Hindu Notes from General Studies-01

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WWF sees grave danger to India’s soil biodiversity

News

• India’s soil biodiversity is in grave peril, according to the Global Soil Biodiversity Atlas prepared by the World Wide Fund for Nature.

Findings

• The WWF’s ‘risk index’ for the globe indicating threats from loss of above-ground diversity, pollution and nutrient over-loading, over-grazing, intensive agriculture, fire, soil erosion, desertification and climate change shows India among countries whose soil biodiversity faces the highest level of risk.
• Coloured red on the Atlas, these include Pakistan, China, several countries in Africa and Europe, and most of North America.
• Soil biodiversity encompasses the presence of micro-organisms, micro-fauna (nematodes and tardigrades for example), and macro-fauna (ants, termites and earthworms).
• The population of fish, birds, mammals, amphibians and reptiles have dwindled by an average of 60% from 1970 to 2014, and fresh-water species have declined by 83% in the same period.
• Since 1960, the global ecological footprint has increased by more than 190%. Globally, the extent of wetlands was estimated to have declined by 87% since 1970.
• The two key drivers of biodiversity loss were the over exploitation of natural resources and agriculture.
• While India’s per capita ecological footprint was less than 1.75 hectares/person (which is in the lowest band, among countries surveyed) its high population made it vulnerable to an ecological crisis, even if per-capita consumption remained at current levels, the WWF warned.
• To address these challenges, the WWF suggests three necessary steps: “clearly specifying a goal for biodiversity recovery; developing a set of measurable and relevant indicators of progress; and agreeing on a suite of actions that can collectively achieve the goal in the required time frame.”

Hindu Notes from General Studies-02

Modi, Abe back ‘free Indo-Pacific’

News

• India and Japan outlined a vision for strengthened bilateral relations at the 13th annual summit.

Beyond News

• Enhanced strategic and defence cooperation dominated the talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart, Shinzo Abe.
• It also referred to the necessity of ensuring the freedom of navigation and the importance of upholding the UNCLOS (United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea), a set of conventions that China has been accused of flouting in the South China Sea.
• Modi and his Japanese counterpart, Shinzo Abe, further announced the start of negotiations on an Acquisition and Cross-servicing Agreement, a logistics-sharing pact, that would allow Japanese ships to get fuel and servicing at Indian naval bases.
• Once signed, Japan’s Maritime Self-Defence Force will be able to secure access to Indian naval facilities in the Andaman and Nicobar islands, which are strategically located close to the western Malacca Straits, a choke point for much of Japan and China’s trade and fuel imports.
• A new Foreign and Defence Ministerial Dialogue, termed 2+2, was also announced to supplement an already formidable array of bilateral dialogue mechanisms that include the Annual Defence Ministerial Dialogue, Defence Policy Dialogue and the National Security Advisers Dialogue.
• 57 Japanese companies had committed to investing 320 billion yen in India, which is expected to create at least 3,000 new jobs.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-03

China eases ban on tiger and rhino parts, conservationists alarmed

News

• China unveiled new rules that would allow the use of rhino horn and tiger parts for some medical and cultural purposes, watering down a decades-old ban in a move conservation group WWF said could have “devastating consequences”.

Beyond News

• China’s State Council issued a notice replacing its 1993 ban on the trade of tiger bones and rhino horn. The new rules ban the sale, use, import and export of such products, but allow exceptions under “special circumstances”, such as medical and scientific research, educational use, and as part of “cultural exchanges”.
• Horns of rhinos or bones of tigers that were bred in captivity could be used “for medical research or clinical treatment of critical illnesses”,.
• Rhino horn and tiger products classified as “antiques” could be used in “cultural exchanges” with the approval of culture authorities, although they still may not be sold on the market or exchanged via the internet.
• WWF said in a statement that Beijing’s move would have “devastating consequences globally” and be “an enormous setback to efforts to protect tigers and rhinos in the wild”.
• Beijing banned trade in tiger bones and rhino horns, both prized in traditional Chinese medicine, 25 years ago as part of global efforts to halt declining animal stocks. But illegal poaching has continued, driven by demand in an increasingly affluent country.
• Commercial tiger farms in China are legal, and although using tiger bones in medicine was banned, tiger parts from these farms often end up being made into tonics or other medicines, animal rights groups say.

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe closest ever to Sun

News

• NASA’s historic Parker Solar Probe enroute to the Sun to unravel its mysteries has become the closest spacecraft to it.

Beyond News

• The spacecraft passed the current record of 26.55 million miles from the Sun’s surface, as calculated by the Parker Solar Probe team.
• As the Parker Solar Probe mission progresses, the spacecraft will repeatedly break its own records, with a final close approach of 3.83 million miles from the Sun’s surface expected in 2024.
• The Parker Solar Probe team periodically measures the spacecraft’s precise speed and position using NASA’s Deep Space Network or DSN.
• Parker Solar Probe will begin its first solar encounter continuing to fly closer and closer to the Sun’s surface until it reaches its first perihelion the point closest to the Sun.
• Earlier this month, the probe successfully completed its first flyby of Venus at a distance of about 1,500 miles. Throughout its mission, the probe will make six more Venus gravity assist and 24 total passes by the Sun.

