Page 478 - Environment
Landslides affect traffic movement in Sikkim, Bengal
Fresh landslides on Saturday on two important national highways connecting Sikkim's capital Gangtok with northern West Bengal hit traffic movement badly, leaving hundreds of tourists and goods-laden vehicles stranded.
NASA blasts off space laser satellite to track ice loss
NASA's most advanced space laser satellite blasted off Saturday on a mission to track ice loss around the world and improve forecasts of sea level rise as the climate warms. Cloaked in pre-dawn darkness, the USD 1 billion, half-ton ICESat-2 launched aboard a Delta II rocket from Vandenberg Air Force base in California at 6:02 am (local time). "Three, two one, liftoff!" said a launch commentator on NASA television. "Lifting ICESat-2 on a quest to explore the polar ice sheets of our constantly changing home planet." The launch marks the first time in nearly a decade that NASA has had a tool in orbit to measure ice sheet surface elevation across the globe. The preceding mission, ICESat, launched in 2003 and ended in 2009. The first ICESat revealed that sea ice was thinning, and ice cover was disappearing from coastal areas in Greenland and Antarctica. In the intervening nine years, an aircraft mission called Operation IceBridge, has flown over the Arctic and Antarctic, taking height ...
NASA launches satellite to track Earth's melting ice
In a bid to understand Earth's ice sheets, glaciers, sea ice, snow cover and permafrost, NASA on Saturday successfully launched its Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite-2, or ICESat-2.
Schools closed in Nepal's Saptari district after Swine Flu, Hong Kong Flu cases
Schools in Nepal's Kanchanrup Municipality and Hanumannagar Kankalani Municipality of Saptari district have been closed for three days following an outbreak of Swine flu and Hong Kong flu in the areas.Following an emergency meeting, the Kanchanrup Municipality on Saturday declared the area a 'disaster-hit' zone and decided to close the schools, Municipality mayor Basanta Mishra informed RSS. The Municipality has also urged all to remain alert and conscious with regard to the outbreak of these diseases.Mayor Mishra said the decision to shut down schools has been taken in view of the possibility of the disease virus spreading among the students. He added that the schools will remain closed until the prevalence of the infection diminishes.Health check-up camps have been set up at various places after scores of people started suffering from fever, cough and cold at the two municipalities as well as in Mahadeva rural municipality.People suffering from cough and fever in the municipality ...
NASA satellite launched to measure Earth's ice changes
A NASA satellite designed to precisely measure changes in Earth's ice sheets, glaciers, sea ice and vegetation has been launched from California. A Delta 2 rocket carrying ICESat-2 lifted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base at 6:02 am (local time) Saturday and headed over the Pacific toward polar orbit. NASA Earth Science Division director Michael Freilich says that the mission in particular will advance knowledge of how the ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica contribute to sea level rise. ICESat-2 carries a single instrument, a laser altimeter that measures height by determining how long it takes photons to travel from the spacecraft to Earth and back. The mission is a successor to the original ICESat that operated from 2003 to 2009. Measurements continued since then with airborne instruments in NASA's Operation IceBridge.
Chennai Central Station bags IGBC green bldg certification
The Chennai Central railway station, a prominent landmark in the city, has received the Indian Green Building Council certification for adopting green building concepts and features in the station. The award was given under green railway stations rating system by IGBC' and the council's Chennai chapter Chairman, C N Raghavendran presented a plaque and certificate to Southern Railway general manager, R K Kulshrestha at a function Saturday, a release said. The rating system facilitates-energy efficiency improvements, use of renewable energy sources, water management and rain water harvesting, health, hygiene and sanitation, green cover. Some features implemented at the railway station as evaluated by IGBC include well-developed passenger amenities, pre-paid air-conditioned hall, LED lighting, solar panels and use of solar water heaters to meet 90 per cent of hot water requirements. Green railway stations rating is a tool to facilitate adoption of green concepts, thereby ..
