Daily Prelims Notes 5 July 2024
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Daily Prelims Notes
5 July 2024
1. The shape of a five-year climate agenda for India
Sub: Environment
Sec: Climate change
Impact of Government’s Climate Action Choices:
- Choices will affect all Ministries and sectors.
- Influences India’s economic sustainability and global position.
- Focus on climate finance and justice over the next five years.
India’s Transformation:
- Significant progress in climate action over the last decade.
- Established global institutions like the International Solar Alliance, Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure, and the Global Biofuels Alliance, as well as shaped the Green Development Pact under its G-20 presidency last year.
- The 2070 net-zero target and ambitious Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC).
- Domestic policies now include sustainability, such as the Indian emissions carbon trading scheme.
Future Goals for the Government:
- Accelerate sustainable economic development.
- Adopt the mantra ‘go higher, go wider, go deeper’ to align climate leadership with economic growth.
Global Leadership (Go Higher):
- ‘Go higher’ relates to India’s global leadership.
- Host significant international climate summits, potentially the UN Conference of Parties in 2028.
- Aim for consensus on issues like halting new oil and gas investments post-2030 and securing adaptation finance.
- Promote equity in international forums and lead global institutions for climate finance.
Broaden Targets Beyond Power Sector (Go Wider):
- ‘Go wider’ means India has to adopt and strongly communicate sectoral emission reduction targets that go beyond the power sector.
- Set sectoral emission reduction targets beyond the power sector.
- Focus on zero-carbon mobility, including two- and four-wheelers, to boost rural mobility and clean energy jobs.
- Use the 2035 NDC submission as an opportunity to expand energy transition targets.
State-Level Climate Action (Go Deeper):
- Going deeper implies that sub-national climate action and resilience must come to the fore in this term of the government.
- Collaborate with States like Tamil Nadu and Bihar on net-zero plans.
- Create a Centre-State coordination group and incentivize State-level actions through the Sixteenth Finance Commission.
- Promote scientific modelling in policymaking and establish unified data measurement and reporting architecture.
Long-Term Vision:
- Aim for sustained climate leadership over the next four to five years.
- Strengthen India’s position at international tables and demonstrate climate action prowess.
Source: TH
2. Strategic planting of ‘energy’ crops could mitigate biodiversity loss, study finds
Sub: Environment
Sec: Climate change
Context:
- Study titled ‘Balancing bioenergy expansion and restoration: Global shifts in biodiversity intactness’ emphasised that prioritising degraded or abandoned agricultural land for energy crops offers greater benefit.
About Bioenergy Crops:
- Refer to plants specifically grown for the purpose of producing biomass that can be converted into energy. It includes energy grasses, oilseeds, and lignocellulosic crops.
- Classified into three development stages:
- First Generation: Energy conversion technologies exist like sugar crops, starch, and oil crops, etc.
- Second Generation: Energy Conversion technologies are under development. Involves switching from food to non-food lignocelluloses like polysaccharides cellulose, etc.
- Third Generation: Involves future technologies such as genetically modified crops, etc.
- Challenges in Bioenergy crop production: Land use conflicts, food security (conversion of agricultural land for bioenergy), transporting wet biomass from the plantation to the production site becomes energetically unfavorable and costly, etc.
Key Findings from the Study
- Prioritizing degraded or abandoned agricultural land for energy crops offers the greatest benefit.
- Planting energy crops in areas with high natural vegetation cover significantly reduces biodiversity, especially in tropical regions.
- Energy crop plantations can be more beneficial for biodiversity than current agricultural practices, particularly with diverse plant mixes in agriculturally dominated areas.
- Increasing landscape complexity can have ecological advantages.
Importance of Strategic Land-Use Planning:
- Essential for achieving bioenergy, climate change mitigation, and biodiversity restoration goals.
- Energy crops on existing agricultural land reduce biodiversity losses compared to converting natural habitats.
Impact on Biodiversity
- Restoring priority areas for natural vegetation has the most significant positive impact on biodiversity.
- Strategically planting energy crops on existing agricultural land is less harmful than converting natural habitats.
- The Biodiversity Intactness Index (BII) was used to measure the impact, comparing current native species abundance with pre-human impact levels.
- Energy crops could be least detrimental to BII in places like Central Europe, and the east coasts of the USA and China, with potential small benefits in West Africa.
India’s Initiatives for Bio-Energy:
- National Bioenergy Programme (By Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy)
- Comprises 3 sub-schemes:
- Waste to Energy Programme: Programme on Energy from Urban, Industrial, and Agricultural Wastes /Residues.
- Biomass Programme: Scheme to Support the Manufacturing of Briquettes & Pellets and Promotion of Biomass (non-bagasse) based cogeneration in Industries.
