Category Pollution

The history of our planet has been divided into tiny sections of time, and this is called geologic time. Depending on many factors within a specific period, these sections are called eons, eras, periods, epochs, and age. What we now live in is officially called the Holocene (meaning “entirely recent”), an epoch that began more than 11,000 years ago after the last major Ice Age. However, for decades now, many scientists have been calling for a specific name to be given to the epoch that begins mid-20th Century. A name that will sum up how intensely and singularly we humans have altered our planet – Anthropocene (anthropo meaning “human” and cene, “new”). Mid-century was chosen because that’s when the first atomic bomb exploaded leaving behind radioactive debris in sediments and glacial ice, “becoming part of the geologic record”. While we do not know if Anthropocene will be officially accepted and adopted, what we can be sure of is that our actions are directly responsible for how the Earth is today. In fact, we’re in the midst of the sixth mass extinction – the first one for which humans are to blame! But many are still hopeful that we can work collectively to save the planet despite the window of opportunity closing really fast.

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Bushfires happen almost every year across the island-nation of Australia. However, this time around, it has been one of the worst-ever. What began in September 2019 has continued well into 2020. It has claimed more than 25 lives while reducing millions of acres to ash. And New South Wales was hit the hardest – in this State alone, more than half-a-billion creatures, including mammals, birds and reptiles, are feared to have perished. There are reports that thousands of kangaroos and koalas have been consumed by the fire across the country. The last few decades have seen an increase in the number of bushfires, and may be attributed to global warming. As for Australia, the bushfires season seems to be beginning earlier and lasting longer. In a chilling revelation, the U.K. scientists have said that the recent fires in Australia are assign of what the world will go through as temperatures increase.

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A telling identity of our planet’s biodiversity, the tiger is also a keystone species. And its population the world over, and especially in India, has been of particular concern. However, July 2019 brought with it some comforting news. The findings of the Tiger census, conducted in our country once in every four years, showed that the tiger population had increased from 2,226 in 2014 to 2,967 in 2018. With that, India is estimated to be home to around 70% of the world’s tigers. Following an alarming decrease in the tiger population since the early 20th Century, the government had put in place stringent laws in the 1970s to protect the national animals, and this seems to have been paying off over the last decade or two. However, human-animal conflicts continue, and conservationists have repeatedly called for an increase in protected areas for the tiger.

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Between September and October 2018, the Gir forest sanctuary – the only place to find the Asiatic lion in the wild today – lost nearly 25 of its most popular inhabitants. The death of lions is believed to have been caused by a potent combination of canine distemper virus and babesiosis, a disease caused by tick-borne parasites, according to government officials. The officials also said that the lions belonged to one pride. Following the deaths, 33 lions from the area were rescued, quarantined and vaccinated and kept under observation. Interestingly, answering a question at the legislative Assembly in early 2019, the Gujarat government said that over 200 lions had died in the Gir forest region in the previous two years (2017 and 2018).

Canine Distemper is a viral disease that is frequent in dogs, foxes, wolves, big cats and even primates. It is caused by a single-stranded RNA virus of the family Paramyxoviridae (the family of viruses causing measles, mumps and bronchiolitis in humans). It infects the spinal cord and brain and also the respiratory and gastrointestinal tracts. The virus is believed to have a 50% fatality rate in dogs.

In 1994, the CDV was responsible for an epidemic in the Serengeti region of Africa, where 1,000 lions died in three weeks. Its prevalence in India has not been studied and only a few reports are available regarding its detection in wild carnivores.

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It’s not Al Gore. It’s not DiCaprio. It’s a teenager that’s undeniably the face of the environment chapter in the book of impactful stories from the decade. Swede Greta Thunberg’s story begins on August 20, 2018, when the 15-year-old skips school to protest outside parliament for more action against climate change, with just a placard in hand. Within a week, she is joined by students, teachers, parents, and has the attention of the media. Soon enough, she marks Fridays for climate protest, and suggests students everywhere take up the “Fridays of Future” campaign by staging walkouts at their own schools. How she made an entire world hear her out is history. When a few world leaders undermined her concerns, determination and impact, she came up with witty updates on her social media pages, showing them – and us – that she’s more than just a concerned teenager asking irresponsible adults “How Dare You?”

