1. Mexico City declares environmental emergency

 

• Mexico City has declared an environmental, ordering vehicles off the road and postponing the semi-finals of the first-division football league as a blanket of smog enveloped the sprawling capital.   

• A series of wildfires on the city`s outskirts have combined with stagnant weather conditions to cloak the metropolitan area of more than 20 million people in a grey cloud. 

• Pollution levels passed the critical 150 points on the authorities` air quality index. 

• The Mexican football league said that under the recommendation of city officials, it had decided to postpone the first leg of the first-division semi-final between Leon and Mexico City club America from night to tomorrow because of the pollution. 

 

2. NGT directs 18 states, 2 UTs to submit action plan on utilization of treated wastewater

 

• The National Green Tribunal directed 18 states and two Union Territories to submit an action plan to ensure utilization of treated waste to reduce pressure on the groundwater resources throughout the country. 

• Hearing a plea, a bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel directed the states and UTs to submit the action plan within three months to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).

• The green panel said the states which have still not furnished their action plans are defaulters for violating the directions of the tribunal for which no valid reason can be seen. 

• It noted that only nine states and five UTs have submitted the action plan. 

• Accordingly to the CPCB status report, the states which have not submitted action plans include Gujarat, Assam, Bihar, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. 

 

3. New vine snake species discovered in Odisha

 

• A new vine snake species has discovered from the eastern state of Odisha after a gap of 113 years. 

• It has been found in the regions of Similipal, Balasore, and Boudh. Zoologists from different institutes have participated in the discovery and the research was published in the Journal of Natural History. 

• Zoologists have named snake species as Ahaetulla Laudankia of Laudankia.

• This snake belongs to the family Colubridae.

• It has a total of three prominent genera, Oxybelis found in the American continent, Thelotornis found in African continent and Ahaetull found in India and South-east Asia. 

• The species, Laudankia vine snake, has been found in Similipal, Balasore and Boudh. Of nine species of vine snake reported from across the country so far, Odisha is home to three - common Indian vine snake, variable coloured vine snake and Laudankia, which is also found in Maharashtra and Rajasthan.

 

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 1. UN report notifies that 40% of amphibian species and 1 million of insect and fauna are threatened

 

• The UN Report termed as ‘Global Assessment’, stated that, among the approximated 8 million plant, insect and animal species, around 1 million is at risk of extinction within decades.

• The research study confirms that this extreme loss is a direct result of human activity and has the consequence of a direct threat to human well-being worldwide

• The report was endorsed by 130 countries, including the U.S., Russia and China

• The research study was launched in Paris by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). 

• IPBES is headed by Robert Watson, a British environmental scientist

• The research study has been compiled by 145 expert authors from 50 countries

• The basic foundation of the study lies in the dire need to incorporate a new “post-growth” form of economics, which would help to alter the risks of pollution, habitat destruction and carbon emissions

• The researchers notified that industrial farming and fishing are the major causes of species extinction

• The Species extinction rate has accelerated by tens to hundreds of times over the last 10 million years

• The report also stated that the average abundance of native species in most major habitats has decreased by at least 20%, mostly since 1900

• It also notifies that humans have severely changed 75% of land surface, 40% of oceanic environment and 50% of inland waterways, causing irreparable damage through urbanisation, deforestation and agricultural malpractices.

 

2. Ireland becomes second country to declare climate emergency

 

• Ireland has declared climate emergency in their country, to be the second country after Britain to do so. 

• An amendment to a parliamentary report declaring a climate emergency and calling on parliament to examine how the Irish government can improve its response to the issue of biodiversity loss was accepted without a vote.

• Irish Green Party leader Eamon Ryan, who moved the amendment, called the decision historic. 

• Britain`s parliament became the first in the world to declare a climate emergency, passing the largely symbolic motion on May 1. 

• The step followed 11 days of street protests in London by the Extinction Rebellion environmental campaign group.

 

3. Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES)

 

• According to global assessment report of the (IPBES) –

• Human beings have aggressively exploited nature.

• Species belonging to a quarter of all studied animal and plant groups on earth are gravely threatened (due to human impact).

• Ecosystem losses have accelerated over the past five decades universally

• Any devastation to tropical areas, which are endowed with greater biodiversity than other regions, is worrisome.

• If the world continues to pursue the current model of economic growth without factoring in environmental costs, one million species could go extinct, many in a matter of decades.

• The global rate of species extinction is at least tens to hundreds of times higher than the average rate over the past 10 million years, and it is accelerating alarmingly.

• Marine plastic pollution has increased tenfold since 1980, affecting at least 267 species, including 86% of marine turtles, 44% of seabirds and 43% of marine mammals.

• Ecological economists have always warned about ever-increasing consumption which courts modifying terrestrial, marine and freshwater ecosystems to suit immediate needs, such as raising agricultural and food output and extracting materials.

• Such modifications severely affect other functions such as water availability, pollination, maintenance of wild variants of domesticated plants and climate regulation.

 

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 1. Healthy Oceans Action Plan 

 

• Asian Development Bank (ADB) launched 5$ billion Action Plan for Healthy Oceans and Sustainable Blue Economies for the Asia and Pacific region. This will support ADB’s developing member countries’ efforts for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), inclusive of the SDG 14: Life Below Water.

• Among the 10 rivers that transports 88% to 95% of plastics into the sea globally, 8 are in Asia and Pacific region.

• The Healthy Oceans Action Plan was launched at the 52nd Annual Meeting of ADB’s Board of Governors, Fiji.

• Healthy Oceans Action Plan will expand financing and technical assistance for ocean health and marine economy projects to $5 billion from year 2019 to 2024.

• Under this policy, ADB will also launch the Oceans Financing Initiative (will be done by credit risk guarantees and capital market ‘blue bonds’) which will help in creating opportunities for the private sector to invest in projects for bettering marine health.

The 4 areas that the Action Plan will focus on, are as follows:

• creating inclusive livelihoods and business opportunities in tourism and fisheries

• conserving marine ecosystems and major rivers

• decreasing land-based sources of oceanic pollution, including plastics, wastewater, and agricultural runoff

• improving sustainability in port and coastal infrastructure development.

 

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