Earth’s wild animal population plummets 60% in 44 years: WWF

News

• From 1970 to 2014, 60% of all animals with a backbone fish, birds, amphibians, reptiles and mammals were wiped out by human appetites and activity, according WWF’s “Living Planet” report, based on a survey of more than 4,000 species spread over 16,700 populations scattered across the globe.

Findings

• Nature under assault | Key findings: 80% decline in freshwater fauna population; Latin America worst hit with 90% loss of wildlife

For freshwater fauna, the decline in population over the 44 years monitored was a staggering 80%. Regionally, Latin America was hit hardest, seeing a nearly 90% loss of wildlife over the same period.

Another dataset confirmed the depth of an unfolding mass extinction event, only the sixth in the last half-billion years.

Depending on which of Earth’s lifeforms are included, the current rate of species loss is 100 to 1,000 times higher than only a few hundred years ago, when people began to alter Earth’s chemistry and crowd other creatures out of existence.

Measured by weight, or biomass, wild animals today only account for 4% of mammals on Earth, with humans (36%) and livestock (60%) making up the rest.

Back-to-back marine heatwaves have already wiped out up to half of the globe’s shallow-water reefs, which support a quarter of all marine life.

Even if humanity manages to cap global warming at 1.5°C (2.7°F)  mission impossible, according to some scientists  coral mortality will likely be 70 to 90%.

The Paris Agreement, negotiated under the U.N. convention on climate change, also set a clear target: global warming must be held to “well below” 2°C, and 1.5°C if possible.

Populations crashing

• From 1970 to 2014, the number of animals with a backbone birds, reptiles, amphibians, mammals and fish plummeted across the globe, on average, by about 60%.
• For freshwater vertebrates, losses topped 80%. Geographically, South and Central America have been hit hardest, with 89% less wildlife in 2014 than in 1970.
• The WWF Living Planet Index tracks more than 4,000 species spread across nearly 17,000 populations.

Species disappearing

• The index of extinction risk for five major groups birds, mammals, amphibians, corals and an ancient family of plants called cycads shows an accelerating slide towards oblivion.
• Depending on which categories are included, the current rate at which species are going extinct is 100 to 1,000 times greater than only a few centuries ago, when human activity began to alter the planet’s biology and chemistry in earnest.
• By definition, this means that Earth has entered a mass extinction event, only the sixth in half-a-billion years.

Boundaries breached

• In 2009, scientists weighed the impact of humanity’s expanding appetites on nine processes known as Earth systems within nature. Each has a critical threshold, the upper limit of a “safe operating space” for our species.
• The do-not-cross red line for climate change, for example, is global warming of 1.5°C.
• More generally, the marginal capacity of Earth’s ecosystems to renew themselves has been far outstripped by humanity’s ecological footprint, which has nearly tripled in 50 years.

Forests shrinking

• Nearly 20% of the Amazon rainforest, the world’s largest, has disappeared in five decades. Tropical deforestation continues unabated, mainly to make way for soy beans, palm oil and cattle.
• Globally, between 2000 and 2014, the world lost 920,000 sq. km of intact or “minimally disturbed” forest, an area roughly the size of Pakistan or France and Germany combined. Satellite data shows the pace of that degradation picked up by 20% from 2014 to 2016, compared with the previous 15 years.

Oceans depleted

• Since 1950, our species has extracted 6 billion tonnes of fish, crustaceans, clams, squids and other edible sea creatures. Despite the deployment of increasingly sophisticated fishing technologies, global catches 80% by industrial fleets peaked in 1996 and have been declining since.
• Climate change and pollution have killed off half of the world’s shallow water coral reefs, which support more than a quarter of marine life. Even if humanity manages to cap global warming at 1.5°C which many scientists doubt is possible coral mortality will likely be 70 to 90%.
• Coastal mangrove forests, which protect against storm surges made worse by rising seas, have also declined by up to half over the last 50 years.

Odisha launches disaster alert system for its coast

News

• The Odisha government launched the much-awaited Early Warning Dissemination System, the first-of-its-kind technology in India, to simultaneously warn coastal communities and fisherfolk about impending cyclone and tsunami through siren towers.

Beyond News

• Sirens will go off from 122 towers installed along the 480-km-long coast of the State if a button is pressed in the State emergency centre in Bhubaneswar.
• The innovative warning system would alert people about disasters such as floods and cyclone. Fishermen fishing in deep sea can also be reached via mass SMS on their mobile phones through EWDS.
• The EWDS, a collaborative effort of the Central and State governments, has been implemented under the assistance of World Bank.
• It comprises technologies such as satellite-based mobile data voice terminals, digital mobile radio, mass messaging system and universal communication interface for interoperability.
• It’s a part of the last-mile connectivity programme under National Cyclone Risk Mitigation Project. Six coastal districts have been covered under the EWDS.

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