As part of the cultural season of the Environmental Research Center

Assist. Prof. Dr. Sedik Ahmed Kasim (lecturer in the Department of Sustainable Development-ERC) presented a lecture on Tuesday, 28/1/2020 at 12:00 entitled “Alternatives and Environmental Significance”. The lecturer stated that the appearance of the European Renaissance in the eighteenth century led to the generation of an industrial revolution, which reflected positively on the various sides of life (economic, social, etc.). At the same time, it reflected negatively on the environment side in terms of the emergence of environmental pollution as a global phenomenon, which directly affected the essential requirements of life in water, air and food, as well as changing the environmental balance and consequently a great damage in the agricultural area in conjunction with a real problem in terms of the defect in providing the necessary need for food products occurred. Therefore, it was necessary to search for alternatives to avoid this problem and moving toward the chemical industry in terms of the use of chemical fertilizers. The excessive use of them led to the deterioration of nutritional value of agricultural crops and the direct impact on the environmental balance of natural elements.

The technical progress has contributed to development of the concept "protected agriculture", which means the provision of agricultural crops throughout the year. Apparently, this concept indicates that there are positive benefits from its use, but there is a concern about the possibility of a direct relationship in terms of the effect between this concept and climate changes. The use of protected agriculture and greenhouses may effectively limit the process of absorbing the significant amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by plants under the photosynthesis process.

The lecturer recommended that searching for the environmentally friendly alternatives should be carried out by encouraging scientific research and using modern technologies in this field such as renewable energies and adopting modern irrigation methods.

As part of the cultural season of the Environmental Research Center

 Assist. Prof. Dr. Salih A. Al-Bakri (lecturer in the Department of Environmental Technology-ERC) presented a lecture on Tuesday, 4/2/2020 at 12:00 entitled “Parasites in Iraqi Environment”. The lecturer stated that a parasite is an organism that lives on or in the host (another organism). The presence of the host plays an essential role in enabling the parasite to live, grow and reproduce where it is generally smaller than the host. Parasite uses the host's resources to complete its life cycle and maintain itself. The size of parasite ranges from the microscopic size (about 70% of parasites are not visible to the human eye such as malarial type) to the macroscopic size (some worm parasites can reach over 30m in length). Parasites are not the same as predators and have the ability to reproduce at fast rates.

 The lecturer pointed out that parasites are present in diverse forms in the Iraqi environment and have the ability to reproduce at fast rates. Thus, they pose a real threat to human health if they are not diagnosed early. The environmental pollution plays a key factor in their spread such as drinking contaminated water and eating unclean or not well (partially) cooked food. Therefore, the lecturer recommended the necessity of health and environmental awareness in this respect in order to avoid their dangers.