Delhi Gurdwaras to go green with biogas plants
In a major green initiative, Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) has decided to set up biogas plants in all 10 gurdwara complexes in Delhi to fire up their kitchen stoves from clean energy.DSGMC said the move will also help address the problem of waste disposal as kitchen waste, vegetables, fruits peels and leftover langar food will be converted into clean fuel on a daily basis in these biogas plants."At present, DSGMC procures Piped Natural Gas (PNG) from IGL for cooking langars in all 10 historic gurdwaras in Delhi. The move to go for biogas plants is aimed at reducing carbon footprints, cutting fuel cost and making the religious shrine environment friendly," said DSGMC president Sardar Manjit Singh G.K.To begin with, biogas plants will be set up at Delhi's Gurdwara Rakab Ganj Sahib and Gurdwara Bangla Sahib that generate largest biodegradable waste among all historic gurdwaras in the national capital, the DSGMC members said. The community kitchen in these gurdwaras ...
Paris, Brussels call for car-free day in Europe
Europe should hold an annual car-free day in a bid to ease air pollution, the mayors of Paris and Brussels said Saturday on the eve of a vehicle-free day in their cities. The call came in a joint statement by Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo and her counterpart in Brussels, Philippe Close, in which the two pointed to "the urgency of climate issues and the health impact of pollution". Both capitals will on Sunday hold their annual car-free day as part of the European Heritage Days 2018, a weekend of cultural events staged every year in countries throughout the bloc. In Paris, City Hall had on Friday said six areas at the heart of the capital would remain traffic-free on the first Sunday of every month, including Ile de la Cite and Ile Saint-Louis, Louvre, Opera, Chatelet and the Marais. The plan will kick in from October 7, with cars only allowed on the major roads crossing these neighbourhoods. Between 2017 and 2018, car traffic in central Paris fell by 6.0 per cent, which reduced air ...
30 teams to be deployed to watch pollution levels in NCR: CPCB
Ahead of the upcoming winters, the Central Pollution Control Board is planning to deploy about 30 teams in the national capital region to monitor factors that lead to the increase in pollution levels. Every year, the pollution level spike after Diwali. In a bid to control and prevent that level of pollution from occurring this year we are taking precautions, a CPCB official said. "One of which includes plans to deploy about 30 monitoring teams in NCR region to look into factors causing increase in pollution," the official said. Based on the recommendations of the teams, the CPCB will file a report to the Environment Pollution Control Authority, the official added.
33-kg 'nag chhatri' found in vehicle, FIR lodged against postal department
The forest department seized 33 kilograms of 'nag chhatri' (trillium govanianum), a high-value banned medicinal herb, from a vehicle of a postal department in Jammu and Kashmir's Ramban district on Saturday, a senior official said. The forest produce, packed in three bags, was being sent to Delhi from Kishtwar district through the postal department courier service. A team of officials at a forest check post intercepted the vehicle at Batote along the Jammu-Srinagar highway and during its checking seized the material, forest range officer Surinder Singh Chib told PTI. "The involvement of postal department officials in smuggling of the banned forest produce cannot be ruled out," he said, adding that no one had been arrested so far. An FIR was registered against the Kishtwar postal department and further investigation is on, the official said.
Modi lauds Sri Sri Ravi Shankar for innovative steps to fight waste problem
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday showered encomiums on Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar for coming up with innovative solutions for problems, including that of waste. He was interacting with the spiritual guru via video-conferencing after the launch of the "Swachhata Hi Seva" campaign. "You not only solve problems, but do it in a very innovative way with the help of new technologies and viewpoint," Modi said. "Your concern for cleanliness is commendable and your efforts to make your volunteers work in this direction gives strength to (the country to) carry this big movement forward," he added. Modi said Ravi Shankar and his AOL volunteers have always been at the forefront in doing good to the society and the country. The AOL founder told Modi that nine waste management machines, which turn temple waste into manure, had been installed at shrines across the country. "Because of your (Modi) words and inspiration, one of our volunteers has created a machine which ...
Chhattisgarh: Man builds water basin to help villagers
Fulfilling the wish of his grandfather, a man in Gadapal village in Chhattisgarh's Dantewada district has built around 50-meter long water basin to provide water to the inhabitants, especially farmers, living in surrounding areas."It was my grandfather's dream few decades back, however, he couldn't make it as he didn't get any support from the authorities. So, I decided a decade back to fulfill his dream and get water to the village. It took me 10 years to complete this whole work," Lingaram Mandavi told ANI.To channelise water to the basin, Mandavi apparently constructed a 300-400-meter long passage with embankments starting from the Duwali Karka river.However, the authorities are still unaware of the water basin. "We will verify the information and then the administration will help him," said Dantewada District Collector Saurabh Kumar told ANI.
