General Awareness

ENVIRONMENT - August 2019

Aug 2019

Jul 04, 2022

World's Biggest Water Lily Species Discovered at Kew Gardens

A new species of giant water lily was discovered by scientists - and it was hiding in plain sight for 177 years.
The huge plant was in the archives of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew - and was growing in a number of aquatic collections - but it was mistakenly identified as another species.
It also holds the record as the largest water lily, with leaves growing more than 3m (10ft) wide.

UN Talks Urge Faster Steps to Secure 'Critical' Ocean Health

A United Nations conference warned that measures needed to protect the world's oceans are running late and urged countries to accelerate their implementation.
More than 6,000 senior officials, scientists and activists from more than 120 countries attended a five-day U.N. Ocean Conference in Lisbon, Portugal.
A declaration published on the final day said that delegates were deeply alarmed by the global emergency facing the ocean, whose sustainability is critical for the planet.
The declaration said that action is not advancing at the speed or scale required to meet our goals.
Greater ambition is required at all levels to address the dire state of the ocean.
The oceans face threats including global warming, pollution and acidification.

Jul 03, 2022

Researchers Find Climate Change in Ocean Water Might Impact Mangrove Dispersal

In the 21st century, mangrove forests around the world have experienced changes in ocean surface temperature, salinity, and density, according to new research by Dr. Tom Van der Stocken of the VUB Biology Department. In the Indo-West Pacific, the main hotspot of mangrove diversity, the study revealed that changes in surface-ocean density may have an impact on the dispersal patterns of globally distributed mangrove species. The findings of the research were published in Nature Climate Change.
Mangroves are highly productive intertidal forests that occur along tropical, subtropical, and some temperate coasts. They support a broad variety of ecosystem goods and services and have an important place on the international climate mitigation and adaptation agenda.

Jul 02, 2022

Never-before-seen Microbes Locked in Glacier Ice could Spark a Wave of New Pandemics if Released

Scientists uncovered more than 900 never-before-seen species of microbes living inside glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau. Analysis of the microbes' genomes revealed that some have the potential to spawn new pandemics, if rapid melting caused by climate change releases them from their icy prisons.
In a new study, researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences took ice samples from 21 glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau — a high-altitude region in Asia wedged between the Himalayan mountain range to the south and the Taklamakan Desert to the north. The team then sequenced the DNA of the microscopic organisms locked inside the ice, creating a massive database of microbe genomes that they named the Tibetan Glacier Genome and Gene (TG2G) catalog. It is the first time that a microbial community hidden within a glacier has been genetically sequenced.

Jul 01, 2022

India Promises International Community to Protect 30% of Land and Water

India gave the international community the reassurance that it will keep to its goal of protecting at least 30% of "our" land, water, and ocean by 2030 under Prime Minister Narendra Modi. India's Minister for Earth Sciences, Dr. Jitendra Singh, made the following remarks on behalf of the country at the UN Ocean Conference in Lisbon: Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, all efforts are being made to achieve the 30×30 target in a mission mode as per the COP resolutions. He stated that his purpose in attending the UN summit was to share Modi's vision for protecting and sustaining the ocean and its resources with the rest of the globe.
India joined the High Ambition Coalition for Nature and People, which was founded at the "One Planet Summit" in Paris in January 2021 and seeks to advocate a global accord to safeguard at least 30% of the world's land and ocean by 2030.

Jun 29, 2022

Explorers Find WWII Navy Ship, Deepest Wreck Discovered

A U.S. Navy destroyer escort that engaged a superior Japanese fleet in the largest sea battle of World War II in the Philippines became the deepest wreck to be discovered.
The USS Samuel B. Roberts, popularly known as the "Sammy B," was identified broken into two pieces on a slope at a depth of 6,985 meters (22,916 feet).
That puts it 426 meters (1,400 feet) deeper than the USS Johnston, the previous deepest wreck discovered in 2021 in the Philippine Sea also by American explorer Victor Vescovo, founder of Dallas-based Caladan Oceanic Expeditions.
The Sammy B. took part in the Battle off Samar, the final phase of the Battle of Leyte Gulf in October 1944, in which the Imperial Japanese Navy suffered its biggest loss of ships and failed to dislodge the U.S. forces from Leyte, which they invaded earlier as part of the liberation of the Philippines.

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