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GS Paper: GS1

  • Environment Performance Index 2020

    India has secured 168 ranks in the 12th edition of the biennial Environment Performance Index (EPI Index 2020).

    CSP 2019 has been a year with two questions based on rankings and indices viz. the EoDB index and Global Competitiveness Index.  Note all such indices and their publishing agencies here at  [Prelims Spotlight] Important reports and indexes

    About EPI

    • The EPI measures the environmental performance of 180 countries.
    • It is biennially released by the Yale University.
    • It considers 32 indicators of environmental performance, giving a snapshot of the 10-year trends in environmental performance at the national and global levels.

    The performance on climate change was assessed based on the following indicators —

    • Adjusted emission growth rates;
    • Composed of growth rates of four greenhouse gases and one pollutant;
    • Growth rate in carbon dioxide emissions from land cover;
    • Greenhouse gas intensity growth rate; and
    • Greenhouse gas emissions per capita.

    Performance of the South Asian Region

    • The 11 countries lagging behind India were — Burundi, Haiti, Chad, Solomon Islands, Madagascar, Guinea, Côte d’Ivoire, Sierra Leone, Afghanistan, Myanmar and Liberia.
    • All South Asian countries, except Afghanistan, were ahead of India in the ranking.

    India’s performance

    • A ten-year comparison progress report in the index showed that India slipped on climate-related parameters.
    • India scored below the regional average score on all five key parameters on environmental health, including air quality, sanitation and drinking water, heavy metals and waste management.
    • It has also scored below the regional average on parameters related to biodiversity and ecosystem services too.
    • Among South Asian countries, India was at the second position (rank 106) after Pakistan on ‘climate change’. Pakistan’s score (50.6) was the highest under the category.

    Remarks for India

    • The report indicated that black carbon, carbon dioxide emissions and greenhouse emissions per capita increased in 10 years.
    • India needs to re-double national sustainability efforts on all fronts, according to the index.
    • It needs to focus on a wide spectrum of sustainability issues, with a high-priority to critical issues such as air and water quality, biodiversity and climate change.

  • Aerosols Radiative Effects in the Himalayas

    Indian researchers have found that the effect of anthropogenic aerosols is much higher over the high altitudes of western trans-Himalayas.

    Try this question from CSP 2019:

    Q. In the context of which of the following do some scientists suggest the use of cirrus cloud thinning technique and the injection of sulphate aerosol into the stratosphere?

    (a) Creating the artificial rains in some regions

    (b) Reducing the frequency and intensity of tropical cyclones

    (c) Reducing the adverse effects of solar wind on the Earth

    (d) Reducing the global warming

    What are Aerosols?

    • An aerosol is a suspension of fine solid particles or liquid droplets in air or another gas.
    • They can be natural or anthropogenic.
    • Examples of natural aerosols are fog, mist, dust, forest exudates and geyser steam. Examples of anthropogenic aerosols are particulate air pollutants and smoke.
    • The liquid or solid particles have diameters typically less than 1 μm; larger particles with a significant settling speed make the mixture a suspension, but the distinction is not clear-cut.
    • Technological applications of aerosols include dispersal of pesticides, medical treatment of respiratory illnesses, and combustion technology.

    Heat pump over the Himalayas

    • The transport of light-absorbing carbonaceous aerosols and dust from the polluted Indo-Gangetic Plain and desert areas over the Himalayas constitutes a major climatic issue due to severe impacts on atmospheric warming and glacier retreat.
    • This heating over the Himalayas facilitates the “elevated-hat pump” that strengthens the temperature gradient between land and ocean and modifies the atmospheric circulation and the monsoon rainfall.

    Findings of the research

    • The monthly-mean atmospheric radiative forcing of aerosols leads to heating rates of 0.04 to 0.13 C per day.
    • Further, the temperature over the Ladakh region is increasing 0.3 to 0.4 degrees Celsius per decades from the last 3 decades.

    How are aerosols fuelling the heat?

    • The atmospheric aerosols play a key role in the regional/global climate system through scattering and absorption of incoming solar radiation and by modifying the cloud microphysics.

    Assessing the Aerosol potential

    • Despite the large progress in quantifying the impact of different aerosols on radiative forcing, it still remains one of the major uncertainties in the climate change assessment.
    • Precise measurements of aerosol properties are required to reduce the uncertainties, especially over the oceans and high altitude remote location in the Himalayas where they are scarce.
    • Researchers have analysed the variability of aerosol optical, physical and radiative properties and the role of fine and coarse particles in aerosol radiative forcing (ARF) assessment.
    • ARF is the effect of anthropogenic aerosols on the radiative fluxes at the top of the atmosphere and at the surface and on the absorption of radiation within the atmosphere.

