Most academic activity in the 1970s was spent debating the Lynn White thesis and the tragedy of the commons. These debates were primarily historical, theological, and religious, not philosophical. Throughout most of the decade philosophers sat on the sidelines trying to determine what a field called environmental ethics might look like. The first philosophical conference was organized by William Blackstone at the University of Georgia in 1972. The proceedings were published as Philosophy and Environmental Crisis in 1974, which included Pete Gunter`s first paper on the Big Thicket. In 1972 a book called “Is It Too Late?” A Theology of Ecology, written by John B. Cobb, was published. It was the first single-authored book written by a philosopher, even though the primary focus of the book was theological and religious. In 1973 an Australian philosopher, Richard Routley (now Sylvan), presented a paper at the 15th World Congress of Philosophy “Is There a Need for a New, an Environmental, Ethic?” A year later John Passmore, another Australian, wrote Man’s Responsibility for Nature, in which, reacting to Routley, he argued that there was no need for an environmental ethic at all. Most debates among philosophers until the mid-1980s was focused on refuting Passmore. In 1975 environmental ethics came to the attention of mainstream philosophy with the publication of Holmes Rolston, III`s paper, “Is There an Ecological Ethic?” in Ethics.

Arne Naess, a Norwegian philosopher and the founding editor of the journal Inquiry authored and published a paper in Inquiry “The Shallow and the Deep, Long-range Ecology Movement” in 1973, which was the beginning of the deep ecology movement. Important writers in this movement include George Sessions, Bill DeVall, Warwick Fox, and, in some respects, Max Oelschlaeger.

Throughout the 1970s Inquiry was the primary philosophy journal that dealt with environmental ethics. Environmental ethics was, for the most part, considered a curiosity and mainstream philosophy journals rarely published more than one article per year, if that. Opportunities for publishing dramatically improved in 1979 when Eugene C. Hargrove founded the journal Environmental Ethics. The name of the journal became the name of the field.

The first five years of the journal was spent mostly arguing about rights for nature and the relationship of environmental ethics and animal rights/animal liberation. Rights lost and animal welfare ethics was determined to be a separate field. Animal rights has since developed as a separate field with a separate journal, first, Ethics and Animals, which was later superseded by Between the Species.

Cobb published another book in the early 1980s, The Liberation of Life with co-author Charles Birch. This book took a process philosophy approach in accordance with the philosophy of organism of Alfred North Whitehead. Robin Attfield, a philosopher in Wales, wrote a book called The Ethics of Environmental Concern. It was the first full-length response to Passmore. An anthology of papers, Ethics and the Environment, was edited by Donald Scherer and Tom Attig.

There was a turning point about 1988 when many single-authored books began to come available: Paul Taylor`s Respect for Nature; Holmes Rolston`s Environmental Ethics; Mark Sagoff`s The Economy of the Earth; and Eugene C. Hargrove`s Foundations of Environmental Ethics. J. Baird Callicott created a collection of his papers, In Defence of the Land Ethic. Bryan Norton wrote Why Preserve Natural Diversity? followed more recently by Toward Unity among Environmentalists. A large number of books have been written by Kristin Shrader-Frechette on economics and policy.

In the 1980s a second movement, ecofeminism, developed. Karen Warren is the key philosopher, although the ecofeminism movement involves many thinkers from other fields. It was then followed by a third, social ecology, based on the views of Murray Bookchin. An important link between academics and radical environmentalists was established with the creation of the Canadian deep ecology journal, The Trumpeter. In 1989, Earth Ethics Quarterly was begun as a more popular environmental publication. Originally intended primarily as a reprint publication, now as a publication of the Centre for Respect for Life and Environment, it is focused more on international sustainable development.

The 1990s began with the establishment of the International Society for Environmental Ethics, which was founded largely through the efforts of Laura Westra and Holmes Rolston, III. It now has members throughout the world. In 1992, a second refereed philosophy journal, dedicated to environmental ethics, Environmental Values published its first issue in England.

On the theoretical level, Taylor and Rolston, despite many disagreements, can be regarded as objective nonanthropocentric intrinsic value theorists. Callicott, who follows Aldo Leopold closely, is a subjective nonanthropocentric intrinsic value theorist. Hargrove is considered a weak anthropocentric intrinsic value theorist. Sagoff is very close to this position although he doesn’t talk about intrinsic value much and takes a Kantian rather than an Aristotlian approach. At the far end is Bryan Norton who thought up weak anthropocentrism but wants to replace intrinsic value with a pragmatic conception of value.

A brief history of environmental consciousness in the western world places our views in perspective and provides a context for understanding the maze of related and unrelated thoughts, philosophies, and practices that we call “environmentalism.” Understanding where the questions being asked and analyzed are coming from is essential in environmental analysis: the kinds of questions asked by an environmental group and their interpretation of the results can be vastly different from, for example, a utility, logging company or special interest (ranchers grazing public lands, and so forth).

The term “environmental ethics,” in fact the whole field, is a very recent phenomenum, actually only several decades old, although many particular concerns or philosophical threads have been developing for several centuries. A Professor named Eugene Hargroves began a journal he named Environmental Ethics in the late 1970s in which controversies regarding environmental behaviour and visions could be discussed. This name became an umbrella for a group of strange bedfellows. A controversy had begun in 1974 when an Australian named John Passmore published a book called “Man`s responsibility for nature: ecological problems and western traditions” in which he argued that environmental preservation and concern was inconsistent with western tradition. Robin Attfield replied 1983 in a book entitled “The ethics of environmental concern” by holding that the stewardship tradition was more important than dominion in western thought, and that this is what forms the foundation for environmental ethics. Environmental ethics is a collection of independent ethical generalizations, not a tight, rationally ordered set of rules. Environmental ethics will be a compilation of interrelated independent guidelines – a process field that will be coming together for a long time.

