General Awareness

ENVIRONMENT - August 2019

Aug 2019

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.

Jan 14, 2020

Govt Identifies 16 Islands In Andamans, 10 In Lakshadweep For Development

The Centre has identified 16 islands in Andaman and Nicobar Islands and 10 in Lakshadweep for holistic development by promoting tourism and offering facilities for export of seafood and coconut-based products.
This was disclosed at the sixth meeting of the Island Development Agency (IDA), chaired by Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
The Island Development Agency reviewed the progress made towards the programme holistic development of islands and for the first time in the country, under the guidance of IDA, an initiative of sustainable development in the identified Islands within scientifically-assessed carrying capacity has been taken-up.

Jan 13, 2020

Australia May List Koalas As 'Endangered' Species

The Australian government said it could declare koalas as an "endangered" species after their population suffered "extraordinary hit" in the bushfire crisis, which destroyed 30 per cent of their habitat across the country.
Since September 2019, the raging Australian bushfires, one of the worst in its history, has killed at least 26 people, burned over 10 million hectares of land, destroyed over 2,000 homes and pushed many species towards extinction.
Over 1.25 billion animals are believed to be dead in the wake of bushfires and experts believe that hundreds of billions of insects may have been wiped out.
The government has established a 50-million Australian dollar emergency fund to address the devastating loss of wildlife.

Kaziranga Records 96 Species Of Wetland Birds

Kaziranga, home of the world's most one-horned rhinos, has 96 species of wetland birds — one of the highest for wildlife preserves in India.
Officials of the Kaziranga National Park and avian specialists conducted the second wetland bird count on January 9-10, 2020. The teams counted a total of 19,225 birds belonging to 96 species under 80 families.

Taal Volcano: Lava Spews As 'Hazardous Eruption' Feared

A weak flow of lava began seeping out of Taal volcano - located some 70km (45 miles) south of the capital Manila.
A volcano in the Philippines has begun spewing lava, as authorities warn that a "hazardous eruption" is possible "within hours or days".
Taal had earlier emitted a huge plume of ash, triggering the mass evacuation of 8,000 people from the area.
Taal is the Philippines' second most active volcano.
Situated on an island in the middle of a lake, it is one of the world's smallest volcanoes and has recorded at least 34 eruptions in the past 450 years.

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