Handwoven saree sale raises Rs 1.5 lakh for Kerala relief work
A little over Rs 1.5 lakh was raised to support a flood-ravaged Kerala in a sale of over 260 handwoven sarees.
Pulse revolution happening in India: Agri scientist
A pulse revolution is taking place in the country with a quantum leap in its production since 2009-10 to reach 25.23 million tonnes in 2017-18, a MULLaRP project coordinator has claimed. The production of pulses had remained stagnant at around 14 MT for two decades continuously, Dr Sanjeev Gupta, Project Coordinator of All India Coordinated Research Project on MULLaRP (Rabi Crops) said here on Friday. He was speaking at the inaugural day function of the Annual Group Meet at the Assam Agricultural University (AAU). Lentil, lathyrus, rajmah, peas and some other minor pulses are secondary winter legumes which together contribute 14 per cent of the total pulses production, he said. There is ample scope for bringing additional area under these pulses in newer niches areas such as rice fallows, tal (lake) areas, hill agriculture and in intercropping for remunerating cropping system, Gupta said. An estimated additional 3.0 million hectare can be brought under such pulses ...
Optimism trumps despair at climate summit
Mayors, governors, entrepreneurs, CEOs, investors and celebrities delivered a double-edged message Friday at the close of a climate summit in San Francisco: global warming is making the planet unliveable -- but we know how to fix it. "We are using the sky as an open sewer, it's insane," former US vice president Al Gore told the conference, noting that humanity belches 110 million tons of heat-trapping pollution into the atmosphere every day. "Will we change? That's what the Global Climate Action Summit is all about." Over three days, thousands of delegates from the private and public sectors showcased policies and innovations aimed at reducing that flow of greenhouse gases. Cities are converting to all-electric vehicle fleets and setting deadlines for banishing gas-guzzling cars from their roads; companies have vowed to operate only with renewable energy, including a few smokestack multinationals in the developing world. "Clean and green is profitable," Mahendra Singhi, CEO of Dalmia .
Diamer-Bhasha Dam: World Sindhi Congress seek UNHRC intervention
The World Environment and Resources Council (WERC) on Friday urged the United Nation Human Right Council (UNHRC) to look into the grave human rights violations of Sindhi people resulting from the of construction of a mega Diamer-Bhasha Dam by Pakistan."We request the Council to use its powers to stop Pakistan from undertaking anti-environment and anti-people dam project that is bound to destroy an entire people, the Sindhi people, and their thousands year old civilisation. We request the international community to use its power so that the previous mega-dams are decommissioned that have severely marginalised Sindhi people," Dr Lakhu Luhana said.Luhana apprised the UNHRC that the construction of the dam has been vehemently opposed by the people and legislators of three out of four provinces of Pakistan, that is, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhuwa and Balochistan as well Pakistan occupied Kashmir.He further said, "being the lower riparian, the vulnerability of Sindh and its people, is huge. ...
World urged to step up climate action ahead of 2020
A major global summit ended on Friday in this California city with delegates calling on national governments to join forces to step up climate action ahead of 2020, the year when global greenhouse gases need to peak and fall sharply thereafter to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.
Kerry slams Trump's decision to pull out of Paris climate pact
Former US Secretary of State John Kerry on Friday slammed US President Donald Trump's decision to pull out of the landmark Paris Climate Change Agreement.
Global Mayors commit climate action plans
Mayors from the world's greatest cities on Friday reaffirmed their commitment to delivering on the highest ambitions of the Paris Agreement.
Spurious fertilisers, pesticides seized in raid in Yavatmal
A godown was raided Friday in Maharashtra's Yavatmal district and spurious fertilisers and pesticides worth Rs 62 lakh was seized, a state Agriculture department official said. The raid, carried out by the Quality Control squad of the Yavatmal District Agriculture office, led to the arrest of Sachin Kawale, said Yavatmal superintending agriculture officer Nagnath Kolpakar. He informed that the raid took place on a godown situated on Kalamb-Babhulgaon Road here. The official said that further probe into the manufacturing and distribution of such spurious fertilisers and pesticides was continuing.