Hindu Notes from General Studies-01

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Oceans are heating much faster: study

News:

• The world’s oceans have absorbed more heat than previously thought over the last quarter of a century, scientists said, leaving the earth more sensitive still to the effects of climate change.

Findings:

• Oceans cover more than two thirds of the planet’s surface and play a vital role in sustaining life on the earth.
• According to scientists from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC),the world’s oceans have absorbed 90% of the temperature rise caused by man-made carbon emissions.
• But new research used a novel method of measuring ocean temperature.
• It found that for each of the last 25 years, oceans may have absorbed heat energy equivalent to as much as 150 times the amount of electricity mankind produces annually.
• That is between 10-70% higher than previous studies showed.
• Whereas those studies relied on tallying the excess heat produced by known man-made greenhouse gas emissions, a team of U.S.-based scientists focussed on two gases found naturally in the atmosphere: oxygen and carbon dioxide.
• Both gases are soluble in water, but the rate at which water absorbs them decreases as it warms.
• By measuring atmospheric oxygen and CO2 for each year, scientists were able to estimate how much heat oceans had absorbed on a global scale.
• The authors calculated that oceans had warmed somewhere in the range of 10-70%.

Rising sea levels threatening historic lighthouses

News

• Rising seas and erosion are threatening lighthouses around the U.S. and the world.
• Volunteers and cash-strapped governments are doing what they can, but the level of concern, like the water, is rising.

Findings

• New Jersey’s East Point Lighthouse has been lighting up Delaware Bay for the better part of two centuries. But those same waters that the lighthouse helped illuminate might bring about its demise.
• It’s a threat affecting lighthouses around the country and the world, including those in low-lying areas being inundated by water, as well as those on bluffs or cliffs being eroded by storms and rising sea levels.
• Globally, sea levels have been rising over the past century, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the rate has increased in recent decades.
• Rising seas have already forced the relocation of several lighthouses. In 1999, the National Park Service moved the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse in Buxton, North Carolina, 2,900 feet inland, at a cost of $11.8 million. In 1993, the Southeast Lighthouse on Block Island, Rhode Island, was moved 300 feet inland.
• Around the world, encroaching seas are drawing nearer to the Orfordness Lighthouse in Suffolk, England; the Troubridge Island Lighthouse in South Australia; and the Kiipsaar Lighthouse in Estonia.

Accumulating in ocean floors

News

• Tiny, extremely fine fibres, that come from waste waters of washing machines, are accumulating on sea floors and may adversely affect marine life, a study warns.

Beyond News

• Researchers analysed the amount of coloured fibres which vary between 3 to 8 millimetres (mm) and are extremely fine, with less than a 0.1 mm diameter in south European marine floors, from the Cantabrian Sea to the Black Sea.
• The results, show the dominance of cellulosic fibres over synthetic polymers, and highlight that several oceanographic processes pile and transport microfibres to marine hollows.
• The findings could help design effective management strategies to reduce the emission of microfibres with a potential negative effect on the marine ecosystems.
• Researchers analysed soil samples from 42 and 3,500 metres deep in 29 stations in southern European seas. The results show that higher densities of fibre are found in the Cantabrian Sea, followed by the Catalan seas and the Alboran Sea, respectively, while lower densities are in the western Mediterranean and the Black Sea.
• The findings also confirm previous studies which detected microfibres that were ingested by deep water organisms in a natural environment.
• The main type of microfibre they found in marine floors is the natural cellulose (cotton, linen) and regenerated cellulose (rayon of viscose), coming from clothes and industrial textiles mainly.
• Some of these synthetic microfibres are made of plastic, which does not degrade shortly, it can contain chemical additives, which can be easily incorporated to the trophic network.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-02

Centre looks abroad for ideas to manage Ganga basin

News

• The Centre is in talks with experts from Germany, Laos, Austria and Egypt, among others, to evolve a Ganga River Basin Management Plan.

Beyond News

• Though it already has a preliminary draft from a consortium of seven Indian Institutes of Technology, it is the process of soliciting wider consultation from countries that have such river basin management plans.
• There is already a draft ‘Ganga law’ in the anvil that is meant to ensure the health and ecological viability of the river. This, however, is still being deliberated by various ministries and, according to officials, is being readied for the approval of the Union Cabinet before the year ends.
• An early draft of the Ganga River Basin Management Plan analysed the river in terms of environmental quality and pollution; water resources management; fluvial geomorphology; ecology and biodiversity; socio-economic and socio-cultural; policy, law and governance and geo-spatial database management.
• Based on these, seven important missions were identified for focused interventions: “Aviral Dhara”, “Nirmal Dhara”, “Ecological Restoration”, “Geological Safeguarding”, “Disaster Management”, “Sustainable Agriculture”, and “Environmental Knowledge-Building and Sensitisation.”
• Separately, the government is mulling another draft bill to manage all rivers basis the basins they encompass. These had led to differences among states on who had a greater say on rivers that were shared in common.
• The inter-State basins to be covered under the proposed legislation are Brahmaputra, Barak and other rivers in the North East; Brahmani-Baitarini; Cauvery; Ganga; Godavari; Indus; Krishna; Mahanadi; Mahi; Narmada; Pennar; Subarnarekha and Tapti.
• Each authority will have a governing council, to be made of the chief ministers and water ministers of the basin States. Every year the council would be chaired by one of the chief ministers.

