Environment

A soil may be rich in salts because the parent rock from which it was formed contains salts. Sea water is anothersource of salts in low-lying areas along the coast. A very common source of salts in irrigated soils is the irrigationwater itself. Most irrigation waters contain some salts. After irrigation, the water added to … Read more

The Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants ( POP’s) is a global treaty to protect human health and the environment from chemicals that remain intact in the environment for long periods, become widely distributed geographically, accumulate in the fatty tissue of humans and wildlife, and have harmful impacts on human health or on the environment. … Read more

Environment Impact Assessment or EIA can be defined as the study to predict the effect of a proposed activity/project on the environment. A decision making tool, EIA compares various alternatives for a project and seeks to identify the one which represents the best combination of economic and environmental costs and benefits. EIA systematically examines both … Read more

. Single-use plastics, often also referred to as disposable plastics, are commonly used for plastic packaging and include items intended to be used only once before they are thrown away or recycled. These include, among other items, grocery bags, food packaging, bottles, straws, containers, stirrers, styrofoam cups or plates etc.   Impacts of single use … Read more

Warm-blooded creatures, like mammals and birds, try to keep the inside of their bodies at a constant temperature. They do this by generating their own heat when they are in a cooler environment, and by cooling themselves when they are in a hotter environment. To generate heat, warm-blooded animals convert the food that they eat … Read more

The Blue Flag is one of the world’s most recognised voluntary eco-labels awarded to beaches, marinas, and sustainable boating tourism operators. In order to qualify for the Blue Flag, a series of stringent environmental, educational, safety, and accessibility criteria must be met and maintained. There are nearly 33 criteria that must be met to qualify … Read more

The Global Environment Facility (GEF) was established on the eve of the 1992 Rio Earth Summit to help tackle our planet’s most pressing environmental problems. Since then, the GEF has provided close to $20.5 billion in grants and mobilized an additional $112 billion in co-financing for more than 4,800 projects in 170 countries.                The GEF provides funding to assist developing countries in … Read more

. In a bid to curb carbon emissions and global warming, Kyoto  Protocol was signed among various countries and it entered into force in 2005 which  marked the beginning of its first commitment period till 2012 (second commitment  period was agreed from 2013-20). It was an extension of UNFCCC and a concrete plan to  bring … Read more

Unlike other disasters, landslides are largely controlled by highly localised factors. Landslides of different types are frequent in geodynamically active domains in the Himalayan and Arakan-Yoma belt of the North-Eastern parts of the country. Landslide hazard zonation mapping has categorized the Himalayan region as Very High Vulnerability Zone.   Factors that make the Himalayan region … Read more

Autogenic engineers: They change the environment via their own physical structures, i.e. their living and dead tissues. As they grow and become larger, their living and dead tissues create habitats for other organisms to live on or in. Examples of Autogenic Engineering: Trees, corals, and giant kelps are good examples of autogenic engineers. As they … Read more