Environmental quality and its impact on total fertility rate: an econometric analysis from a new perspective.

BACKGROUND: Environmental quality significantly affects various aspects of human existence. This study employs ecological footprint as a proxy to assess the impact of environmental quality on the TFR, measured as births per woman. This study investigates the extent to which ecological footprint indicators impact on the TFR in across 31 countries between from 1990 to 2017. METHODS: We gathered data on ecological footprints, specifically carbon, agricultural land, grazing land, forest products, and fisheries, from the Global Footprint Network. Information on the TFR, Human Development Index (HDI), and per capita Gross National Income (GNI) were sourced from the World Bank and the United Nations. We applied static panel and quantile regression models to scrutinize the connection between the ecological footprint and TFR, showing how the former influences the latter. RESULTS: The outcomes reveal that, in both fixed and random effects models, factors including HDI, carbon, and fishing grounds exert a negative influence on TFR, all at a significance level of p < 0.01. Conversely, cropland and forest product footprints exhibited a favorable impact on the TFR (p < 0.01). Furthermore, GNI per capita positively affected the TFR in both models, with a p-value of 0.01. Quantiles regression analysis demonstrated that HDI and carbon footprint had a negative impact on TFR across all quantiles. This statistical significance is maintained for all quantiles, although it is only significant for the carbon footprint up to the 60th quantile, at p < 0.01. CONCLUSIONS: This study establishes a negative correlation between specific ecological footprint indicators, such as carbon and fishing grounds, and TFR. Conversely, there was a positive correlation between the footprint of forest products and the TFR. The primary conclusion drawn is that there is heterogeneity in the results regarding the relationship between ecological footprint and TFR. Moreover, the ecological footprint indicators considered in this study did not uniformly influence TFR. Each ecological footprint indicator exhibited distinct effects on the TFR, displaying either positive or negative correlation coefficients. Future research endeavors may delve into how ecological footprints impact other population dynamics, such as mortality and migration.

How do teachers' perceptions of climate change vary in terms of importance, causes, impacts and mitigation? A comparative study in Bangladesh.

Since climate change education is an integral element in the increasingly urgent global approach to solving the problem of climate change, understanding perceptions of climate change among teachers in different academic institutions could play a significant role in how and to what extent institutions address the need to educate learners on this subject, specifically, and participate in other climate change mitigation strategies, in general. This study, therefore, examines teachers' perceptions of climate change regarding its significance, causes, consequences, and mitigation, through analysis of a self-administered structured questionnaire completed by 95 teachers from public and private educational institutions in the city of Sylhet in Bangladesh. Results from descriptive and inferential statistical analysis show that public and private school teachers have an understanding of climate change regarding its significance, causes, consequences, and mitigation. The results also reveal that the sociodemographic characteristics of teachers, as well as academic-related factors, influence their perceptions of climate change. This research concludes that teachers in public institutions have a greater awareness and understanding of climate change than those working in private schools. The research findings have broader implications for further research and policy recommendations and, in particular, draw the attention of the Departments of Education and Disaster Management in Bangladesh or in countries with similar contexts to introduce environmental and disaster education and training opportunities for teachers.

Potential health effects of tobacco smoking in Uganda and how to overcome them through an appropraite communication strategy.

This paper rigourolys analyses literature on tobacco smoking and provides a historical perspective of tobacco smoking and the prevalence of smoking in different parts of the world. The dangerous chemical ingredients in cigarettes and their associated health effects are indentified and rigouroulsy analysed. Later, this paper suggests a communication strategy which can be adopted to convey scientific evidence to the public about the dangers of smoking. The analyse of literature shows that today, tobacco is one of the greatest causes of preventable deaths in the world. Smoking causes various diseases like various types of cancer (Lung, Oral, Stomach, Kidney, Breast, Larynx, Pancreas, and Eophagus cancers). Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (COPD), heart diseases, miscarriages, poor sperm quality, impotence, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and low birth weight. Significant evidence of such diseases has been observed in United States and South Africa which is one of the top smoking countries in Africa. Despite the existence of World Health Organisation Framework Convention on Tobacco Control as well as national laws restricting tobacco use in various countries, the rate of smoking is increasing at a tremendous state especially in developing countries among the adolescents. This means that many tobacco's future victims are today's children. The reason for the high rates of smoking is attribute to the complex marketing skills and strategies of tobacco companies which hinder tobacco smoking control programs. Therefore, if we are to achieve sustainable development as well as the Mellinium Development Goals, we should stand up jointly to stop the smoking habits among the people through collective efforts and collaborative campaigns. An appropriate communication strategy as suggested in this paper is required to counteract the persuasive smoking evil adverts of tobacco companies.