General Awareness

ENVIRONMENT - December 2018

Dec 2018

Sep 18, 2020

India at UN Cautions Against Linking Environmental Degradation to Peace and Security

India at the UN cautioned against "securitisation" of environmental issues, saying linking up everything related to environmental degradation to peace and security does nothing to address climate concerns meaningfully nor does it ensure that real perpetrators adhere to their commitments on environmental issues.
Environmental degradation can have humanitarian impact or effect just as many other aspects of human activity have humanitarian dimensions, India said in a statement to the UN Security Council's high-level open debate on maintenance of international peace and security: Humanitarian Effects of Environmental Degradation and Peace and Security.

Thousands of firefighters Battle US West Coast Blazes Amid 'Overwhelming' Ruin

Scores of fires have burned some 3.2 million acres (1.3 million hectares) in California since mid-August and another 1.6 million acres (647,500 hectares) in Oregon and Washington state since Labor Day on Sept. 7, laying waste to several small towns, destroying thousands of homes and claiming at least 34 lives.
The Oregon Department of Forestry said 6,500 firefighters from the state and elsewhere in the United States and Canada were working to stop the blazes, along with other government agency emergency responders and community members.

Sep 17, 2020

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.

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