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The U.S. suffered three hurricanes – Hurricane Harvey, Irma and Maria in just two months, August and September 2017. It would also turn out to be among the five costliest-ever to hit the country. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced that together they cost the country USD 265 billion. The storms brought widespread death and destruction to Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Since the hurricanes killed hundreds of people and brought misery and hardship to millions of people and brought misery and hardship to millions of Americans, the World Meteorological Organization decided to retire the names of these hurricanes.

NOAA said the dollar amounts are “the estimated total costs of these events — that is, the costs in terms of dollars that would not have been incurred had the event not taken place. Insured and uninsured losses are included in damage estimates.” 

In all, 2017’s hurricanes caused more than a quarter-trillion dollars in insured and uninsured losses, the National Hurricane Center reported. 

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On June 1, 2017 the U.S. President Donald Trump announced his decision to pull out of the Paris Agreement that his predecessor had signed. The agreement had come into force on November 4, 2016. Trump claimed it “gives undue advantage to India and China at the cost of the United States’ interests”, and that it “is less about the climate and more about other countries gaining a financial advantage over the U.S.”. He also insisted that the accord would have negative impacts on job growth, manufacturing and industries. His speech suggested that he was open to negotiations to “make a deal that’s fair”.

To date there are only two other countries that have not yet signed on to the Paris Agreement: Syria and Nicaragua. Syria, which remains in the throes of a destructive civil war, noted that it was not in a position to sign such agreements because of ongoing sanctions from Western countries. The government of Nicaragua, however, refused to sign on for different reasons. Nicaragua believes that the Paris Agreement does not go far enough to reduce emissions, arguing that wealthy countries such as the United States should have been forced to make deeper commitments.

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In October 2016, a vast stretch of ocean off Antarctica received international protection to become the world’s largest marine reserve. Over 15 lakh sq.km of water in Ross Sea is protected, thanks to the decision of the international body that oversees the waters around Antarctica- the Commission for the Conversation of Antarctica Marine Living Resources, comprising 24 countries. The nutrient-rich waters of the region are the most productive in the Antarctic, and the protection will guard everything from krills to penguins and whales. Unfortunately, only two years later, Russia, Norway and China would stop global efforts to turn a huge tract of pristine Antarctic Ocean into the world’s biggest sanctuary of about 1.8 million sq.km.

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Due to higher-than-normal water temperatures in 2015 and 2016, Australia’s Great Barrier Reef suffered its worst-ever coral bleaching event on record. According to a November report by researchers at ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies in James Cook University, about 67% coral had died in the worst-hit northern part. However, those in the southern part were in good health, while the central part of the Reef witnessed a six % die-off, the report said. Since coral bleaching (or die-off) usually occurred as a result of continuous warm water temperatures, scientists were concerned about the recovery of the corals.

The Great Barrier Reef is made by trillions of tiny invertebrate creatures known as coral polyps, which have built it over the past 600,000 years. The polyps, which excrete calcium carbonate to make reefs, are extraordinarily sensitive to changes in water temperature. When it rises by two to three degrees Celsius above normal levels many species of coral are forced to expel the multicoloured algae that live within its tissues, an effect known as “bleaching”.  The white coral skeletons that remain can regenerate if temperatures fall and water quality conditions are good. But in many instances entire reef systems can be destroyed if water temperatures remain elevated for several months. 

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June 2015 was a terrible month to be a human. Anew study in the journal “Scientists confirmed what only the discerning had perhaps expected all along – that the sixth global mass extinction was happening and humanity’s existence was being threatened. The researches had used conservative estimates to prove that “species are disappearing faster than at any time since the dinosaurs’ demise”. We are wiping species off our planet at a rate at least 100 times faster than historical levels. They called for swift action to conserve threatened species, populations and habits, and also cautioned that the window of opportunity was closing really fast.