Ethics really flow from peoples perceptions, attitudes and behaviour – as in the case of environmental ethics and animal liberation. Like chess, decision making in life is very perceptual or intuitive – by analogy, there are l) favourite formations (of players or arguments); 2) empirical investigation of these (with maximum and minimum expectations); which leads to a progressive deepening of perspective.

The problem is only dimly perceived in the beginning, but becomes clearer with thought and re-examination. What holds a chess game together is not the rules but the experience the individual player. A grand master at chess sees more on a chessboard in a few seconds than an average player sees in thirty minutes.

Environmental ethics today encompasses a diverse, not necessarily related, anthology including:

1. Animal rights.

2. The Land Ethic.

3. Ecofeminism.

4. Deep Ecology.

5. Shallow Ecology.

6. The rights of rocks, and so forth.

8. Bioethics.

Bioethics could be defined as the study of ethical issues and decision-making associated with the use of living organisms and medicine. It includes both medical ethics and environmental ethics. Rather than defining a correct decision it is about the process of decision-making balancing different benefits, risks and duties. The word “bioethics” was first used in 1970, however, the concept of bioethics is much older, as we can see in the ethics formulated and debated in literature, art, music and the general cultural and religious traditions of our ancestors.

Society is facing many important decisions about the use of science and technology. These decisions affect the environment, human health, society and international policy. To resolve these issues, and develop principles to help us make decisions we need to involve anthropology, sociology, biology, medicine, religion, psychology, philosophy, and economics; we must combine the scientific rigour of biological data, with the values of religion and philosophy to develop a world-view. Bioethics is therefore challenged to be a multi-sided and thoughtful approach to decision-making so that it may be relevant to all aspects of human life.

The term bioethics reminds us of the combination of biology and ethics, topics that are intertwined. New technology can be a catalyst for our thinking about issues of life, and we can think of the examples like assisted reproductive technologies, life sustaining technology, organ transplantation, and genetics, which have been stimuli for research into bioethics in the last few decades. Another stimulus has been the environmental problems.

There are large and small problems in ethics. We can think of problems that involve the whole world, and problems which involve a single person. We can think of global problems, such as the depletion of the ozone layer which is increasing UV radiation affecting all living organisms. This problem could be solved by individual action to stop using ozone-depleting chemicals, if alternatives are available to consumers. However, global action was taken to control the problem. The international convention to stop the production of many ozone-depleting chemicals is one of the best examples yet of applying universal environmental ethics.

Another problem is greenhouse warming, which results mainly from energy use. This problem however can only be solved by individual action to reduce energy use, because we cannot easily ban the use of energy. We could do this by turning off lights, turning down heaters and air conditioners, building more energy efficient buildings, shutting doors, and driving with a light foot. These are all simple actions which everyone must do if we are concerned about our planet, yet not many do so. Energy consumption could be reduced 50-80% by lifestyle change with current technology if people wanted to. New technology may help, but lifestyle change can have much more immediate affect.

Environmental ethics is a relatively new field - and the name “environmental ethics” derives from Eugene Hargrove`s journal, which was begun in late 1970s.

This field – environmental ethics, – will be subsumed as other areas of applied ethics develop more fully. The early pieces or threads of environmental ethics were disconnected…one needs a quick review to fully comprehend today`s “whole” – and know the directions in which the threads lead.

Environmental ethicists as well as policy-makers, activists etc. frequently speak about the need for preservation of various parts of nature. Two main grounds are repeatedly presented for this need:

1. Our moral responsibilities to future human beings (sometimes called sustainable development) require that we stop using technology and science for short-term gains at the expense of long-term risks of very negative ecological effects for future people. In several official declarations and policy-documents this idea has been expressed as “the precautionary principle”, roughly the idea that we should not use particular means of production, distribution etc. unless they have been shown not to effect too serious risks. However, it is far from clear what is meant by this. What determines whether or not the effecting of a certain risk (in order to secure some short-term gain) is too serious or not? – and what determines whether or not this has been “shown”? Some traditional decision-theorists would say that it is a question of traditional instrumental efficiency (i.e. rationality) in relation to morally respectable aims. Some ethicists would instead claim that it is a question of whether or not the severity of the scenario illustrating an actualization of the risk in question makes the taking of this risk morally wrong in itself. Others, yet, hint that they want to take a stand in between these two extremes, however, without specifying what this could mean. There is also a rather grim debate regarding whether or not it can ever be shown that a certain action does not effect too serious risks, and this of course depends on what requirements should be laid on someone who purports to show such a thing. In both cases, the questions seem to boil down to basic issues regarding what is required of risky decisions in order to make them morally justified. But, obviously, it must be a kind of moral justification different from the one dealt with by traditional ethical theories of the rights and wrongs of actions, since these only deal with justification in terms of actual outcomes, not in terms of risks for such outcomes.

2. Natural systems possess a value in themselves which makes them worth preserving also at the expense of human well-being and man-made constructs. This idea is less common in official documents than the former (although it is explicitely set out as a part of the basis of the Swedish Environmental Policy Act) than it is among environmental philosophers and ethicists. However, also this idea is far from clear, since it is not clear neither how a natural system is to be distinguished from a non-natural one and why this difference is to be taken as morally relevant, nor why preservation is the only recommendation which follows from the placing of an intrinsic value in nature. Although there are several suggestion on what it is that makes certain systems intrinsically valuable, it is has not been sufficiently explained, first, why these characteristics (typically complexity, self-preservation/replication, beauty etc.) do not justify preservation also of systems normally not taken to be natural (such as metropolitan areas, hamburger restaurants or nuclear power-plants), secondly, why this value does not imply a recommendation to reshape rather than preserve natural systems, in order to increase the presence and magnitude of the value-making characteristics. In particular, it seems to be a challenge for a preservationist to argue in favour of restoration of certain biotic variants, without leaving the door open also for reshaping, for example by the use of modern biotechnology.

