Current Affairs Environment for Prelims
Fashion industry harming environment ?
Fashion Industry making the planet more warmer. It is one of the major sources of greenhouse gasses. When clothes are discarded they piled up and ends in landfills. From landfills the microfiber then enters the ocean.
Area of Concern
People buy more clothes these days. Thanks to the online shopping and their great discount offers.To reduce costs many cheap and short term clothes are flooding market in terms of fast clothing.
When these clothes are washed the colors and fibers enters the ecosystem.Fishes in oceans or seas eating fiber that comes from washing these clothes.
Almost half a million tones of microfibers enter the ocean every year. If still nothing is done, it will be too late in future.
1.2 billion tones of carbon emitted by global fashion industry every year(report by Environmental audit committee submissions 2015)
For a detailed analysis on Marine plastic pollution , must visit this link CLICK
Solution
- Time for fashion industry to become more responsible towards environment.
- Ban on dumping of clothes. Make clothes that lasts longer.
- Recycling & Using recycled materials.
- Incinerate unsold or returned stock.
- Find way of reducing the flow of microfibers to rivers and sea.
Ghost Nets killing marine life
Ghost nets are classified under those fishing gear which once used for catching the fish called as Discarded, Lost or Abandoned Fishing gear.
It includes lines, traps, hooks and dredges. Ghost nets are killer which kills marine wildlife that includes vulnerable species.
It can destroy the benthic ecosystems that exist at the deep waters.
With the global expansion in fishing business and availability of more durable gears this problem is mounting.
Better quality synthetic nets can lasts in the ocean for centuries & leads to micro-plastic ingestion by marine organisms.
In a 2009 study titled ‘Abandoned, Lost or Otherwise Discarded Fishing Gear’ by The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) states that 10% of total usage of all fishing gears are discarded in the oceans annually.
This 10% ranges to something 6,40,000 tonnes which is whopping.
Even if a kg of fish gets entangled in these lost fishing gears in the benthic zone, there are almost 200 tonnes of loss of aquatic life annually.
Lions Death- Cause and Vaccination
Recently death of 23 Lions in Gir forest Gujarat has sparked a debate about finding the big cats a second home.
Canine Distemper Virus (CDV) was responsible for the deaths of the Lion in the Gir forest, Gujarat which was confirmed by the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR).
ICMR recommended vaccination of Lions to prevent from further outbreaks. But wildlife biologists are against this recommendation and say that wild animals shouldn’t be vaccinated.
They further says that it will compromise their immunity against future infections. As they live in wild and not in a zoo.
These are the words of Y.S. Jhala, a senior scientist at the Wildlife Institute of India as told The Hindu.
Canine Distemper Virus (CDV) causes a highly contagious and life-threatening disease in dogs. It also affects different wild carnivores viz., wolves, foxes, raccoons, red pandas, ferrets, hyenas, tigers, and lions.
In the past, Canine Distemper Virus (CDV) outbreak in Serengeti forest areas in East Africa had wiped out 30% of the total populations of Lion.
News Source: the Hindu