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1.Asteroid ‘99942 Apophis’

• On April 13, 2029, a near-Earth asteroid will cruise by Earth, about 31,000 km above the surface.
• The asteroid, called 99942 Apophis, is 340 m wide.
• At one point, it will travel more than the width of the full Moon within a minute and it will get as bright as the stars in the Little Dipper, according to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
• It is rare for an asteroid this size to pass by Earth so close.
• Although scientists have spotted small asteroids, on the order of 5-10 metres, flying by Earth at a similar distance, asteroids the size of Apophis are far fewer in number and so do not pass this close to Earth as often.
• Among potential lessons from Apophis, scientists are hoping they can use its flyby to learn about an asteroid’s interior.
• Apophis is one of about 2,000 currently known Potentially Hazardous Asteroids, and scientists also hope their observations might help gain important scientific knowledge that could one day be used for planetary defence.

2. Saturn’s moon Titan has 100-m deep methane lakes

• Saturn’s largest moon Titan has small liquid lakes that run more than 100 metres deep, perched atop hills and filled with methane, scientists have found using data from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft.

Methane Rains on Saturn

• Scientists have known that Titan’s hydrologic cycle works similarly to Earth’s — with one major difference. Instead of water evaporating from seas, forming clouds and rain, Titan does it all with methane and ethane.
• We tend to think of these hydrocarbons as a gas on Earth, unless they’re pressurized in a tank.
• However, Titan is so cold that they behave as liquids, like gasoline at room temperature on our planet.

3. Stephen Hawking’s hypothesis on black holes discarded

• An international research team including researchers from IUCAA, Pune has ruled out the possibility of primordial black holes being a major constituent of dark matter.
• This finding disproves a theoretical claim of Prof Stephen Hawking.

What is Dark matter?

• In the solar system, Mercury, the planet closest to the Sun, takes just 88 days to make one revolution around the sun, while Neptune, the farthest one, takes 165 years to make one round.
• In like manner, laws of gravity expect us to see stars closer to the centre of galaxies rotating faster than the stars on the edge.
• However, in most galaxies, the stars closer to the centre and the stars at the edge of the galaxies take almost same time to make one revolution.
• This implied that something invisible and enveloping the galaxies was giving an extra push to the outer stars, speeding them up.
• This entity has remained as one of the central unresolved puzzles in cosmology since 1930s. It is, no wonder, named `Dark Matter’.

4. GRAPES-3 Experiment

• For the first time in the world, researchers at the GRAPES-3 muon telescope facility in Ooty have measured the electrical potential, size and height of a thundercloud that passed overhead on December 1, 2014.

GRAPES-3 Experiment

• GRAPES-3 (Gamma Ray Astronomy PeV EnergieS phase-3) is designed to study cosmic rays with an array of air shower detectors and a large area muon detector.
• It aims to probe acceleration of cosmic rays in the following four astrophysical settings.
• It is located at Ooty in India and started as a collaboration of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, India and the Osaka City University, Osaka, Japan.

5. Atmospheric Waves Experiment (AWE)

• NASA has selected a $42 million mission that will help scientists understand and, ultimately, forecast the vast space weather system around our planet.

Atmospheric Waves Experiment (AWE) mission

• AWE is a Mission of Opportunity under NASA’s Heliophysics Explorers Program, which conducts focused scientific research and develops instrumentation to fill the scientific gaps between the agency’s larger missions.
• The AWE mission will cost $42 million and is planned to launch in August 2022, attached to the exterior of the Earth-orbiting International Space Station (ISS).
• The new experiment will obtain global observations of an important driver of space weather in a dynamic region of Earth’s upper atmosphere that can cause interference with radio and GPS communications.
• The AWE will focus on colourful bands of light in Earth’s atmosphere, called airglow, to determine what combination of forces drive space weather in the upper atmosphere.

6. How the Moon got ‘sunburns’: A result of sheer magnetism

• The Moon has visible ‘sunburns’, or distinctive patterns of swirls on its surface.
• NASA has now analysed data to show that these are a result of interactions between the Sun’s damaging radiation with pockets of lunar magnetic field.

Sunburns on Moon

• Every object, planet or person travelling through space has to contend with the Sun’s damaging radiation.
• Research using data from NASA’s ARTEMIS mission suggests how the solar wind and the Moon’s crustal magnetic fields work together to give the Moon a distinctive pattern of darker and lighter swirls.
• The Sun releases a continuous outflow of particles and radiation called the solar wind.
• Because the solar wind is magnetised, Earth’s natural magnetic field deflects the solar wind particles so that only a small fraction of them reach the planet’s atmosphere.
• But the Moon has no global magnetic field; magnetised rocks near the lunar surface do create small, localised spots of magnetic field.

7. NASA’s Opportunity Rover

• NASA has announced the end of the Opportunity rover’s mission.
• Opportunity rolled out on to the Martian surface in 2004, 20 days after its twin, Spirit, had landed on the other side of the Red Planet.
• Over the next 14 years, it got successes that made it one of the most overachieving explorer robots ever built.