The aim of this research-project is to attack these two families of issues, both connected to the justification of common ideas regarding the importance of preserving various parts of nature. In one part (carried out by christian menthe), the project will be aimed at mapping out moral intuitions regarding the moral responsibility of the taking of risks, in order to use these for developing a normative theory of the morality of risk-taking which can be used to underpin a more specific version of the precautionary principle. The other part of the project is instead aimed at systematically reviewing various proposals (and new home-made to how to distinguish between that (i.e. nature)) which should typically be preserved according to preservationists and that which does not need to be so preserved, and to resist the conclusion that reshaping of nature might be a better idea from the point of view of typically preservationist values than actual preservation. The focus here will be on ideas ascribing a value in itself to nature or certain natural systems.

Bibliography list.

1. Charles Birch and John B. Cobb, Jr., The Liberation of Life: From the               Cell to the Community (Denton, Tex.: Environmental Ethics Books, 1990),  357 pages.

2. Yrjo Sepanmaa, The Beauty of Environment: A General Model for Environmental Aesthetics, 2d ed. (Denton, Tex.: Environmental Ethics Books, 1993), 191 pages.

3. John B. Cobb, Jr., Is It Too Late? A Theology of Ecology, rev. ed. (Denton, Tex.: Environmental Ethics Books, 1995), 112 pages.

4. Eugene C. Hargrove, Foundations of Environmental Ethics (reprint ed., Denton, Tex.: Environmental Ethics Books, 1996), 229 pages.

5. Robin Attfield, The Ethics of Environmental Concern (Denton, Tex.:         Environmental Ethics Books, 1983), 237 pages.

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“Stockholm was without doubt the landmark event in the growth of international environmentalism,” writes John McCormick in the book Reclaiming Paradise. “It was the first occasion on which the political, social and economic problems of the global environment were discussed at an intergovernmental forum with a view to actually taking corrective action.”

World Environment Day is similar to Earth Day.

Earth Day is a day designed to inspire awareness and appreciation for the Earth’s environment. It was founded by U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson as an environmental teach-in in 1970 and is celebrated in many countries every year. Earth Day is celebrated in spring in the Northern Hemisphere and autumn in the Southern Hemisphere. Many communities celebrate Earth Week, an entire week of activities focused on environmental issues.

In the United States, Earth Day is celebrated each year on April 22. The United Nations celebrates Earth Day each year on the spring equinox, which is often 20 March. This is a tradition which was founded by peace activist John McConnell in 1969. The first governmental recognition of Earth Day, authorized by the city San Francisco, was on the spring equinox in 1970. The United Nations adopted this holiday the next year and celebrated Earth Day for the first time on the spring equinox in 1971.

World Environment Day (WED) is a day that stimulates awareness of the environment and enhances political attention and public action. It is on 5 June. It was the day that United Nations Conference on the Human Environment began. The United Nations Conference on the Human Environment was from 5-16 June 1972. It was established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1972.[1] The first World Environment Day was on 1973. World Environment Day is hosted every year by a different city with a different theme and is commemorated with an international exposition on the week that 5 June is on. World Environment Day is in summer in the Northern Hemisphere and winter in the Southern Hemisphere.

“Stockholm was without doubt the landmark event in the growth of international environmentalism,” writes John McCormick in the book Reclaiming Paradise. “It was the first occasion on which the political, social and economic problems of the global environment were discussed at an intergovernmental forum with a view to actually taking corrective action.”

World Environment Day is similar to Earth Day.

Thursday is the 40th anniversary of the first Earth Day, which with the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency the same year, heralded the beginning of the modern environmental movement. The USA has seen environmental advancements during every decade since:

•1970s: Congress passed the Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act.

•1980s: The Superfund Law was passed, setting the stage for the cleanup of abandoned waste sites.

• 1990s: Amendments to the Clean Air Act brought more pollution protections from dust and soot.

• 2000s: Advances were made to cut vehicle and equipment emissions and to regulate mercury emissions.

WatchMojo.com presents… Some tips and suggestions for going green and doing your part to save the environment.
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The slogan for World Environment Day 2008 is ‘Kick the Habit! Towards a Low Carbon Economy’. With an understanding of the fact that the change in climatic condition is gradually becoming one of the most defining issue of the age, UNEP is requesting the nations, companies and communities to put special focus on the greenhouse gas emissions and to put spare thought over how to reduce them. The World Environment Day 2008 is going to highlight resources and focuses on promoting low carbon economies with a view to shape a better and healthier future. Promoting a low carbon economy involves steps towards improved energy efficiency, alternative energy sources, forest conservation and eco-friendly consumption. The chief international celebration of the World Environment Day 2008 is going to be held in New Zealand.

The Heads of State, Prime Ministers and Ministers of Environment deliver statements and commit themselves to care for this only green planet of the universe. Serious pledges establish sound and non-transitory governmental policies related to environmental management and economic planning. bicycle parades, tree planting , recycling campaigns, clean-up campaigns, street rallies, school level essay and poster competitions etc. are organized all over the world on June 5th to celebrate the World Environment Day.

