and mortality. Recent data suggest that the human body gets affected by heavy metal contamination at lower levels than previously anticipated and evidenced. Agrochemicals are resistant and adaptive in nature, and with the increasing dose and newly synthesized compounds to protect crops, undesired side effects and the costs of food production are on a hike. Practices like street food vending and addition of preservatives in packed food increase the chances of heavy metal contamination in food materials. A comprehensive evaluation of the food chain right from the primary producers to consumer level is necessary to ensure food security and quality.

Impact of climate change causes many visible changes within an ecosystem and organism. In recent years, biodiversity loss is one of the challenging issues which are affected by climate change. India has a unique climate which supports rich biological diversity. Amarkantak is a holy town situated in district Anuppur of Madhya Pradesh. Some parts of Amarkantak come under Achanakmar-Amarkantak Biosphere Reserve (AABR). It lies between latitude 22°15 to 20° 58 N and longitude 81° 25 N to 20°5E. The biosphere reserve is an origin place of three major rivers of Central Indian region, i.e., Narmada, Son, and Johila and their tributaries. It is home to primitive tribal communities like Baiga, Gonds, Panikas, Kol, and Dhanaur. All these communities are mostly dependent on the forest and agriculture for their livelihood. Last few decades, climate change impacts on the non-timber forest products (NTFPs) and agricultural crops. A finding of the study shows that locals felt a lesser number of rainy days which directly affect crop production of the area. Apart from that, quantity of NTFPs has also declined. Fishery sector of the area is also affected. The climate of the region supports rich diversity of plants and animals’ species. Few medicinal plants are now not available in natural forest due to extreme forest fires and overexploitation.

The phenomenon of climate change is affecting life on Earth in numerous ways, and agricultural sector is affected utmost as it is highly sensitive to the climatic factors. Agricultural sustainability is the call of the time when the growing population in the world needs to be nourished, while at the same time struggling with the effects of increasing pollution and deterioration of available agricultural land. As the resources obtainable on the earth are increasingly constrained, the stressed agricultural system has to survive and excel to be able to arrange for the basic human necessity of food. Water, energy and food systems are interconnected, and these systems must be linked to each other. However, the process is two-way round, wherein the climate is also distressed by the intensive practices applied to meet the increasing demand. This is the nexus of agricultural sustainability and climate change. The more one segment is stressed, the more the other segments are affected. A balance cannot be attained unless the complexity of the interconnections among the different sectors is understood and the challenge of adaptation is accepted, giving preference to the interdependence of the factors of the agricultural system.

Climate change may cause hindrance in progress toward a vision of world without hunger. Anthropogenic activities have increased emissions of greenhouse gases with subsequent changes in temperature, rainfall patterns, and perhaps severity of extreme weather. Agriculture is inherently sensitive to climate variability. The most remarkable driver of climate change affecting agriculture is the increase of global temperature. Increase of global temperature may have a significant influence on agricultural productivity along with other consequences related to severity of the high temperature such as drought and salinity.

The present chapter highlights factor responsible for rise in temperature and its role in enhancing frequency of drought and salinity episodes which also affects agricultural production and response of increased temperature on crop’s phenology, physiology, and productivity.

Climatic variabilities may alter biogeochemical interactions with the subsurface environment. As of now, arsenic, fluoride, nitrate, NORMs, and hydrocarbon pollutants cover many geographical area of India. It is expected that the pollution load will increase in the upcoming decades, which may significantly affect the soil-water resources. Thus, a better understanding of behaviors of these pollutants under future climatic scenarios is imperative. In this direction, this chapter contributes the state-of-art knowledge on the challenges and issues related to India’s major pollutants under current and future climatic scenarios. In the first section, the environmental fate, current expansions of these pollutants have been highlighted for polluted Indian geographical regions along with their sources, toxicity, and behaviors in the subsurface. Thereafter, a paragraph in each section is presented to elaborate the impacts of climatic variabilities on the future pollution load and its coverage. Next, the in-depth literature is discussed to solve the issues related to the management and remediation of these pollutants under future climatic scenarios. This chapter will help to frame and implement the remediation and management for the polluted soil-water systems under different climatic conditions.

Various kinetic models and isotherm have been used for deciphering mechanism of phosphorus (P) sorption on surface sediments of polluted freshwater bodies. The P sorption kinetics and equilibrium isotherm and the relationship between phosphorus sorption parameters were studied in 24 industrially contaminated surface sediments of Govind Ballabh Pant Sagar (GBPS) reservoir, India. The results showed that P adsorption on the sediments mainly occurred within 10 h and then reached equilibrium in 48 h; phosphate sorption rates of 0–0.25 h were the highest over 48 h and suggested quick sorption process; and the pseudo-second-order rate model showed the kinetics of P adsorption with high correlation coefficients. Native adsorbed phosphorus (W_NAP) and adsorption equilibrium concentration (C_EPC) were found to be high in surface sediments of the most polluted upstream region. The surface sediments showed maximum adsorption (Q_max, mg kg⁻¹) with 0.80 mg L⁻¹ phosphorus concentration. The equilibrium concentration of phosphorus (C_eq) was more than the C_EPC, while the W_NAP values were less than Q_max. The positive regression between W_NAP and C_EPC and K_p (partition coefficient) and Q_max indicated that surface sediments would act as a sink and adsorb phosphorus from overlying water in the GBPS reservoir.

