Environment & Ecology Mixed Quiz: Set 11

The correct answer is C, eight. The National Action Plan on Climate Change was released in 2008 and is built around eight national missions: the National Solar Mission, the National Mission for Enhanced Energy Efficiency, the National Mission on Sustainable Habitat, the National Water Mission, the National Mission for Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem, the National Mission for a Green India, the National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture and the National Mission on Strategic Knowledge for Climate Change. Some address the cutting of emissions and others the task of adapting to a changed climate.

Options A, B and D give wrong counts. Candidates should be able to name at least the solar, water, Himalayan and green India missions, since questions often ask which of four given missions is not part of the plan.

The correct answer is A, Sardar Sarovar. The Narmada Bachao Andolan grew up against the Sardar Sarovar dam on the Narmada.

The movement began in 1985 under Medha Patkar, with Baba Amte and others joining later. It argued that raising the dam's height would submerge villages and forests in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat and that the people displaced were not being resettled properly. The protest used fasts, rallies and the courts, and in 1993 it made the World Bank withdraw from the project. The Supreme Court allowed construction to continue in 2000 with conditions on rehabilitation.

Option B, Bhakra Nangal, is on the Sutlej in Himachal Pradesh and Punjab. Option C, Rihand, is in Uttar Pradesh on a tributary of the Son. Option D, Tehri, on the Bhagirathi in Uttarakhand, had its own protest led by Sunderlal Bahuguna, not the Narmada Bachao Andolan.

Exam tip: Narmada Bachao - Medha Patkar, Sardar Sarovar; Chipko and Tehri - Sunderlal Bahuguna.

The correct answer is B, CITES, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. It was agreed at Washington in 1973 and came into force in 1975. Species are placed in three appendices: Appendix I covers species threatened with extinction, in which commercial trade is generally prohibited; Appendix II covers species that may become threatened unless trade is controlled; Appendix III covers species protected by a particular country that seeks the help of others.

Option A, the Ramsar Convention of 1971, protects wetlands of international importance and not wildlife trade. Option C, the Basel Convention of 1989, governs the movement of hazardous wastes between countries. Option D, the Rotterdam Convention of 1998, requires prior informed consent before certain hazardous chemicals and pesticides can be exported, which again is a chemicals treaty rather than a wildlife one.

The correct answer is A, Rajasthan Renewable Energy Corporation Ltd. RRECL, with its office in Jaipur, is the state nodal agency of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy for developing power from non-conventional sources in Rajasthan. It promotes solar, wind, biomass and small hydro projects and develops the state's solar parks. The strong, steady sunshine of the Thar region and the wind corridor around Jaisalmer make Rajasthan one of the country's main sources of renewable power. Option B, the Rajasthan State Electricity Board, was the old integrated utility and was unbundled in 2000 into separate generation, transmission and distribution companies, so it is not the nodal agency. Option C is not a real body. Option D, Jaipur Vidyut Vitaran Nigam Ltd., is one of the state's three discoms and only distributes power to consumers in its region. Exam tip: every state has one MNRE nodal agency for renewable energy — in Rajasthan it is RRECL.

The correct answer is A, depletion of the ozone layer. The Montreal Protocol was agreed in 1987 under the Vienna Convention to phase out the substances that destroy stratospheric ozone, chiefly chlorofluorocarbons used in refrigeration, air conditioning and aerosol sprays. It is regarded as the most successful environmental treaty because the phase-out actually happened and the ozone layer is expected to recover. Its Kigali Amendment of 2016 added hydrofluorocarbons, which do not harm ozone but are powerful greenhouse gases.

Option B belongs to the Ramsar Convention on wetlands. Option C belongs to CITES, the convention on international trade in endangered species. Option D belongs to the Basel Convention on the movement of hazardous waste across borders. These four conventions, with their subjects and their years, are worth learning as one table, because a question usually offers them as alternatives to one another.

The correct answer is A, Lichens. A bioindicator is a living organism whose presence, absence or health tells us about the quality of the environment. Lichens are a partnership between a fungus and an alga or cyanobacterium; they have no roots and take water and nutrients straight from the air and rain. This makes them very sensitive to air pollution, especially sulphur dioxide. They vanish from the bark of trees in polluted cities and grow richly where the air is clean, so scientists map lichens to judge air quality. Mosses are used in a similar way. Option B is wrong because methyl mercury is a toxic pollutant, not a living indicator; it caused Minamata disease in Japan in the 1950s. Option C is wrong because the rose plant is not used as a standard indicator of air quality. Option D is wrong because the sunflower is not a recognised air pollution indicator either. Exam tip: lichens indicate sulphur dioxide in the air; E. coli in water indicates faecal pollution.

The correct answer is C, 1997. The Kyoto Protocol was adopted at the third Conference of the Parties to the framework convention on climate change, held at Kyoto in Japan in 1997. It bound the developed countries listed in Annex I to quantified emission reduction commitments and left developing countries outside such targets, and it created three flexibility mechanisms: the Clean Development Mechanism, Joint Implementation and emissions trading.

