adopting a policy and deciding on long-term investment in the mining industry by a government orprivate sector actors depends strongly on the ability to predict the scarcity of mineral reserves. changein scarcity of mineral reserves is a function of several technological and non-technological factors.among them, change in technology is the most significant factor affecting scarcity. this paper ...

Biomass from cellulosic bioenergy crops is expected to play a substantial role in future energy systems, especially if climate policy aims at stabilizing greenhouse gas concentration at low levels. However, the potential of bioenergy for climate change mitigation remains unclear due to large uncertainties about future agricultural yield improvements and land availability for biomass plantations...

Most scarcities that underpin health disparities within and among countries are not natural; rather, they result from policy choices and the operation of social institutions. Using examples from the United States of America: the Chicago heat wave and hurricane Katrina, this paper develops "denaturalizing scarcity" as a strategy for enquiry to inform public-health ethics in an interconnected wor...

The link between water scarcity and public unrest is a close one. Groundwater is the only viable resource in most arid and semi-arid environments that can sustain rural and urban populations. Periodic drought forces people off the land who take refuge in the cities, taxing already stressed resources. Mining of groundwater places cities at risk; aquifers supplying both Yemen’s capital city Sana’...

Mountain hydrology, in particular in the European Alps, has undergone significant changes within the last decades due to climate and land use change as well as altered water consumption patterns. Climate change influences both the characteristics of droughts and floods as well as evapotranspiration, sublimation, snow-rainfall ratios, snow seasonality, and water reserves locked in glaciers. Land...

An important goal of regional development in the BrazilianAmazonwas to enhance social welfare and alleviate dire poverty in other parts of the country by providing land to the poor.Nevertheless, both poverty and landlessness have persisted despite development policies that distributed billions of dollars on highway construction, loans, and outright subsidies. Inequitable land distribution has b...

This research departs from concerns about an environmental crisis that encompasses deforestation, land-use change, habitat loss, land grabbing, water contamination, and soil degradation we have faced. Meanwhile, the urgency of Islamic response to fight those conditions should be more than simple actions like a religious lecture, Friday sermon, or green fatwa for around 1.9 billion Muslim commun...

Soil health, along with water supply, is the most valuable resource for humans, as human life depends on the soil’s generosity. Soil degradation, therefore, poses a threat to food security, as it reduces yield, forces farmers to use more inputs, and may eventually lead to soil abandonment. Unfortunately, the importance of preserving soil health appears to be overlooked by policy makers. In this...