Environment - Current Affairs for November, 2015

Japan has taken the decision to resume whaling in the Antarctic Ocean by March end. By March 2014, ICJ had ruled that Japan’s decades old whale hunt in the Antarctic should stop. Japan fisheries agency has notified the International Whaling Commission on 27th November 2015 that Japan will resume whaling under the revised plan in the 2015/2016 season. Plan has also made the decision to cut annual minke whale catches by two thirds to 333. Scientific whaling in Japan commenced in 1987.

Tropical storm Sandra has lost strength as it has approached Mexico’s Pacific coast. Maximum speed of the winds of this storm fell to 65 mph and Sandra will make its landfall on 28th November 2015. Sandra is centred around 205 miles southwest of Mazatlan in Mexico and is moving north at 10 mph.

Even a short email adds around 4 grams or 0.14 ounces of gCo2e or carbon dioxide equivalent to the atmosphere. Carbon output of hitting send on 65 mails is the same as driving a moderate sized car for 1 kilometre. Adding or CCing someone else adds another 6 grams of CO2. Close to 500 billion emails buzzed around the world each day.

This 8 month long exercise will commence in October and last till May next year. The project entitled KB Link or Ken Betwa link is going to submerge vulture habitats in Panna park. At last 60% of the habitat of the Egyptian vulture will be submerged by the linking of the rivers. Most of regions that have been identified are in Bundelkhand in the state include Orccha, Rahatgarh (Sagar), Buxwah(Chhatarpur), Damoh and Panna national park. Other places include Ran Nagar (Satna), Keoti water fall in Rewa, Gandhi Sagar in Mandsaur and Bhanpur in Bhopal. Of a total of 9 species of cultures, 4 are found in the state namely long billed vulture, Egyptian vulture, red headed/king vulture and white backed vulture.

Around 690 million of the 2.3 billion children in the world are living in areas affected by climate change, according a UNICEF report entitled “Unless We Act Now.” Close to 530 million children live in countries hardest hit by tropical storms as well as high floods. Around 160 million kids are growing in regions affected by severe drought, mostly in Africa.

Air along the coast is replete with hazardous nanoparticles and close to half of the measured particles are from sea traffic emissions, according to Lund University researchers. The rest of the pollution is from cars and biomass combustion as well as industries and natural particles coming from the sea. This study marks the first time an effort has been made to estimate nanoparticles proportion emanating from sea traffic. Nanoparticles are harmful to health on account of their smaller size which can penetrate deeper into lungs than large particles leading to both cardiovascular and pulmonary diseases. Cubic centimetre contains thousands of nanoparticles. Through comparison of nanoparticle levels, conclusions can be drawn about respective proportions stemming from other sources of emissions.

The first South Asian Annual Disaster Management Exercise 2015 is being held for strengthening Regional Disaster Response mechanism among SAAARC nations for testing coordination efforts and creating synergy as well as synchronising efforts for institutionalisation of Regional Cooperation on Disaster Response among member countries.

The forum will be attended by diplomats, government officers, world bank and UNDP officials an the DG of ED and DG of EC. The water challenges are complex and include allocation, quality, quantity and management issues. Currently, the agricultural sector is the largest user of water in India.

An IUCN report has estimated that between 22,000 and 31,000 polar bears in Arctic are increasingly vulnerable to extinction as their habitat shrinks. Polar bear population will lower by more than 30% by mid century following the thawing of Arctic sea ice due to global warming. Climate change will threaten polar bear survival in the future as well. This study was based on updated counts and new projections of sea ice following a 2008 review.

The Lukha river in East Jaintia Hills district and certain sections of the the Myntdu river in West Jaintia Hills district have changed their colour to a bright sky blue indicating a very high acid content, leading to the death of a vast section of aquatic life. The high acid content has also made the water unfit for human consumption. The colouration was first detected in 2007.

India's rooftop solar capacity has experienced 66 percent growth over the last year to 525 MW, with TN outperforming other states, according to a report by Bridge to India. The India Solar Rooftop Map has indicated that over the past 1 year, India rooftop solar industry capacity has grown in addition to what the value of the past 3 years combined was. Growth is linked to improved project economics and will continue accumulating up to 6.5 GW of installed rooftop solar capacity until 2020.

Centre will develop Doyang Lake in Nagaland well known for its longest travelling Amur falcons, raptors known for flying long distances as an eco-tourism spot. Amur falcons reach Doyang every year from their flight between Mongolia and South Africa. Amur flacons weigh around 150 grams and covered 5,6000 kms flying 5 days from Mongolia to reach Nagaland.

Trains in India are all set to run on wind and solar energy. Railways has invested INR 160 crore to establish a wind power project in Dangri, Fatehgarh’s Jaisalmer district. Union rail ministry is set to lower diesel consumption and fuel expenses by running engines and trains on non conventional sources of energy. Within the next 5 years, rail ministry will set up a 1000 MW solar power project and numerous windmill units. For this purpose, IRCTC has set up the REMC or Railway Energy Management Company for this purpose.

Zoological Survey of India has found 778 new species of fauna in the past 5 years. This estimate is based on annual surveys conducted by ZSI in the protected areas such as deserts, forests, wetlands and coral reefs in the nation. ZSI has identified greater than 5,000 new fauna species in the scientific world to date. Some of the most important discoveries were in 2014 whereby 24 frog species, 23 fish species and 2 reptile species were identified. Scientists also found some rare lizard species that year. Western Ghats is one of the 34 biodiversity hotspots where scientists found 248 new species in 2013; this includes 43 species of vertebrate and 162 species of invertebrates

India on November 12, 2015 launched a detailed website covering plans to cut GHG emissions and reduce carbon emission intensity by 35% by 2030. The website Just Climate Action dot org is showcasing the comprehensive action plan of a developing country with respect to climate change. Website can be shared on social media channels . INDC targets were submitted by India to UNFCC in October 2015. INDC comprises reduction in the emissions intensity of India's GDP by 33 to 35 per cent by 2030 from 2005 level and creation of an additional carbon sink of 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent through extra forest and tree cover by 2030.