Spirit and Opportunity Rovers

1. Spirit and Opportunity were identical, golf-cart-sized, solar-powered rovers.
2. Spirit landed at Gusev Crater; Opportunity followed, landing on the opposite side of Mars at Meridiani Planum.
3. Contact with Spirit was lost in March 2010, and the mission was declared over in May, 2011.
4. Opportunity worked on Mars for over 14 years, longer than any other robot. Both rovers were originally supposed to have only 90-day missions.
5. Opportunity travelled 45.16 km on the surface of Mars, more than any other rover.
6. Its equipment have been compromised by the storm, which struck while the rover was at a site called Perseverance Valley.

8. Ultima Thule: Farthest object ever visited, what secrets does it hold?

• Recently NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft carried out a historic flyby of a distant object called Ultima Thule followed by beaming back of the first images.
• It is the most distant object ever visited, which is one of the reasons that make the mission special.

Ultima Thule

1. Officially named (486958) 2014 MU69, it earned the nickname Ultima Thule following a public contest in 2018.
2. It is located in the Kuiper Belt, a disc in the outer Solar System (beyond Neptune) that consists of small bodies including Pluto.
3. 2014 MU69 was discovered in June 2014 by astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope but is so distant that many of its characteristics remain to be understood.

9. China’s Chang’e-4 lunar rover lands on moon’s far side

• China’s Chang’e-4 lunar rover scripted history when it made the first-ever soft landing on the far side of the moon.

Chang’e-4 Mission

1. Chang’e-4 named after a Chinese moon goddess and comprising a lander and a rover, touched down at the preselected landing area at 177.6 degrees east longitude and 45.5 degrees south latitude on the far side of the moon.
2. The lunar explorer landed on the far side of the moon and has already sent back its first pictures from the surface.
3. The pioneering achievement is another demonstration of China’s ambitions to be a space power.
4. The robotic spacecraft is carrying instruments to analyse the unexplored region’s geology and will conduct biological experiments.
5. The probe was launched by a Long March-3B carrier rocket on December 8 from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in Sichuan Province.
6. It landed on the Von Karman crater in the South Pole-Aitken basin and then sent back a picture of the landing site shot by one of the monitor cameras on the probe’s lander, marking the world’s first image taken on the moon’s far side.
7. The scientific tasks of the Chang’e-4 mission include low-frequency radio astronomical observation, surveying the terrain and landforms, detecting the mineral composition and shallow lunar surface structure, and measuring the neutron radiation and neutral atoms to study the environment on the far side of the moon.

10. China’s BeiDou navigation satellite, rival to US GPS, starts global services

• China’s BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS), touted as a rival to the widely-used American GPS, has started providing global services.

BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS)

1. Named after the Chinese term for the ‘Big Dipper’, the BeiDou system started serving China in 2000 and the Asia-Pacific region in 2012.
2. It will be the fourth global satellite navigation system after the US GPS, Russia’s GLONASS and the European Union’s Galileo.
3. The positioning accuracy of the system has reached 10 metres globally and five metres in the Asia-Pacific region.
4. Its velocity accuracy is 0.2 metres per second, while its timing accuracy stands at 20 nanoseconds, he said.
5. Pakistan has become the first country to use the BeiDou system ending its reliance on the Global Positioning System (GPS).

11. China launches first satellite for the space-based broadband project

• China on December 22 launched its first communication satellite to provide broadband internet services worldwide in an apparent bid to rival Google and other international firms.

Hongyun Project

1. The Hongyun project, started in September 2016, aims to build a space-based communications network to provide broadband internet connectivity to users around the world, especially those in the underserved regions.
2. The satellite was launched from a Long March 11 carrier rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in north-western China.
3. It is the first in the Hongyun project planned by China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp (CASIC).
4. The spacecraft is tasked with verifying basic designs of Hongyun satellite and demonstrating low-orbit broadband communications technologies.

12. NASA’s HiRISE photographs Mars InSight lander from space

• NASA has pinpointed the exact landing location of its newly launched InSight lander, using a powerful camera onboard another of the agency’s spacecraft, hovering around the Red Planet.

After InSight’s landing

1. On November 26, InSight landed within a 130 km ellipse at Elysium Planitia on Mars.
2. However, there was no way to determine exactly where it touched down within this region.
3. InSight was set to study the interior of Mars, and will explore valuable science as NASA prepares to send astronauts to the Moon and later to Mars.
4. The spacecraft will operate on the surface for one Martian year, plus 40 Martian days, or sols, until November 24, 2020.

HiRISE

1. The HiRISE (which stands for High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) aboard Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) spotted Martian landscape and ground around the lander.
2. It released three new features on the Martian landscape, which appear to be teal.
3. However, it is not their actual colour, but light reflected off their surfaces caused the colour to be saturated.
4. The ground around the lander appears dark, having been blasted by its retro-rockets during descent.

