Global Initiative to Reduce Land Degradation and Coral Reef Program Launched at G20 Environment M...
The Environment Ministerial Meeting (EMM) of the G20 countries took place through video conferencing under the Presidency of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Representing India, Union Environment, Climate Change and Forest Minister Shri Prakash Javadekar said, India has taken significant steps to protect environment and forest and wildlife as well as combating pollution and climate change.
Shri Javadekar said, India is committed to work with G20 nations for a better world. He said, India is blessed with vast bio-diversity and ecosystem.
The Minister said, India has been taking measures to enhance coral reef conservation.
He noted that India's steps towards dealing with climate change have been remarkable and stated that the world has to channel its best practices to deal with climate change and to get concrete results.
Sep 14, 2020
Warmth Shatters Section of Greenland Ice Shelf
A big chunk of ice has broken away from the Arctic's largest remaining ice shelf - 79N, or Nioghalvfjerdsfjorden - in north-east Greenland.
The ejected section covers about 110 square km; satellite imagery shows it to have shattered into many small pieces.
The loss is further evidence of the rapid climate changes taking place in Greenland.
The atmosphere in this region has warmed by about 3C since 1980.
In 2019 and 2020, it saw record summer temperatures.
Nioghalvfjerdsfjorden is roughly 80 km long and 20 km wide and is the floating front end of the Northeast Greenland Ice Stream - where it flows off the land into the ocean to become buoyant.
At its leading edge, the 79N glacier splits in two, with a minor offshoot turning directly north. It's this offshoot, or tributary, called Spalte Glacier, that has now disintegrated.
Sep 11, 2020
68% Average Decline in Species Population Sizes Since 1970: WWF Report
Globally, monitored population sizes of mammals, fish, birds, reptiles, and amphibians have declined an average of 68% between 1970 and 2016, according to World Wildlife Fund's (WWF) Living Planet Report 2020.
Populations in Latin America and the Caribbean have fared worst, with an average decline of 94%. Global freshwater species have also been disproportionally impacted, declining 84% on average.
As an important indicator of planetary health, these drastic species population trends signal a fundamentally broken relationship between humans and the natural world, the consequences of which—as demonstrated by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic—can be catastrophic.
Forest Department to Study Elephants Using Coonoor Slopes
The Forest Department has taken up an exercise, for the first time, to study elephants using the landscape of the Coonoor ghat.
The study is being done in association with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF-India).
According to Forest Department officials, little is known about the elephants that use this particular habitat range along the lower Coonoor slopes.
The Department, with the help of conservationists and NGOs, has a better understanding of the elephant populations that use other habitats in the Nilgiris, including Gudalur and other forest ranges that fall under the Nilgiris forest division.
Sep 10, 2020
Humans Exploiting and Destroying Nature on Unprecedented Scale
Wildlife populations are in freefall around the world, driven by human overconsumption, population growth and intensive agriculture, according to a major new assessment of the abundance of life on Earth.
According to the WWF and Zoological Society of London (ZSL)'s biennial Living Planet Report 2020, on average, global populations of mammals, birds, fish, amphibians and reptiles plunged by 68% between 1970 and 2016. Two years ago, the figure stood at 60%.
The research is one of the most comprehensive assessments of global biodiversity available and was complied by 134 experts from around the world. It found that from the rainforests of central America to the Pacific Ocean, nature is being exploited and destroyed by humans on a scale never previously recorded.
The analysis tracked global data on 20,811 populations of 4,392 vertebrate species. Those monitored include high-profile threatened animals such as pandas and polar bears as well as lesser known amphibians and fish. The figures, the latest available, showed that in all regions of the world, vertebrate wildlife populations are collapsing, falling on average by more than two-thirds since 1970.
Sep 09, 2020
J&K Glaciers Melting at Significant Rate
Glaciers in Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh are melting at a significant rate, according to a first-of-its-kind study which used satellite data to find that over 1,200 glaciers in the Himalayan region saw an annual reduction in mass of 35 centimetres (cm) on average between 2000 and 2012.
The study was carried over the Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh region, including areas across the Line of Control (LoC) and Line of Actual Control (LAC), and in all 12,243 glaciers were studied for thickness and mass changes.
In general, it was observed that the glaciers in the Pir Panjal Range are melting at the higher rate, more than one metre per year, while as the glaciers in the Karakoram Range are melting relatively at a slower rate, around 10 cm per year.
Some glaciers are even advancing or stable in the Karakoram Range. In other mountain ranges like the Greater Himalayan Range, Zanaskar Range, Shamabari Range, Leh Ranges, the glaciers are undoubtedly melting but the rate of melting is variable.
They employed this data to determine the glacier thickness changes over the entire Upper Indus Basin, comprising of over 12,000 glaciers.
Thwaites: 'Doomsday Glacier' Vulnerability Seen in New Maps
Scientists have identified Thwaites Glacier's Achilles heel.
This Antarctic colossus is melting at a rapid rate, dumping billions of tonnes of ice in the ocean every year and pushing up global sea-levels.
Now, a UK-US team surveyed the deep seafloor channels in front of the glacier that almost certainly provide the access for warm water to infiltrate and attack Thwaites' underside.
These channels had not been mapped before in this kind of detail, and what has been discovered is that they are actually much bigger than anyone thought - up to 600 m deep.
"And because they are so deep, and so wide - this allows a lot more water to get at, and melt, Thwaites' floating front as well as its ice that rests on the seabed.
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