Here are some information on World Environment Day for the last ten years regarding where the WED celebration was held at and what were the respective themes each year:

Places of celebration:
World Environment Day 2007 – Tromsø, Norway
World Environment Day 2006 – Algiers, Algeria
World Environment Day 2005 – San Francisco, U.S.
World Environment Day 2004 – Barcelona, Spain
World Environment Day 2003 – Beirut, Lebanon
World Environment Day 2002 – Shenzhen, People’s Republic of China
World Environment Day 2001 – Torino, Italy and Havana, Cuba
World Environment Day 2000 – Adelaide, Australia
World Environment Day 1999 – Tokyo, Japan
World Environment Day 1998 – Moscow, Russian Federation

Themes of celebration:
World Environment Day 2007 – Melting Ice – a Hot Topic?
World Environment Day 2006 – Deserts and Desertification – Don’t Desert Drylands!
World Environment Day 2005 – Green Cities – Plan for the Planet!
World Environment Day 2004 – Wanted! Seas and Oceans – Dead or Alive?
World Environment Day 2003 – Water – Two Billion People are Dying for It!
World Environment Day 2002 – Give Earth a Chance
World Environment Day 2001 – Connect with the World Wide Web of Life
World Environment Day 2000 – The Environment Millennium – Time to Act
World Environment Day 1999 – Our Earth – Our Future – Just Save It!
World Environment Day 1998 – For Life on Earth – Save Our Seas

INTRODUCTION

Environmental education emerged in the 1960s as the term for the educational dimensions of the environment movement which, at that time, was concerned about air and water quality (pollution), the growth in world population, continuing depletion of natural resources and environmental degradation. Early definitions were framed as being aimed at producing citizens that are knowledgeable about the biophysical environment and its associated problems, aware of how to solve these problems and motivated to work towards their solution.  Environmental education has focused on ecology, environmental issue investigation, and the citizen action skills needed to understand and influence issue outcomes. Emerging awareness of human health and social problems in racial minority and low-income communities resulting from natural resources degradation is expanding the role of environmental education. In order for environmental education to effectively address all populations, it must have simple guidelines that people can follow.

Environmental Education is the learning process that increases people’s knowledge and awareness about the environment and associated challenges, develops the necessary skills and expertise to address the challenges, and foster attitude, motivations, and commitments to make informed decisions and take responsible action. A basic aim of environmental education is to succeed in making individuals and communities understand the complex nature of the natural and built environments resulting from the interaction of their biological, physical, social, economic, and cultural aspects, and acquire the knowledge, values, attitudes, and practical skills to participate in responsible and effective way in anticipating and solving environmental problems, and in the management of the quality of the environment.

Natural Resources are materials from the Earth that are used to support life and meet people’s needs. Any natural substance that humans use can be considered a natural resource. Oil, coal, natural gas, metals, stone and sand are natural resources. Other natural resources are air, sunlight, soil and water. Animals, birds, fish and plants are natural resources as well. Natural resources are divided two types Renewable and Non-renewable resources. Renewable resources are those natural resources such as trees, water, sun and wind that can be replenished at about the same rate at which they are used. Renewable resources, however, can be depleted if not properly managed or conserved. Nonrenewable resources are those natural resources that are depleted more quickly than they can regenerate. Fossil fuels like oil and natural gas were formed over millions of years. Once mined and used completely, nonrenewable resources are gone forever.

 Mistakes that have resulted Natural resources Degradation in Somalia

Somalia is a country that is located in the horn of Africa and ravaged by civil war, around 20 years the country has never seen any administration and people of that country adopted that disorder system. In environmental sector the situation is worse; people can damage the natural resource any time they want because there is lack of systematic government which can handle the resources, there is no effective Environmental institutions and organizations which can monitor the resources, although there is some Non governmental Organizations (NGOs) which exist they do not have financial mechanisms to boost their work. Even before the collapse of the government in 1991, Somalia had no central government body for environmental protection and conservation, although there were several ministries and state agencies in charge of managing the natural environment. The national parks agency, for example, was set up in 1970 to establish nationally protected areas and parks. Further more, around 47% of people are illiterate that makes difficult for NGOs to disseminate the information about the impact of destruction of resources. The country’s forest, animal grazing land, coastal resources and the health of whatever is left of its human population is in grave danger.

Also environment in Somalia has been severely degraded due to unsustainable use of natural resources, climate change and substances that deplete ozone layer as well as illegal trafficking of dumping toxic waste chemicals. Consequently the lives and livelihoods of Somali have been impacted. The poverty and illiteracy and civil conflicts have also exacerbated the situation.

Since the outbreak of the Somali civil war in 1990, Somalia political, socio-economic and environmental structures have been disintegrated. Disruption in governance and civil order over the last two decades has left Somalia without effective environmental management interventions. Consequently, environmental resources have experienced continued degradation. Somalia’s interest in environmental resources issues beyond its own borders have also been excluded from a large number of international and regional agreements and conventions over this same period. Although Somalia is a signatory to a number of Multilateral Environment Agreements (MEAs), there has been little progress in implementation.

 In Somalia anyone with a boat can ship in and out whatever they want as the country possesses numerous natural harbours throughout its long coast. Some are making their living by cutting precious trees and converting them to charcoal, others are growing or selling drugs.

People do not understand the cutting of trees can lead into Global warming and destruction of habitat of ecosystem has adverse effect of human life.

The absence of an effective legislative, institutional and policy framework lack of technical capacity for monitoring and planning, further compound environmental problems. The environment is severely degraded and threatened with continued degradation unless action is taken to introduce and support environmentally sustainable development and practices.

These leads to repeated mistakes against of natural resources degradation as follows;

 Deforestation

Deforestation is the destruction or clearing of forested lands, usually for the purposes of expanding agricultural land or for timber harvesting. Charcoal plays an important role in both the energy sectors and the economies of most African countries. Charcoal making provides a considerable amount of employment in rural areas; it also allows for a quick return on investments. However, the inefficiencies inherent to the production and use of charcoal place a heavy strain on local wood resources, resulting into severe environmental consequences. In many parts of the world, the use of charcoal has been blamed for deforestation. Deforestation in the drier parts of Africa has led to an even worse problem – desertification and the loss of thousands of species. Deforestation is the product of the interaction of many environmental, social, political, economic and cultural forces at work in any given region.

