Cigarette butts one of the biggest ocean pollutants

Sep 4, 2018 - ET

This article talks about how the use of cigarettes affect the ocean.

According to the Cigarette Butt Pollution Project, the cigarette wastes are one of the most abundant types of human-produced garbage in the world's oceans. Sources said that every year 5.5 trillion cigarettes are manufactured globally which contains a element known as cellulose acetate, a plastic-based filter. These filters can take decades to decompose after the cigarette butt has been discarded. As this plastic breaks down, the chemical which is inside it can be consumed by wildlife. 

According to Environmental  Researchers, they found traces of these chemicals present in almost 70%  of seabirds and 30% of sea turtles. They also said that these micro plastics and other kind of related wastes have direct impact on oceans and other water bodies.

Are environmental issues finally an important part of India's election discourse ?

Dated : Aug 7, 2018 ; Economic Times

This article talks about some of the issues related to environment. Cleaning of the polluted river Yamuna, which is considered holy by Hindus, has been a campaign issue for political parties for over decades. The Central government planned to cut over 16,500 trees in Delhi for the redevelopment of goverment colonies. Moreover, there was a clash between AAP, BJP and Congress parties regarding who allowed  to cut off the trees. Environment has been a part of the maifestos of other major national parties. Congress also had several environment protection related promises regarding the cleaning of river Ganga. 

As far as environment issues are concerned, it will gain the centre stage in the 2019 election campaign. As pollution is an equal oppotunity killer and it does not discriminate between rich and poor.

Major transformation ahead for Earth's ecosystems

International Scientists warned that Earth's ecosystem will risks a major transformation in the next century due to climate change. Some of these changes were already started to happen in the US through wildfires it had destroyed pine forests and transforming swaths of the territory into shrublands. These changes will likely to extend to savannas, deserts and woodlands n the next 100-150 years. It will upset the whole ecosystem. Climate change is something we have to give the greatest importance and should check it properly. Otherwise, it will affect the diversity of the planet. Human-caused climate change is different than other causes. The burning of fossil fuels like oil and coal emits heat trapped gases around the planet. the Earth is currently heating up at, much quicker pace. Researchers described their work as the most comprehensive study to date, based on pollen and plant fossil records from 594 sites worldwide dating back to between 21000 and 14000 years ago. every continent except Antartica is included. The most significant changes were seen in the mid to high latitudes of North America, Europe, and Southern South America. Shifting landscapes would affect drinking water, water recreation, river flow.

Source:(TOI, August 31)

Tsunami hits Indonesian city after 7.5 magnitude earthquake

A tsunami of up to 2m hit a small city on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi after a 7.5 quake struck offshore yesterday. the 1.5 to two-meter tsunami has receded, and the yesterday situation is very chaotic, people are running on the streets and buildings collapsed. already BMKG had issued a tsunami warning.  

2018 Arctic summertime sea ice minimum extent tied for sixth lowest on record

Arctic sea ice likely reached its 2018 lowest extent on Sept. 19 and again on Sept. 23, 2018. Analysis of satellite data showed that, at 1.77 million square miles (4.59 million square kilometers), 2018 effectively tied with 2008 and 2010 for the sixth lowest summertime minimum extent in the satellite record.

Arctic sea ice, the cap of frozen seawater blanketing most of the Arctic Ocean and neighboring seas in wintertime, follows seasonal patterns of growth and decay. It thickens and spreads during the fall and winter and thins and shrinks during the spring and summer. But in the past decades, increasing temperatures have led to prominent decreases in the Arctic sea ice extents, with particularly rapid decreases in the minimum summertime extent. The shrinking of the Arctic sea ice cover can ultimately affect the planet's weather patterns and the circulation of the oceans.