13. NASA’s ICESat-2 maps Antarctic ice sheet melting

• NASA’s ICESat-2 launched less than three months ago has mapped melting ice sheets in Antarctica and the resulting sea level rise across the globe, which could help improve climate forecasts.

ICESat-2 

1. The ICESat-2 stands for Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2 .
2. It is measuring the height of sea ice to within an inch, tracing the terrain of previously unmapped Antarctic valleys, surveying remote ice sheets, and peering through forest canopies and shallow coastal waters.
3. With each pass of the ICESat-2 satellite, the mission is adding to datasets tracking Earth’s rapidly changing ice.
4. As ICESat-2 orbits over the Antarctic Ice Sheet, the photon returns reflect from the surface and show high ice plateaus, crevasses in the ice 20 metres deep, and the sharp edges of ice shelves dropping into the ocean.

14. Soyuz: first manned mission to ISS since October failure

Mission to ISS

1. A Soyuz rocket carrying Russian, American and Canadian astronauts took off from Kazakhstan and reached orbit in the first manned mission since a failed launch in October.
2. It was the first manned launch for the Soviet-era Soyuz when a rocket carrying astronauts failed just minutes after blast-off, forcing the pair to make an emergency landing.
3. They escaped unharmed but the failed launch as first such incident in Russia’s post-Soviet history raised concerns about the state of the programme.
4. The Soyuz is the only means of reaching the ISS since the U.S. retired the space shuttle in 2011.

15. NASA’s InSight spacecraft lands on red planet after six-month journey

Landing on the Red Planet

1. InSight, a NASA spacecraft designed to burrow beneath the surface of Mars landed on the red after a six-month, 482 million-km journey and a perilous, six-minute descent through the rose-hued atmosphere.
2. It was NASA’s ninth attempt to land at Mars since the 1976 Viking probes. All but one of the previous U.S. touchdowns was successful.
3. NASA last landed on Mars in 2012 with the Curiosity rover.
4. The plan called for the spacecraft to go from 12,300 mph (19,800 kph) to zero in six minutes flat as it pierced the Martian atmosphere and settled on the surface.

16. NASA’s Ralph and Lucy set to visit Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids in 2021

• NASA’s Ralph — a space instrument that has travelled as far as Pluto — is set to explore Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids, which are remnants from the early days of the solar system.

Ralph

1. Ralph was first launched aboard the New Horizons spacecraft in 2006 and obtained stunning flyby images of Jupiter and its moons.
2. This was followed by a visit to Pluto where Ralph took the first high-definition pictures of the iconic minor planet.
3. In 2021, Ralph is set to journey with the Lucy mission to Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids.
4. The instrument will fly by another Kuiper Belt object called 2014 MU69 nicknamed Ultima Thule in January 2019.
5. Ralph’s observations of 2014 MU69 will provide unique insights into this small, icy world.

Lucy and L’Ralph

1. The Lucy spacecraft carries a near-twin of Ralph, called L’Ralph, which will investigate Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids.
2. The L’Ralph instrument suite will study this diverse group of bodies.
3. Lucy will fly by six Trojans and one Main Belt asteroid more than any other previous asteroid mission.
4. L’Ralph will detect the Trojan asteroids’ chemical fingerprints.
5. L’Ralph allows scientists to interpret data provided by the Sun’s reflected light that are the fingerprints of different elements and compounds.
6. These data could provide clues about how organic molecules form in primitive bodies, a process that might also have led to the emergence of life on Earth.

17. Earth has two extra, hidden ‘moons’

Three Moons for Earth

1. The existence of the two extra ‘moons’ was hotly debated for over 50 years but as per a recent National Geographic report, Hungarian astronomers and physicists have finally provided enough data to confirm.
2. The moon has at least two other companions made entirely of dust.
3. The team of researchers confirmed their presence through photographs of the natural bodies at a distance of approximately 250,000 miles more or less the same distance as our moon.

Facts about the newly discovered dust moons

1. The presence of the dust ‘moons’ or Kordylewski Clouds had been inferred by researchers since long before
2. The first glimpse of the clouds was seen only in 1961 by Polish astronomer Kazimierz Kordylewski, after whom the dust clouds were named
3. The new findings note that each Kordylewski cloud is about 15 by 10 degrees wide, or equal to 30 by 20 lunar disks in the night sky
4. They are spread over a space area that is almost nine times the width of Earth — about 65,000 by 45,000 miles in actual size
5. The dust ‘moons’ are huge but they are made of tiny dust particles that barely measure one micrometre across.

18. Mission Mercury: How will twin probes reach there, and why?

Context

• The European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has successfully sent two probes on a joint mission to Mercury, the closest planet to the Sun.

Launch

1. An Ariane 5 rocket, launched from French Guyana, lifted an unmanned spacecraft, BepiColombo, which is carrying the two probes.
2. The spacecraft separated and went into orbit for the 7-year trip to Mercury.