The Earth’s climate is not static; it changes according to the natural and anthropogenic climate variability. Anthropogenic forcing due to increase of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has driven changes in climate variables globally. Changes in climatological variables have severe impact on global hydrological cycle affecting the severity and occurrence of natural hazards such as floods and droughts. Estimation of projections under climate signals with statistical and dynamic downscaling models and integration with water resource management models for the impact assessment have gained much attention. The fine-resolution climate change predictions of dynamic regional climate model (RCM) outputs, which include regional parameterization, have been widely applied in the hydrological impact assessment studies. Advancement of the Coordinated Regional Downscaling Experiment (CORDEX) program has enabled the use of RCMs in regional impact assessment which has progressed in recent years. CORDEX model outputs were considered to be valuable in terms of establishing large ensembles of climate projections based on regional climate downscaling all over the world. However, the simulations of RCM outputs have to be evaluated to check the reliability in reproducing the observed climate variability over a region. The present study demonstrates the use of bias-corrected CORDEX model simulation in analyzing the regional-scale climatology at river basin scale, Krishna river basin (KRB), India. The precipitation and temperature simulations from CORDEX models with RCP 4.5 were evaluated for the historical data for the period of 1965 to 2014 with India Meteorological Department (IMD) gridded rainfall and temperature data sets cropped over the basin. The projected increase of precipitation under climate signals was predicted to be from 74.4 to 136.7 mm over KRB for the future time period of 2041–2060 compared to the observed periods of 1966–2003. About 1.06 °C to 1.35 °C of increase in temperatures was predicted for the periods of 2021–2040 and 2041–2060, respectively, compared to the observed period of 1966–2014 over KRB. The climate variable projections obtained based on RCM outputs can provide insights toward the variations of water-energy variables and consequent impact on basin yields and losses in river basin management.

Over the past few decades, science and technology has made great advancement to get familiar with the impact of climate change in different aspects of life worldwide. But still, climate change is one of the major concerns posing a threat to food and energy security. The present chapter discusses the influence of changing climatic conditions on food and energy security and how microbes can be used in the amelioration of stress induced by changing climate. In recent years, studies have shown that increased concentration of greenhouse gases is the main cause of climate change; therefore, it becomes necessary to decrease their concentration in the atmosphere, though shift in energy structure from finite sources to natural renewable sources might help. Therefore, use of fossil fuels must be significantly reduced to balance structural shifts improving energy self-sufficiency and enhancing energy security. The change in climate impedes crop, livestock and fisheries production and also increases the prevalence of pests in agricultural fields. The use of chemical fertilizers in agriculture not only influences environment negatively but hampers food security and energy structure of the ecosystem. However, the use of beneficial microorganisms for amelioration of stresses holds importance nowadays, especially with respect to changing climate and usage of chemicals in agricultural soils. The beneficial microorganisms can be the most promising approach for safe management practices in agriculture. Therefore, in the present scenario of shifting climatic conditions, food and energy security can be maintained by utilizing soil microbial diversity that will ultimately increase the economy by limiting food and energy security risks.

The implementation of photosynthetic organisms has received tremendous attention in the last two decades in order to achieve the products of high industrial value at the minimal cost of environmental carbon dioxide, water and nutrients. The advancement of molecular biology tools including the availability of completely sequenced genome of a variety of photoautotrophs has made their genetic modification possible for it. In the past decade, there was an increase in the discovery of novel biosynthetic pathways in photosynthetic organisms, but there are several challenges that need to be reported and solved for developing an improved engineered strain with desired traits. Genetic engineering tools are required not only to introduce novel pathways in the photosynthetic organisms but also to modify host metabolism. For solar biofuels, most of the metabolic engineering attempts have been applied on cyanobacteria and microalgae, mainly focused in this chapter. To modify cyanobacteria for production of biofuel, the efficiency of photon conversation should be targeted which in turn may allow effective utilization of solar energy. A combinatorial approach for developments of these strains, their selection, genetic engineering, optimization of bioreactors and processing technology may pave the way for the production of biofuels that can ensure future energy security in a sustainable manner. In a larger perspective, efficient photosynthetic machinery provides a solution for an efficient and large-scale biofuel production which holds the promise of replacing harmful non-renewable fossil fuels, which may eventually delay a shift in global climate change.