The impacts of a still-avoidable sixth mass extinction would likely be so massive they’d be best described as science fiction. It would be catastrophic, widespread and, of course, irreversible. In the past, it has taken life ten to thirty million years to recover after such an extinction, 40 to 120 times as long as modern-looking humans have been telling tales by firelight. Moreover, Williams and his team argue that future changes driven by humanity may go so far as to create not just a new epoch in geologic history – such as the widely-touted Anthropocene – but a fundamental reshaping of Earth on par with the rise of microbes or the later shift from microbes to multicellular organisms.

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Also known as Paris Climate Accord, this historic and landmark climate pact was forged in Paris in December 2015, under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (an international environmental treaty). Nearly all the countries of the world adopted it. Considered the world’s first comprehensive climate agreement, it focuses primarily on bringing down increasing global temperatures by at least two degrees Celsius over pre-industrial times; reducing the amount of global emissions; and strengthening the abilities of countries to deal with climate change. With the signing of the Agreement, the then U.S. President Obama is believed to have hoped for “a world that is safer and more secure, more prosperous, and more free”. However, his successor would soon pull the rug out from under the world’s feet.

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December 2014 turned out to be a horrific end to the year for Sundarbans, the largest contiguous tidal mangrove forest in the world. On the morning of December 9, a tanker carrying furnace oil and a cargo vessel collided in Sundarban’s Shela river, the former sinking and spilling over 3.5 lakh litres of oil into a region popular for its rich biodiversity, including the endangered Irrawaddy dolphin, the Ganges river dolphin and the royal Bengal tiger. Within days, the impact of the toxic oil spill was visible – oil-coated marine creatures (dead or barley surviving) and sharp drop in the diversity of phytoplanktons and zooplanktons, among other signs. Thus, however, would not be the last disaster this region would witness – a ship with fertilizer and two vessels with coal would all sink in the next few years because of shipping bans being withdrawn as quickly as they are imposed.

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In November 2014, the U.S. and China (President Barack Obama and President Xi Jinping) unveiled a deal to reduce their greenhouse gas output, with China agreeing to cap emissions for the first time and the U.S. committing to deep reductions by 2025. China, the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world, agreed to cap its output by 2030 or earlier, if possible. The agreement was seen as being a significant boost to international efforts to reach a global deal on reducing emissions beyond 2020, at a U.N. meeting in Paris the following year.

Administration officials acknowledged that Mr. Obama could face opposition to his plans from a Republican-controlled Congress. While the agreement with China needs no congressional ratification, lawmakers could try to roll back Mr. Obama’s initiatives, undermining the United States’ ability to meet the new reduction targets.

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In the last two to three decades, hill-State Uttarakhand in the Himalayan region has seen several natural disasters. However, in June 2013, the disaster-prone area witnessed one of its worst natural disasters in the form of torrential rains and resultant flashfloods, claiming the lives of thousands of people and animals while not-so-quietly altering its landscape. The flashfloods also wiped out settlements and decimated livelihoods. The National Institute of Disaster Management, in one of its first reports in 2015 blamed “climatic conditions combined with haphazard human intervention” for the disaster. Environmentalists point out that adequate steps haven’t been taken to prevent or handle such disasters, including the recurrent Brahmaputra floods that have decimated several regions, especially Assam, over many years now.

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REDD+, elaborately known as “Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation and the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks” in developing countries, is a programme under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Though the talks began in 2005, the key aspects of this programme were finished by 2013. It is an important part of global steps to control climate change, and seeks to encourage developing countries to contribute to climate change mitigation efforts by “reducing greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) by showing, halting and reversing forest loss and degradation; and increasing removal of GHSs from the earth’s atmosphere through the conservation management and expansion of forests”.