Australia and China on 9th November 2015 inked a deal to share information about sea ice conditions around Antarctica to facilitate navigation and shipping. The deal was signed between China's National Marine Environment Forecasting Centre and Australia's Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) in Hobart city. Reliable sea ice forecasting will be carried out through this means.

Union environment ministry as decided to establish a control room with CPCB for monitoring everyday activities of state agencies for combating air pollution in NCR and New Delhi. A decision was also taken to issue notices to state pollution control boards under section 18 of the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981. These notices will hold local bodies responsible for not acting against air pollution in their respective jurisdiction. The members at the meeting also discussed deterioration of air quality in Delhi due to burning of crop residue by Punjab and Haryana farmers.

Government of India has given approval for cooperation with Belgium in the field of new and renewable energy technologies. Union Cabinet chaired by PM Narendra Modi has approved an MoU between Indian and Belgian government authorities at both federal and regional levels. The MoU seeks to lay the ground for cooperative institutional relationship for promoting technical bilateral cooperation on new and renewable energy issues. The agreement is based on mutual benefit, equality, and reciprocal relations. Areas of cooperation include marine energy, geothermal genre, smart grids and biomass as well as solar energy.

India and Bangladesh are working on trans boundary conservation of elephants and safe cross border migration of elephants is on the cooperation agenda. Bangladesh is also working with its ministries on issue of trans-boundary elephant conservation and migration. Cross border jumbo movements are impacted by border fencing. This problem of cross border elephant movement is chiefly bound in NE states of Meghalaya and Tripura.

National Green Tribunal has requested the Assam government to clear the stand on declaring eco sensitive zones and how large scale hotel projects have been permitted in and around Kaziranga national park. A clear stand is needed in relation to ESA, the NGT specified in an order issued in November 2015.

Report submitted by Maharashtra Government to MoEF has indicated only 6719 sq km of Western Ghats will be declared Ecologically Sensitive Area/ESA. This is one third of the 17340 sq km ESA proposed in draft notification issued by the ministry. There has been a drop in the number of villages included in ESA from 2133 in draft notification to 1254 in state government report.

In a key signal 4 weeks prior to world leaders meeting in Paris, both China and France have proposed that global climate change pact should increase emission cuts every 5 years for countries. France has also proposed automatic updating of emission targets in climate deal will be thrashed at a UN conference commencing towards the close of November. China is the world’s largest emitter of GHGs. In a joint declaration, the two presidents declared the intention to release national strategies for developing low carbon economies by 2050 within the next 5 years.

Increase in Antarctic snow accumulation which commenced 10,000 years ago is adding plenty of ice to the continent. This is outweighing the increased loss from thinning glaciers. Research is a counter view to the IPCC 2013 report which has indicated that Antarctica is losing land ice overall. As per the satellite data analysis, Antarctic ice sheet has displayed net gain of 112 billion tonnes of ice per year from 1992 to 2001. Net gain slowed to 82 billion tonnes of ice per year between 2003 and 2008. Study analysed changes in surface height of the Antarctic ice sheet measured by radar altimeters on 2 SA satellites and laser altimeter on ICESat or NASA’s Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite. Air is becoming warmer and carrying moisture across continents doubling the snow dropped on the ice sheet.

A new website http://www.ncdmaindia.gov.in has been launched by the National Clean Development Mechanism Authority (NCDMA) in the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change. This website will capture the complete life cycle of CDM projects and apply the principles of e-governance. Online uploading of project related information in a module wise pattern will also impact the complete life cycle of CDM projects.This is the first such web based application developed in India to streamline the working of the NCDMA. The latter was launched in December 2003 for Host Country Approval to the CDM projects. New website was developed by GIZ.

India and Indonesia have on 2nd November 2015 signed agreements for renewable energy and culture and discussed expanding cooperation in the field of counter-terrorism and defence. These agreements were signed during the visit of Vice President Hamid Ansari to the nation. India and Indonesia have signed an MoU for cooperation in new and renewable energy sector. Both India and Indonesia have made the commitment to reduce carbon emissions by 35 and 29 percent respectively. The country of Indonesia also supported India for organising Sahabat India (a festival of India in Indonesia). Indonesia last week assumed chairmanship of the Indian Ocean Rim Association.

Due to a disruptive weather phenomenon known as El Nino, a massive carpet of flowers has covered the most arid desert in the world, Chilean Atacama desert. In the vast desert of Northern Chile, the El Nino effect has caused explosion of numerous species of flowers in an otherwise arid region where temperatures would soar to 40 degree C. Various types of flowers have flourished including Nolana paradoxa, Bomarea ovallei and Rhodophiala rhodolirion. The reason for this bloom is the El Nino phenomenon altering weather patterns across the Pacific region.

Among 8 new species have been added to the Red List of IUCN. Of these, 5 have been uplisted from Least Concerned to Near Threatened Category including the Northern Lapwing, Red Knot, Eurasian Oystercatcher, Curlew Sandpiper and Bar Tailed Godwit. Two wetland birds namely the Horned Grebe and the Common Pochard have been stepped up to Vulnerable from Least Concerned. A raptor the Steppe Eagle has been upgraded from Least Concerned to Endangered in the Red List.