Details of the Mission

1. It is the first European mission to Mercury, and the first to send two spacecraft to make complementary measurements of the planet and its environment at the same time.
2. The orbiters are ESA’s Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) and JAXA’s Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO, or ‘Mio’).
3. The ESA-built Mercury Transfer Module (MTM) will carry the orbiters to Mercury using a combination of solar electric propulsion and gravity assist flybys.

19. Largest galaxy cluster in early universe found

1. Astronomers have discovered the largest and most massive galaxy super cluster yet found in the early universe.
2. It was formed just over two billion years after the Big Bang.

Hyperion

1. The galaxy proto-supercluster, nicknamed Hyperion, was identified using the VIMOS instrument on European Southern Observatory’s (ESO) Very Large Telescope in Chile.
2. Located in the constellation of Sextans, Hyperion was identified by a novel technique to analyse the vast amount of data obtained from the VIMOS Ultra-Deep Survey.
3. Hyperion has a calculated mass more than one million billion times that of the Sun, making it the largest and most massive structure to be found so early in the formation of the universe.
4. Surprisingly the galaxy was evolved in very less time when the universe was relatively young.

20. NASA probe to fly by most distant object ever visited by a spacecraft

Setting a New Record

1. NASA’s New Horizons probe is on course to fly by the Kuiper Belt object nicknamed Ultima Thule, which is at a distance of 6.6 billion kilometers from Earth.
2. This event will set the record for the most distant object ever visited by a spacecraft.
3. The spacecraft has successfully performed the three and half-minute manoeuvre on October 3 to home in on its location.
4. The manoeuvre slightly tweaked the spacecraft’s trajectory and bumped its speed by 2.1 metres per second keeping it on track to fly past Ultima officially named 2014 MU69 on January 1, 2019.
5. This manoeuvre has led the farthest exploration in world more than a billion miles beyond Pluto.

Trajectory Correction Maneuver

1. New Horizons itself was about 6.35 billion km from earth when it carried out trajectory correction maneuver (TCM), the farthest course-correction ever performed.
2. This was the first Ultima targeting maneuver that used pictures taken by New Horizons itself to determine the spacecraft’s position relative to the Kuiper Belt object.
3. The TCM is done by determining the current trajectories and its target, and then calculating the manoeuvering required to put the spacecraft at the desired aim point for the flyby 3,500 km from Ultima at closest approach.

21. Japan drops new robot on asteroid

MASCOT Robot

1. The Hayabusa2 probe launched the French-German Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout, or MASCOT towards the Ryugu asteroid’s surface.
2. The 10-kg box-shaped MASCOT is loaded with sensors.
3. It can take images at multiple wavelengths, investigate minerals with a microscope, gauge surface temperatures and measure magnetic fields.
4. The MASCOT got separated from the spacecraft as planned and got safely landed

Hayabusa2 Probe

1. A Japanese probe launched a new observation robot towards an asteroid as it pursues a mission to shed light on the origins of the solar system.
2. The Hayabusa2 is scheduled later this month to deploy an “impactor” that will explode above the asteroid, shooting a two-kilo copper object into it to blast a small crater on the surface.
3. The probe will then hovers over the artificial crater and collect samples using an extended arm.

22. Parker, the world’s first mission to Sun lifts off

Parker Solar Probe

1. NASA launched the Parker Solar Probe – the space agency’s first mission to the sun – that will explore the sun’s atmosphere and its outermost atmosphere, the corona.
2. The spacecraft is named after 91-year old solar physicist Eugene Parker, 91, who was the first scientist to describe solar wind in 1958.
3. The probe, about the size of a car, will fly through the Sun’s atmosphere and will come as close as 3.8 million miles to the star’s surface, well within the orbit of Mercury.
4. It will be more than seven times closer than any spacecraft has come before. The Parker probe is expected to make 24 loops of the Sun over seven years.

23. NASA’s newest planet hunter starts operations

Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS)

1. After a successful launch in April this year, NASA’s newest planet hunter, the TESS has now started its search for planets around nearby stars.
2. TESS is NASA’s latest satellite to search for planets outside our solar system, known as exoplanets.
3. The mission will spend the next two years monitoring the nearest and brightest stars for periodic dips in their light.
4. TESS is expected to transmit its first series of science data back to Earth in August, and thereafter periodically every 13.5 days, once per orbit, as the spacecraft makes it closest approach to Earth.
5. These events, called transits, suggest that a planet may be passing in front of its star.
6. TESS is expected to find thousands of planets using this method, some of which could potentially support life.

24. Nasa unveils program to defend Earth from asteroid attack

Countering NEOs

1. The US and other nations have long sought to track “near-earth objects,” or NEOs, coordinating efforts through the International Asteroid Warning Network and the United Nations
2. The Trump Administration now wants to enhance those efforts to detect and track potential planet killers and to develop more capable means to deflect any that appear to be on a collision course
3. The government unveiled new goals this week for Nasa’s work on countering NEOs over the next decade

NEO threat

1. Nasa has documented roughly 96% of the objects large enough to cause a global catastrophe since work began in 1998
2. More than 300,000 objects larger than 40 meters (131 feet) wide orbit the sun as NEOs, according to Nasa estimates
3. Many of these were difficult to detect more than a few days in advance
4. Forty meters is about the average size an object must be to make it through the atmosphere without burning up

Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission

1. The goal of this mission is to impact the smaller “moonlet” of a binary asteroid called Didymos, to learn how well we may be able to alter the course of a future killer rock
2. It is expected to be complete by 2021-2022

International NGOs

Global Footprint Network

Established When: In 2003, Mathis Wackernagel, PhD, and Susan Burns founded Global Footprint Network.

