UPSC Environment Ecology PSIR

#Environment ■ Where animals are dying by a thousand cuts- ✅Uttar Pradesh (UP) faces a major problem with abandoned cows, known as "chutta jaanwar." These animals, left behind due to disrupted livestock policies, are wreaking havoc on both farms and wildlife. ● KEY HIGHLIGHTS: ✅Agriculture in Peril: Millions of stray cattle are destroying crops and livelihoods across UP. These animals are a consequence of policies and vigilante actions that disrupted a previously functional livestock system. ✅Wildlife Under Threat: The Terai region, a biodiversity hotspot in UP, is seeing its wildlife impacted by the presence of stray cattle. Large numbers of cows in farmlands ✅and near forests create easy prey for tigers, leading to more conflict between humans and these big cats ✅Additionally, the potential spread of diseases from unvaccinated cattle to wild animals is a concern. ● Caught in the Middle: ✅Farmers' Dilemma: Farmers grapple with the issue of stray cattle, which damage their crops, while also holding beliefs in the sanctity of cows. ✅They recognize the practicality of buffaloes over cows but struggle to reconcile this with their religious beliefs. ✅Shifting Livelihoods: Changing times have made cattle rearing less practical. ✅Tractors, the loss of grazing lands, and rising costs have driven communities towards agriculture, leaving livestock rearing primarily for household needs. ● Seeking Solutions: ✅Cow Shelters: Farmers propose innovative solutions like government-built cow shelters, even within protected areas, to provide food and space for the stray cattle. ✅Government's Role: protected areas are already facing challenges like fragmentation and declining grasslands, crucial for endangered species. ✅Building cow shelters within these areas would further threaten these ecosystems. ● The Challenge Ahead: ✅Finding a solution for stray cattle in UP requires addressing the needs of both farmers and wildlife. ✅The government must find ways to manage the cattle population without compromising the delicate balance of the Terai ecosystem. SOURCE - THE HINDU

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#Environment ■ Warming climate intensifies flash droughts worldwide- ✅Sudden, severe dry spells known as flash droughts are rising in intensity around the world. ● Highlights: ✅Heat and changes to precipitation patterns caused by a warming climate are driving these trends, the study found. ✅The new study is the first to apply a systematic, quantitative approach to the global incidence of flash drought, mapping hotspots and regions of rapid increases in recent decades. ✅Many parts of the world have witnessed flash droughts extending over larger areas, for a longer time, with faster onset speed. ✅However, a notable exception in mountainous Central Asia was seen, where flash drought extent is shrinking, according to new research. ✅Climate-driven changes in precipitation, melting snowpack and a shift from snow to rain in the mountains have kept soils moist. ✅These changes can cause an increase in flash floods, which have been observed in the region. ✅The study analyzed 40 years of NASA’s MERRA-2 climate data, from 1980 to 2019, drawn from weather observations, satellite imagery and modeled root-zone soil moisture, with the aim of improving prediction and disaster preparedness. ✅South America, particularly southern Brazil and the Amazon, is experiencing strong intensification in all three dimensions of flash drought, aligning with deforestation patterns in the region, high temperatures and less rain. ✅Savanna and grasslands are more susceptible to flash droughts than other ecotypes, particularly in humid and semi-humid climates, the study found. ● Prelims Takeaway: ✅Flash Droughts ✅Climate Change SOURCE - THE HINDU

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#Environment ■ Going glacier gone: How Venezuela lost its last glacier, why this matters- ✅Venezuela, for instance, has likely become the first country - it certainly won’t be the last - in modern history to lose all its glaciers. Reason behind disappearance of Glacier: ✅Global Warming: The primary cause of glacier melt is global warming. It increases temperatures and leads to ice melting. ✅Human Impact: Since the Industrial Revolution, human activities, especially the burning of fossil fuels, have increased greenhouse gas emissions. These gases trap heat in the atmosphere, contributing to global temperature rises. ✅Recent Trends: Notable temperature increases in regions like the Andes have been documented, with rates up to 0.10 degrees Celsius per decade over the last seventy years. ✅Events like El Niño also exacerbate warming, leading to more rapid glacier melting. ● Prelims Takeaway: ✅El Niño SOURCE - INDIAN EXPRESS