It creates a financial value for the carbon stored in forests by offering incentives for developing countries to reduce emissions from forested lands and invest in low-carbon paths to sustainable development. Developing countries would receive results-based payments for results-based actions. REDD+ goes beyond simply deforestation and forest degradation and includes the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks.

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An Arctic record was broken on August 26, 2012 and it was not good news. According to the U.S.-based National Snow and Ice Data Centre, the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency, and Norwegian, Danish and other government monitoring organisation that was the day the Arctic sea ice hit its lowest extent ever recorded since the beginning of the satellite record in 1979 – satellites showed it had shrunk to 4.1 million sq.km. The record it broke was 4.3 million sq.km. set in 2007. The heat and the subsequent melting have continued over the years, and 2019 was in line for the second lowest Arctic sea ice extent record.

If the Arctic begins to experience entirely ice-free summers, scientists say, the planet will warm even more, as the dark ocean water absorbs large amounts of solar heating that used to be deflected by the cover of ice. The new findings were published as climate negotiators in Poland are trying to reach a global consensus on how to address climate change.

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On June 13, 2012 Australia’s then Environment Minister Tony Burke announced that the country would establish the world’s largest network of marine reserves. About one-third of the island-nation’s waters, running to over three million sq.km of reef and marine life around the country’s border will be covered, he said. While creating 60 reserves and also protecting the Coral Sea, the plan will also restrict fishing and oil and gas exploration, in a major step towards safeguarding the environment.

Highly protected areas such as the Coral Sea off Australia’s north-eastern coast and the adjoining World Heritage-listed Great Barrier Reef will also be protected from oil and gas exploration. Both areas, which cover a total 1.3m sq km, have shallow reefs that support tropical ecosystems with sharks, coral, sponges and many fish species.

The numbers of marine reserves off the Australian coast will be increased from 27 to 60.

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The earthquake and tsunami that hit northeastern Japan on March 11, 2011, turned out to be more than just a natural disaster. It caused a nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant in Fukushima prefecture, north of Japan. Several reactors at the plant were damaged, raising concerns over radiation leaks. The government set up a 30-km no-fly zone around the facility, and 20 km around the plant were evacuated. Later, the evacuation area was further increased when a spike in levels of radiation was evident in local food and water supplies. Several thousand residents left their homes even as radiation levels remained high months later. About nine years after the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl occurred, the site is cleared of immediate danger, but it still has a lot of clearing up to do.

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Established a year earlier under the National Green Tribunal Act 2010, the National Green Tribunal began functioning in July 2011. This specialized body is “equipped with the necessary expertise to handle environmental disputes involving multi-disciplinary issues’ and is guided by principles of natural justice. It has aimed at disposing of causes related to forest, environment, biodiversity, air and water. While the principal bench function s from New Delhi, the zonal benches function from Bhopal, Pune, Kolkata and Chennai. The setting up of the tribunal was seen a huge step towards realizing environmental democracy. Hundreds of appeals/petitions are heard and judgments delivered every year. For instance, over 500 judgments were delivered by the tribunal in 2016, in cases relating to pollution, conservation, industry operations, thermal power plants, mining operations, and environmental compensation, among others.

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The United Nations (the U.N.) declared 2010 the International Year of Biodiversity. Throughout the year, several key initiatives were organized to spread awareness on the need to promote biodiversity conversation and encourage everyone – as individuals and groups – worldwide to take mindful steps to stop the loss of biodiversity. That year, the U.N.’s Convention on Biological Diversity held its 10th biannual meeting in Nagoya, Japan. This international legally binding treaty, which came into force in 1993, aims to encourage actions that will lead to a sustainable future.

Biodiversity — the variety of all life forms, from genes up — is vital because diversity makes for healthy, stable ecosystems. From coral reefs to the Kalahari, these natural ‘balancing acts’ are intrinsically valuable. But beyond beauty and amenity, ecosystems also provide essential ‘services’ such as breathable air, clean water and fertile soils. Fisheries, agriculture, medicine and many traditions and ways of life all depend on biodiverse ecosystems.