One of the most unusual features of this year's melt season has been the reopening of a polynya-like hole in the icepack north of Greenland, where the oldest and thickest sea ice of the Arctic typically resides. In February of this year, a similar opening appeared in the same area, catching the attention of sea ice scientists everywhere. The first appearance of the hole raised concerns about the possibility that the region could became vulnerable if the original, thicker ice cover was replaced with thinner ice as the exposed seawater refroze. NASA's Operation IceBridge mission probed the area in March, finding that the ice was indeed thinner and thus more susceptible to be pushed around by the winds and ocean currents.

With the successful launch of NASA's Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2, or ICESat-2, on Sept. 15, scientists will be able to use the data from the spacecraft's advanced laser altimeter to create detailed maps of sea ice thickness in both the Arctic and the Antarctic.

Tsunami hits Indonesia's Palu after strong earthquake.

A strong earthquake with a magnitude of 7.5 on the ritcher scale and Donggala in Indonesia as the epicenter has triggered Tsunami waves across the island nation. Tsunami waves have been reported to hit at Palu in Indonesia.

This incident is reminiscent of the 2004 earthquake with Sumatra as the epicenter, which caused loss of many lives and also spread havoc, chaos and destruction over the Indian subcontinent and many parts of Indonesia.

Experts say Indonesia is highly vulnerable to earthquakes as it lies across the 'ring of fire' where active volcanoes are present which results in tectonic activities which can cause earthquakes and may set off tsunami waves,

2018 Tsunami

Alarm! A change for the best is neccessary for the planet.

The UN has called the crisis urgent and decried the lack of global leadership to address the issue of Global Warming. Secretary General, Antonio Gutteres, warned that the world is facing a " direct existential threat" and must rapidly reduce or stop usage of fossil fuel by 2020 to prevent "runaway climate change".

Renewable energy is the alternative for fossil fuels. It must be promoted to reduce the Social Cost of Carbon incurred by the nation of the world. Use of renewable energy will significantly and dramatically minimise and mitigate the backlash of damage done to the environment which led to the global temperature increase.

Alarm bells!

Abrupt thawing of permafrost leads to over whelming release of methane following the formation of thermokarst lakes.

The permafrost present in the Artic are prone to seasonal thawing due to predictable phenomena of nature. But,they are now subject to gradual and abrupt thawing as consequence of climate warming due to man made pollution. 

Thawing is the process which releases methane gas from the soil when the carbon present in the soil gets consumed by microbes. Naturally, this process is very minimal in effect when compared to Abrupt Thawing; which makes the release of methane gas to a overwhelming and unprecedented extent. 

Thermokarsts are lakes which are formed due to the melting of permafrost present in the Artic region. Permafrost is ground that is frozen year-round. In the Arctic, ice-rich permafrost soils can be up to 260 feet (80 meters) thick. Due to human-caused warming of the atmosphere from greenhouse gas emissions, a gradual thawing of the permafrost is currently taking place where the upper layer of seasonally thawed soil is gradually getting thicker and reaching deeper into the ground. 

This process wakes up microbes in the soil that decompose soil organic matter and as a result release carbon dioxide and methane(bi-products) back into the atmosphere. This gradual thaw process is accounted for in climate models and is thought to have minimal effect as thawed ground also stimulates the growth of plants, which counterbalance the carbon released into the atmosphere by consuming it during photosynthesis.

However, in the presence of thermokarst lakes, permafrost thaws deeper and more quickly. Thermokarst lakes form when substantial amounts of ice in the deep soil melts to liquid water. Because the same amount of ice takes up more volume than water, the land surface slumps and subsides, creating a small depression that then fills with water from rain, snow melt and ground ice melt. The water in the lakes speeds up the thawing of the frozen soil along their shores and expands the lake size and depth at a much faster pace than gradual thawing.

Abrupt thawing leads to thermokarsts.

Temperature record of past 1000 years

• The tremperature record of past 1000 years describes the reconstruction of temperature for last 1000 years on the Northern Hemisphere.
• Studying past climate is interest for Scientists in order to understand current climate variability and providing a basis for future climate projection.
• If nature and magnitude of natural climate variability can be established,scientist will be in better position to identify human generated cliamte variability.
• Although temperature reconstructions from proxy data help us understand charecter of natural climate variability,attribution of recent climate change relies on broad range of methodology in addition to proxy reconstruction.
• By far the best observedperiod is from 1850 to the present day.
• Direct thermometer readings has approximately global coverage.
• It shows a general warming in global temperature.