During the last several years, a new type of business was introduced in Somalia. Cutting of trees to produce charcoal for export to the Gulf States has become a big business with considerable profits. In order to optimize the operation, local businessmen introduced a new technology – battery-powered chain saws for cutting of the forests. Trees are cut down, burn and brought by trucks for export from major ports in the country, particularly Mogadishu, Kismayo and Bosaso. Most of the charcoal is made in southern Somalia, while northern and eastern regions also experience the same problem but to a lesser extent. More than 80% of the trees used for charcoal are types of Acacia, the most dominant species. It is very difficult in the present political climate to investigate and put a stop to deforestation. The lack of strong central government has created opportunities for rival warlords and profit driven businessmen to exploit the land for their own gain without regard for the natural environment. It is unsurprising that the areas with the worst rates of deforestation are in south where the warlords reign.

 Inappropriate Land Use

Inappropriate land use can lead to soil degradation. Bad farming techniques are often responsible for land degradation. Leaving fields bare, or ploughing them up and down the sides of a hill can cause severe soil erosion when it rains heavily as the soil has nothing keeping it in place. When the left over parts of crops and animal manure are ploughed back into the soil they serve to replenish and fertilize it. However, if the crops are cut to be fed to animals and the manure is burnt as a fuel, the soil will have no way of replenishing itself, and decreases in fertility. Sometimes landowners make changes in the way they use the land in an attempt to make the land more productive, but often these changes damage the land and actually make it less productive.

In Somalia especially southern where most of productive land has associated, inappropriate land use are common because bad farming system which leads soil degradation, and most farmers they can’t afford high technology which can lead them for appropriate allocation the plot of land they have. More to this, planning of land in way which different types of land units compatible for its use its important for farming system, for example around river shabele most farmers plant hillsides that cause soil erosion because at the time of rainfall all minerals may seep down in to the river hence cause adverse effect to the aquatic life. People are continue to settle fragile places such wetland which are very important for live of human and as whole of other living organisms because lack policy which restrict to settle these places.

 Desertification

Desertification occurs when productive lands are turned into non-productive desert as a result of poor land-management. Desertification, deforestation and overgrazing retard soil formation. Trees and shrubs are crucial in controlling water runoff and protecting topsoil from the fierce Somali dust storms, especially over the eastern plains. Desertification occurs when trees and shrub do not act as covers, exposing the soil to the elements. The soil then becomes barren and unable to host vegetation or live stock for many years.

Desertification is already evident along Somali coast where mangrove trees felled for timber and in the northern Somalia. The charcoal industry is one main culprit responsible for abusing Somali land to the point that it no longer can support much plant life to provide wood and charcoal to satisfy regional needs as well as international demand, bushes and other small plants are sacrificed for burning of large trees. As result, land suitable for grazing is destroyed. Further more, tracks that carry the charcoal for export leave in their week deep land tracks that are transformed in to gullies of rains. If the deforestation is left unchecked much longer, it could severely affect Somali’s livelihoods. In long run, nomad’s traditional lifestyle may be threatened because of the lack of posture for their livestock for rural Somalis. It would become increasingly difficult to cultivate crops when the land becomes less fertile.

 Poverty

Poverty is considered as a great influence of environmental degradation. In many regions of the world, regional overgrazing has resulted in destruction of grazing lands, forest and soil. Air and water have been degraded. The carrying capacity of the natural environment has been reduced. As the people become poorer, they destroy the resources faster. They tend to overuse the natural resources because they don’t have anything to eat or any means of getting money except through the natural resources, they start to depend more on natural resources.

Poor people harvest natural resources for their survival or in order to meet their basic needs such as firewood, agricultural productions (such as maize), and water and wild plants for their medicine. All people regardless of being poor or rich depend on natural resources; the concern with poor people is that they are utilizing the resources directly. The rich people do depend on these resource but they do not go to the forest directly and harvest the resources.

Due to the lack of sufficient income people start to use and overuse every resource available to them when their survival is at stake. As desperate hunger leads to desperate strategies for survival, many trees are harvested for fire wood, timber and art craft. Most of the poor people use this fire wood as their source of income by selling them, and art craft products are also used for income generation. The roots of the trees are dug out for medicinal purpose. This leaves the soil exposed as the grasses are also grazed by animals and also collected for roofing the houses. When it rains the entire top and good soil are eroded which makes it difficult for that soil to produce better agricultural products.

They have no quality drinking water as they pollute the rivers by washing inside them and by also using a river as a dumping site for the bins. The lack of education also prohibits them from practicing environmentally sustainable agriculture; protect natural resources against degradation or rehabilitate degraded resources like rivers.

Poverty in Somalia can be attributed to a number of factors. The prominent ones being absence of an active central government, civil disputes, natural calamities like floods and droughts. Poverty in Somalia has increased manifold since 1990. Somalia, witnessed many inhibiting factors like downfall of the government, outbreak of the civil war, which further aggravated the problem of poverty in Somalia. Approximately, 45% of Somalia’s population lives below the poverty line. Poverty in Somalia is more pronounced in the rural areas than in the urban regions.

In Somalia, more than seven in ten poor people live in ru­ral regions, with most engaged in resource-dependent activities such as small-scale farming, livestock pro­duction, fishing, hunting, artisanal mining, and logging. These people rely on related harvests as a primary source of income and fall back on natural resources when other sources of income fail. Natural ecosystems have several char­acteristics that make them attractive and accessible as a source of income to the rural poor. Environmental resources are renewable, widely dis­persed, and often found in common property areas where the poor can ac­cess them without owning the land. Ecosystem goods and services can act as community assets, whose benefits reach beyond household cash in­comes. In addition there is no government agencies which help of these poor people and most of UN agencies they are effective in Somalia because high risk of security.