Multiple reasons behind premature births in India

News

• A recent study that analysed nearly 8,000 women in India who gave birth between 2004 and 2005 and 2011 and 2012 (India Human Development Survey) has pointed out that there is a strong association between adverse birth outcomes and sanitation access, gender-based harassment and physical labour.

Finding

• About 14.9% and 15.5% of the study group experienced preterm birth and low infant birth weight respectively.
• The researchers found that spending more than two hours per day fetching water was associated with low birth weight while open defecation or sharing latrine within the building was associated with greater chances of low birth weight or preterm birth.
• Another shocking find of the study was that harassment of women and girls in the community was also associated with both preterm birth and low infant birth weight.
• Interventions that reduce domestic responsibilities related to water and sanitation and changed social norms related to gender-based harassment may reduce rates of preterm birth and low infant birth weight in India.
• Though there were limitations due to self-reported behaviours and small sample size, the study was able contribute to the limited evidence related to sanitation infrastructure and other social factors that play a role in preterm birth and low infant birth weight.

India, Pakistan Armies hold flag meeting in Poonch

News

• The Indian and Pakistan Armies held a brigade commander-level meeting in the Poonch sector of Jammu and Kashmir to strengthen ceasefire, a defence official said.

Beyond News

• The flag meeting at the Poonch-Rawlakote crossing point on the Line of Control comes after several ceasefire violations by Pakistan in the recent past during which five Indian security men were killed and seven others were injured.
• The two delegations discussed increasing confidence-building measures, maintaining the peace along the the Line of Control and preventing infiltration from the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, the official said.
• The meeting came on a day when security forces shot dead six Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) militants during an encounter in a forested area in Jammu and Kashmir’s Anantnag district.
• The meeting was held in a cordial and friendly atmosphere, and ended with both sides assuring to adhere to norms of the 2003 Ceasefire agreement and the Director-General of Military Operations (DGMO) level talks of May 29.
• The armies also decided to work towards improving the situation along the LoC.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-03

Scientists mull stratospheric barrier to curb warming

News

• Spraying sun-dimming chemicals high above the earth to slow global warming could be “remarkably inexpensive”, costing about $2.25 billion a year over a 15-year period, according to a study.

Findings

• Some researchers say the geo-engineering technique known as stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI) could limit rising temperatures that are causing climate change.
• As yet unproven and hypothetical, it would involve the use of huge hoses, cannons or specially designed aircraft to spray large quantities of sulphate particles into the upper layer of the atmosphere to act as a reflective barrier against sunlight.
• Total costs to launch a hypothetical SAI effort 15 years from now would be $3.5 billion, scientists said, adding that average annual operating costs would be about $2.25 billion a year over 15 years.
• Discounting other methods of deployment because of cost and feasibility, the research assumes a special aircraft can be designed to fly at an altitude of about 20 km and carry a load of 25 tonnes.
• After direct input from several aerospace and engine companies, the scientists said they have developed a design that could be suitable and could be ready to be deployed in 15 years, aiming to cut the rate of temperature change in half.

There are some risks.

• Scientists have said SAI could cause droughts or extreme weather in other parts of the world, harm crop yields as well as potential public health and governance issues.
• It also does not address the issue of rising carbon dioxide emissions, the main greenhouse gas blamed for global warming.

Lunar lander faces crucial test

News

• The Chandrayaan-2 lunar lander’s sensors are set to undergo a crucial test in the next few days as the mission races towards a planned take-off in around two months.

Beyond News

• The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) plans to fly the sensors on an aircraft over its artificial lunar site at Challakere to see how they will function and guide the Chandrayaan-2 landing craft when it starts descending on the lunar terrain.
• The orbiter carrying the lander and a rover is scheduled to be sent to the Moon from Sriharikota on January 31 and expected to reach there sometime in February 2019.
• The test on ground, called the Lander Sensor Performance Test or LSPT, will be conducted at ISRO’s new R&D campus in Chitradurga district, about 200.
• The highly autonomous or pre-programmed mission uses a large number of sensors. Among them are those that help the lander to precisely assess its height from the landing spot; decide its speed and help it to steer clear of any boulders or uneven surface.
• The lander is being developed and tested by the U.R. Rao Satellite Centre in Bengaluru. For the test, a prototype module carrying the sensors will be flown on one of ISRO’s two small aircraft. As the plane descends from around 7 km to about 1 km over the artifical terrain, the sensors must show how they will guide the soft landing of the lunar craft at the right spot, speed and position.
• About two years back, ISRO had started readying a part of the Challakere site to resemble lunar craters and had conducted a few preliminary sensor tests. Features of the lander have since been modified and the upcoming tests will also validate the new design.

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