QUIZ – 2017: Insights Current Affairs Quiz, 06 January 2017

Solution: a.

• Larsen C is the most northern major ice shelf in Antarctica. An iceberg expected to be one of the 10 largest ever recorded is ready to break away from this ice shelf in Antarctica, scientists say.
• Researchers have been tracking the rift in Larsen C for many years, watching it with some trepidation after the collapse of Larsen A ice shelf in 1995 and the sudden break-up of the Larsen B shelf in 2002.
• Last year, researchers reported that the Larsen C rift was growing fast. But in December the speed of the rift went into overdrive, growing by a further 18km in just a couple of weeks. What will become a massive iceberg (5000 sq.km) now hangs on to the shelf by a thread just 20km long.
• The researchers say that this is a geographical and not a climate event. The rift has been present for decades, they say, but it has punched through at this particular time.
• It is believed that climate warming has brought forward the likely separation of the iceberg but the scientists say they have no direct evidence to support this.

BBC: Huge Antarctic iceberg poised to break away;

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Solution: c.

• …but that consensus was brought into question by a number of studies, of which a report by the the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) published in Science last year was the most significant.
• Researchers from Noaa suggested that the temperatures of the oceans were being consistently underestimated by the main global climate models. The authors showed that the ocean buoys used to measure sea temperatures tend to report slightly cooler temperatures than the older ship-based systems.
• Back in the 1990s, ship measurements made up the vast majority of the data, whereas now the more accurate and consistent buoys account for 85% of measurements.
• When the researchers corrected the data to take this “cold bias” into account, they concluded that the oceans had warmed 0.12C per decade since 2000, nearly twice as fast as previous estimates of 0.07 degrees.
• As a result, the authors said that the warming experienced in the first 15 years of the 21st Century was “virtually indistinguishable” from the rate of warming between 1950-99, a time generally acknowledged to have seen significant rates of warming from human emissions of CO2.

BBC: Climate Change – Fresh doubt over climate warming ‘pause’;

Solution: d.

• “An exception to Section 375 (rape) in the IPC allows a man to go scot-free despite having sex with his 15-year-old ‘wife’. This exception ensures that he will not be charged with rape even though child marriage is a crime. Nobel Peace laureate Kailash Satyarthi, through his organisation Bachpan Bachao Andolan, appealed to the Supreme Court on Thursday for help to end this “statutorily-backed” crime against children.”
• Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA) symbolizes India’s largest grassroots movement for the protection of children, ensuring their quality education. As on October 2014, BBA has rescued more than 83,500 victims of trafficking, slavery and child labour and has helped them re-establish trust in society and find promising futures for themselves.
• Since its establishment by the Indian children’s rights activist Kailash Satyarthi in 1980, BBA has led the world’s largest civil society campaign in the form of the Global March Against Child Labour and has been at the forefront of laying down laws against child labour and trafficking in India.

About BBA;

Improvisation: TH: SC asked to resolve conflict over ‘rape’ definition in two laws;

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Solution: a.

“On 13 October 2016, the UN General Assembly adopted by acclamation a resolution to formally appoint António Guterres of Portugal as Secretary-General for a five-year term of office, starting on 1 January 2017.”

Improvisation: TH: The trump challenge to Antonio Guterres;

Solution: c.

• “Air pollutants can get into the blood stream and lead to inflammation, which is linked with cardiovascular disease and possibly other conditions such as diabetes. This study suggests air pollutants that can get into the brain via the blood stream can lead to neurological problems”..
• Dementia is caused by brain diseases, most commonly Alzheimer’s disease, which result in the loss of brain cells and affect memory, thinking, behaviour, navigational and spatial abilities and the ability to perform everyday activities. The incurable condition is a leading cause of disability and dependency, and is starting to overtake heart disease as a cause of death in some developed countries.
• The World Health Organization estimates the number of people with dementia in 2015 at 47.5 million, and that total is rising rapidly as life expectancy increases and societies age.
• It is unlikely that Ontario has the worst air quality in the world, so the risks might be even greater in cities that are habitually wrapped in smog, for instance, Delhi.

TH: Living near heavy traffic increases risk of dementia;

Indian Express, Explained Page, 6^th January, 2017;

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