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#Environment ■ Microplastics found in fish in Ashtamudi Lake: study ✅A recent study has shed light on the extent of microplastic pollution in Ashtamudi Lake. ● Highlights: ✅The study found microplastics in the brackish-water lake’s fish, shellfish, sediment and water. ✅The highest percentage composition of microplastics was found in the macrofauna, with fish accounting for 19.6% and shellfish 40.9%. ✅The study was done by the Department of Aquatic Biology and Fisheries, University of Kerala, with support from the Ecomarine Project co-funded by the Erasmus programme of the European Union. ✅Microplastics are plastic fragments less than five millimeters in length. ✅The findings have been published at a time of growing apprehension over microplastic pollution in aquatic ecosystems across the globe. ✅Detailed analysis of the samples revealed the presence of plastic polymers as well as hazardous heavy metals. ✅Polymer composition of microplastics found in the guts of fish and shellfish included nylon, polyurethane, polypropylene, polyethylene, and polysiloxane. ✅Hazardous heavy metals such as molybdenum, iron and barium, potentially adsorbed from the surroundings, were detected in the microplastics posing risks to aquatic organisms and human beings. ● Ashtamudi Lake: ✅Ashtamudi wetland was designated a Ramsar site in 2002 considering the estuarine system’s extraordinary importance for its hydrological functions ✅It is situated in Kollam district of Kerala ● Prelims Takeaway: ✅Ashtamudi Lake ✅Ramsar Site SOURCE - THE HINDU

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#Environment ■ What is the value of attributing extreme events to climate change? ✅Loss and Damages (L&D) have earned its place in climate talks under the U.N Framework Convention on Climate Change in the last decade. ● Key highlights: ✅Economically developing countries, in particular those that are ‘particularly vulnerable’, have demanded the L&D fund to compensate for the havoc of climate change within their borders. ✅The criteria by which ‘particularly vulnerable’ countries are to be identified are crucial. ✅The developed world is opposed to the idea of being held legally accountable in court for any extreme events since that could open a floodgate of lawsuits. ✅Against this background, our understanding of whether attribution reports can actually hold up in court as evidence of culpability is very important. ● Attribution of Asian heatwaves: ✅A team of climate scientists called World Weather Attribution (WWA) reported that heat waves across Asia, from the west to the southeast, had been rendered nearly 45-times more likely by climate change ✅The climate scientists contrasted the conditions in which the heatwaves occurred against a counterfactual world in which climate change did not happen. ✅The researchers run models for the planet’s climate without increasing greenhouse gas emissions and other anthropogenic forces. ✅Thus, climate scientists tried to address these challenges in the process of assigning probability changes to events in the past. ✅When evaluating the Asian heatwaves, the WWA scientists used regional scales and different definitions for different regions. ✅Another significant challenge in attribution exercises, is how scientists choose the extreme events for which they will perform attribution exercises. ✅Governments need to be able to respond to such decisions, and attribution science should in turn, be sufficiently reliable. ● Extreme events and human action: ✅The actual impacts of extreme events depend not only on the hazard or the extreme event but also on the vulnerability and the exposure of the population affected. ✅Similarly, the financial consequences are also affected by multiple factors. ✅Considering all these challenges, we must take stock of the international financial aspects of adaptation, mitigation, and L&D. ✅In particular, governments should consider an agreement on historical responsibilities to fund developing countries, close adaptation gaps, build adaptation capacity, and finance mitigation for the global good. ✅In the real world, we need a cost-benefit analysis based on a clear role for attribution in the overall climate action landscape. SOURCE - THE HINDU