- Biogas Programme: For setting up of biogas plants.
Source: DTE
3. Why rising Arctic wildfires are a bad news for the world
Sub: Environment
Sec: Climate change
Recent Arctic Wildfires:
- Wildfires have darkened the skies over the Arctic for the third time in five years.
- Most fires are in Sakha, Russia, with over 160 wildfires burning nearly 460,000 hectares by June 24.
- June 2024 carbon emissions from these wildfires were 6.8 megatonnes, the third highest in two decades.
Increasing Frequency and Scale:
- Wildfires have been a natural part of the Arctic’s boreal forest or snow forest and tundra (treeless regions) ecosystems.
- Arctic wildfires are increasing due to global warming.
- The Arctic is warming four times faster than the global average (1.1 degree celsius), now 3 degrees Celsius warmer than in 1980.
- Increased warming leads to more frequent lightning and wildfires.
- Soaring temperatures slow the polar jet stream, causing unseasonably warm weather and heatwaves, which further increase wildfire risk.
- By 2050, wildfires in the Arctic and globally could increase by one-third.
Exacerbating Global Warming:
- Wildfires release greenhouse gases like CO2, contributing to climate change.
- The greater concern is the carbon stored in Arctic permafrost, which holds around 1,700 billion metric tons of carbon.
- Wildfires make permafrost more vulnerable to thawing, releasing this stored carbon into the atmosphere.
- Large-scale thawing could release massive amounts of carbon, making it impossible to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, resulting in catastrophic consequences.
Europe’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S):
- It supports society by providing authoritative information about the past, present and future climate in Europe and the rest of the World.
- The C3S mission is to support adaptation and mitigation policies of the European Union by providing consistent and authoritative information about climate change.
- C3S offer free and open access to climate data and tools based on the best available science.
Source: IE
Sub: Geography
Sec: Mapping
About Pantanal:
- It is the world’s largest freshwater tropical wetland, located in South America
- The Pantanal spans over 179,000 sq km in Brazil, Paraguay and Bolivia and boasts.
- It is one of Earth’s most biodiverse ecosystems and one of the highest concentrations of flora and fauna in South America.
- Amazon rainforest located to its north
- The headwaters of the region’s two major river systems, the Cuiabá and the Paraguay rivers, are located here,
- Some of the Pantanal’s most lively inhabitants include jaguars, giant anteaters, piranha, howler and capuchin monkeys, and green anacondas—the world’s largest snakes
- unlike the Amazon, where the thick jungle obscures the view, the Pantanal is such an open environment
- Part of the Pantanal is UNESCO World Heritage site
Record Wildfires in the Pantanal:
- The Pantanal, the world’s largest tropical wetland, experienced unprecedented wildfires this year, setting January-June records.
- Fires are primarily due to significant water loss; 2023 saw a 61% reduction in annual water surface compared to historical averages.
- Only 2.6% of the Pantanal was covered by water last year, a significant decrease from previous years.
- 2024 has seen peak drought conditions with no flood peaks, making fires difficult to control.
Impact on Biodiversity:
- Fires in the Pantanal have increased over tenfold compared to last year, with fears of another record-breaking fire year.
- The Pantanal is home to significant biodiversity, including caiman, capybara, and the highest density of jaguars.
Water Surface Reductions in Other Biomes:
- The Amazon: Water surface was reduced by 3.3 million hectares in 2023, suffering a severe drought that caused isolation of populations and deaths of aquatic species.
- The Pampa (The grasslands that cover a large area in southern Brazil, northern Argentina and Uruguay): Water surface area of reservoirs was 40% below average.
Positive News from the Cerrado:
- Cerrado is a vast area of tropical savanna in eastern Brazil.
- The core areas of the Cerrado biome are the Brazilian highlands – the Planalto.
- The Cerrado saw its largest water surface since 1985, totalling 1.6 million hectares, 11% above historical averages.
- The increase occurred in anthropogenic areas, though natural water bodies lost surface area.
Overall Water Coverage in Brazil:
- In 2023, water covered 18.3 million hectares of Brazil, 2% of the national territory.
- This represents a 1.5% decrease compared to historical averages, with a loss of water every month compared to 2022.
Source: DTE
Sub: Science and tech
Sec: Space sector
Context:
- New research uses twins to discover how one year on board the International Space Station affects the human body.
What is NASA Twins Study?
- NASA selected astronaut Scott Kelly for a one-year mission, during which he spent a year on board the International Space Station from 2015 into 2016.
- Over the same time period, his identical twin brother, Mark Kelly,, remained on Earth.
- While examining blood samples of both astronauts it was found that the telomeres of Scott in space increased in length and got quickly shortened when he returned to earth and overall astronauts had shorter telomeres after spaceflight than they did before.
