KSG Podcast - Quad joint statement | Short Crisp Concise and Exam Oriented Edited Editorial
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyKnpEJXHgY&list=PLCUwtp5IghZmJBi1h7xiAhsORKmmumVsR&index=6
#UPSCOnlineClasses #OnlineClassses #IASOnlineclasses

KSG Podcast - Climate Finance Initiative | Short Crisp Concise and Exam Oriented Edited Editorial
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2y0lHFJ-oUU
#UPSCOnlineClasses #OnlineClassses #IASOnlineclasses

KSG Podcast - Quad joint statement | Short Crisp Concise and Exam Oriented Edited Editorial
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyKnpEJXHgY&list=PLCUwtp5IghZmJBi1h7xiAhsORKmmumVsR&index=50
#UPSCOnlineClasses #OnlineClassses #IASOnlineclasses

KSG Podcast - Climate Finance Initiative | Short Crisp Concise and Exam Oriented Edited Editorial
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2y0lHFJ-oUU&list=PLCUwtp5IghZmJBi1h7xiAhsORKmmumVsR&index=56
#UPSCOnlineClasses #OnlineClassses #IASOnlineclasses

Watch: KSG Explainer | Climate compensation on agenda for first time #upsc #prelims #currentaffairs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSIMRAIO6nU

Today's Headlines - 02 August 2023
Climate change is altering the colour of the oceans
GS Paper - 3 (Environment)

The colour of the Earth’s oceans has significantly altered over the past two decades, most likely due to human-induced climate change, according to a new study. Over 56 per cent of the oceans, more than the total land area on the planet, has experienced the shift in colour, it added. The study, ‘Global climate-change trends detected in indicators of ocean ecology’, was published in the journal Nature.

What makes the oceans colourful in the first place?

In most regions across the world, the oceans appear blue or navy blue for a reason. This happens due to “the absorption and scattering of light”.
When the sunlight falls on deep and clear water, colours with longer wavelengths, such as red, yellow and green, are absorbed by the water molecules but blue and violet, which have a much shorter wavelength, are reflected back.
When sunlight hits the ocean, some of the light is reflected back directly but most of it penetrates the ocean surface and interacts with the water molecules that it encounters.
The red, orange, yellow, and green wavelengths of light are absorbed so that the remaining light we see is composed of the shorter wavelength blues and violets.
But when the water isn’t deep or clean, an ocean can appear to be of a different colour.
For instance, along Argentina’s coastline, where major rivers merge into the Atlantic Ocean, the ocean exudes a brown tint because of dead leaves and sediments spewing from the rivers.
In other parts of the world, the oceans appear green, which happens due to the existence of phytoplankton on the upper surface of the water.
Phytoplanktons are microscopic marine algae that contain the green-coloured pigment chlorophyll.
The pigment helps them absorb sunlight, which they use to capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and convert it into sugars. Moreover, chlorophyll absorbs the red and blue portions of the light spectrum — or photosynthesis — and reflects green light.

What methods were used to carry out the study?

To conduct the study, Cael and his team first analysed data from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), aboard NASA’s Aqua satellite, which has been monitoring ocean colour since 2002 — the measurements are taken in terms of the amount of light coming off the surface of the oceans, at all seven of the different wavelengths of light, from violet to red.
The examination of 20 years worth of data indicated that in more than 50 per cent of the world’s oceans, the colour has changed.
Then, to check if the phenomenon has occurred due to climate change, researchers used a climate model – a computer representation of the Earth.
This model simulated the planet’s oceans under two scenarios: one with the addition of greenhouse gases, and the other without it.
The greenhouse-gas model predicted that a significant trend should show up within 20 years and that this trend should cause changes to ocean colour in about 50 percent of the world’s surface oceans — almost exactly what Cael found in his analysis of real-world satellite data.