    Significance of ARF study

    • A scientific study of aerosol generation, transport, and its properties has important implications in our understanding and mitigation of climate change via atmospheric warming.
    • Aerosols impact the snow and glacier dynamics over the trans-Himalayan region.
    • The results from the study can help better understanding of aerosol effects in view of aerosol-climate implications.

  • ‘Race to Zero’ campaign

    The UN has launched the “Race to Zero” campaign ahead of delayed COP 26 Climate Talks.

    Possible question for prelims:

    The ‘Race to Zero’ campaign often seen in news is related to zeroing: Global Hunger/Carbon Emission/HR violations/None of these.

     ‘Race to Zero’ campaign

    • The campaign aims to codify commitments made via the Climate Ambition Alliance (CAA), which launched ahead of last year’s COP25 in Madrid.
    • It encourages countries, companies, and other entities to deliver structured net-zero greenhouse-gas emission pledges by the time the talks begin.
    • This messaging for the campaign — carried out under the aegis of the UNFCCC— seeks to emphasise the potential for non-state actors to raise climate ambition.
    • The campaign refers to these as ‘real economy actors’, noting they “cover just over half the gross domestic product, a quarter of global CO2 emissions and over 2.6 billion people”.

    About the Climate Ambition Alliance

    • The CAA currently includes 120 nations and several other private players that have committed to achieving zero net greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
    • Signatories are responsible for 23 per cent of current greenhouse-gas emissions worldwide and 53 per cent of global GDP.

    What Are the Criteria?

    • The minimum criteria for establishing a recognized pledge were developed through dialogues coordinated by Oxford University.
    • The pledges must include a clear net-zero target date no later than 2050, they must also begin immediately and include interim targets.
    • Much like the Paris Agreement itself, the criteria are designed to strengthen over time, but they begin at a level that reflects current best practices.

    Issue over offsetting

    • Offsets are emission-reductions generated outside a company’s own operations, and they are used in both compliance programs to meet mandated emission caps (“cap and trade”) and involuntary programs to reduce a company’s overall impact (voluntary carbon markets).
    • The Race to Zero criteria emphasizes that if offsets are ultimately recognized, they must only be used to neutralize residual emissions that can’t be eliminated internally – at least not immediately.

  • What is Lunar Eclipse?

    A penumbral lunar eclipse will be observed today midnight. The Earth will imperfectly align itself between the Sun and the moon, casting a shadow on the latter, marking the second lunar eclipse of the year.

    Solar and Lunar eclipse has been quite frequent this year. Mark the major differences between them.

    Lunar Eclipse

    • A lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon moves into the Earth’s shadow.
    • This can occur only when the Sun, Earth, and Moon are exactly or very closely aligned with Earth between the other two.
    • A lunar eclipse can occur only on the night of a full moon. The type and length of a lunar eclipse depend on the Moon’s proximity to either node of its orbit.
    • Any object that obstructs light will produce two shadows: one which will be dark and dense, is called the umbra; and the other which is light and diffused is called the penumbra.
    • The only light reflected from the lunar surface has been refracted by Earth’s atmosphere.
    • This light appears reddish for the same reason that a sunset or sunrise does: the Rayleigh scattering of bluer light. Due to this reddish colour, a totally eclipsed Moon is sometimes called a blood moon.

    Types

    • In a total eclipse of the moon, the inner part of Earth’s shadow, called the umbra, falls on the moon’s face. At mid-eclipse, the entire moon is in shadow, which may appear blood red.
    • In a partial lunar eclipse, the umbra takes a bite out of only a fraction of the moon. The dark bite grows larger and then recedes, never reaching the total phase.
    • In a penumbral lunar eclipse, only the more diffuse outer shadow of Earth – the penumbra – falls on the moon’s face. This third kind of lunar eclipse is much more subtle and much more difficult to observe than either a total or partial eclipse of the moon.

    How it is different from Solar Eclipse?

    • A solar eclipse happens when the moon passes in between the earth and the sun. A lunar eclipse happens when the earth passes in between the moon and the sun.
    • During a solar eclipse, the moon partially or fully hides the sun’s rays for a few minutes.
    • Unlike a solar eclipse, which can only be viewed from a relatively small area of the world, a lunar eclipse may be viewed from anywhere on the night side of Earth.
    • Also unlike solar eclipses, lunar eclipses are safe to view without any eye protection or special precautions, as they are dimmer than the full Moon.