Hazardous waste dumping in Somalia

World’s chemical industries and nuclear energy plants have already generated millions of tons of hazardous wastes. Industrialized countries generate over 90% of the world’s hazardous wastes (WCED, 1987). The high growth of industries in developed countries was accompanied by an equally high increase in the production of toxic hazardous wastes. But the technological capacity to handle these by-products – wastes, was not developing by the same level. This is the reason why problem of these wastes, particularly nuclear wastes, still remains unsolved.

Taking advantage of political instability and high level of corruption but lured by the potential financial gains, poor African nations have been used as the dumping sites for hazardous toxic waste materials from developed countries. In some cases, the income generated from this trade of importing hazardous waste from the West, have exceeded the Gross National Production (GNP) of many poor countries. Poverty is the reason of accepting importation of toxic wastes. Bearing the cost of the damage caused by the hazardous wastes, Africa dis-benefits the entire attempt of generating revenue to alleviate poverty. This do-or-die method becomes an alternative solution to the desperate search for revenue for some African countries, which are ill-equipped to dispose these health and environment threatening wastes. Both the exporting and importing counterparts violated international treaties to which most countries in the world are signatories.

During the Somali civil war, hazardous wastes were dumped in industrialized countries. In the fall of 1992 reports began to appear in the international media concerning unnamed European firms that were illegally dumping hazardous waste in Somalia. For years faceless companies that have links to various mafia groups have been using the Somali coast as a cheap waste dump. Anything from industrial heavy metals to radioactive nuclear waste and WMDs is being dumped along this wretched coast.

Taking advantages the political atmosphere in Somalia many warlords have entered contracts to these European farms as black market leading Somalia become as international waste dumping place. This causes severe damage for aquatic life by destruction of some important places such as coral reefs which are habitat of keystones species, and also human being specially fishers who depend on coastal areas for survival and leads for dangerous diseases such as respiratory lung, cancer and others.

 Loss of biodiversity

Loss of biodiversity is a reduction in the variety of plant and animal species. In areas where environmental degradation has occurred there is often a loss of biodiversity as a result of the disruption to the ecosystem. However the loss of biodiversity itself can be considered a form of environmental degradation. The range of genetic make-up (plant and animal varieties) in a particular area can be considered to be a natural resource and is important in maintaining a healthy environment. The loss of biodiversity mostly responsible by human activity such as settlement of wetland, Deforestation, Poaching, Dumping wastes in to the oceans and also as well as Natural factors such as Earthquakes, Floods, and volcanic activities. 

In Somalia dozens of wildlife have been killed and are still under death and displacement day by day in across Somalia. There is also an estimated number of animals had been shot illegally for almost two decade And uncontrolled number of this were run to neighboring countries while many number is also exported illegally to abroad monthly. These caused by the lack of central government since the collapse of President Siad Barre (Ex president) regime in 1991. Somalia is also suffering from foreign helicopters that are hunting and stealing wildlife on the outskirts of the villages in coastal areas. The most targeted areas by the flying poachers are Nugal, Karkar and Mudug regions.

 War

Somalia has characterized continues war which have affected human life as well as other living organisms. This war have contributed for degradation of natural resources in term of using heavy weapons such as artillery guns which can killed huge of wildlife and destruct around one hectare of land that have lead to extinct or migrate of keystones organisms. Also these weapons they have loud noise which also caused for some species to migrate in to neighbor countries such as Kenya, and Ethiopia. More to this, warlords also have begun to deport some wildlife into the abroad for the sake to get income for war such as elephants, rhinos, hippopotamus, and others.

Some analyses say that around 85% of Somali wildlife has disappeared for the illegal poaching, effects of the war weapons and others. Also these weapons have lead for modification of landscape which is necessary for species diversity.  

How can we correct of that mistakes through Environmental Education

Environmental education is the process involving recognizing values and clarifying concepts and values in order to develop skills and attitudes necessary to understand and appreciate the interrelatedness among man and his culture and the biophysical surrounding. The degradation of Somalia’s environment is linked to continuing problems of Deforestation, Desertification, solid waste disposal, Inappropriate land use, war, Poverty and issues related to economic productivity, and as well as political instability. The increasing levels of global warming, depletion of the ozone layer and a serious loss of biodiversity have also increased environmental concerns.Environmental education is thus concerned with attitude towards and decisions about environment quality, with informed management of resources, and with the ethical considerations that relate to these above mistakes.

In Somalia is very difficult to talk about environmental educations because without basic security of citizens, as well as lack Environmental institutions which are the basics of environmental education. There are many things that come first into mind  before environmental issue in Somalia, people concern their lives and how they can survive tomorrow, they are not concern about the destruction of natural resource can finally affect their live and future generation to come. So it’s very hard to implement of environmental education concepts of such country where his people have nervy seen a system working efficiency more than 20 years. The only system which exists in Somalia which can monitor the environmental issues is NGOs which most of them are community based and struggling for getting of funds. Some of these NGOs such as Natural Resources and Environmental Development Agency (NERDA), and Somali Center of water and Environment (SCWE), have established Somali community out side the country especially USA, and UK.

NERDA has contributed a lot of campaign which has results for some regions of the country such as North Eastern region to make people aware that deforestation of trees may lead shortage of rainfall because they experienced of such as shortage. But such Organizations they can not go ahead their work without finance as well as some other challenges such as cultural and religious beliefs. These NGOs also gets some support financial from UN agencies which is rare in Somalia especially the south where the most fighting is centered, and such as finances may also go hiding hands ( corruption), which ravaged most of these organizations.

For above challenges in Somalia, it’s hard to correct for each mistake against  natural resources degradation through Environmental Education, but there are some strategies that can at least do a fundamental role to correct these mistakes such as NGOs if they get enough capital as follows;

AWARENESS

Environmental Education involving Community Awareness about the complexity of interactions of different components of environment such as lithosphere, biosphere, and hydrosphere, and atmosphere, Environmental education is a process of providing learning experiences, knowledge of natural and artificial environment to win.