#upsc #news #headline #climate #colour #oceans #pigment #phytoplankton #chlorophyll #sediments #spewing #rivers #spectrum #methods #MODIS #NASA #Aqua #satellite #world #earth #wavelength #gases #greenhouse #data #planet

Today's Headlines - 22 August 2023
Extreme heat mean for the Mediterranean Sea
GS Paper - 3 (Environment)

Frequent heat waves cause huge damage to underwater ecosystems and researchers expect more of them in the future.

What are the solutions to heat stress?

Extreme heat has plagued the Mediterranean for weeks. Wildfires raged across at least nine countries in the region from Algeria to Greece.
But the soaring temperatures are not only a danger for people and ecosystems on land; they’re also harming marine life.
Without a doubt global climate change is the main reason for the heat waves in the sea. It’s causing the ocean to warm.
Why are high sea temperatures a problem?

In a warming world, marine creatures are in danger of suffocating. Gases like oxygen and carbon dioxide dissolve better at colder temperatures, so that means the warmer the water; the less oxygen is available to breathe.
Conversely, higher temperatures also cause an increase in metabolism, which in turn means animals have to breathe even more than usual). That combination also heightens the risk of death by starvation for marine life.
The rise in temperature accelerates metabolism, and the organisms need more food to maintain this metabolic rate.
Algal blooms are more common in hotter waters too. Such blooms can further deplete oxygen levels and produce toxins harmful for fish, marine mammals and birds, for instance.
What species and ecosystems are worst hit by marine heat waves?

High water temperatures are most harmful for animals living at the bottom of oceans, lakes or rivers.
These benthic species include corals, mussels, sponges, starfish and plants like sea grasses, and are often attached to rock or solid ground. They can’t migrate when it gets too hot.
Scientists observed mass deaths of benthic species along thousands of kilometers of Mediterranean coastline between 2015 and 2019.
Many benthic species are crucial to the marine ecosystem. They filter the water and keep seas, rivers and lakes clean by eating dead organisms.
Some species are an important food source for other creatures or are harvested by humans. Benthics like soft corals, seaweed and seagrasses provide some of the main ocean habitats.
Heat is particularly harmful for Posidonia oceanica or Neptune grass. And the large, slow-growing seagrass is found only in the Mediterranean. Previous heat waves have decimated the species, which is bad news for the climate.
What does extreme heat in the Mediterranean mean for people?

Warming seas are already affecting fishing activities in the area. Fishermen are catching fewer familiar species and instead are finding more invasive fish which they have difficulty selling.
Rabbitfish and lionfish are edible, but other invasive fish aren’t. Some are even poisonous, like the puffer fish.
Habitat loss could also lead to an overall decline in fish populations, while disappearing seagrass means coasts will be more exposed to future storms.
This could also have a knock-on effect for tourism because divers will be less likely to visit an impoverished underwater landscape.

#upsc #news #headline #extreme #mediterranean #sea #enviroment #heat #ecosystem #future #undrwater #wildfires #algeria #greece #global #climate #temperature #ocean #metabolism #algalblooms #birds #marine #oxygen #levels #lakes #rivers #soildground #benthic #mediterranean #coastline #foodsource #organisms #soft #corals #seaweed #rabbitfish #stroms #populations #lionfish #activities #neptunegrass #posidoniaoceanica #toxins #breathe

Today's Headlines - 07 September 2023
IPBES report on Biodiversity loss
GS Paper - 3 (Environment)

In the most extensive study on invasive species carried out till date, the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) in its new publication – the “Assessment Report on Invasive Alien Species and their Control’’ – has found that there are 37,000 alien species, including plants and animals, that have been introduced by many human activities to regions and biomes around the world, including more than 3,500 invasive alien species and that invasive alien species have played a key role in 60% of global plant and animal extinctions recorded.