    What’s special this time?

    • This eclipse is also called a strawberry moon eclipse — the term, interestingly, originates from an American concept and has little to do with the Euro-Asia region.
    • June’s full moon usually coincides with the harvesting season of wild strawberries in America and the phenomenon was often addressed in reference to that.
    • India had already witnessed an eclipse earlier this year, in January.
    • The strawberry moon eclipse is going to be its second and probably the last visible lunar one in 2020.

  • Tribes in news: Changpa Tribe

    The Chinese Army’s intrusion in Chumur and Demchok has left Ladakh’s nomadic herding Changpa community cut off from large parts of summer pastures.

    Pashmina shawl is a landmark product of the Kashmir Valley. But make a note here. It carries only a BIS certification and not a Geographical Indicator.

    Also try this PYQ from CSP 2014:

    Q. With reference to ‘Changpa’ community of India, consider the following statement:

    1. They live mainly in the State of Uttarakhand.
    2. They rear the Pashmina goats that yield fine wool.
    3. They are kept in the category of Scheduled Tribes.
    Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

    a) 1 only
    b) 2 and 3 only
    c) 3 only
    d) 1, 2 and 3

    Changpa Tribes

    • The Changpa of Ladakh is high altitude pastoralists, raising mainly yaks and goats.
    • Among the Ladakh Changpa, those who are still nomadic are known as Phalpa, and they take their herds from in the Hanley Valley to the village of Lato.
    • Hanley is home to six isolated settlements, where the sedentary Changpa, the Fangpa reside.
    • Despite their different lifestyles, both these groups intermarry.
    • The Changpa speak Changskhat, a dialect of Tibetan, and practice Tibetan Buddhism.

    What is the issue?

    • The Chinese Army has taken over 16 kanals (two acres) of cultivable land in Chumur and advanced around 15 km inside Demchok, taking over traditional grazing pastures and cultivable lowlands.
    • In a cascading effect, this has resulted in a sharp rise in deaths of young Pashmina goats this year in the Korzok-Chumur belt of Changthang plateau in Ladakh.
    • This incursion has destabilized the annual seasonal migration of livestocks, including yaks and Pashmina goats.

    Back2Basics: Pashmina

    • The Changthangi or Ladakh Pashmina is a breed of Cashmere goat native to the high plateau of Ladakh.
    • The much-valued wool from the Ladakh herds is essential for the prized Pashmina shawls woven in Kashmir and famous for their intricate handwork.
    • They survive on the grass in Ladakh, where temperatures plunge to as low as −20 °C.
    • These goats provide the wool for Kashmir’s famous pashmina shawls. Shawls made from Pashmina wool are considered very fine and are exported worldwide.
    • Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has recently published an Indian Standard for identification, marking and labelling of Pashmina products to certify its purity.

  • Expansion of the Amery Ice Shelf

     

    There would be a 24% increase in the expansion of the Amery Ice Shelf (AIS) boundaries in Antarctica by 2021 and another 24 per cent by 2026 from its 2016 positions, the National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research (NCPOR) in Goa has predicted.

    Practice question for mains:

    Q. Discuss the interrelation between Cryosphere and Climate change in context to the melting ice shelves in the Antarctic region.

    Amery Ice Shelf (AIS)

    • The Amery Ice Shelf is a broad ice shelf in Antarctica at the head of Prydz Bay between the Lars Christensen Coast and Ingrid Christensen Coast.
    • It is part of Mac. Robertson Land.
    • The name “Cape Amery” was applied to a coastal angle mapped on February 11, 1931.
    • The AIS is one of the largest glacier drainage basins in the world, located on the east coast of Antarctica, at about 70ºS Latitude, 70ºE Longitude.
    • The AIS dynamics and mass balance help in understanding the changes in the global climate scenario.

    Significance of the study

    • NCPOR observations revealed a critical cooling of the sea surface temperature, resulting in an advancement of the ice shelf by 88 per cent in the past 15 years.
    • These changes would contribute in a major way to climate variability.
    • The study clearly demonstrated the future dynamism of ocean heat fluctuation and Antarctic Amery ice shelf mass shifting-extent.