Headquarter: California, USA

Objective of the body: Global Footprint Network’s goal is to create a future where all humans can live well, within the means of one planet Earth.

Key Functions:  

• It develops and promotes tools for advancing sustainability, including the ecological footprint and biocapacity, which measure the amount of resources we use and how much we have.
• These tools aim at bringing ecological limits to the center of decision-making.

 

Green Cross International

Established When and by Whom: It was founded by former Soviet Union President and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mikhail Gorbachev in 1993.

Headquarter: GCI is headquartered in Geneva.

Objective of the body:  It is working to address the inter-connected global challenges of security, poverty eradication and environmental degradation through a combination of advocacy and local projects.

Key Functions:

To achieve its objective GCI:

• Promote legal, ethical and behavioural norms that ensure basic changes in the values, actions and attitudes of government, the private sector and civil society, necessary to develop a sustainable global community
• Contribute to the prevention and resolution of conflicts arising from environmental degradation.
• Provide assistance to people affected by the environmental consequences of wars, conflicts and man made calamities.

 

Greenpeace

Established When and by Whom: Greenpeace was founded by Irving Stowe and Dorothy Stowe, Canadian and US ex-pat environmental activists in 1971.

Headquarter: Amsterdam, Netherlands

Objective of the body: Greenpeace states its goal is to “ensure the ability of the Earth to nurture life in all its diversity”.

Key Functions:

• Greenpeace focuses its campaigning on worldwide issues such as climate change, deforestation, overfishing, commercial whaling, genetic engineering, and anti-nuclear issues.
• It uses , lobbying, research, and ecotage to achieve its goals
• Greenpeace is known for its direct actions and has been described as the most visible environmental organization in the world.

India specific trivia: Greenpeace India was founded in 2001, and is a legally registered society with offices in Chennai, Delhi,  Bengaluru and Patna.

 

International Network for Sustainable Energy(INFORSE)

Established When and by Whom: INFORSE was established in 1992 at the Global Forum, which was a parallel forum to the UNCED Conference so called Earth Summit.

Headquarter: Denmark

Objective: It is a  network of environmental organizations promoting sustainable energy to protect the environment and to decrease poverty.

Key Functions:

Develops scenarios for a transition to a 100% renewables energy supply with factor four energy efficiency by 2050. A global, EU-27 and European national scenarios are developed. The name of the sustainable energy model is INFORSE Vision 2050.

Participation on UN Conferences as NGO observer as INFORSE has Consultative Status at UN ECOSOC and UNFCCC.

 

Project GreenWorld International

Established When and by Whom: It is founded by a student at Indian School, Salalah, Hridith Sudev (then aged 12), and his younger brother Samved Shaji (then aged 7), in 2012.

Headquarter: Salalah, Dhofar, Oman

Objective: Turn degraded lands green again. Raise the living standards of the rural poor. Combat climate change. Create holistic ways to work for the health of our shared biosphere and the harmony of our global village.

Key Functions:

• The GWC connects those who want to help create a more sustainable world with on-the-ground projects that benefit people and planet.
• It focusses on providing ecological and social benefits where they’re most needed.
• It seek out effective grassroots partners, then finding the simplest, most direct ways we can all contribute to their success.
• Its work centers around tree-planting.
• It allies with local experts who best know the problems and opportunities in their country. Their trusted, ground-level partners work with villagers who are motivated to work for the benefits our programs bring.
• Contributions from the GWC get planted right in the ground. We always learn from our partners, and collaborate with them on creative solutions.

India specific trivia: PGWI’s Indian wing, the Project GreenIndia was founded On 17 July 2016 in Vatakara Municipality of Kerala, India. Various tree plantation drives, summer camps and cleanup campaigns mark their activity.

 

Rainforest Alliance

Established When and by Whom: It was founded in 1987 by Daniel Katz.

Headquarter: USA

Objective: It is working to conserve biodiversity and ensure sustainable livelihoods by transforming land-use practices, business practices and consumer behavior.

Key Functions:

• The Rainforest Alliance launched the world’s first sustainable forestry certification program in 1989 to encourage market-driven and environmentally and socially responsible management of forests, tree farms, and forest resources.
• The organization verifies carbon offset projects to standards that address greenhouse gas sequestration, biodiversity conservation and sustainable livelihoods.
• The Rainforest Alliance’s sustainable agriculture program includes training programs for farmers and the certification of small, medium and large farms that produce more than 100 different crops, including avocado, cattle, cinnamon, coffee, palm oil, and potatoes, as well as tea, cocoa, and bananas.
• The organization launched a sustainable tourism program in 2000 and provides small- and medium-sized tourism businesses in Latin America with training and tools to minimize their impacts on the environment and local communities.