Clearly, biodiversity is key not just to life on Earth, but to economies and cultures. And for the poor, who often depend directly on land and sea for subsistence, it is literally a lifeline.

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Also called the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, Deepwater Horizon oil spill is considered to be the largest marine oil spill in history. It occurred on April 20, 2010 when the Deep Horizon oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico and off the coast of Louisiana, the U.S. The rig was leased by London-based oil company BP. By the time the leak from the exploratory well was capped 87 days later, more than three million barrels of oil had leaked into the waters while the explosion itself had claimed 11 lives. The disaster has had environmental, health and economic impacts.

An estimated 53,000 barrels were flowing into the Gulf of Mexico every day.

The accident also made extensive damages to the marine environment. According to the Centre for Biological Diversity, the oil spill killed over 82,000 birds, 25,900 marine mammals, 6,000 sea turtles and tens of thousands of fish, among others.

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Over the last few decades, there has been a significant spike in the number of wildfires. Greenhouse gas emissions have led to an increase in global temperature. As warmer temperatures hasten evaporation, the land subsequently turns drier, enhancing the chances of wildfires.

A 2019 Australian government report on wildfires and climate change said human-caused climate change has resulted in more dangerous weather conditions for bushfires in recent decades for many regions of Australia.

 Heatwave and drought

Fire season in Australia is always dangerous. But conditions have been unusually severe this year. Australia is experiencing one of its worst droughts in decades. Meanwhile, a heatwave last December broke the record for highest nationwide average temperature, with some places sweltering under temperatures well above 40 degrees Celsius.

Fire season has changed

With climate change, weather conditions are growing more extreme, and for years, the fires have been starting earlier in the season and spreading with greater intensity in Australia. The fire season is starting earlier and is about two to four months longer, especially in south and east Australia. The normal peak fire season is later in summer, which is January and February. Australia is just entering its summer season, meaning the country could be months away from finding relief.

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 Though it is estimated that nearly half-a-billion animals have been affected in one State alone, it is difficult to get the exact number until fires subside enough to allow surveys of the burned areas. Fires have been part of the Australian landscape for thousands of years. Many species and ecosystems have evolved to cope and later populate nearby unaffected land. But as climate change fuels longer five seasons and more frequent, intense fires, it could become increasingly difficult for animals to adapt newer escape strategies and for ecosystem to bounce back.

In the line of fire

Smaller mammals and reptiles can escape the blazes by burrowing underground or hiding in rocks.

But some are not good at coping heat or stress. Wombat, the small, stubby-legged marsupial, can’t run very fast or far. Kolas are particularly vulnerable to bushfires as their slow movement and tree-dwelling lifestyle make it difficult for them to escape. Koalas and kangaroos are primarily killed directly by the fires. In this season, nearly a third of all koalas in New South Wales have died and about a third of their habitat has been destroyed according to a government estimate.

Ecosystems are built on balance – once one element is thrown off, everything is affected. Even if animals don’t die from the flames or smoke, they would eventually do from the fire’s aftermath. After their habitat is destructed, there will be no shelter or food left to survive on. These animals’ recovery depends not only on their population size, but also on the condition of their habitat.

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An uncontrolled fire in an area of combustible vegetation that spreads quickly, wiping out large areas of land is called a wildfire. A wildfire can also be termed a forest fire, a grass fire, a peat fire or a bushfire depending on the type of vegetation.

During summer, when there is no rain for months, the forests become littered with dry leaves and twigs, which could burst into flames ignited by the slightest spark.

Natural causes: Lightening is the most common cause of bushfire. There are three conditions for a bushfire to spread – fuel, oxygen and a heat source. In the forest, anything that is flammable is a fuel. This includes tall, dry grass, bushes and trees. High temperature, drought and dry vegetation are a perfect combination for igniting a forest fire.

