General Awareness

ENVIRONMENT - October 2015

Oct 2015

Oct 31, 2015

Greenland Ice Sheet Movement Decreasing Despite Warming

A newly published study from the University of Edinburgh shows that the movement of the southwest portion of the Greenland Ice Sheet that terminates on land has been slowing down despite decades of increasing temperatures and surface melting.
Researchers derived their results by tracking ice sheet movement through Landsat satellite images taken from 1985 to 2014 across a roughly 3,088-square-mile (8000-square-kilometer) region in southwest Greenland.
The finding is contrary to the widely held view that a greater amount of surface melting will result in faster-moving ice sheets, as the movement of both ocean- and land-terminating ice sheets is caused in part by surface meltwater, which makes its way to the bedrock through openings in the ice and acts as a lubricant.

Oct 29, 2015

Global Temperature to Rise by Three Degree Celsius

If the countries stick to the climate efforts that they have now committed, these could lead to long term temperature increase to around three degree Celsius, a notch above the goal of limiting global warming to two degree Celsius.
Researchers have projected that global emissions would peak in 2020 and decline afterwards to 10 percent below 2010 levels by 2030.
Assuming countries would keep on their efforts after 2030, these could limit the long term temperature increase to around three degree Celsius.

Oct 27, 2015

Pig-snouted Turtle Discovered

Scientists have discovered a new species of extinct turtle with a weird pig-like snout that lived alongside dinosaurs 76 million years ago.
It is one of the most complete skeletons of a turtle found from the age of dinosaurs.
The extinct turtle was about 2-feet-long from head to tail. Its streamlined shell was adapted for living in a riverine environment.

Oct 23, 2015

New Giant Tortoise Species Discovered

Researchers have discovered a new species of giant tortoise on the island of Santa Cruz in the centre of the Galapagos Archipelago.
There are two populations of giant tortoises on the island, a large population on the west side in an area known as the Reserve and another on the lower eastern slopes around a hill named Cerro Fatal.
Until the recent discovery, researchers believed that these populations belonged to the same species of tortoise.

Oct 21, 2015

Europe's Greenhouse Gas Emissions Fall to Record Low

Greenhouse gas emissions in Europe have plunged to the lowest level ever recorded after the EU’s member states reported an estimated 23% drop in emissions between 1990 and 2014.
The bloc has now overshot its target for 2020 of cutting emissions by one-fifth – at the same time that its economy grew by 46%.
The new figures show that eight countries are on track to miss their binding renewable energy targets for 2020 – including the UK, Ireland and Spain.

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