 

Society for the Environment (SocEnv)

Established When and by Whom:  SocEnv attained Royal Chartered status on 6 May 2004 and issued the first licenses to enable the award of Chartered Environmentalist in September 2004.

Headquarter: England

Objective: The Society aspires to be the leading and coordinating body for professionals working in sustainability and environmental matters and a pre-eminent champion of a sustainable environment.

Key Functions:  It is an umbrella body that can license its member institutions to confer chartered status on sustainability and environmental professionals worldwide.

 

The Climate Reality Project

Established When and by Whom: The Alliance for Climate Protection was founded in 2006 by Al Gore to encourage civic action against climate change.

Headquarter: Washington, D.C., U.S.

Objective: The Climate Reality Project is a non-profit organization focused on climate change education and countering climate change denial campaigns worldwide.

Key Functions:

• In 2013, The Climate Reality Project released the Reality Drop tool, a news aggregator that collects online news stories about climate change.
• The Climate Reality Project also addresses climate change through a network of approximately 10,000 grassroots Climate Reality Leaders, which the organization calls the Climate Reality Leadership Corps.

India specific trivia: Approximately 50 principals from government schools falling under the Department of Education, Government of Uttarakhand participated in the conclave. The event was organized in partnership with The Climate Reality Project India, UNESCO, New Delhi and HaritaDhara Research Development and Education Foundation (HRDEF).

 

Traffic (conservation programme)

Established When and by Whom: It was founded in 1976 as a strategic alliance of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Headquarter: Cambridge, UK

Objective: The organization’s aim is to ‘ensure that trade in wild plants and animals is not a threat to the conservation of nature’.

Key Functions:

• It is the leading non-governmental organization working globally on the trade of wild animals and plants in the context of both biodiversity and sustainable development.
• It promotes sustainable wildlife trade (the green stream work) and combats wildlife crime and trafficking (the red stream work).
• TRAFFIC’s work involves research, publication of influential reports, projects, education, outreach and advocacy on the issue of wildlife trade.

 

Wetlands International

Established When and by Whom: Founded in 1937 as the International Wildfowl Inquiry the organisation was focused on the protection of waterbirds as part of the British section.

Later, the name became International Waterfowl & Wetlands Research Bureau (IWRB).

Headquarter: Netherlands

Objective: Its mission is to sustain and restore wetlands, their resources, and biodiversity.

Key Functions:

• Wetlands International’s work ranges from research and community-based field projects to advocacy and engagement with governments, corporate and international policy fora and conventions.
• Wetlands International works through partnerships and is supported by contributions from an extensive specialist expert network and tens of thousands of volunteers.

India specific trivia: In the Himalaya Mountains the organization works to restore wetlands to reduce the impacts of glacier melt and precipitation extremes on densely populated regions downstream India, China and Bangladesh.

 

Wildlife Conservation Society

Established When and by Whom: WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society) was founded in 1895 as the New York Zoological Society (NYZS).

Headquarter: USA

Objective: To save wildlife and wild places worldwide through science, conservation action, education, and inspiring people to value nature.

Key Functions:

• Currently works to conserve more than two million square miles of wild places around the world.
• Today WCS is at work on some 500 projects in more than 60 nations around the world that are intended to help protect both wildlife and the wild places in which they live.
• The organization endeavors to protect 25 percent of the world’s biodiversity—from the gorillas of Africa and the tigers of Asia to macaws in South America and the sharks, whales and turtles traveling through the planet’s seas.

India specific trivia: Wildlife Conservation Society – India Program describes the work of several partner institutions engaged in saving wildlife and wild lands in full compliance with all Indian laws.

WCS – India Program mission has combined cutting-edge research on tigers and other wildlife, with national capacity building and effective site-based conservation through constructive collaborations with governmental and non-governmental partners.

Uncompromisingly committed to wildlife conservation, WCS – India Program inspires and nurtures positive attitude towards nature in people through its scientific and conservation endeavors.

 

World Resources Institute

Established When and by Whom:  It was established in 1982 with funding from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation under the leadership of James Gustave Speth

Headquarter: USA

Objective: To move human society to live in ways that protect earth’s environment and its capacity to provide for the needs and aspirations of current and future generations.

Key Functions: WRI’s activities are focused on six areas: climate; energy; food; forests; water; and sustainable cities.

India specific trivia: WRI established its India office in 2011. It  works with leaders in business, government, and civil society to expand clean energy development, combat climate change, and develop sustainable transport solutions.

 

World Wide Fund for Nature

Established When: It was founded in 1969.

Headquarter: Switzerland

Objective: Its mission is to conserve nature and reduce the most pressing threats to the diversity of life on Earth.