- The Hindu 9th August 2018

Bachendri Pal to lead month-long rafting expedition to clean Ganga

A 40-member team, including 20 women, will undertake a month -long rafting expedition "Mission Gange" ,October 3 
The team would be led by Pal, the first Indian woman to climb Mount Everest. The objective is to clean the river Ganga and spread awareness on waste management, covering a distance of 1500 km downstream. This was inspired by our Prime Minister Modi jis 'Namami Gange' campaign.The expedition was being supported by the Government of India and Tata Steel .

TN Pollution Control Boards refusal to renew consent for operating Sterlite copper plant.

Published in : FIRSTPOST
Dated : Sep 25, 2018

Vedanta being the parent company of sterlite told a panel which was constituted by the National Green Tribunal and headed by the Former Chief Justice of Meghalaya Highcourt that the TN pollution control board refused to renew the consent for operating its sterlite copper plant in Tuticorin. According to sources they said that it was operating against the law such as producing beyond the prescribed capacity, using second hand equipments, leakage of waste resources into the waterbodies and streams, emmission of harmful waste toxins causing lot of pollution. The plant didn't follow any ethics as they didn't gave any serious concern for their employees working there, no safety were there and due to that some fellow employees were killed by an accident which occured inside the plant. There were a lot of protests which demanded the closure of the plant. A public relation official of sterlite said that there were around 45,000 petitions in favour of re-opening the sterlite plant which was raised and submitted by villagers, contractors, workmen and vendors.He also said that such petitions were authenticated with supporting documents like Aadhar card.Moreover, MDMK chief Vaiko, one of the respondents in the NGT said the panel that "Sterlite is an environmental disaster". 

For further reference go through the link :

https://www.firstpost.com/india/tn-pollution-control-boards-refusal-to-renew-consent-for-operating-sterlite-copper-plant-bad-in-law-vedanta-tells-ngt-panel-5254471.html

Methane's effects on sunlight vary by region

Scientists investigating how human-induced increases in atmospheric methane also increase the amount of solar energy absorbed by that gas in our climate system have discovered that this absorption is 10 times stronger over desert regions such as the Sahara Desert and Arabian Peninsula than elsewhere on Earth, and nearly three times more powerful in the presence of clouds.

A research team from the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) came to this conclusion after evaluating observations of Jupiter and Titan (a moon of Saturn), where methane concentrations are more than a thousand times those on Earth, to quantify methane's shortwave radiative effects here on Earth.These findings were published online today in the journal Science Advances in an article entitled "Large Regional Shortwave Forcing by Anthropogenic Methane Informed by Jovian Observations." The paper indicates large regional variability in the ways methane acts as a solar absorber, finding that methane absorption, or "radiative forcing," is largely dependent on bright surface features and clouds.

Big increase in economic costs if cuts in greenhouse gas emissions are delayed

Stronger efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions should be undertaken to avoid global warming of more than 1.5 degrees Celsius -- without relying on potentially more expensive or risky technologies to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere or reduce the amount of sunlight reaching Earth's surface.

Researchers from UEA, the London School of Economics and Political Science, and Imperial College London assessed almost 200 published academic papers on climate change, including recent studies about the economics of limiting global warming to 1.5ºC.

They noted that economics analyses produce inconclusive results about the value of limiting global warming to 1.5ºC.

The paper states: "Due to large uncertainties about the economic costs and, in particular, the benefits, there can be no clear answer to the question of whether the 1.5ºC target passes a cost-benefit test."

