We have a curated list of the most noteworthy articles from all across the globe. With any subscription plan, you get access to exclusive articles that let you stay ahead of the curve.
We have a curated list of the most noteworthy articles from all across the globe. With any subscription plan, you get access to exclusive articles that let you stay ahead of the curve.
We have a curated list of the most noteworthy articles from all across the globe. With any subscription plan, you get access to exclusive articles that let you stay ahead of the curve.
We have a curated list of the most noteworthy articles from all across the globe. With any subscription plan, you get access to exclusive articles that let you stay ahead of the curve.
Pollution can be described as contamination of air, water and soil by the introduction of a contaminant into a natural environment, usually by humans that are harmful to living organisms. The most common Facts About Pollution forms are air pollution, water pollution, and agricultural pollution and land pollution.
14 billion pounds (6 bn. Kg.) of garbage are dumped into the ocean every year. Most of it is plastic.
A child dies every 8 seconds from contaminated Water.
Breathing the air of Beijing has the same health risks as smoking 21 cigarettes a day.
1 in every 8 deaths on earth is linked to air pollution
Breathing the air in Mumbai, India, for just one day is equivalent to smoking 100 cigarettes.
Lake Karachay in Russia is the most radioactive and polluted lake in the world.
One of the more common and dangerous pollutants in the environment is cadmium, which kills human fetal sex organ cells. Its widespread presence means it is in almost everything we eat and drink.
The Ganges River in India is one of the most polluted rivers in the world. The pollution includes sewage, trash, food, and animal remains. In some places the Ganges is septic, and corpses of semi-cremated adults or
enshrouded babies drift down the river.
Startling Facts About Pollution is that the world’s largest heavy metal smelting complex is in the Siberian city of Norilsk. Human life expectancy there is 10 years lower than in other Russian cities.
Antarctica is the cleanest place on Earth and is protected by strong antipollution laws.
A single NASA space shuttle launch produces 28 tons of carbon dioxide. An average car generates about half a ton per month. A launch also releases 23 tons of harmful particulate matter, which then settles around the launch site. Additionally, 13 tons of hydrochloric acid kills fish and plants within half a mile of the launch site.
Scientific research has proven that carbon dioxide emissions are lowering the pH of the ocean and are acidifying them even more.
Every 1 million ton of oil that is shipped, approximately 1 ton from gets wasted in the form of spills.
A glass that is produced from recycled glass instead of raw materials can reduce related air pollution by 20%, and water pollution by 50%.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) is the international governing body of cricket. It was founded as the Imperial Cricket Conference in 1909 by representatives from England, Australia and South Africa, all white countries renamed the International Cricket Conference in 1965, and took up its current name in 1989 and new rules adopted to permit the election of countries from outside the Commonwealth.
The ICC has 106 members: 10 Full Members that play official Test matches, 37 Associate Members, and 59 Affiliate Members. West Indies, New Zealand and India were elected as Full Members in 1926, doubling the number of Test-playing nations to six.
The overall Development Program is managed by the Global Development Manager, Mr Matthew Kennedy, who is based at the ICC headquarters in Dubai. The international game grew with several “affiliate nations” getting involved and, in the closing years of the 20th century, three of those became Test nations also: Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh.
The first ever international cricket game was between the USA and Canada in 1844. The match was played at the grounds of the St George’s Cricket Club in New York.
The ICC is responsible for the organization and governance of cricket’s major international tournaments, most notably the Cricket World Cup. It also appoints the umpires and referees that officiate at all sanctioned Test matches, One Day International and Twenty20 Internationals. It promulgates the ICC Code of Conduct, which sets professional standards of discipline for international cricket, and also co-ordinates action against corruption and match-fixing through its Anti-Corruption and Security Unit (ACSU).
The last ICC President was Zaheer Abbas. In 2016 the position of the president of ICC was abolished. The current CEO is  Manu Sawhney and the present chairman is Shashank Manohar. The new head of council is CEO and Chairman of ICC.
The ICC also has a “Code of Conduct” to which teams and players in international matches are required to adhere. Where breaches of this code occur the ICC can apply sanctions, usually fines. In 2006 the ICC imposed 27 penalties on players.
The ICC Mission:
As the international governing body for cricket, the International Cricket Council will lead by:
Promoting and protecting the game, and its unique spirit
Delivering outstanding, memorable events
Providing excellent service to Members and stakeholders
Optimizing its commercial rights and properties for the benefit of its Members
Vision of Success
As a leading global sport cricket will captivate and inspire people of every age, gender, background and ability while building bridges between continents, countries and communities.
Strategic Direction
A bigger, better, global game targeting more players, more fans, more competitive teams.