Key Functions:

• It is the world’s largest conservation organization with over five million supporters worldwide, working in more than 100 countries, supporting around 1,300.
• The living planet report is published every two years by WWF since 1998, it is based on living planet index and ecological footprint calculation.
• Currently, much of its work concentrates on the conservation of three biomes that contain most of the world’s biodiversity: oceans and coasts, forests, and freshwater ecosystems.
• Among other issues, it is also concerned with endangered species, sustainable production of commodities and climate change.

Funding:  WWF is a foundation, with 55% of funding from individuals and bequests, 19% from government sources (such as the World Bank, DFID, USAID) and 8% from corporations in 2014.

India specific trivia: Established as a Charitable Trust on 27 November, 1969, WWF-India set out with the aim of reducing the degradation of Earth’s natural environment and building a future in which humans live in harmony with nature.

In 1987, the organization changed it’s name from the World Wildlife Fund to World Wide Fund for Nature-India. With close to five decades of extensive work in the sector, WWF-India today is one of the leading conservation organizations in the country.

 

Bioversity International

Established When and by Whom: Bioversity International was originally established by the CGIAR( Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research) as the International Board for Plant Genetic Resources (IBPGR) in 1974.

Headquarter: Maccarese, Rome

Objective of the body: Bioversity International is a global research-for-development organization with a vision – that agricultural biodiversity nourishes people and sustains the planet.

Key Functions:

• It delivers scientific evidence, management practices and policy options to use and safeguard agricultural and tree biodiversity to attain sustainable global food and nutrition security.
• It works with partners in low-income countries in different regions where agricultural and tree biodiversity can contribute to improved nutrition, resilience, productivity and climate change adaptation.

India specific trivia: The international status of Bioversity International is conferred under an Establishment Agreement and it is also signed by India.

 

BirdLife International

Established When and by Whom:  BirdLife International was founded as in 1922 the International Council for Bird Preservation by American ornithologists T. Gilbert Pearson and Jean Theodore Delacour under the name International Committee for Bird Protection.

The group was renamed International Committee for Bird Preservation in 1928, International Council for Bird Preservation in 1960, and BirdLife International in 1994.

Headquarter: Cambridge, United Kingdom

Objective of the body: It promotes the conservation of birds and their habitats.

Key Functions:

• It is a global partnership of conservation organisations that strives to conserve birds, their habitats and global biodiversity, working with people towards sustainability in the use of natural resources
• BirdLife International’s priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding important sites for birds, maintaining and restoring key bird habitats, and empowering conservationists worldwide

India specific trivia: Last year, the BirdLife International has recorded that 11 water bird species of Kerala come under the IUCN Red list threatened categories with the black bellied tern being one of the ‘Endangered’ waterbird species in Kerala.

 

Citizens Climate Lobby (CCL)

Established When and by Whom: It is operating since 2007. And founded by Marshall Saunders.

Headquarter: USA

Objective of the body: The goal of CCL is to build political support across party lines to put a price on carbon, specifically a revenue neutral carbon fee and dividend (CF&D) at the national level.

Key Functions: It trains and supports volunteers to build relationships with their elected representatives in order to influence climate policy. 

India specific trivia: CCL also have an active group in India.

 

Climate Action Network

Headquarter: Beirut, Lebanon

Objective:  Working to promote government and individual action to limit human-induced climate change to ecologically sustainable levels.

Key Functions:

• CAN members work to achieve their objective through information exchange and the coordinated development of NGO strategy on international, regional, and national climate issues.
• CAN has regional network hubs that coordinate these efforts around the world.
• It is most active at meetings of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), where it publishes a daily newsletter “ECO”, (presenting the views of the Environmental NGO community)

India specific trivia:

Under the CAN

• The Indian Youth Climate Network (IYCN) is a network of young people in 18 states who are concerned about climate change & environment issues.
• Started in 2008, IYCN was registered as a society in 2009 with representation from 8 states of India and today IYCN has 19 chapters in different states and offices in 7 locations with outreach to thousands of youth in colleges, schools, corporations and institutions in India.
• The purpose of IYCN is to bring the voice of Indian youth on the global platform as South Asia is one of the most vulnerable regions affected by potentially catastrophic climate change & environment issues.
• IYCN provides technical, financial and administrative support to increase youth participation in protection of the environment of India as well as establish consensus on what role India should play in the global debate of climate change.

 

Conservation International

Established When and by Whom: Founded by Spencer Beebe and Peter Seligmann in 1987

Headquarter: USA

Objective of the body: Its goal is to protect nature as a source of food, fresh water, livelihoods and a stable climate.

Key Functions:

• CI’s work focuses on science, policy, and partnership with businesses and communities
• The foundation of CI’s work is “science, partnership and field demonstration.”
• The organization has scientists, policy workers and other conservationists on the ground in more than 30 countries. It also relies heavily on thousands of local partners.
• CI aims to make the protection of nature a key consideration in economic development decisions around the world
• The organization has been active in United Nations discussions on issues such as climate change and biodiversity, and its scientists present at international conferences and workshops.

