General Awareness

ENVIRONMENT - March 2017

Mar 2017

Jan 24, 2020

Ancient Sweat Lodge Uncovered in Mexico City

An ancient Native American sauna, dating back to the 14th Century, has been uncovered by archaeologists in Mexico City.
Known as temazcals, these structures were built by indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica, and used for medicinal purposes, spiritual rituals and for women to give birth.
The discovery in the historic La Merced neighbourhood helped experts to determine the exact location of Temazcaltitlán, one of the first areas of Tenochtitlán, the ancient metropolis that became modern-day Mexico City.
The excavations also uncovered the well-preserved remains of a house built after the Spanish conquest centuries later, its walls decorated with red motifs. It is thought to have been occupied by a noble indigenous family in the 16th Century.

Jan 22, 2020

Jharia India's Most Polluted City

According to Airpocalypse-IV, an annual report released by Greenpeace India, Jharia, known worldwide for its underground coal fires, continued to be the most polluted city in the country in 2018, while Delhi was the 10th most polluted city in 2018, an improvement of two ranks. The report is based on an analysis of particulate matter across 287 cities.
Lunglei in Mizoram was the least polluted city in India, followed by Meghalaya's Dowki, according to the report. Six of the top-10 polluted cities are in Uttar Pradesh: Noida, Ghaziabad, Bareilly, Allahabad, Moradabad and Firozabad.

Jan 19, 2020

Microsoft Makes Carbon Negative Pledge

Microsoft has pledged to remove all of the carbon from the environment that it has emitted since the company was founded in 1975.
Chief executive Satya Nadella said that he wanted to achieve the goal by 2050.
To do so, the company aims to become carbon negative by 2030, removing more carbon from the environment than it emits.
That goes beyond a pledge by its cloud-computing rival Amazon, which intends to go carbon neutral by 2040.

Jan 17, 2020

Oldest Solid Meteorite Material Found in Australia

A study proved that a meteorite that fell in Australia back in 1999 has the oldest solid meteorite material found on Earth till date.
The research indicates that stars are like phoenixes, after one dies, their dust and bits travel through space and eventually forms new stars, along with new planets, meteorites and satellites.
This study was contributed by researchers from the Field Museum, University of Chicago, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Washington University, Harvard Medical School, ETH Zurich, and the Australian National University.
The materials examined are called presolar grains-minerals formed before the Sun was born.

Jan 16, 2020

3 new species of tiny frogs discovered in Arunachal Pradesh

Three new species of tiny frogs have been discovered in Arunachal Pradesh's Lower Subansiri district by scientists of Zoological Survey of India, according to a recently published journal.
The frogs are so small in size that one can sit on a coin.
The new species discovered from Talle Valley Wildlife Sanctuary (WLS) have been named as 'Liurana himalayana', 'Liurana indica' and 'Liurana minuta'.
The specimens of the new frog species were collected by Bikramjit Sinha, another scientist of ZSI in Itanagar during 2015-16 as part of the documentation of faunal diversity in the protected area.

Centre eases CRZ rules for 'Blue Flag' beaches

The Environment Ministry has relaxed Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) rules that restrict construction near beaches to help States construct infrastructure and enable them to receive 'Blue Flag' certification.
Last year, the Ministry selected 13 beaches in India to vie for the certificate. This is an international recognition conferred on beaches that meet certain criteria of cleanliness and environmental propriety.
The earmarked beaches are — Ghoghala beach (Diu), Shivrajpur beach (Gujarat), Bhogave beach (Maharashtra), Padubidri and Kasarkod beaches (Karnataka), Kappad beach (Kerala), Kovalam beach (Tamil Nadu), Eden beach (Puducherry), Rushikonda beach (Andhra Pradesh), Miramar beach (Goa), Golden beach (Odisha), Radhanagar beach (Andaman & Nicobar Islands) and Bangaram beach (Lakshadweep).

Arunachal to start red-listing of orchids

Arunachal has become the first state in the country to initiate the International Union for Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) 'red listing' at the state level after it inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the IUCN.
As per the MoU, the state government will collaborate with the IUCN in carrying out red-list assessment of the orchids in the state.
The MoU was signed by Principal Chief Conservator of Forests Manmohan Singh Negi and the IUCN's country representative Dr Vivek Saxena. The environment & forests department is the nodal department for executing the project.
The IUCN's Red List of Threatened Species is a critical indicator of the health of the world's biodiversity. A powerful tool to inform and catalyze action for biodiversity conservation and policy change, it is critical in protecting the natural resources. The project will be spread across 12 months, during which workshops on red list assessment will be conducted by experts from the IUCN.

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