Our long-term success will be judged on growth in participation and public interest and the competitiveness of teams participating in men’s and women’s international cricket.
Values
Openness, honesty and integrity
Excellence
Accountability and responsibility
Commitment to the game
Respect for our diversity
Fairness and equity
Working as a team
The ICC appoints international umpires and referees, sponsored by Emirates Airline, who officiate at all sanctioned Test matches, One-Day Internationals and Twenty20 Internationals. The ICC operates 3 panels of umpires: namely the Elite Panel, the International Panel, and the Associates and Affiliates Panel.
Prior to the 2007 Cricket World Cup ICC Chief Executive Malcolm Speed warned against any corruption and said that the ICC would be vigilant and intolerant against it.
Developed economies like the USA has resorted to the Shale gas to meet their demand. There is a huge potential of shale gas in India as an alternate energy resource if exploited.
The Natural gas forms about 10% of the total commercial energy mix in India. But, the demand far exceeds the supply. A recent survey has found that many Gas plants in India producing electricity became stagnant due to the lack of supply of Natural gas and are operating with under capacity with the help of imported Natural gas.
The Indian Government has also stalled the construction of new gas plants until 2016. This means electricity shortage will occur soon. Most of the gas produced from the largest gas basin of India, KRISHNA-GODAVARI GAS BASIN is consumed by the fertilizer industries and also output from this source dropped down.
Hence, there is an urgent need of finding an alternative gas resource to run all the sectors efficiently.
A new gas energy resource called SHALE GAS was explored by the USA in early 2000’s. By 2010, USA transformed from a net gas importer to an energy surplus country and also became self-sufficient in terms of Gas deposits. This has created excitement across all countries of the world.
According to the ENERGY INFORMATION ADMINISTRATION report, India’s shale gas reserves equals 96 trillion cubic feet which can supply for 26 years of the country’s Gas demand.
WHAT IS SHALE GAS?
Generally, Natural gas (Methane) can be classified into two heads
CONVENTIONAL NATURAL GAS
UNCONVENTIONAL NATURAL GAS (or) SHALE GAS
CONVENTIONAL NATURAL GAS:
When the sedimentary basin rich in gas is drilled vertically, the gas migrates through porous rocks into the reservoir and flows freely to the surface where it is collected and piped to the users.
The natural gas that is used globally is the conventional natural gas.
UNCONVENTIONAL NATURAL GAS (OR) SHALE GAS:
The SHALE GAS is located in the rocks of very low permeability and cannot escape to the surface as easily as Conventional Natural gas. It is the type of Natural gas which is trapped in the shale formations. Shales are fine-grained sedimentary rocks which are rich sources of petroleum and natural gas.
Hence, different drilling method should be followed to recover the SHALE GAS.
Firstly, the land is drilled vertically up to a considerable distance.
Then, horizontal drilling should be made in various directions to extract gas-rich shale.
After the shale was found, a mixture of water, chemicals and sand are to be injected at very high pressures to break the shale. This process of using shale for breaking up the shale rock is called HYDRAULIC FRACTURING.
Then the chemicals and sand help the gas to reach the surface.
LIMITATIONS:
The main limitation is that the process requires about 3 to 4 million gallons of fresh water which our country cannot afford in a water scarce condition.
Along with the shale gas, many toxic chemicals are also released which cannot be disposed at once.
Land acquisition for the drilling purpose is also a problem.
However, in the month of February this year, OIL CORPORATION of INDIA attained permission from the government to drill out shale gas in the gas basins of ASSAM and ARUNACHAL PRADESH.
CONCLUSION:
Shale gas is definitely going to be a useful additional energy resource for India. But the challenge lies in making it sustainable and safe.
Kyoto Protocol is considered as a milestone in the field of climate change negotiations. It came into existence in third Conference of Parties held in Japan in 1997. The Kyoto Protocol has completed its term and now world is moving forward to a more strong resolution in Paris Meet last year. Before discussing Paris meet let’s have an analysis on few important meets of UNFCCC (CoP).
What is UNFCCC and CoP?
The first multilateral legal instrument on climate change was adopted, by consensus among 195 parties, in a UN Summit Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED). This instrument was named UNFCCC (The UN Framework Convention on Conference of the Parties). All institutions, particularly the Conference of the Parties (COP), the subsidiary bodies (advisor of the cop), and the COP bureau, engaged in the international climate charge negotiations are supported well by the UNFCCC secretariat. COP Bureau deals mainly with organizational and procedural issue emerging from the COP and also has some technical function. All the multilateral negotiation are based on the principle and objectives spelled art by the UNFCCC, which were to cooperatively consider what they could do to check average global temperature increase and the resulting climate charge.