Environmentally aware population makes better-informed decisions and choices on complex environmental issues. Ecologically sustainable development requires an informed society that can make balanced decisions based on its economic, social and environmental welfare for current and future generations.

Measuring the level of environmental awareness in Somalia can be very difficult. However, direct exposure to the natural environment or a particular place is a strong factor in determining concern for that environment or place. This level of exposure or opportunities for increased environmental awareness can be measured by a series of indicators such as floods, earthquake, landslides, and droughts. Similarly, environmental programs can help us reduce the impacts of human actions on the environment can also be measured as a proxy for changes in environmental awareness.

Environmental awareness creation         

 Environmental education must be encouraged for student become aware of environment. Then, they recognize or review the relationship between humans and nature. The students get knowledge and skills from the teachers to solve the environmental problems. The teachers motivate to develop the student’s attitudes to participate various environmental protection programs in favor of environment. The teacher and parents try to inculcate the knowledge about environment and develop positive and healthy attitude towards environment from the beginning of life. There is essential need to organize and conduct educational programmes backing by these NGOs, and focus on environmental issues, problems, attitude, towards preservation and conservation of environment.

COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION

The education institutes conduct the various programmes to making awareness of environment protection among all people in the society. They can arrange social service camps and community service camps for environment preservation that will be led by the teachers and students for the benefit of society. For example, clean village, clean city, Dustless city, Awareness camps and Healthcare camps etc. Especially the students are coming from Primary and Secondary schools, to take responsibility for creating awareness and conservation of the environment among the public.

Contributions of communities towards environmental issues

 In Somalia, the population level is increasing rapidly, among these 70% of the people are living in the village areas. Each village has certain community of people. They can contribute their participation towards the environmental protection and preservation programmes. Here the educated people can lead the awareness camps, preservation programmes. For examples, Rainwater savings, recycling the usage water, Mass environment programmes etc.  On the other hand the wealth community people are conducting various awareness programmes frequently, conservation programme. They will create interest among public to preserve to conserve the environment. Above this awareness programme are possible when the people have adequate education. Hence we inculcate the child’s environment education. We will initiate the environment awareness from primary to higher education to the public.

Role of media creating environmental awareness

We have seen that mass media, especially Radio in its different formats can prove to be almost the panacea for spreading awareness about environment to the concerns to the optimum level. A very significant recent development, in the Somalia Radio has been the shift towards utilizing the huge scope of Community Radio (CR). This concept is about doing something for its own benefit by the community. The aim and objective of the CR Channels include –preservation of their culture and languages, launch publicity or awareness creating campaign for the benefit of the community about the environment.

KNOWLEDGE AND EDUCATIONAL NEEDS IN RURAL COMMUNITY

The main aim of the environmental education is to make people in the society to be aware , knowledgeable and in inculcate positive attitudes towards protection of environment and make them skilled to  solve environmental problems so as to enable them to participate in the activities undertaken for the protection of environment the rural people have to learn about the environmental concern so that they are enable to protect the environment because we not been gifted the environment  our ancestors and also we have not borrowed it from our off spring . Instead we have to handover the environment to the posterity both in terms quality and quantity.

Role of NGO’s in environmental activities

The environmental NGO’s such as NERDA, and SCWE have played a major role in environmental protection and development by linking the local with the global. The collaborative work of these NGO’s lead to fulfillment of local needs, some of the NGO’s are working for environmental awareness while some are working in research field, the complementary work of the NGO’s deals more specifically with how the NGO community impacts issues of the environment.

CHANGE OF ATTITUDES

Environmental education also involves behavior and attitude change, that can contribute to correction of misconception of the people about the consumption of natural resources for example some society in Somalia believe that resources are abundant and they will not deplete and others also believe that God is the provider and always will provide hence there is no depletion of resources. Such society there is urgent need to change their misconception and to acquire a set of values and feelings of concern for the environment and its system. We need for large campaign in rural areas where such that people live, in order to understanding their role the changes in the environment and thus their responsibility on environmental management.

CONCLUSION

“If you plan for one year, plan rice, if you plan for ten years plant trees , and if you plan for hundred years educate people”. So if we want to save our mother earth we have to make our man king flourish, there is a strong need to conserve our natural recourses and make judicious use of them. We must think earth as a habitat, not of today but of distant tomorrow where there will be place and means for every being alive. All of us living on this planet, whether rich or poor, industrialist or workman, farmers or laborers, office goers or house wife, VIP or common men, as individuals or groups, are responsible for the present dismal state of our environment and each one of us has to contribute towards its rehabilitation, preservation and conservation.

REFERENCES

Michel L. Mckinney, (1998), System and Solution 3rd edition, Published by

               Bantana Company USA.

Enger & Smith,(2006), Environmental science 10th edition, Published by

                McGraw-Hill.

G. Tyler Miller, (2004), Environmental Sciences 10th edition, published by

              Jack carey USA.

Raven, Berg, & Johnson, (1998), Environmental Science, 2nd edition, Published by       

             saunder college.

William P. cunningham, (2002), Principle Environmental Science 1st edition, published

                 By McGrawhill

www.SCWE.net

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Functional test phases such as Unit, Integration, Acceptance, all manner of performance or non functional testing and development phases all require Application Environments.

The primary clients of an Application Environments Management service are Software Project and Test teams.

The service will cater for the following;

Manage the creation, build, upgrade and support for all test and development Application Environments.
Clearly defining auditable processes of allocating application environments, multiple bookings or shared usage, code upgrades, service level agreement, support, decommissioning and re-allocation.
Manage data refreshes, collating test data and assist in the anonimising of production or other sensitive data if necessary.
Supply, provision and manage all Application Environment Requirements from the Project and Test teams all through the software development cycle of a project.
Assist the Project in establishing their application environment requirements, provide expert knowledge on the APPLICATION environment’s set up, connectivity and serve as a guide to the projects in using the application environment in the most efficient manner.
Review and contribute to the Project Initiation Document (PID) ensuring that the IT Environments Management function and its deliverables are clearly defined and captured.
Create and maintain project plans to assist in managing all activities required to successfully carry out major code upgrades to all application environments.
Provide reports on usage/utilisation, availability, forward planning and schedules.

