General Awareness

ENVIRONMENT - March 2017

Mar 2017

Jan 24, 2019

Losses Caused to India Doubled in a Decade

Losses caused to India by extreme weather events more than doubled in the 10 years to 2017 from the previous decade (1998-2007), with the farm sector bearing the brunt, according to a new report published by Action on Climate Today (ACT), a UK-based initiative that works with South Asian governments to build resilience against climate change.
The report, titled 'Assessing India's Mounting Climate Losses to Financial Institutions',published on January 18, warned that the count of extreme weather events has been continuously increasing in India.
ACT used data from Emergency Events Database (EM-DAT) which records natural disasters on a continuous basis, to suggest that economic losses to India from extreme weather events climbed to $45 billion in 2008-2017 from $20 billion between 1998 and 2007.
The decadal data shows that about 16 extreme climate events took place on average every year between 1998 and 2017 compared to 10 events annually between 1978 and 1997.
Among the 328 events listed in the EM-DAT database between 1998 and 2017, almost half were floods, which were responsible for the highest economic losses ($45.7 billion), more than losses resulting from storms, landslides, drought and natural disasters.
The agriculture sector bore a major share of the economic losses, according to the report, which said that despite the existence of crop insurance schemes, banks absorbed the brunt of the losses.

Jan 22, 2019

China to Cut Everest Climbers

China will cut the number of climbers attempting to scale Mount Everest from the north by one-third this year as part of plans for a major clean-up on the world's highest peak.
The total number of climbers seeking to summit the world's highest peak at 8,850 metres from the north will be limited to less than 300 and the climbing season restricted to spring.
The clean-up efforts will include the recovery of the bodies of climbers who died at more than 8,000 metres up the mountain.
China has set up stations to sort, recycle and break down garbage from the mountain, which includes cans, plastic bags, stove equipment, tents and oxygen tanks.
On the Nepalese side, mountaineering expedition organisers have begun sending huge trash bags with climbers during the spring climbing season to collect trash that then can be winched by helicopters back to the base camp.

Chaturangi Glacier Recedes due to Climate Variability

Chaturangi glacier, a tributary of the Gangotri glacier, is retreating at a "considerable rate" and may vanish in the future, according to a research paper accepted to be published in the Current Science journal's February edition.
The retreating glacier is another example of the impact of climate change and, according to one of the study's contributors, affects water flow in the Ganga, fed by the Gangotri.
The study by scientists from GB Pant National Institute of Himalayan Environment and Sustainable Development and the Centre for Earth Sciences at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) uses satellite data from 1989 to 2016 and kinematic GPS, to arrive at the retreating rate of the glacier.

Jan 19, 2019

Better not to be in Delhi, it's like 'gas chamber': Supreme Court

It is better not to be in Delhi, the Supreme Court said on January 18, 2019, expressing its despair over the lack of implementation of measures to curb air pollution and traffic congestion in the capital which, it added, has become like a "gas chamber".
A bench of justices Mishra and Deepak Gupta said these problems affect the right to life.
The court asked the Delhi police what action they have taken to remove unclaimed vehicles — that are no longer required in legal cases — from police stations. It also asked the Delhi government why they have not appointed district 'nazir' (record keeper of record-room).

Jan 18, 2019

Rising Temperature to Make Coffee Costly

Rising temperatures are reducing the range of wild arabica plants, the most popular bean for drinkers. From Brazil to Ethiopia and Kenya, growers are moving uphill and deploying new technologies to maintain yields.
Within the next seven decades, the places arabica can grow naturally is likely to fall by at least 50%, scientists at Britain's Royal Botanical Gardens said in a report.
Today's abundance of beans, which has kept a lid on prices in the world's coffee shops, could reverse as the shift in the climate reduces the potential size of the crop in the years ahead.
Arabica beans are the most common source of coffee worldwide, thriving in cool regions with distinct rainy and dry seasons.
They need year round temperatures of 150 to 240 Celsius, according to the Coffee Research Institute.
Too cold and they suffer from frost. Too warm and the quality of the coffee declines. The taste of the beans depends on crisp nights.
Yet farmers are noticing the plant's range is shifting because of rising temperatures. It has been too warm from September through November when arabica plants flower.
The result: flowers fall off more frequently, cutting the yield per tree.
The biggest risk is to the wild version of arabica plants, which contain the genetic storehouse needed to produce new flavours and more robust plants.
Scientists said the natural range of those plants is narrowing for three reasons — climate change, fungus and deforestation.
Their concern is that more than half of all wild coffee species may be extinct by 2088.
Wild arabica, which when grown commercially is the most widely traded coffee in the world, has been placed on an endangered list.

Jan 16, 2019

Antarctica losing ice 6 times faster than in 1980s

Antarctica is melting more than six times faster than it did in the 1980s, a new study has revealed.
Scientists used aerial photographs, satellite measurements and computer models to track how fast the southern-most continent has been melting since 1979 in 176 individual basins.
They found the ice loss to be accelerating dramatically - a key indicator of human-caused climate change.
Since 2009, Antarctica has lost almost 278 billion tonnes (252 billion metric tonnes) of ice per year, the new study found. In the 1980s, it was losing 44 billion tonnes (40 billion metric tons) a year.
The recent melting rate is 15% higher than what a study found last year.

Oz state to pump oxygen into rivers as fish die

An Australian state government announced plans to mechanically pump oxygen into lakes and rivers after hundreds of thousands of fish died in heatwave conditions.
Up to a million dead fish were found floating last week in the Darling river in western New South Wales state and the state government announced that 1,800 more rotting fish had since been found in Lake Hume.
16 battery-powered aerators had been bought and would be placed in drought affected waterways.
Experts blame heatwave conditions across much of Australia, drought and algal blooms for starving waterways of oxygen.

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