preview

The Journal Of Environmental Management Models And Challenges

Decent Essays

With geological experts currently heralding a new geological period, the Anthropocene (Kolbert, 2011), attention is drawn to the overarching impacts of humankind upon the environment. The article ‘Anthropogenic nutrients and harmful algae in coastal waters’, published by the Journal of Environmental Management, Davidson et al. (2014) propose that nutrients from anthropogenic sources are a major contributing factor towards the increasing occurrence of Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) in coastal waters worldwide. The authors conclude that the function of anthropogenically sourced nutrients in stimulating the growth of HABs is dependent on location, other parameters often regulate the occurrence of algal blooms. The article is comprehensive from a scientific perspective, accessing quantifiable parameters from an empirical cause and effect assessment. However, from an Anthropology perspective there are various perspectives which, overlooked in this article, could enrich the understanding and comprehension on the causes of HAB events. To demonstrate how anthropological perspectives could contribute a more complex understanding and interpose valuable paradigms to environmental management models and challenges. The article by Davidson et al. (2014) is critiqued with regards to the Humanistic-Scientific spectrum, as well as the Holistic perspective as opposed to the Reductionist perspective, and the Temporal perspective is contrasted with the Tempocentric. However, advancing in this

Get Access