Highlight of the report

The report, which was released on 4 September 2023, said that invasive alien species are one of the five major direct drivers of biodiversity loss globally, alongside land and sea use change, direct exploitation of organisms, climate change, and pollution.
The report has noted that the number of alien species (species introduced to new regions through human activities) has been rising continuously for centuries in all regions, but are now increasing at unprecedented rates, with increased human travel, trade and the expansion of the global economy.
Not all alien species establish and spread with negative impacts on biodiversity, local ecosystems and species, but a significant proportion do – then becoming known as invasive alien species.
About 6% of alien plants; 22% of alien invertebrates; 14% of alien vertebrates; and 11% of alien microbes are known to be invasive, posing major risks to nature and to people, the IPBES has said.
The report further noted that many invasive alien species have been intentionally introduced for their perceived benefits, “without consideration or knowledge of their negative impacts’’ – in forestry, agriculture, horticulture, aquaculture, or as pets.
Nearly 80% of the documented impacts of invasive species on nature’s contribution to people are negative.
The water hyacinth is the world’s most widespread invasive alien species on land. Lantana, a flowering shrub, and the black rat are the second and third most widespread globally. The brown rat and the house mouse are also widespread invasive alien species.
The report said that the annual costs of invasive alien species have at least quadrupled every decade since 1970, as global trade and human travel increased. In 2019, the global economic cost of invasive alien species exceeded $423 billion annually.
These trends are projected to accelerate as the global economy expands, land and seas are used more intensively, and demographic change takes place, the report said.
Invasive alien specieslike Aedes albopictus and Aedes aegyptii spread diseases such as malaria, Zika and West Nile Fever, while others also have an impact on livelihood such as the water hyacinth in Lake Victoria in East Africa led to the depletion of tilapia, impacting local fisheries.
The IPBES report has further warned thatwarming temperatures and climate change could favour the “expansion of invasive species’’.
Flashback

The IPBES released its report following a week- long plenary from 28th August, with representatives of the 143 member States which have approved the report.
IPBES is an independent intergovernmental body established to strengthen the science-policy interface for biodiversity and ecosystem services, working in a similar way to the IPCC, which is the UN’s climate science body.
The study, which has taken place over a period of four years, has been by 86 leading experts from 49 countries, drawing on more than 13,000 references.

#upsc #news #headline #IPBES #biodiversity #loss #enviroment #alien #species #ecosystem #biomes #animals #climate #pollution #chnage #lantana #housemouse #hyacinth #travel

Today's Headlines - 09 September 2023
Indore ranks first in Clean Air Survey 2023
GS Paper - 2 (Infrastructure)

Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Bhupender Yadav awarded first rank to the Information Technology hub of Madhya Pradesh, Indore, in the Swachh Vayu Sarvekshan-2023 (or Clean Air Survey), conducted by the Central Pollution Control Board.

More about the Sarvekshan-2023

Under the first category (million-plus population), Indore ranked first, followed by Agra and Thane. Amravati secured first rank in the second category (3-10 lakh population), followed by Moradabad and Guntur.
Similarly, for the third category (less than 3 lakh population), Parwanoo secured the first rank, followed by Kala Amb and Angul.
The fourth International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies (Swachh Vayu Diwas 2023) aims to create stronger partnerships, increase investment, and share responsibility for overcoming air pollution, with the global theme of "Together for Clean Air."
About NCAP

The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) has been implementing the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) as a national-level strategy, outlining the actions for reducing the levels of air pollution at city and regional scales in India since 2019.
The NCAP aims to systematically address air pollution by engaging all stakeholders and ensuring necessary action.
A total of 131 cities have been identified for the implementation of the city-specific action plans under this programme, for reducing air pollution by up to 40 per cent by FY26.
NCAP focuses on the preparation and implementation of national-level action plans, state-level action plans, and city-level action plans for the targeted 131 cities.
Flashback

The NCAP Ministry has also launched "PRANA", a portal for monitoring the implementation of NCAP.
In this portal, action plans of cities, states, and line ministries will be reflected and monitored for their implementation status.
In addition, best practices adopted by cities are shared on the PRANA portal for adoption by other cities.

#upsc #news #headline #indore #ranks #cleanair #survey #infrastructure #UNIONMINISTER #Enviroment #Forest #climate #bhupenderyadav #technology #pollution #controlboard #madhyapradesh #sarvekshan #agra #thane #amravati #moradabad #guntur #parwanoo #angul #NCAP #forest #air #city #PRANA #Portal