Solar devices are suitable for areas having higher solar radiation with more than 300 days of sunny days. The solar energy has several applications in agriculture, rural development and cottage industries. Solar pumping can be useful in irrigation and solar PV (photovoltaic) sprayer and duster in plant protection in addition to power generation. Solar dryers can dry fruits and vegetables efficiently and effectively, and animal feed solar cooker can boil animal feed for milch animals which will result in increased milk production. Solar PV winnower can separate grains from straw. In addition, solar devices can melt wax for making candles. Solar still can make distilled water. These activities will increase farm income and reduce losses. Overall, the scope of different solar energy sources is enormous especially in villages for the benefit of farmers.

Opposing the problems generated by the negative impacts of industrial production, the corporations, on behalf of minimizing the impacting branches of its reality, over the last four decades, are trying to incorporate frameworks focused on the appliance of the sustainability on its processes. During the last 20 years, a small but growing portion of companies is volunteering to attach social and environmental issues to its business models. One of the major recent issues on production management is about the generated waste, post-consumption matters, and aspects of the reverse logistics, in other words a framework of solid waste management that covers the products’ end-of-life. On developing countries, these models are only on its initial phase. There is no regulatory concern on the topic and no economic incentives, and the people who collect this kind of material do not have any instruction on how to do it, regarding its risks to health, safety, and the environment. Setting off on the recognition of the system’s limits and the major actors involved on its process of solid waste management is a necessity, elaborating the positive and negative social aspects linked to this activity, starting from the product life cycle way of thinking. The purpose of this chapter is to present and analyze the social impacts of the solid waste management specifically regarding the waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), taking the city of Rio de Janeiro as a case study.

First rural to urbanization and now urbanization to smart cities, sign of development also raises some issue of unsustainable approaches of solid wastes and its impact on our ecosystem. The unsustainable solid waste management approaches have adverse impacts on ecosystem and human health. Over 90% of waste were directly thrown in open ground and burned incompletely in low-income countries, and in 2016, 5% of global emissions were generated from solid waste, excluding transportation (World bank, What a waste: an updated look into the future of solid waste management. http://​www.​worldbank.​org/​en/​topic/​urbandevelopment​/​brief/​solid-wastemanagement. Accessed on 10 Apr 2019, 2018). Major part of plastics become a waste on landfill and will take a rest for infinite time. Our ecosystem consumes microplastics and becomes sick. Disintegration of plastics actually gives off powerful greenhouse gases, contributing to climate change. Carbon dioxide and methane are well-known greenhouse gases contributing to global warming effect and also responsible for climate change up to some extent.

The reduce-reuse-recycle (known as 3Rs) principle needs to be applied in developing countries in order to achieve waste minimization and local environmental goals. This book chapter presents the outcomes of a field study in Salfit district (Northern West Bank, Palestine), which aims at assessing the public acceptance in case of a recycling plant establishment. In Salfit district, almost 98% of the generated waste is collected among urban and rural areas, but until currently, it was disposed to open dumps.

The findings of a field survey in Salfit show that 98% of the population assent to the implementation of a recycling facility. Most importantly, almost 84% of respondents claim knowledge of waste source separation. Training may bridge and fill in the existing institutional and financial gaps. Overall, research results find the paths to better communicate with citizens during the application of new waste management systems. Public acceptance levels as investigated and presented in this paper had a direct effect and encouraged private sector to invest in solid waste management that was highly intended by local authorities and is expected to contribute largely to citizens’ well-being and environmental protection.

Recent increased environmental and political pressures, the unstable perspective of the fuel prices, and the fossil-resource-based energy have risen the industrial interest into the energy that can be produced from waste and have enhanced the technological findings in waste-to-energy sector. Sustainable waste treatment is an essential element in efforts to improve sustainability. Plasma gasification is considered an alternative for the abatement of municipal waste and has been demonstrated for the treatment of various wastes more in Japan, Canada, and the USA than in Europe. The goal of this mini-review is to brief the plasma-based gasification technology. This study includes a technological overview of the PG process, a survey of existing PG facilities, a comparison with other thermal techniques, and an identification of its environmental impacts.

During the past 50 years, there has been a growing awareness of environmental issues related to energy technologies and natural resource utilization. A growing global population demands augmenting amounts of energy and goods without big discovery of conventional resources (apart from Zohr and Glafkos offshore fields in Mediterranean Sea, Egypt, and Republic of Cyprus, respectively); leading companies and countries turn their interest in unconventional resources such as shale oil, shale gas, and gas hydrates. Although gas hydrates are assumed part of the alternative energy sources of the future, they exhibit possible environmental risks for both the marine ecosystem and atmosphere environment. This chapter presents the fickleness of methane hydrate (MH) that either takes place naturally or is triggered by anthropogenic activities. Furthermore, it explains the climate change (methane discharged to the atmosphere has 21 times more global warming contingent than carbon dioxide) and the sea acidification (more than half of the dissolved methane retains inside seafloor by microbial anaerobic oxidation of methane) caused by methane hydrate release. Moreover, it presents the seafloor instability when methane hydrated block sediments due to augmentation of temperature or pressure difference. Finally yet importantly, environmental risks and hazards during the operation of production and drilling hydrate reservoirs occupy a significant position in the presentation of this research.