Areas that are vulnerable to pollution from oil and chemical spills where identified using a multiple index in a geographical analysis. Factors, including shoreline sensitivity, corals, benthic conditions, sea birds, marine mammals, fish and fisheries and other sea resources where taken into account and weighed for their importance.

Many POPs (persistent organic pollutants), heavy metals and other contaminants from emissions further south are accumulated in Arctic food chains and ultimately in indigenous peoples. This process is often referred to as long-range pollution or long-range transport of pollutants. While fear of these compounds sometimes has resulted in abandonment of traditional foods, this has also led to more unhealthy food habits acquired from non-indigenous pe...

Glaciers and ice caps reached their Holocene (the past 10 000 years) maximum extent in most mountain ranges throughout the world towards the end of the Little Ice Age, between the 17th and mid-19th century. Over the past hundred years a trend of dramatic shrinking is apparent over the entire globe, especially at lower elevations and latitudes. Within this general trend, strong glacier retreat is observed in the 1930s and 1940s, followed by static...

Soil degradation is a key global environmental indicator. Trans-border pollution in Europe has become a serious international and environmental problem. Sulphur emissions from industry in Eastern Europe is one of the most environmentally damaging problem that faces countries today.

In many of the world’s largest cities (Beijing, Calcutta, Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro, etc.) WHO World Health Organization) air quality guidelines are not met. In 1996 global emissions of carbon dioxide were nearly four times the 1950 total.

Nutrient loading is projected to become an increasingly severe problem, particularly in developing countries. Nutrient loading already has major adverse effects on freshwater ecosystems and coastal regions in both industrial and developing countries.

The range of the natural rate of bacterial nitrogen fixation in natural terrestrial ecosystems (excluding fixation in agroecosystems) is shown for comparison. Human activity now produces approximately as much reactive nitrogen as natural processes do on the continents.

The most threatening event for the Caspian ecosystem was the arrival of the North American comb jelly (Mnemiopsis leidyi). It was brought accidentally to the Caspian in the ballast water of oil tankers. Invasive and alien species can exploit ecological niches that are not currently occupied, and spread rapidly, out-competing indigenous species.

There are thought to be between 20,000 and 25,000 bears in the world, which occur in19 relatively discrete sub-populations, some of which are shared between nations. Topping the food chain in the Arctic, the polar bear is exposed to high levels of pollutants that are magnified with each step higher in the food web (a process known as biomagnification). Recent studies have suggested that the immune system may be weaker in polar bears with higher l...

Many POPs (persistent organic pollutants) and heavy metals from emissions further south are accumulated in Arctic food chains and ultimately in indigenous peoples. While fear of these compounds sometimes has resulted in abandonment of traditional foods, this has also led to more unhealthy food habits acquired from non-indigenous peoples. Most indigenous peoples in smaller communities still supply a large share of their household foods from natura...

Many POPs (persistent organic pollutants), heavy metals and other contaminants from emissions further south are accumulated in Arctic food chains and ultimately in indigenous peoples. This process is often referred to as long-range pollution or long-range transport of pollutants. While fear of these compounds sometimes has resulted in abandonment of traditional foods, this has also led to more unhealthy food habits acquired from non-indigenous pe...

The Barents region is in the Arctic and covers the area of Western Russia and the northern areas of Finland, Sweden and Norway. This map indicates the political boundaries and economic areas in the region. More importantly it shows where environmental dangers are located and the level of grazing on pastoral lands. (Please note that the The Barents Euro-Arctic Council has expanded the membership since 1998)

Shows Arctic Russia under the threat of radioecologic pollution and the White and Kara Seas, Kola and Novaya Zemlya.

The demise of the Aral Sea in central Asia was caused primarily by the diversion of the inflowing Amu Dar’ya and Syr Dar’ya rivers to provide irrigation water for local croplands. These diversions dramatically reduced the river inflows, causing the Aral Sea to shrink by more than 50%, to lose two-thirds of its volume, and to greatly increase its salinity. At the current rate of decline, the Aral Sea has the potential to disappear completely by 20...

Besides the well-known economic value of fisheries, there are several other activities generating significant revenues in coastal and marine areas. Tourism has become one of the world’s fastest growing industries, providing a significant proportion of the GDPs of many developing countries. Small island states are particularly reliant on coastal and marine tourism. In the Caribbean, for example, the industry accounts for a quarter of the total eco...

Although freshwater ecosystems such as rivers, lakes and wetlands occupy less than 2% of the earth’s total land surface, they provide a wide range of habitats for a significant proportion of the world’s plant and animal species. Many are yet to be discovered, but the number of freshwater species worldwide is estimated at between 9,000 and 25,000 (Cosgrove and Rijsberman, 2000). However, this number is rapidly decreasing due to human interference....

The availability of oxygen is one of the most important indicators of the condition of a water body, because dissolved oxygen, or DO, (the amount of oxygen dissolved in water) is necessary for most aquatic organisms, including fish and invertebrates. Some species have very defined lower limits of DO that they can tolerate. Increases in DO can indicate improvements in water quality, such as has occurred in many parts of the world in the last 30 ye...

In areas where surface water is not readily available (located far from areas of need), groundwater is the primary water source. Groundwater aquifers supply an estimated 20% of the global population living in arid and semi-arid regions. Despite their widespread presence, groundwater aquifers in arid areas receive only limited or seasonal recharge, making such aquifers susceptible to rapid depletion. The Northern Sahara Basin Aquifer, for example,...

'The over-exploitation and mismanagement of fisheries, particularly when combined with other man-made stresses, can lead to the collapse of regional fish faunas. In many countries, aquaculture is rapidly increasing in response to declining natural fisheries, often exacerbating the degradation of inland and coastal ecosystems through habitat alteration, pollution and the introduction of alien species' (Revenga et al., 1998). The Freshwater Specie...

Most governments recognize that violence over water is seldom strategically workable or economically viable and the most hostile enemies have a capacity for cooperation where water is concerned. The institutions that they create to avert conflict have shown extraordinary resilience. The considerable time taken to negotiate the establishment of these institutions - 40 years for the Jordan agreement for example - bears testimony to the sensitivity ...