 

Earth Charter Initiative

Established When: In 2000

Headquarter: USA

Objective of the body: The stated mission of the Earth Charter Initiative is to promote the transition to sustainable ways of living and a global society founded on a shared ethical framework that includes respect and care for the community of life, ecological integrity, universal human rights, respect for diversity, economic justice, democracy, and a culture of peace.

Key Functions:

• To promote development of a global network of Earth Charter supporters and activists with the collaboration of advisors, affiliates, partner organizations, and task forces.
• To create and disseminate high quality communications and educational materials to different target groups that will reach millions of people.
• To translate key Earth Charter materials in all major languages of the world.
• To set up Earth Charter websites in all countries in partnership with key individuals and organizations.
• To promote the Earth Charter vision in key local, national and international events and engage individuals and organizations in applying it in their areas of activity.
• To position the Earth Charter in relation to important international initiatives and processes so that its ethical framework can be used as a guide in efforts to address urgent challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss, the Millennium Development Goals, food security, and conflict resolution.
• To undertake training programmes to facilitate the uptake and application of the Earth Charter in different sectors.
• To develop the guidance and instruments to help organizations, businesses, and local communities use the Earth Charter to assess progress toward sustainable development.

 

Earth Day Network  

Headquarter: USA

Objective of the body: Earth Day Network’s mission is to diversify, educate and activate the environmental movement worldwide.

Key Functions:

• Earth Day events in more than 193 countries are now coordinated globally by the Earth Day Network
• EDN works to broaden the definition of “environment” to include issues that affect our health and our communities, such as greening deteriorated schools, creating green jobs and investment, and promoting activism to stop air and water pollution.

India specific trivia: Earth Day Network has made significant inroads across India and now has a permanent Indian Program – EDN India – located in Kolkata.

 

Environmental Defense Fund

Established When and by Whom:  The organization’s founders, includes Art Cooley, George Woodwell, Charles Wurster, Dennis Puleston, Victor Yannacone and Robert Smolker. It was founded in 1967.

Headquarter: USA

Objective:  EDF aims to reduce the pollution and slow global warming, with strategies including overhauling U.S. energy systems, protecting the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s limits on pollution, training new climate/energy leaders, and slowing deforestation in Brazil and the Amazon rainforest.

Key Functions:

• It is basically nonprofit environmental advocacy group.
• The group is known for its work on issues including global warming, ecosystem restoration, oceans, and human health, and advocates using sound science, economics and law to find environmental solutions that work.
• It is nonpartisan, and its work often advocates market-based solutions to environmental problems.

 

Fauna and Flora International

Established When and by Whom: FFI was founded in 1903 as the Society for the Preservation of the Wild Fauna of the Empire by a group of British naturalists and American statesmen in Africa.

It later became the Fauna Preservation Society, before being renamed Fauna and Flora Preservation Society in 1981.

Headquarter: Cambridge, UK

Objective of the body: Conservation charity

Key Functions:

FFI has a seven-step approach to conserving biodiversity:

• Building local capacity for conservation
• Integrating biodiversity and human needs
• Direct protection of species and habitats
• Securing land for conservation
• Emergency response to conservation needs
• Influencing policy and the practice of conservation
• Bridging the gap between business and biodiversity

In line with its seven-step approach to conservation, Fauna & Flora International has endorsed the Forests Now Declaration, which calls for new market based mechanisms to protect tropical forests.

India specific trivia: Last year, Fauna & Flora International (FFI), has contributed to the discovery of a previously undescribed species of evergreen tree in one of India’s most iconic natural landscapes.

 

Regional Organizations

European Environment Agency (EEA)

Established When and by Whom:  The EEA was established by the European Economic Community (EEC) became operational in 1994

Headquarter: It is headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Objective of the body: The EEA’s mandate is:

• To help the Community and member and cooperating countries make informed decisions about improving the environment, integrating environmental considerations into economic policies and moving towards sustainability
• To coordinate the European environment information and observation network

Key Functions:

• The European environment information and observation network (Eionet) is a partnership network of the EEA and the countries.
• The EEA is responsible for developing the network and coordinating its activities.
• To do so, the EEA works closely together with national focal points, typically national environment agencies or environment ministries.
• They are responsible for coordinating national networks involving many institutions (about 350 in all).

India specific trivia: No official relationship

Partnerships in Environmental Management for the Seas of East Asia (PEMSEA)

Established When and by Whom:  It is a regional partnership programme implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and executed by the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS).

The project, started in 1994, was originally known as Prevention and Management of Marine Pollution in the East Asian Seas (SDS-SEA).

Headquarter: Quezon City, Philippines

Objective of the body: Marine and Coastal Areas Environmental Management

Key Functions:

• It aims to proactively build effective intergovernmental and intersectoral partnerships and expand the capacities of countries and other stakeholders with innovative, cross-cutting policies, tools and services for integrated coastal and ocean management.
• PEMSEA applies integrated coastal management (ICM) as our primary approach for generating and sustaining healthy oceans, people and economies.

Funding:  UN