General Awareness

ENVIRONMENT - December 2018

Dec 2018

Jul 24, 2019

UN Asks India to Update Plan to Curb Greenhouse Gas Emissions

The United Nations has nudged India to update and enhance its plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and announce the revamped strategy at the UN Climate Action Summit in New York on September 23, 2019.
Mexican diplomat Luis Alfonso de Alba, UN SecretaryGeneral's special envoy for the 2019 climate summit has asked India to enhance its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Climate Agreement.
The goal of the UN summit is to call on world leaders to enhance their NDCs in line with the aim of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 45% over the next decade and to net zero emissions by 2050.

Jul 23, 2019

Iceland Set To Honour Glacier Lost

Iceland is planning to mark the passing of Okjokull, its first glacier lost to climate change which threatens some 400 others on the subarctic island.
On August 18, 2019, a plaque will be unveiled to Okjokull - which translates to "OK glacier" - in the west of Iceland.
This will be the first monument to a glacier lost to climate change anywhere in the world.
The researchers hope that the memorial, entitled A Letter To The Future, will raise awareness about the decline of glaciers and the effects of climate change.
Glaciologists stripped Okjokull of its glacier status in 2014. In 1890, the glacier ice covered 16 square kilometres but by 2012, it measured 0.7 square kilometres, according to a report from the University of Iceland from 2017.
To have the status of a glacier, the mass of ice and snow must be thick enough to move by its own weight.

First Govt Wild Bird Rescue Centre to Come up at Rajokri

The Delhi forest department has proposed to come up with its first Wild Bird Rescue Centre at Rajokri where injured birds found in the national capital would be kept for treatment and then released.
Among cities, Delhi is considered to have the second highest bird population in the world — after Nairobi in Kenya, with more than 450 species.
Even though around 500 species of birds have been recorded in the national capital in the last 100 years, at least 30 of these could not be spotted since 1970s.
The decision has already been passed by the Ridge Management Board and is now with the Supreme Court-appointed committee.
The committee will send it to the SC, after which a call will be taken. Initially, two areas were proposed for the rescue centre – Rajokri and Tughlaqabad – but the forest department later zeroed down on Rajokri, on the recommendations of the Bombay Natural History Museum.
There is a monkey rehabilitation centre at Rajokri, which is not in use. The building could be turned into a bird rescue centre at a minimum cost.
The monkey rehab centre is spread over 1.2 acres and the building on the premises has two rooms which could be turned into a clinic for injured birds.
There is also a water body which could be used to keep injured water birds such as pelicans and cranes.

Jul 22, 2019

Arctic ocean ice melting faster than normal

Ice covering the Arctic Ocean reached the second-lowest level recorded for this time of year after July temperatures spiked in areas around the North Pole.
The rate of ice loss in the region is a crucial indicator for the world's climate and a closely-watched metric by bordering nations jostling for resources and trade routes. This month's melt is tracking close to the record set in July 2012.
This year's heatwave in the Arctic Circle has led to record temperatures in areas of Alaska, Canada and Greenland, extending long-term trends of more ice disappearing.
Ice flows are melting faster than average rates observed over the last three decades, losing an additional 20,000 square kilometers of cover per day — an area about the size of Wales.

Mahalaxmi rly workshop is first to get 'zero scrap' tag

The Mahalaxmi EMU workshop has earned the reputation for being the first 'zero scrap' workshop of the Indian Railways.
V.P. Pathak, a member of the Material Management of Railway Board, visited the workshop at Mahalaxmi and appreciated the efforts made by officials to create the first 'zero scrap' workshop in the Indian Railways.
He also announced an award of Rs 25,000 for the workshop.
The workshop has been able to achieve this feat by segregating the ferrous and non-ferrous material and keeping the materials in separate bins provided in each section.
After collecting the scrap from all the sections, it is handed over to stores for further disposal.
The workshop has maintained the MPCB norms of the state government and the National Green Tribunal.

