Environment - Current Affairs Questions and Answers

ANSWER: Kacheguda

Explanation:
Kacheguda Railway Station under the South Central Railway (SCR) has earned the unique distinction of being the first Energy Efficient 'A1 Category' Railway Station on Indian Railways.

The station has achieved 100% energy efficiency by replacing 1,312 conventional lights with light-emitting diode (LED) lighting, among other steps.

About 370 ceiling fans, too, were replaced with energy efficient Brushless DC Electrical (BLDC) motors fans, and 12 air conditioners with energy efficient inverter-type air conditioners.

All these measures would save about 1.76 lakh units and Rs.14.08 lakh per annum with reduction of the connected load by 46.18 kW for Railways.

Kacheguda Railway station is a historic building and had completed 100 years.

Situated in the heart of Hyderabad, it was built in 1916 by the Nizam's Guaranteed State Railway during the reign of Mir Osman Ali Khan, the seventh Nizam.

ANSWER: Naruto

Explanation:
An Indonesian monkey who shot to fame after it snapped a grinning selfie - and sparked a landmark U.S. copyright case - was named "Person of the Year" on Dec 6, 2017 by the animal rights group that took on the simian's cause.

The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) said it was honouring Naruto, a crested black macaque with a goofy-looking grin, to recognise that "he is someone, not something".

In 2011, the monkey pressed the shutter button while staring down the lens of a camera set up British nature photographer David Slater on the island of Sulawesi.

The photos quickly went viral and PETA launched a lawsuit that claimed the then six-year-old Naruto should be "declared the author and owner of his photograph".

Naruto's historic selfie challenged the idea of who is a person and who is not and resulted in the first-ever lawsuit seeking to declare a nonhuman animal the owner of property, rather than being declared property himself.

PETA: Know More

• People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is an American animal rights organization based in Norfolk, Virginia, and led by Ingrid Newkirk, its international president.
• A nonprofit corporation with nearly 400 employees, it claims that it has 6.5 million members and supporters, in addition to claiming that it is the largest animal rights group in the world.
• Its slogan is "Animals are not ours to eat, wear, experiment on, use for entertainment, or abuse in any other way."
• Founded in March 1980 by Newkirk and fellow animal rights activist Alex Pacheco, the organization first caught the public's attention in the summer of 1981 during what became known as the Silver Spring monkeys case, a widely publicized dispute about experiments conducted on 17 macaque monkeys inside the Institute of Behavioral Research in Silver Spring, Maryland.
• PETA focuses on four core issues-opposition to factory farming, fur farming, animal testing, and the use of animals in entertainment.
• It also campaigns for a vegan lifestyle and against eating meat, fishing, the killing of animals regarded as pests, the keeping of chained backyard dogs, cock fighting, dog fighting, and bullfighting.

ANSWER: Red

Explanation:
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) on Dec 4, 2017 released an updated red list classifying the different species.

According to their website,the IUCN Red List Categories are intended to be an easily and widely understood system for classifying species at high risk of global extinction.

The categories are:

• EXTINCT - the last individual in the species has died.
• EXTINCT IN THE WILD - it now lives only in captivity and not in its natural habitat.
• CRITICALLY ENDANGERED - facing an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild.
• ENDANGERED - facing a very high risk of extinction in the wild.
• VULNERABLE - facing a high risk of extinction in the wild.
• NEAR THREATENED - likely to qualify for a threatened category in the near future.
• LEAST CONCERN - it is widespread and abundant in the wild.
• DATA DEFICIENT - inadequate information.
• NOT EVALUATED - not yet been evaluated against the criteria.

ANSWER: Wild Life

Explanation:
India was awarded certificate of commendation for its effort to combat illegal wildlife trade by Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

The award was given to Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) for its efforts in conducting and coordinating species-specific wildlife enforcement operation, codenamed 'Operation Save Kurma'.

It recognises exemplary enforcement action of WCCB's regional and global effort to combat illegal wildlife trade.

ANSWER: Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event

Explanation:
A boost in levels of oxygen may have caused a three-fold increase in biodiversity during between 445 and 485 million years ago, a study has found.

The explosion of diversity, recognised as the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event, brought about the rise of various marine life, tremendous change across species families and types, as well as changes to the Earth, starting at the bottom of the ocean floors.

This oxygenation is supported by two approaches that are mostly independent from each other, using different sets of geochemical records and predicting the same amount of oxygenation occurred at roughly the same time as diversification.

During the Ordovician where near-modern levels of oxygen were reached about 455 million years ago.

It should be stressed that this was probably not the only reason why diversification occurred then. It is likely that other changes - such as ocean cooling, increased nutrient supply to the oceans and predation pressures - worked together to allow animal life to diversify for millions of years.