Application Environments Management is clearly a new and emerging area which has arisen due to the following reasons:

The increased Application Environment requirements for many companies who have several software projects running at any one time.
The increased levels of interfacing and connectivity between several systems in most organisations also known as spaghetti. For example in some companies more than thirty systems are interfaced or connected with each other exchanging files and data flows etc and has meant that any changes to one system most times could require a change to many others and then require large numbers of test and development  application environments.
Increased awareness and more commitment to carrying out rigorous software testing especially with more companies opting to use the Prince 2 methodology and  ITIL Framework

A typical Application Environments Management tool should be able to provide the following services: environments bookings and allocation, manage multiple bookings and re-curring bookings.  Provide reporting on usage, availability, interconnectivity or interfacing environments, utilisation and conflict reporting etc. It must also serve as a repository of all information on an Application Environment to include Host Server names, Hardware Type, Operating System, IP Address and Interfaces if any.

The ideal background for an Application Environments Management personnel could be Software Development, Application or Technical Support, Infrastructure Project Management, Configuration and Release Management etc but must be

exposed to at least the ITIL Framework, Client – Server development, System Architecture/Design, Networks, TCP/IP and Messaging systems etc.

Terminologies defined & explained:

Application Environment – A single test bed or development platform instance of a software application or system that can also be used for all manner of functional and non functional testing or could be the production instance (production environment). It could also be large, medium or small which normally refers to the size of data the RDBMS will be holding depending on the type of testing it is required for.

Integrated Application environments (also known as stripes): More than one application environment connected to each other also communicating with each other and exchanging files and data flows. Connections could be via Microsoft ODBC, via FTP, TCP/IP, daemons, middleware, defined interfaces and database links etc.

Anonimising of data

Anonimising of data refers to the manipulation or transformation of production data held in the RDBMS such as Oracle, SQL Server, Sybase, Microsoft Access, DB2 etc to be used in a test or development Application Environment ensuring that for example real names, addresses, date of birth, bank account details and other sensitive information or data is transformed to dummy data.

The data is transformed whilst still maintaining its defining characteristics in a Relational Database Management System table such as character length (Char 25 or Varchar 50) etc to ensure its usage in testing or development is not compromised and that the integrity is maintained. For example a valid name such as John Smith defined as Char 10 will now be updated in the table to become possibly a unique character string XXXXXXYYYY (comprising of ten characters including the space between John and Smith).

Pipe cleaning

Pipe cleaning caters for the all the activities required to be carried out before a test or development environment is handed over to the Test or Project team and includes disk clear down, archiving and purging logs, importing test data, killing off rogue processes, resetting passwords, changing environment settings, end to end connectivity or integration tests to make sure everything is working okay.

Depending on the complexity of the system a checklist of activities may be required and ticked off capturing all the checks and tests that have been completed on an environment or an integrated suite of environments prior to its hand over to a Project or Test team.

Smoke Test

A smoke test describes an initial end to end test of all the integrated or even stand alone environments very possibly using dummy data and carried out by the support teams who have created or built the environment or by the test team when the environment is handed over.

Video about the influence that humans have and are having on our planet.
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Water Bottle Deposits Still on Hold

New York government has been buffeted by endemic budget problems, committed spending draining all available revenue and then some. Our current economic downturn has affected New York’s budget like it has everyone else’s. One creative move undertaken by the state has been to order a new five cent a bottle deposit collected for plastic water bottles. Increasingly under fire for their creation of unnecessary litter and for their expansion of corporate control of water, water bottles have ended up in many environmentalist’s sights.

However New York’s recycling oriented revenue scheme has hit an impasse, halted by a Federal District Court Judge. He delayed implementation of the program until next spring, and struck down a provision which would have hindered interstate commerce. While this is bad news for revenue generation, it still preserves the recycling program for the future.

New York Faces Rise in Invasive Pest Species

As global warming ticks up and agriculture is increasingly globalized, the introduction and migration of new invasive species occurs more frequently. These weed and pest species can devastate agriculture, raise food prices and cause untold ecological damage. New York has faced a wave of new invasive species detected of late, none more serious than the Emerald Ash Borer.

A small beetle, the Emerald Ash Borer (also EAB) is deadly to all varieties of ash trees; there are over 900 million ash trees in the State of New York. This follows on the detection of yet another invasive beetle species, the Asian Longhorned Beetle, which feeds on ash trees as well (along with other hardwood species). The invasion of the EAB has been foreseen for some time, having caused untold damage in neighboring Northeastern states.

In order to stem the spread to other states, the New York Department of Environmental Conservation is stepping up regulation of firewood coming into and leaving the state.

Utica Harbor Cleanup Commences

Utica–the central New York town on the Erie Canal–is home to Harbor Point, a peninsula on the canal that has seen better days. For years lined with factories and put to industrial use, and used as a dumping ground for sediment and other waste, cleaning up Harbor Point has been a priority for local officials for years, seen as vital to any redevelopment efforts.

Now that cleanup has come. A partnership of state environmental agencies, local government and the Canal Corporation is engaged to thoroughly clean Harbor Point of its toxins. The effort is expected to be finished this year; local officials plan to redevelop the site as part of a revitalization of the state’s Mohawk Valley.

5th grade school project. The objective was to research an environmental threat to fish and present that information in a creative, fun, way. Either Powerpoint, a song, a news cast, etc. TJ (10) wrote the script and all the scenes and worked with his friend Nate (10) to film and edit the project.

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