On 11 December 1997, the Kyoto Protocol was adopted, in order to strengthen the global response to climate change in Kyoto, Japan. However, due to a complicated ratification process it entered into force on 16 February 2005.
The Kyoto Protocol commits industrialised nation to stabilise greenhouse gas emission based on the principles and objectives of the convention. Therefore, it can be said that the Kyoto Protocol “operationalized” the convention.
The major difference between the convention and the Protocol is -the convention encourages industrialized nations to stabilize GHG emission, the Protocol commits them to do it.
Targets:
In its first commitment period, KP fixed binding targets for 37 industrialized countries and the European countries. It was acknowledged by KP that developed countries were mainly responsible for the current high level of GHG emissions in the atmosphere owing to their 150 years of industrial activities. so it only restricted the developed countries.
Under its central principle of common but differentiates responsibility. KP placed a heavier burden on developed counties. these targets on the whole added up to an average five per cent emissions reduction compared to 1990 levels over the five-year period from 2008 to 2012.
The essential framework of the Kyoto Protocol has been constructed and shaped over almost two decoded of experience, political will and hard work. The most important features on which Kyoto Protocol was made up of:-
Procedures of reporting and verification,
Flexible market-based mechanisms which had in turn their own procedures of governance and,
A system of compliance. So it can be claimed that two things made KP function efficiently
Commitments to emission reduction
The restricted emission reduction commitments for developed parties, the first one, clearly indicated that space to pollute was limited. Carbon dioxide became new commodity as it was prevalent in greenhouse gas emissions. Kyoto Protocol then started to internalise what was then acknowledged as unpriced externalities.
Mechanism of flexible Markets
The mechanisms of flexible markets, the second one, of the KP were based on the trade of emissions permits. The countries bound to targets had to meet them mainly through domestic action-for example, in the developing countries.
Its objective is to promote, facilitate and enforce compliance with commitment listed in the protocol.
Its objectives are:
to help parties to meet their targets by removing carbon from the atmosphere in other countries in a cost-effective way.
to encourage sustainable development through investment and technology transfer.
to urge the developing countries and the private sector to contribute to the efforts in emission reduction .
Joint Implementation:
This mechanism permitted a country under the Kyoto Protocol (Annex. B Party- develop nation) to earn emission reduction units (ERUs) from an emission removal project in another Annex B Party, each being equivalent to one tonne of CO2 which could be counted towards meeting its Kyoto target.
In this mechanism the host party benefited from foreign investment and technology transfer. Although projects starting from the year 2000 might be eligible as JI projects, ERU issued from 2008.
Clean Development Mechanism
The clean Development Mechanism (CDM), being the first global, environmental investment and credit scheme of its kind, allowed a party under the Kyoto Protocol (Annex B Party) to implement an emission reduction project in developing countries.
This scheme provided standardized emission offset instrument – CERs. The projects under this scheme could earn certified emission reduction (CER) credits, each equivalent to one tonne of Carbon dioxide that could be counted in meeting Kyoto targets.
Carbon Trading:
The exchange of emission permits that – is carbon trading – may take place within the economy or may take the form of international transaction.
There are two types of carbon trading;
Emission trading, and
Offset trading
1. Emission trading/ ‘Cap-and-trade’
Emission permit is another name for carbon credit. The protocol had assigned a fixed amount of carbon emission for each Annex 1 country in the agreement. This amount was in fact the amount of emission that was to be reduced by the concerned country, implying that the country was permitted to exit the remaining amount. This allowance was in fact kind of carbon credit.
The total amount of allowance was then subdivides into certain units which were expressed in terms of carbon equivalent. Each unit granted the owner the right to exit one metric tonne of greenhouse gods.
A country can earn another variant of carbon credit by investing some amount of money in carbon projects which exit lesser amount of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere. The Word Bank’s carbon finance unit estimated that the volume of carbon trade through emission trading route alone had indicated a 240 per cent increase in 2005 over the previous year.
Benefits of flexible market mechanism
It has the analogous benefits or encouraging green investment in developing countries and embracing the private sector in this effort to cut and hold steady GHG emission at save level. It also makes “leap- frogging” more economical by creating the possibility to terminate older, dirtier technology for newer, cleaner infrastructure and systems to get long term benefits.
The Kyoto Protocol compliance mechanism was aimed to strengthen its environmental integrity, support the credibility of carbon market and ensure transparency of accounting by parties.
Non-Compliance of Kyoto Protocol and Penalties
-The country that does not fulfil the requirements for measurements and reporting loses the privilege of getting credit through joint implementation projects.
– The country that crosses its emission cap, and does not try to bridge the difference by using any of the available mechanisms, must make up the difference plus and an additional thirty per cent during the next period. The country could also face a ban from participating in the “cap and trade” programme.
