Hindu Notes from General Studies-01

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Iceland turns CO2 to rock for cleaner air

News

• In the heart of Iceland’s volcano country, 21st century alchemists are transforming carbon dioxide into rock for eternity, cleaning the air of harmful emissions that cause global warming.

Beyond News

• The technology mimics, in accelerated format, a natural process that can take thousands of years, injecting CO2 into porous basalt rock where it mineralises, capturing it forever.
• In Iceland, a country of geysers, glaciers and volcanoes, at least half of the energy produced comes from geothermal sources.
• The plant pumps up the water underneath the volcano to run six turbines providing electricity and heat to the capital, Reykjavik, about 30 km away.
• The CO2 from the plant is meanwhile captured from the steam, liquified into condensate, then dissolved in large amounts of water.
• The fizzy water is piped several kilometres to an area where grey, igloo-shaped domes dot a lunar-like landscape.
• Here the fizzy water is injected under high pressure into the rock 1,000 metres under the ground.
• The solution fills the rock’s cavities and begins the solidification process a chemical reaction that occurs when the gas comes in contact with the calcium, magnesium and iron in the basalt.
• Almost all of the injected CO2 was mineralised within two years in our pilot injection.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-02

Navy joins exercises in South China Sea

News

• Navy ships INS Kolkata and Shakti carried out Group Sail with the naval ships of Japan, the Philippines and the U.S. in the South China Sea (SCS) from May 3-9.

Beyond News

• The ships undertook various exercises en route which included formation manoeuvring, under way replenishment runs, cross-deck flying and exchange of sea riders.
• The group sail exercise showcased India’s commitment to operating with like-minded nations to ensure safe maritime environment through enhanced interoperability.
• China, which claims a major part of the SCS, has disputes with most of its maritime neighbours. Six ships, including a frigate and helicopter carrier JMSDF Izumo from Japan, a Philippines frigate and an Arleigh Burke class destroyer from the U.S. Navy took part in the six-day exercise.
• Indian Navy ships were on return passage from their deployment to the South and the East China Seas as part of the annual Eastern Fleet overseas deployment during which they visited Vietnam, China and South Korea.
• In China, the ships took part in the International Fleet Review (IFR) as part of the 70th anniversary celebrations of the People’s Liberation Army (Navy).
• They later took part in the Phase I of the maritime security field training exercise under the aegis of the ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting Plus (ADMM-Plus) from May 1 to 3 off South Korea.

SC orders demolition of 5 apartments Ernakulam’s Maradu municipality

News

• The Supreme Court ordered the demolition of five apartments in Ernakulam’s Maradu municipality in Kerala for violation of Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) rules.

Beyond News

• The Bench directed the authorities concerned Kerala Coastal Zone Management Authority, to clear the buildings within a period of one month and to submit a report before the court. The court said the State cannot bear illegal constructions with the danger of floods and heavy rain looming large.
• The permission to construct the buildings was granted in 2006 when Maradu was a panchayat.
• The Supreme Court had passed an order on November 27 last year directing the constitution of an expert committee to report on whether the area wherein the apartments were sanctioned and constructed comes within CRZ II or CRZ III.
• The committee submitted its report stating that as per the CRZ notification of 1991 and Kerala Coastal Zone Management Plan (KCZMP) 1996, the area in question came under CRZ III. As per the CRZ notification 1991, no construction is permitted within 200 metres from the coastal line in CRZ III.
• The building permit was granted by the panchayat to the builders without obtaining the concurrence of the Kerala Coastal Zone Management Authority who is the competent authority to grant approval for construction within a CRZ area.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-03

Global warming: survival plan

News

• Solutions to the biggest threats facing our planet lie underground, according to experts who insist climate change, overpopulation and food shortages can all be tackled by going subterranean.

Findings

• Efforts to meet seven of the United Nations’ 17 sustainable development goals from cleaning up pollution-clogged metropolises to ending world hunger could be given a big boost by re-purposing spaces below street level.
• Scientific developments in areas like aquaponics where vegetables and fish are farmed together could help relieve the pressure on the food supply chain, and dramatically cut transport costs if such new farms were situated under cities.
• Micro greens tiny seedlings of plants such as fennel, radish or coriander usually harvested when they are full size are already being grown underground, as is lettuce.
• Metropolises like Singapore and Hong Kong have already begun changing legislation to allow for everything from universities to libraries, shopping centres, cinemas and sports facilities to move underground.
• Trees planted in new green areas will do their bit to help rein in climate change, as well as help prevent soil degradation.
• Going underground can also help protect populations from the severe weather events climate change is expected to spark.
• Fibre optics can bring sunlight below the surface, and also you can simulate daylight nowadays.

India’s newest pit viper found in Arunachal Pradesh

News

• India now has a fifth brown pit viper but with a reddish tinge. A team of herpetologists have described a new species of reddish-brown pit viper a venomous snake with a unique heat-sensing system from a forest in West Kameng district of Arunachal Pradesh.

Beyond News

• The discovery makes the Arunachal pit viper (Trimeresurus arunachalensis) the second serpent to have been discovered after the non-venomous crying keelback in the State’s Lepa-Rada district in 2018.
• The new species also makes Arunachal Pradesh the only Indian state to have a pit viper named after it.
• The other four Malabar, horseshoe, hump-nosed and Himalayan — were discovered 70 years ago.
• Comparative analyses of DNA sequences and examination of morphological features suggested that the snake belonged to a species not described before.
• The single known specimen of this species makes it currently the rarest pit viper in the world.
• The specimen was donated to the museum of the State Forest Research Institute in Itanagar.

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