QUIZ – 2020: INSIGHTS STATIC , 19 April 2021 – Environment

Solution: c)

Climate change and unprecedented floods resulting from cloud bursts have facilitated the introduction of aquatic invasive alien species into new habitats in India. This phenomenon threatens ecosystems, habitats and native species. Recently, a study revealed the role of the 2018 floods in introducing the most dangerous fish species into Kerala’s wetlands.

Researchers say that during heavy floods, invasive alien fishes which are illegally farmed in fragile systems, including domestic aquarium tanks, ponds, lakes and abandoned quarries, effortlessly escape from captivity and enter nearby wetlands. After a while, they slowly begin to wipe out local diversity and the economy by altering the functions of the ecosystem.

Solution: a)

The glass allows in more radiation and prevents the long wave radiation going outside the glass house, causing the temperature inside the glasshouse structure warmer than outside.

When you enter a car or a bus, during summers, where windows are closed, you feel more heat than outside.

Likewise during winter the vehicles with closed doors and windows remain warmer than the temperature outside.

Solution: b)

The Global Warming Potential (GWP) was developed to allow comparisons of the global warming impacts of different greenhouse gases. Specifically, it is a measure of how much energy the emissions of 1 ton of any greenhouse gas will absorb over a given period of time, relative to the emissions of 1 ton of carbon dioxide (CO₂). The larger the GWP, the more that a given gas warms the Earth compared to CO₂ over that time period. The time period usually used for GWPs is 100 years. GWPs provide a common unit of measure, which allows analysts to add up emissions estimates of different gases (e.g., to compile a national GHG inventory), and allows policymakers to compare emissions reduction opportunities across sectors and gases.

CO₂, by definition, has a GWP of 1 regardless of the time period used, because it is the gas being used as the reference.

Solution: b)

The cause of the formation of the ozone hole is attributed to the unusual weather at the poles.

Polar vortex is a whirling cone of low pressure over the poles that is strongest in the winter months due to the increased temperature contrast between the polar regions and the mid-latitudes, such as the US and Europe.

The unique cocktail of the powerful vortex and low temperatures generates Stratospheric clouds that react with CFCs and destroy the Ozone layer in the process.

Ozone depletion also explains much of the observed reduction in stratospheric and upper tropospheric temperatures.

Solution: d)

The Arctic is warming far more quickly.

While both the Arctic and Antarctic are experiencing rising temperatures, thinning glaciers, disturbed ecosystems, and other alarming shifts as heat-trapping fossil fuel emissions build up, changes are sweeping the northern region far faster. 

The High North is seeing unprecedented changes, including drastic ice losses on land and sea, galloping permafrost thaw, raging wildfires, unseasonal storms, earlier springs, and more.

The accelerated Arctic warming impacts weather down in the lower 48 and around the entire Northern Hemisphere by changing the temperature contrast between mid and high latitudes.

Arctic warming also stands to disrupt the marine food web, increase mortality for polar bears and seals, and threaten the livelihoods of the region’s indigenous people. One bright note in the outlook: So far whales seem to be benefitting from range expansion as sea ice recedes.