    Back2Basics: Ice Shelves

    • The floating sheets of ice called ‘ice shelves’ play a multi-faceted role in maintaining the stability of a glacier. Ice shelves connect a glacier to the landmass.
    • The ice sheet mass balance, sea stratification, and bottom water formation are important parameters for the balancing of a glacier. Latent and sensible heat processes do play important roles here.
    • The insulation of ice shelves from atmospheric forcing is dependent on a temperature gradient that the ocean cavity beneath the ice shelves provides.
    • It is the pressure exerted by the ice shelves upon the ocean cavity that determines this temperature gradient.

  • What is South Atlantic Anomaly?

    New data obtained by the European Space Agency (ESA) Swarm satellites has revealed the existence of a mysterious anomaly weakening the Earth’s magnetic field. Termed as ‘South Atlantic Anomaly’, it extends all the way from South America to southwest Africa.

    The term ‘South Atlantic Anomaly’ at its first sight looks similar to any climate/oceanic current related phenomena. But it’s not! This is where you can end up losing 2.66 marks in the prelims!

    What is South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA)?

    • The SAA is referred to the behaviour of Earth’s Geo-Magnetic field in an area between Africa and South America.
    • The SAA is an area where the Earth’s inner Van Allen radiation belt comes closest to the Earth’s surface, dipping down to an altitude of 200 kilometres.
    • This leads to an increased flux of energetic particles in this region and exposes orbiting satellites to higher-than-usual levels of radiation.
    • The effect is caused by the non-concentricity of the Earth and its magnetic dipole.
    • The SAA is the near-Earth region where the Earth’s magnetic field is weakest relative to an idealized Earth-centered dipole field.

    Weakening of the magnetic field

    • Over the last 200 years, the magnetic field has lost around 9% of its strength on a global average.
    • A large and rapid shrink has been observed in the SAA region over the past 50 years just as the area itself has grown and moved westward.
    • The weakening of the magnetic field is also causing technical difficulties for the satellites and spacecraft orbiting the planet.
    • The study conducted between 1970 and 2020, said that the magnetic field weakened considerably in a large region stretching from Africa to South America, known as the ‘SAA’.
    • This area has grown and moved westward at a rate of around 20 km per year.

    Its impact

    • The magnetic shield has an important role to play in keeping unwanted radiation away as well as helping determine the location of magnetic poles.
    • Even though unlike global warming or any weather change, this anomaly doesn’t directly impact human lives, it could actually bring on a change in the way we access technology.
    • The reversal and apparent shift, which could keep extending could actually impact satellite and telecommunication system, which means that some of the internet and mobile phone functioning which depend on satellite signals can possibly get disrupted.
    • It could also affect the mapping and navigation systems in smartphones.
    • The weakening of earth’s magnetic field could also impact migratory movement.
    • Birds, animals- all those who migrate with the change in season depend on the earth’s mapping to move about can find it a little difficult.
    • This is only a possibility, but we don’t know the extent of the damage till now.

    About the Van Allen Radiation Belt

    • A Van Allen radiation belt is a zone of energetic charged particles, most of which originate from the solar wind, that are captured by and held around a planet by that planet’s magnetic field.
    • The belts are located in the inner region of Earth’s magnetosphere. The belts trap energetic electrons and protons.
    • Earth has two such belts and sometimes others may be temporarily created.
    • Most of the particles that form the belts are thought to come from solar wind and other particles by cosmic rays.
    • By trapping the solar wind, the magnetic field deflects those energetic particles and protects the atmosphere from destruction.

    Also read:

    https://www.civilsdaily.com/news/shifting-north-magnetic-pole-forces-urgent-navigation-fix/

    Back2Basics: Swarm  Constellation

    • Swarm is a European Space Agency (ESA) mission to study the Earth’s magnetic field.
    • It is ESA’s first constellation of satellites for Earth observation.
    • The Swarm constellation consists of three satellites (Alpha, Bravo and Charlie) placed in two different polar orbits, two flying side by side at an altitude of 450 km and a third at an altitude of 530 km.

  • Festivals in news: Kheer Bhawani Mela

    In the UT of Jammu and Kashmir, the Annual Kheer Bhawani Mela in Tulmulla village of Ganderbal district has been cancelled by its religious trust.

    Match the pair based question can be asked from festivals as such. Recently, the following festivals were in the news: Ambubachi Mela, Thrisoor Puram, Meru Jatara, Nagoba Jatara etc.