Option A, 1992, is the year of the Rio Earth Summit, where the framework convention itself was opened for signature. Option B, 1995, saw the first Conference of the Parties at Berlin, which produced the mandate that led to Kyoto but no protocol. Option D, 2005, is the year the protocol actually entered into force, after Russia ratified it; adoption and entry into force are separate dates and are a frequent source of confusion.

The correct answer is C, Glacier. A glacier is a natural mass of moving ice and a source of fresh water, not a pollutant.

A water pollutant is any substance added to water that makes it unfit for use. Pollutants are grouped as physical, such as silt, heat and colour; chemical, such as heavy metals, fertilisers, pesticides and detergents; and biological, such as bacteria and viruses from sewage. Glaciers in the Himalayas feed the Ganga, Yamuna and Brahmaputra, so they supply water rather than spoil it.

A is wrong as a choice because chromium is a heavy metal discharged by tanneries and electroplating units and causes serious harm. B is wrong because silt, washed in by erosion, raises turbidity, cuts light for aquatic plants and is treated as a physical pollutant. D is wrong because arsenic in groundwater, a known problem in West Bengal and Bihar, causes arsenicosis and skin cancer.

Exam tip: Physical pollutants - silt and heat; chemical - chromium, arsenic, fluoride; biological - pathogens from sewage.

The correct answer is B, Gurugram in India. The International Solar Alliance was launched jointly by India and France at the Paris climate conference in 2015 to promote solar energy among countries that lie largely between the tropics, and its secretariat was established at the campus of the National Institute of Solar Energy at Gwal Pahari in Gurugram, Haryana. It is the first treaty based international organisation to have its headquarters in India, which is the point examiners usually test.

Option A, Paris, is where the alliance was announced but not where it is based. Option C, Nairobi, hosts the United Nations Environment Programme. Option D, Abu Dhabi, hosts the International Renewable Energy Agency, which is a different body and a common distractor in this question.

The correct answer is C, It protects us from harmful radiation. The ozone layer shields us from the Sun's harmful ultraviolet rays, so when it thins, that protection is lost. It lies in the stratosphere, roughly 15 to 35 km above the Earth, and absorbs most of the UV-B and UV-C radiation. More UV reaching the ground means more skin cancer, cataracts and weaker immunity in people, and damage to crops and to plankton in the sea. The main culprits are chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), once used in refrigerators, air conditioners and aerosol sprays; a single chlorine atom can destroy thousands of ozone molecules. The Montreal Protocol of 1987 phased these chemicals out. A is wrong because extra UV harms plants and lowers crop yields. B is wrong because ozone loss is about radiation, not the pollution of water. D is wrong because it does nothing to make soil more fertile. Exam tip: ozone layer = Earth's sunscreen in the stratosphere; CFCs damage it; Montreal Protocol 1987; World Ozone Day is 16 September.

The correct answer is A. The Paris Agreement was adopted at the twenty-first Conference of the Parties in 2015 and entered into force in 2016. Its central aim is to hold the increase in the global average temperature to well below two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels while pursuing efforts to limit the increase to one and a half degrees. Every party submits a Nationally Determined Contribution stating its own targets, which are to be reviewed and strengthened over time.

Option B is wrong both in the figure and in the baseline, since the agreement measures the rise from pre-industrial levels and not from the present. Option C names a level far beyond anything the agreement contemplates; a five degree rise is the kind of outcome it exists to prevent. Option D is wrong because no treaty has promised zero further warming from a year two thousand baseline, which is not physically achievable given the warming already committed.

The correct answer is A, Carbon captured by oceans and coastal ecosystems. Blue carbon is the carbon stored by marine and coastal ecosystems, especially mangroves, salt marshes and seagrass meadows. These plants take in carbon dioxide, and because their waterlogged soils have little oxygen, dead matter decays slowly and the carbon stays locked in the sediment for hundreds or even thousands of years. Area for area, they can store several times more carbon than tropical forests, which is why protecting the Sundarbans and India's seagrass beds counts as climate action. When these habitats are cleared, the stored carbon goes back into the air. Option B is wrong because carbon held in forest biomass and farm soils is called green carbon. Option C is wrong because carbon in petroleum and natural gas is fossil carbon, which is released as carbon dioxide when burnt. Option D is wrong because carbon dioxide in the air is simply atmospheric carbon, not stored carbon. Exam tip: blue carbon means coasts and oceans, green carbon means forests and soils.

The correct answer is D, increased ultraviolet radiation reaching the surface. That is the consequence of ozone depletion, a separate problem caused by chlorofluorocarbons thinning the ozone layer in the stratosphere, and it is addressed by the Montreal Protocol. Mixing the two problems is the single commonest error in this part of the syllabus.

Option A, the rise in sea level, follows both from the expansion of sea water as it warms and from the melting of land ice. Option B, the retreat of glaciers, is observed in the Himalaya, the Alps and the Andes and threatens the flow of rivers fed by them. Option C, coral bleaching, happens when unusually warm water makes corals expel the algae that live within them and give them colour, leaving them white and liable to die.

