QUIZ – 2020: INSIGHTS STATIC QUIZ, 28 April 2020 – Environment

Solution: b)

Recently, UN Environment Programme (UNEP) launched its tenth edition of Emissions Gap Report 2019.

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is the leading global environmental authority that sets the global environmental agenda, promotes the coherent implementation of the environmental dimension of sustainable development within the United Nations system, and serves as an authoritative advocate for the global environment.

Its mission is to provide leadership and encourage partnership in caring for the environment by inspiring, informing, and enabling nations and peoples to improve their quality of life without compromising that of future generations.

United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) is governing body of the UNEP.

Headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya.

It depends on voluntary contributions for 95% of its funding.

Solution: d)

UNEP host the secretariats of many critical multilateral environmental agreements and research bodies, bringing together nations and the environmental community to tackle the greatest challenges of our time. These include the following:

• The Convention on Biological Diversity
• The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora
• The Minamata Convention on Mercury
• The Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions
• The Vienna Convention for the Protection of Ozone Layer and the Montreal Protocol
• The Convention on Migratory Species
• The Carpathian Convention- subregional treaty to foster the sustainable development and the protection of the Carpathian region (Europe’s largest mountain range)
• The Bamako Convention- Treaty of African nations prohibiting the import into Africa of any hazardous waste.
• The Tehran Convention- Protection of the Marine Environment of the Caspian Sea

Solution: c)

Permafrost is any ground that remains completely frozen—32°F (0°C) or colder—for at least two years straight. These permanently frozen grounds are most common in regions with high mountains and in Earth’s higher latitudes—near the North and South Poles.

Permafrost covers large regions of the Earth. Almost a quarter of the land area in the Northern Hemisphere has permafrost underneath. Although the ground is frozen, permafrost regions are not always covered in snow.

It can also be located in the Southern Hemisphere, just on mountain tops. Permafrost frequently occurs in ground ice, but it also can be presented in non-porous bedrock. Permafrost is formed from ice holding all different sorts of soil, sand, and rock combination together.

There is approximately twice as much carbon in permafrost than is currently in the Earth’s atmosphere.

Solution: d)

A biofertilizer is a substance which contains living microorganisms which, when applied, colonize the rhizosphere or the interior of the plant and promotes growth by increasing the supply or availability of primary nutrients to the host plant.

There are five biofertilizers viz. Rhizobium, Azotobacter, Azospirillum, Phosphate Solubilizing Bacteria and mycorrhiza, which have been incorporated in India’s Fertilizer Control Order (FCO), 1985.

Rhizobium, Azotobacter, Azospirillum and blue green algae (BGA) have been traditionally used as Biofertilizers. Blue green algae such as Nostoc, Anabaena, Tolypothrix and Aulosira fix atmospheric nitrogen.

Solution: b)

Nitrous oxide emissions occur naturally through many sources associated with the nitrogen cycle, which is the natural circulation of nitrogen among the atmosphere, plants, animals, and microorganisms that live in soil and water.

Nitrous oxide is actually removed from the atmosphere when it is absorbed by certain types of bacteria or destroyed by ultraviolet radiation or chemical reactions.

A natural source of nitrogen oxides occurs from a lightning stroke. The very high temperature in the vicinity of a lightning bolt causes the gases oxygen and nitrogen in the air to react to form nitric oxide. The nitric oxide very quickly reacts with more oxygen to form nitrogen dioxide.