    Try this:

    Q. Consider the following pairs:

    Traditions                                            Communities

    1. Chaliha Sahib Festival              —          Sindhis

    2. Nanda Raj Jaat Yatra                —          Gonds

    3. Wari-Warkari                               —          Santhals

    Which of the pairs given above is/are correctly matched ? (CSP 2017)

    (a) 1 only

    (b) 2 and 3 only

    (c) 1 and 3 only

    (d) None of the above

    Kheer Bhawani Mela

    • The festival witnesses lakhs of Hindu pilgrims from across the country largely the Kashmiri Pandit Community, who throngs the famous Ragyna Devi Temple which is popularly known as “Mata Kheer Bhawani”.
    • The festival falls on the auspicious day of “Zeshta Ashtami”.
    • The term kheer refers to rice pudding that is offered in the spring to propitiate the Goddess, which became part of the name of the temple.
    • The devotees have been asked to cooperate with the authorities and perform the worship of the Goddess at their homes only.
    • However, the holy rituals and Aarti of the Deity will be conducted as per the tradition which will be shared with the devotees via social media.

    Significance

    • Kheer Bhawani Mela is one of the biggest religious functions of Kashmiri Pandit Community.
    • It is believed and rather has been seen that the colour of the water in the spring around the Kheer Bhawani Temple changes its colour with the change in the circumstances of the Kashmir valley.

  • Purandara Dasa and his legacy

    The Department of Archaeology, Karnataka has commenced field research work regarding the birthplace of Purandara Dasa who is held as the father figure of Carnatic music.

    Recently there was a news on Lord Basaveshwara. Now comes the other popular saint.

    Vaishnavism and Shaivism are the two most profound strands of Bhakti Movement in Indian history. Enlist all the Bhakti Saints and their theistic philosophy and teachings. Try to spot the minute differences between them.

    Purandara Dasa

    • Purandara Dasa (1484 –1565) was a Haridasa, a renowned composer of Carnatic music, a great devotee of the Supreme Lord Krishna, a Vaishnava poet, a saint and a social reformer.
    • He was a disciple of the Dvaita philosopher-saint Vyasatirtha, and a contemporary of yet another Haridasa, Kanakadasa.
    • He was a composer, singer and one of the chief founding-proponents of South Indian classical music (Carnatic music).
    • In honour of his significant contributions to Carnatic music, he is widely referred to as the Pitamaha (lit. “father” or “grandfather”) of Carnatic music.
    • He is respected as an Avatara (incarnation) of the great sage Narada (a celestial being who is also a singer).

    Confusions over his birthplace

    • As ‘Purandara Vithala’ was the pen name of his compositions, it was widely believed that the mystic poet was born in Purandar (near Pune), Maharashtra.
    • However, many in Malnad claimed that he hailed from this region.
    • According to historians, Araga in Malnad was a buzzing commercial centre during the Vijayanagar rule, the period to which the poet belonged to.
    • Prior to his initiation to Haridasa tradition, Purandara Dasa was a rich merchant and was called as Srinivasa Nayaka.

    Back2Basics: Bhakti Movement

    • The Bhakti movement refers to the theistic devotional trend that emerged in medieval Hinduism.
    • It originated in eighth-century south India and spread northwards.
    • It swept over east and north India from the 15th century onwards, reaching its zenith between the 15th and 17th century CE.
    • It has traditionally been considered as an influential social reformation in Hinduism and provided an individual-focused alternative path to spirituality regardless of one’s birth or gender
    • The salvation which was previously considered attainable only by men of Brahmin, Kshatriya and Vaishya castes, became available to everyone.

  • Rail adukku pathiram Utensils of Tamil Nadu

    The rail adukku pathiram a traditional set of kitchen utensils in Tamil Nadu has become the gathered attention of all over the past few days.

    The traditional ‘rail adukku pathiram’ set of utensils are very unique in itself. However, one must note that it does NOT carry any GI tag and is completely out of use. Still, there is a possibility of it being asked in match the pair type questions asking – Q) Which among the following artefacts from Tamil Nadu carries a GI Tag?

    Rail adukku pathiram

    • The rail adukku pathiram consists of 14 vessels of different sizes, neatly placed in a compact manner inside the largest container.
    • The vessels were earlier used by families to carry groceries and cook food during train journeys.
    • These vessels were used to cook food for a mini-wedding. The interesting aspect is the compact size and easy to carry.
    • It has two vessels to cook vegetables, a sippal plate to boil rice, a frying pan, a sombu, a bronze pot to carry water and vessels of varying sizes to cook food.
    • Many in Tamil Nadu had forgotten about the existence of these multi-layered vessels until a video surfaced online recently.