- With age telomeres get shortened because of a variety of factors, including stress.
- The length of telomeres can serve as a biological indicator of the risk for developing age-related conditions such as dementia, cardiovascular disease and cancer.
- During studies made on the Inspiration4 mission that lasted only three days, it was found that even short trips, like a weekend getaway to space, will lead to changes in telomere length.
- A similar study conducted on high-altitude mountain climbers found that while climbing Mount Everest, the climbers’ telomeres were longer and after they descended, their telomeres shortened.
Telomeric RNA:
- Telomeric repeat–containing RNA (TERRA) is a long non-coding RNA transcribed from telomeres – repetitive nucleotide regions found on the ends of chromosomes that function to protect DNA from deterioration or fusion with neighboring chromosomes.
- Studies on various astronauts suggested increased levels of telomeric RNA, termed TERRA.
- Telomerase is an enzyme that maintains telomere length.
- Together with laboratory studies, various findings tell us that telomeres are being damaged during spaceflight.
Why do telomeres length changes in space?
- Telomeres are sensitive to oxidative stress.
- The chronic oxidative damage that astronauts experience when exposed to space radiation around the clock likely contributes to the telomeric changed length.
What is oxidative stress?
- Oxidative stress is an imbalance of free radicals and antioxidants in your body that leads to cell damage.
- It plays a role in many conditions like cancer, Alzheimer’s disease and heart disease.
- Toxins like pollution and cigarette smoke can cause oxidative stress, while foods rich in antioxidants can help reduce it.
Plant telomeres in space:
- As per the study published in Nature Communications, unlike people, plants flown in space did not have longer telomeres during their time on board the International Space Station.
The plants did, however, ramp up their production of telomerase, the enzyme that helps maintain telomere length.
6. Brahmaputra’s lone female gharial’s long wait for a mate could end soon
Sub: Environment
Sec: Species in news
Context: A lone female has been spotted for more than three years in a stretch of the river within the Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve
- A lone female gharial has temporarily overshadowed the one-horned rhino in eastern Assam’s Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve.
- Wildlife officials and specialists are not sure how this gharial came to inhabit a stretch of the Brahmaputra River within the Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve. But they are certain that the reptile, presumed almost an adult by its size, is the key to repopulating the river with gharials.
- It is believed to have been wiped out from the Brahmaputra River system in the 1950s, although there were claims of sightings in the 1990s.
- The female gharial was first spotted in 2021 within the Biswanath Wildlife Division of the 1,307.49 sq. km. Kaziranga. Water bodies, primarily a 107-km stretch of the Brahmaputra, comprise more than 80% of this division measuring 401 sq. km.
- The same female gharial, now 2.55 metres in length, was recorded twice basking 500 metres apart in one of the three priority habits chosen during a 10-day survey of aquatic reptiles along the Brahmaputra in January.
Survey findings
- The survey report submitted to the Forest Department in June said 990 freshwater turtles belonging to five species — Assam roofed turtle, Indian tent turtle, Brown roofed turtle, Indian or Gangetic softshell turtle, and Peacock softshell turtle — and more than 80 other major aquatic faunal species were recorded in the stretch of the Brahmaputra largely within the Biswanath Wildlife Division.
- The other aquatic animals included a mammal that shares the gharial’s Ganga connection — the elusive Gangetic River dolphin (Platanista gangetica).
Reintroduction proposal
- One of the 10 recommendations in the report was the “high-priority” reintroduction of gharials in the Brahmaputra landscape, especially within the Biswanath Division, considering the “suitability of habitats in supporting the survival of this species in the long run”.
- Wildlife experts eye reintroduction of gharials from Kukrail gharial breeding centre near Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh to support breeding in ideal Kaziranga conditions.
About Gharial:
- It is a fresh-water crocodile which lives in deep fast-flowing rivers.
- Features: Compared to alligators and crocodiles, a Gharial has a very long and narrow snout (instead of a broad snout).
- The female gharial was found to be the only one of its kind moving between a “sandy shoreline” and a “sand bar with a shoreline water depth of 4.5 metres”.
- Distribution:
- Globally Gharial is found only in India and Nepal.
- In India their major population occur in three tributaries of the Ganga River: the Chambal and the Girwa Rivers in India and the Rapti-Naryani River in Nepal.
- The Gharial reserves of India are located in three States – Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.
- Conversation status:
- IUCN: Critically endangered.
- Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972: Schedule I
- CITES: Appendix I
- Conservation Initiatives:
- Breeding Centres of Kukrail Gharial Rehabilitation Centre in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh.
- National Chambal Sanctuary (Madhya Pradesh).