The correct answer is B, Pinjore. India's first vulture breeding centre, the Jatayu Conservation Breeding Centre, was set up at Pinjore in the Panchkula district of Haryana in 2001. It was started because the population of white-backed, long-billed and slender-billed vultures had crashed by more than ninety per cent in the 1990s. The cause was diclofenac, a painkiller given to cattle, which caused kidney failure in vultures that fed on the carcasses; its veterinary use was banned in India in 2006. The centre breeds these three critically endangered species in captivity and releases them into the wild. Option A is wrong because Pushkar in Rajasthan is known for its lake and the Brahma temple. Option C is wrong because Rampur in Uttar Pradesh has no such centre, though a vulture centre works at Rani in Assam. Option D is wrong because Agra is known for the Taj Mahal and a bear rescue facility. Exam tip: Pinjore in Haryana for vultures, and diclofenac as the reason for their decline.

The correct answer is B, control of transboundary movements of hazardous wastes and their disposal. The Basel Convention was adopted in 1989 after public anger at the export of toxic waste from industrialised countries to poorer ones, and it requires prior informed consent from the importing state before such a shipment may be made. Later amendments have brought plastic waste and electronic waste within its notification requirements.

Option A, protection of the ozone layer, belongs to the Vienna Convention of 1985 and the Montreal Protocol of 1987. Option C, conservation of biological diversity, is the subject of the convention opened for signature at Rio in 1992, with its Cartagena and Nagoya protocols. Option D, desertification, is dealt with by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification of 1994, which followed a recommendation of the Rio summit.

The correct answer is D, 29th July. International Tiger Day, also called Global Tiger Day, is observed every year on 29 July. It was started in 2010 at the Tiger Summit held in St Petersburg, Russia, where the thirteen tiger-range countries promised to double the number of wild tigers by 2022. The day spreads awareness about the loss of tiger habitat and poaching. India is home to about three-fourths of the world's wild tigers; it launched Project Tiger on 1 April 1973 from Jim Corbett National Park, and the National Tiger Conservation Authority was set up in 2005. The tiger is India's national animal and the results of the tiger census are usually released around this day. A is wrong because 12 May is International Nurses Day, the birthday of Florence Nightingale. B is wrong because 10 January is World Hindi Day. C is wrong because 5 November is World Tsunami Awareness Day. Exam tip: 29 July Tiger Day (St Petersburg 2010); Project Tiger 1973; 12 August is World Elephant Day.

The correct answer is A, the Stockholm Conference of 1972. The United Nations Conference on the Human Environment met at Stockholm in June 1972 and was the first global gathering to treat the environment as a subject of international policy. The United Nations Environment Programme was created later the same year as a direct result, with its headquarters at Nairobi in Kenya, the first such body to be based in a developing country. The fifth of June is observed as World Environment Day in memory of the conference.

Option B, the Rio Earth Summit of 1992, produced Agenda 21 and two conventions but not UNEP, which already existed and helped organise it. Option C, the Johannesburg Summit of 2002, reviewed progress ten years after Rio. Option D, the Kyoto Conference of 1997, was a meeting of the parties to the climate convention and created a protocol, not an agency.

The correct answer is A, Refuse. The 3 R's of waste management are Reduce, Reuse and Recycle; Refuse is not one of them. Reduce means creating less waste in the first place, such as buying fewer packaged goods and switching off lights to save power. Reuse means using a thing again, like refilling a bottle or turning old clothes into bags. Recycle means sending waste such as paper, glass, metal and plastic to be made into new products. NCERT gives the three in this order, and the order matters: reducing is the best option and recycling the last resort because it still uses energy. Some newer lists add Refuse and Repurpose to make 5 R's, but the paper asks about the 3 R's. B is wrong because recycling is one of the three. C is wrong because reducing is the first R. D is wrong because reuse is the second R. Exam tip: 3 R's = Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, in that order of preference.

The correct answer is B, the Convention on Biological Diversity. The Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, adopted in 2000, governs the safe handling, transport and use of living modified organisms produced by modern biotechnology. The Nagoya Protocol, adopted in 2010, works out the convention's third objective by laying down rules for access to genetic resources and for the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising from their use.

Option A, the climate convention, has its own instruments, the Kyoto Protocol of 1997 and the Paris Agreement of 2015. Option C, the Vienna Convention of 1985, has the Montreal Protocol of 1987 under it. Option D, the desertification convention of 1994, works through regional implementation annexes and national action programmes rather than through protocols of this kind.

The correct answer is C, mercury. The Minamata Convention on Mercury was adopted in 2013 and entered into force in 2017. It controls the supply and trade of mercury, restricts its use in products such as batteries, switches and certain measuring devices, and regulates emissions from coal burning and from small-scale gold mining. It is named after the Japanese city of Minamata, where industrial discharge of mercury compounds into the bay caused severe neurological disease from the nineteen fifties.

Option A, lead, is regulated by national laws on petrol, paint and pipes rather than by a dedicated global convention. Option B, asbestos, appears in the annexes of the Rotterdam Convention on prior informed consent. Option D, arsenic, is a serious contaminant of groundwater in parts of South Asia but is dealt with through drinking water standards and national programmes, not by a treaty of its own.