Human-made disaster: Human neglect such as downed powerlines, sparks from tools or forest machinery, abandoned campfires and discarded cigarette butts can spark fires. People also tend to clear forests by setting them on fire to pave way for cultivation. Sometimes they set fire to scare away wild animals and the fire could spread and turn disastrous.

In Australia:

Summer is the season of fire in Australia with hot, dry weather making it easy for blazes to start and spread. Most of the time, it is natural causes such as lightning that trigger a fire, but sometimes human are also to blame. New South Wales police have charged at least 24 people with deliberately starting bushfires, and have taken legal action against 183 people for fire-related offences since November, according to reports.

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Bushfires are almost an annual affair in Australia, but this fire season has been unprecedented in scale and intensity.

A series of massive bushfires has been burning across Australia since September 2019 and they intensified early this month, with a number of towns evacuated.

At least 27 people have been killed, 1200 homes destroyed, and 18 million acres of land – bush, forest and parks – have been burned. Of all the States, New South Wales has been the hardest-hit. Nearly half-a-billion creatures, including birds, mammals and reptiles, have been affected by the fires in New South Wales alone and millions of them are possibly dead, according to scientists. Many large cities have been shrouded in smoke for weeks. State and federal authorities are struggling to contain the massive blazes, even with firefighting assistance from other countries.

Why are the fires so bad? Persistent drought and record temperatures are the major drivers of the fire, but the role played by climate change in making natural disasters go from bad to worse should not be overlooked, say scientists.

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• Even with capital subsidy, machines like Happy Seeder are not considered economical, as their demand is seasonal. The high cost of the machines and the rising price of diesel put pressure on farmers. For them, stubble burning is a cheaper option. A Happy Seeder machine is priced at Rs 1.5 lakhs. Though the government offers a 50% subsidy on the purchase of Happy Seeders to individual farmers, the machine still remains unaffordable. Also not all tractors are capable of pulling a happy seeder along, only those with a capacity of 65 horsepower would be able to drag an additional device mounted on it.
• Farmers remain sceptical about the efficiency of these machines. They fear the machines will affect productivity and damage the soil. Besides, they feel using machinery is time-consuming.
• The farmers have expressed that the number of machines provided is extremely inadequate.

How can stubble burning problem be solved?

• The equipment has to be supplied quickly and in good numbers. There are reports that subsidized agromachines being provided by the government have not reached many villages and whenever given, the number is too low.
• It is important to find other uses for stubble such as biomass, which may encourage farmers to look for alternative sources of income.

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Farmers can use devices such as mulchers (that cut up grass, leaves, etc., for use as mulch), rotavators (a machine with rotating blades for breaking up or tilling the soil), Happy Seeders and straw management system to manage and utilise stubble.

Happy Seeder is nothing but a tractor-mounted device which can cut and lift the previous crop (in this case the rice straw) and sow a new (wheat) crop in its place simultaneously. It also deposits the straw over the sown area as mulch. Mulch enriches and insulates the soil.

The straw management system involves the use of a machine attached to a harvester chopper, which spreads loose straw uniformly. Here, the straw serves as mulch.

Straw could also be used as feeder.

(However, farmers in these regions report a lower preference for paddy straw because of the comparatively high silica content in it. There are also reports of wheat straw rejection due to fuel spillover during harvesting by machines.)

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Farmers have to clear the stubble soon after harvest so as to prepare the field for sowing the next crop.

For clearing the farm waste, they usually have a short span of 10 to 15 days during which they prefer burning the stubble to other methods as it is considered the cheapest and least time-consuming solution. The residue and stubble are an important source of organic matter for the soil. Burning off this organic matter will gradually reduce soil organic matter levels. Burning can made the soil hotter and drier on the surface, creating a hard seedbed. Burning can temporarily seal the soil surface to some extent. Burning will result in the loss of some of the volatile nutrients, such as nitrogen, in the residue. Phosphorus and other minerals are not volatilized by burning and will remain on the field in the ash, unless the ash is blown away.

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