[Mission 2022] QUIZ – 2022: INSIGHTS STATIC QUIZ, 10 June 2022 – Environment

Solution: b)

Syngas, or synthesis gas, is a fuel gas mixture consisting primarily of hydrogen, carbon monoxide, and very often some carbon dioxide. The name comes from its use as intermediates in creating synthetic natural gas (SNG) and for producing ammonia or methanol. Syngas is combustible and can be used as a fuel of internal combustion engines. However, it has less than half the energy density of natural gas.

Syngas can be produced from many sources, including natural gas, coal, biomass, or virtually any hydrocarbon feedstock, by reaction with steam (steam reforming), carbon dioxide (dry reforming) or oxygen (partial oxidation). It is a crucial intermediate resource for production of hydrogen, ammonia, methanol, and synthetic hydrocarbon fuels.

Solution: d)

Cirrus cloud thinning (CCT):

CCT is almost the opposite of marine cloud brightening. High-altitude Cirrus clouds are thin and whispy, so they don’t reflect much solar radiation back into space, and instead trap long-wave radiation on earth.

CCT proposes thinning them further through cloud seeding, letting more long-wave radiation escape.

Space reflectors:

Technologies like giant mirrors in space or umbrellas in orbit can be built to reflect sunlight away and keep the planet cooler.

Marine cloud brightening:

Another idea is to increase the Earth’s ‘albedo’, which is the measure of amount of solar radiation the planet reflects back than it absorbs.

Stratospheric aerosol injection:

The idea is to simulate the cooling effects of volcanic eruptions, and enhancing the reflectivity of marine clouds.

Solution: a)

Since each higher trophic level receives only a fraction of energy of the lower trophic levels, the energy pyramid is narrow at the top.

But, generally (barring some aquatic ecosystems) lower trophic levels have higher biomass as compared to the higher trophic levels.

Solution: c)

Solution: d)

Permaculture integrates land, resources, people and the environment through mutually beneficial synergies – imitating the no waste, closed loop systems seen in diverse natural systems. Permaculture studies and applies holistic solutions that are applicable in rural and urban contexts at any scale. It is a multidisciplinary toolbox including agriculture, water harvesting and hydrology, energy, natural building, forestry, waste management, animal systems, aquaculture, appropriate technology, economics and community development.

Permaculture (the word, coined by Bill Mollison), is the harmonious integration of landscape and people — providing their food, energy, shelter, and other material and non-material needs in a sustainable way.

The philosophy behind permaculture is of working with, rather than against, nature.