Jul 20, 2019

Bitcoin Use Releases as much CO2 in a Year as Las Vegas

The use of Bitcoin leads to about 22 megatonnes in CO2 emissions annually, comparable to the total emissions of cities like Hamburg or Las Vegas, according to the most detailed analysis to date of the cryptocurrency's carbon footprint.
Researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) analysed such data as the IPO filings of hardware manufacturers and the IP addresses of Bitcoin "miners".
The study, published in 'Joule', was able to localise 68% of the Bitcoin network computing power in Asian countries, 17% in European countries, and 15% in North America.
For a Bitcoin transfer to be executed and validated, a mathematical puzzle must be solved by an arbitrary computer in the global Bitcoin network. The network rewards the puzzle solvers in Bitcoin.
Statistics show the computing capacity used in this process — known as Bitcoin mining — has quadrupled in 2018 alone. Researchers determined the annual electricity consumption by Bitcoin, as of November 2018, to be about 46 TeraWatt Hour (TWh).
The team found the Bitcoin system has a carbon footprint of between 22 and 22.9 megatonnes per year.

Jul 19, 2019

Artificial Snow may Save Dwindling Ice Sheet in Antarctica

Governments could stop the West Antarctic Ice Sheet from sliding into the ocean and submerging coastal cities by launching a last-ditch engineering project to blanket its surface with artificial snow.
Scientists believe that global warming has already caused so much melting at the South Pole that the giant ice sheet is now on course to disintegrate, which would trigger an eventual global sea level rise of at least three metres over centuries.
The authors of the new study envisaged using 12,000 wind turbines to pump seawater 1,500 metres up to the surface, where it would be frozen into snow to try to weigh the sheet down enough to stop it collapsing any further.

June 2019 Hottest in 140 Years

According to the latest monthly global climate report released by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, June 2019 was the hottest in 140 years, setting a global record,.
The report said that the average global temperature in June was 1.71 degrees Fahrenheit above the 20th-century average of 59.9 degrees F (15.5 degrees Celsius) and marks the 414th consecutive month in which temperatures were above the 20th-century average.
Nine of the 10 hottest Junes over the last 140 years have occurred since 2010.
Europe, Asia and Africa, as well as the Hawaii and US Gulf of Mexico regions experienced their hottest Junes on record.
Average temperatures in France, Germany, and northern Spain, which have experienced a heat wave, hit as high as 18 degrees F above the normal range, with temperatures in France hitting as high as 114 degrees F (46 degrees C).
Meanwhile, the global average sea surface temperature was 1.46 degrees F above the 20th century monthly average of 61.5 degrees F (16 degrees C), tying with 2016 as the highest global ocean temperature for the month on record while Antarctic sea ice fell to its smallest level on record, 8.5% below the 1981 to 2010 average, NOAA data showed.
With year-to-date global temperatures setting records, NOAA said there is a 100% chance that 2019 will end among the five warmest years on record, underscoring the need for governments to take collective action to stem a further intensification of climate change impacts.
Heat waves currently gripping the US, Europe and elsewhere are likely to get worse, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Share on

TCY Analytics (View Subscription Plans)

Subscribe to GK Updates

I want to receive

GK Tags

August GK, July GK, June GK, INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS, ENVIRONMENT, BUSINESS AND ECONOMY, SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY, SPORTS, NATIONAL AFFAIRS, DEFENCE, PERSONS IN NEWS, DAYS AND EVENTS, AWARDS AND HONOURS, GOVERNMENT POLICIES AND SCHEMES, GENDER/ HEALTH/ EDUCATION, ART AND CULTURE, BOOKS AND AUTHORS, TOURISM AND HOTEL INDUSTRY AWARENESS, ART AND CULTURE, LAW AND CONSTITUTIONAL AFFAIRS

Start Discussion

On any topic

Take Tests

Compiled from GK updates

Login

Sign Up

Forgot Password

Download TCY App

Unlock All Services And Enjoy The Premium Benefits

US$ 10

US$ 13

US$ 15

US$ 17

US$ 19

US$ 20

US$ 21

US$ 22

US$ 23

US$ 24

US$ 25

US$ 26