Environmental Issues

2020-07-06 18:41:34

Environmental Issues

Cost of Env degradation is about 6% of IN GDP or Rs 3.75 trillion

Pollution in IHR

expansion, trekking, tourism etc has caused continued waste dumping
unplanned growth, non compliance w/ prescribed norms and guidelines

Various Initiatives Taken to Clean IHR Region

HP banned plastic brought laws for disposal of non-biodegradable garbage, increased minimum thickness of plastic etc
Nainital Lake has adopted the ==Mission Butterfly program for scientific garbage disposal==.
==Lake and Waterways Dev Authority LAWDA== has taken initiative to control pollution in Dal Lake
Assam Hill Land and Ecological Sites #Act, 2006 taken up ==to prevent indiscrminate cutting of hills and filling of water bodies==.

Recomendations to Combat Pollution

guidelines to prohibit indiscriminate disposal of garbage
treatment segregation at point of source, document waste composition
4R principle, innovation in treatment, garbage management
prevent fragmentation of habitat in hill areas, designate areas for dev
enforce architechtural norms, prevent deforestation, integrated development
Community based ecotourism as sustainable alternative to commercial tourism ex Himalayan Homestays, Sikkim’s Ultimate Tourist Destination policy

Sand Mining

process of removal of sand and grave

Impact of Sand Mining

causes stripping of sand natural carpet that causes downstream erosion
prevents sand from acting as aquifers
revenue loss to exchequer, forces river to change its course
adversely impacts habitat of micro-organism
damagest coastal ecosystem

Suggestions to Combat

use manufactured sand as alternative : produced from stones used for aggregates
use fly ash from industries as alternative of sand.
periodic assessment of sand bed, prudence to lease out mining
make sand mining to be carried out only by labour

Palm Oil - Environmental Issues and India’s Role in it #important #PrelimsPYQ

==33% of vegetable oil made from it==, consumers are India, Indonesia and China
used for cooking food as a substitute of butter, alo in cosmetics, soaps and detergents as base material

Environmental Impacts

to meet production deforestation carried out in countries like Indonesia, Borneo, Papua New Guinea, Sumatra, Congo Basin
Loss of biodiversity particularly Orangutans
Climate Change due to deforestation
use of pesticides and fertilizers esp Paraquat a type of herbicide
Indian imports from Malaysia, Indonesia.
AP is the higher producer in IN

Major Constraints in Domestic Cultivation

Geographical location not ideal ==best is 8° N and S of Equator==
Irrigation requires regular rainfall, Long gestation period of 4 yr
small farm holdings, limited investment by corporate sector

Gov Plans

Mo Food give subsidies for distribution of palm oil under PDS
Oil Palm Dev program now part of Integrated #Scheme of Oilseeds
Roundtable on Sustainable Oil RSPO estd in 2004 provides certification #body

Colony Collapse Disorder CCD

population of Bees plummeting due to unexplained reason
Causes could be :
- Global Warming, parasitic infection, malnutrition, metal pollution, stress, habitat loss
- ==Neonicotinides are nictoine like insecticides== : water soluble absorbed by pollinators from pollen and nector of treated palnts may be leading to dec
policy decision to protect bees, reward farmers to protect bees, strengthen bee research, Integrated pest management

Wildlife Deaths due to Collitions w/ Trains

Art 51A, 48A
Coordination b/w MoEFCC and Mo Railways
demarcate vulnerable patches with signboards,
Electronic tagging of elephants, leopards etc
improve infra, posting forest officials in Railway control rooms for better coordination

Impact of Radiation from Towers

EMW generated heats up small birds due to low weight and higher surface area, lower body fluid, disturb their ability to navigate, collision leads to deaths
In humans it causes psychological changes, genetic defects, fatigue, nausea, irritability, headaches

Responsibilities of Stakeholders

MoEFCC should notify impact to concerned agencies
Regular monitoring by state and local bodies, carry out EIA before giving permission
State Env and Forest dept take awareness measures
DoT should avoid overlapping of radiation fields, location of towers be geotagged and be made public, refine standards on safe limit of exposure to EMR, precaution to minimise exposure

Genetically Engineered Trees

==1st GE tree in Belgium 1988==, China has inculcated in large scale
act as carbon sinks ==to help meet Clean Dev Mechanism under Kyoto protocol==
Difficult to decipher behaviour of new gene in natural env; likely to contaminate vast expanse of native forest threaten ecological balance
In Indian Rubber research institute dev 1st GET

Steps Taken to Combat Air Pollution

improved fuel, comprehensive policy for abetement of pollution
tightening industrial emission norms, mandatory env clearance for specific industries
air quality monitoring improved, assessment of pollution load, public awareness

The sun emits energy in what kind of wavelengths - High energy short wavelengths

Q. About how much energy is reflected back into space? A. 30%

Q. Which is the biggest overall contributor to greenhouse effect? A. Water Vapour

Q. What is the largest emitter of Methane CH4 in the atmosphere? A. Wetlands

Nitrous Oxide N2O is emitted by the use of fertilizers in agriculture, burning of transportation fuel, production of Nitric Acid.

Fluorinated gases : They are non-ozone depleting gases but have very high global warming potential GWP.

There are 3 mains types of fluorinated gases :

Hydrofluorocarbons HFCs - are used as refrigerants, aerosol propellants, solvents and fire retardants.
Perfluorocarbons PFCs - produced during Aluminium production and manufacturing of semi conductors.
Sulfur Hexafuoride SF6 - used in magnesium processing, semi-conductor manufacturing and as tracer gas for leak detections. It is also used in electrical transmission equipment and circuit breakers.

“Brown carbon” is generally referred for greenhouse gases and “black carbon” for particles resulting from impure combustion.

Climate “forcings” are factors in the climate system that either increase or decrease the effects to the climate system.

Positive forcings such as excess greenhouse gases warm the earth while negative forcings, such as the effects of most aerosols and volcanic eruptions, actually cool the earth.

The power of a process to alter the climate is estimated by its “radiative forcing” which is the change in the Earth’s energy balance due to that process.

The factors that cause Ocean acidification are :

Acid rain
Eutrophication
respiration of bacteria decomposing algae leads to dec. in sea water pH.

Q. Events where deeper ocean water circulates onto continental shelves and near-shore areas are called? A. Upwelling

The upper layers of the ocean tend to be supersaturated with CaCO3 so little dissolution takes place, whilst the deep ocean is undersaturated and carbonate readily dissolves.

The first boundary between these two states is known as the lysocline.