Chemical signatures of Oxygen Increase: Know More

• Using geochemical proxies, high-resolution data and chemical signatures preserved in carbonate rocks formed from seawater, researchers were able to identify an oxygen increase during the Middle and Late Ordovician periods.
• They found a nearly 80% increase in oxygen levels where oxygen constituted about 14% of the atmosphere during the Darriwilian Stage (Middle Ordovician 460-465 million years ago) and increased to as high as 24% of the atmosphere by the mid-Katian (Late Ordovician 450-455 million years ago).
• This study suggests that atmospheric oxygen levels did not reach and maintain modern levels for millions of years after the Cambrian explosion, which is traditionally viewed as the time when the ocean-atmosphere was oxygenated.
• In this research, scientists were able to show that the oxygenation of the atmosphere and shallow ocean took millions of years, and only when shallow seas became progressively oxygenated were the major pulses of diversification able to take place.

ANSWER: Only a and b

Explanation:
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) scientists have developed a new system that can convert carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into useful fuel for cars and aircraft.

The researchers used a membrane - made of lanthanum, calcium, and iron oxide. It allows the oxygen from carbon dioxide to migrate through the membrane to the other side, leaving carbon monoxide behind.

Carbon monoxide produced during this process can be used as a fuel by itself or combined with hydrogen and/or water to make many other liquid hydrocarbon fuels.

It can also be used to produce methanol (used as an automotive fuel), syngas, and so on.

This new process could become part of the carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) technologies which, if applied to electricity production, could reduce the impact of fossil fuel use on global warming.

The membrane is "100 percent selective for oxygen," allowing only those atoms to pass.

The researchers used a stream of fuel such as hydrogen or methane which get readily oxidised and draw the oxygen atoms through the membrane.

The membrane also prevents the oxygen from migrating back and recombining with the carbon monoxide, to form carbon dioxide all over again.

The method may not only cut greenhouse emissions; it could also produce another potential revenue stream to help defray its costs, researchers indicated.

ANSWER: New and Renewable Energy

Explanation:
India and Greece have signed Air Services Agreement (ASA) and MoU on Cooperation (MoC) in field of New and Renewable Energy.

The agreements were signed after bilateral talks between External Affairs Minister (EAM) Sushma Swaraj and her visiting counterpart Minister for Foreign Affairs of Greece Nikos Kotzias in New Delhi.

The two ministers held detailed discussion on all aspects of bilateral relationship. They also re-affirmed commitment to further expand cooperation in mutually beneficial spheres

ANSWER: None of the above

Explanation:
After 90 years, the bamboo has legally ceased to be a tree with the government, on Thursday, amending the Indian Forest Act and axing the bamboo - taxonomically a grass - from a list of plants that also included palms, skumps, brush-wood and canes.

In doing so, said Union Environment Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan, the government hoped to promote cultivation of bamboo in non-forest areas to achieve the "twin objectives" of increasing the income of farmers and also increasing the green cover of the country. Bamboo grown in the forest areas would continue to be governed by the provisions of the Indian Forest Act.

For several years now, the classification of the bamboo - with its multifarious uses as an edible item, furniture and construction - as a tree meant that it couldn't be easily ferried across State borders.

It also required permits from village councils and couldn't be cultivated in non-forest areas.

This will now create a viable option for cultivation in 12.6 million hectares of cultivable waste land. It will encourage farmers and other individuals to take up plantation/block plantation of suitable bamboo species on degraded land, in addition to plantation on agricultural land and other private lands under the agro-forestry mission.

Bamboo in India

• The current demand of bamboo in India is estimated at 28 million tonnes.
• Though the country has 19% share of the world's area under bamboo cultivation, its market share in the sector is only 6%. At present, it imports timber and allied products, such as pulp, paper, and furniture.
• In 2015, it imported about 18.01 million cubic metres of timber and allied products worth र43,000 crore.
• The amendment will help in addressing some of these issues, besides meeting the demand from domestic production.

ANSWER: mercedes-benz

Explanation:
Mercedes-Benz, the country's biggest luxury car maker, will start introducing vehicles meeting the stringent Bharat Stage VI (BS-VI) emission standards in India from next year. It is the first in the segment to say so.

The first such cars will be rolled out for the Delhi market.

The central government has decided only BS-VI fuel must be supplied in the capital from April 1, two years before national rollout.

All new vehicles sold at present comply with BS-IV norms.

ANSWER: via covered rail wagons and trucks

Explanation:
Government to transport coal in trucks, rail wagons

Scurrying for solutions to fight the toxic air pollution, the government has said it plans to transport coal in covered rail wagons and trucks across the country.

Ferrying of coal in uncovered vehicles and rail wagons is said to be one of the key reasons behind high pollution levels along the transportation route from coal mine or importing sea port to user plants like power generation houses.