Wetlands vanishing 3 times faster than forests

Disappearing of most valuable and biodiverse ecosystem(Wetlands) at an alarming speed.
Around 35% of wetlands including lakes, rivers, marine areas were lost between 1970 -2015.
All these are the impact of global warming on oceans and forests.
A quarter of animals and plants are at risk of extinction.
The wetland is a great source of food, resources and medicines, disappearing of wetlands also effects the livelihood for more than one billion people.

Common herbicide may be killing honeybees

The world's most widely used weed killer may also be indirectly causing death of honey bees. Serratia is a widespread opportunistic pathogen that infects  bees around the world. Researchers recommend that farmers, landscapers and homeowners avoid spraying glyphosate-based herbicides on flowering plants that bees are likely to visit.

300 endangered sea turtles found dead off southern Mexican coast; environment protection officials launch investigation

• 300 endangered sea turtles were found dead off in Mexico,trapped in fishing net,shortly after 100 were recovered
• Mexico is the home to six of the world's seven species of sea turtles,there has permanent program to protect these reptiles and it includes punishment to offenders.
• The office of the federal attorney for environmental protection (PROFEPA) would invest the case.

Source : https://www.firstpost.com/world/300-endangered-sea-turtles-found-dead-off-southern-mexican-coast-environment-protection-officials-launch-investigation-5068531.html

Pollution May Dim Thinking Skills, Study in China Suggests

•  A study in china says that there is a link between air pollution and people's language and maths skill.
• The connection between air pollution and respiratory diseases are well known and the experts now says that it further leads to stroke and heart problems.
• Later study by researchers in US and China indicates long-term exposure to air pollution affected performance on nationwide maths and word-recognition tests by more than 25,000 people across 162 Chinese counties.
• The impact was mostly seen among older men,and the results were troubling because if the risk factor foe Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia.

        Source :https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/29/world/asia/pollution-health-china.html

CO2 emissions cost India $210 billion every year :study (September 27, 2018)

Carbo dioxide emissions are costing the Indian economy up to $210 billion every year according to a global study. India is likely to suffer highest economic damage from climate change after the US. The economic damages model indicates that as temperature rises, economic growth in India will slow. The model accounts for everything that happens in the economy today that is sensitive to environmental conditions.

Vector borne disease ,reduced worker productivity due to heat, increased frequency of extreme precipitation resulting in infrastructure damages or any of the other many ways that human systems get impacted by climate conditions.Carbon dioxide  released from burning fossil fuels affects people and ecosystem around the world today and in the future ,these impacts are not included in market prices ,creating an environmental externality whereby consumers of fossil fuel energy do not pay for and unaware of the true costs of their consumption. so , everything that happens in the economy today that is sensitive to environmental conditions.

COFFEE OUTPUT MAYFALL 14% DUE TO HEAVY RAIN IN SOUTH INDIA

   Due to heavy rain in south India the coffee production is expected to fall by 14% aganist the estimation made by last year and this may amount to 75000 tonnes as the total estimate was around 375000 tonnes and now the expectation is around 300000 tonnes. He also metioned like however the loss was estimated around 14% and this was based on begining of the season and during the sowing time the lost look like bigger and can lead to 20% and he also state that the recent flood has badly hitted the coffee industry.

Microplastics found deep in sand where turtles nest

University of Exeter scientists found an average of 5,300 particles of plastic per cubic metre at depths of 60cm (2ft) on beaches in Cyprus used by green turtles and loggerheads. At the surface, up to 130,000 fragments of plastic were found per cubic metre, the second-worst level ever recorded on a beach. 

Researchers say that if conditions worsen such pollution could eventually begin to affect hatching success and even the ratio of male and female turtle hatchling. Microplastics have different physical properties to natural sediments, so high levels could change the conditions at hatching sites. 

Microplastics is defined as less than 5mm in diameter and it come from numerous sources including discarded plastic items that have broken apart, microbeads from cosmetics and microfibres from clothes. Of the microplastics categorised in this research, nurdles (pellets used in the production of plastic products) and hard fragments broken from larger items were the most common.

Source:ScienceDaily by University of Exeter