🔆 Sustainable Nickel Extraction
📍 Breakthrough Method
✅ High-purity ferronickel produced with carbon neutrality in mind.
✅ Key Advantage: Eliminates extensive refining steps, making the process more sustainable.

📍 Challenges Ahead
✅ Scalability: High initial investment in infrastructure & renewable energy.
✅ Further Research: Deeper study in thermodynamic kinetics and oxygen supply is needed.

🔆 Why Scientists Study Tardigrades 🦠

📍 Tardigrades (also called water bears): Tiny, resilient, 8-legged organisms.
📍 Space experiment: Sent to the ISS to study their survival and resilience.
📍 Key question: How do tardigrades survive extreme space conditions like radiation, temperature changes, and vacuum?
📍 Purpose: Discovering insights for human survival in space and crop protection on Earth.

#SpaceScience #Tardigrades #ISS

🔆 Water Stress: A Looming Crisis for India

📍 NITI Aayog Study (2018)
✅ 600 million Indians may be impacted by water stress
✅ Could cause a 6% loss in GDP

📍 Pollution & Resource Risk
✅ 311 polluted river stretches in 30 States/UTs
✅ 53% of solid waste remains untreated

📍 Global Risk Alert
✅ India flagged as high-risk in World Resources Institute’s Water Risk Atlas

⚠️ Urgent reforms in water management are critical for economic stability and resource sustainability.

World's rivers are leaking olg CO2 into air

🌍 Rivers Leaking Ancient CO₂ into Atmosphere

📍 Key Findings
✅ 60% of CO₂ from rivers comes from millennia-old deep soil carbon, low in carbon-14.
✅ Rivers are leaking old CO₂, returning ancient carbon to the air.

📍 Implications
✅ The leak rate matches the carbon absorbed by land ecosystems.
✅ Carbon-cycle models may be undercounting land carbon losses due to this overlooked source.

🚦 New App Helps Commuters Pick ‘Greener’ Routes

📍 About DRUM App
✅ Developed by IIT-Kharagpur, the DRUM app offers 5 route options: shortest, fastest, least pollution (LEAP), least energy (ECAP), and combined.
✅ Real-time data helps reduce pollution exposure by 50% in Delhi (LEAP route).

📍 Key Features
✅ Uses GraphHopper + Mapbox for real-time traffic and route generation.
✅ Routes with high pollution, energy use, or delay are eliminated.
✅ Prioritizes health and sustainability, tested on Delhi roads.

📍 Broader Goals
✅ May extend to bikes, rickshaws, walking and integrate street sensors.
✅ Aims to cut urban air pollution, which causes 72% of city deaths yearly.

🔆 MATSYA 6000: India’s Deep Ocean Mission

📍 About the Mission
MATSYA 6000, part of the Samudrayan project, is designed to carry 3 humans to a depth of 6000 meters under the sea for scientific exploration and biodiversity research. India will become the 6th country capable of human submersible missions.

📍 Key Components
✅ Deep Sea Mining: Harvesting polymetallic nodules from the Central Indian Ocean Basin.
✅ Manned Submersible: Enabling human presence at extreme depths for observation.
✅ Ocean Climate Change Services: Understanding ocean dynamics and climate.
✅ Marine Biotechnology: Exploring deep-sea biodiversity for sustainable resources.

📍 SWOT Analysis
✅ Strengths: Indigenous submersible, strategic ocean mapping, access to critical minerals.
✅ Weaknesses: High costs, technological complexity, environmental risks.
✅ Opportunities: Green energy, marine biotech, Indo-Pacific strategic leadership.
✅ Threats: Ecosystem disruption, geopolitical tensions, regulatory challenges.

#environment
#GovernmentSchemes

🔆 Kerala Seeks Amnesty Scheme for Wildlife Trophy Declaration

📍 What’s Proposed?
✅ Kerala plans to request the Centre for an amnesty scheme allowing people to declare wildlife trophies in their custody, last permitted in 2003.
✅ As per Section 40 of Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, undeclared trophies are illegal.

📍 Who’s Eligible?
✅ Legal heirs with valid ownership licenses issued by the Forest Department.
✅ Only trophies inherited, not illegally acquired.

📍 Penalties
✅ Conviction may lead to 3–7 years jail + ₹25,000 fine.

📍 Centre’s Role
✅ Final approval lies with the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change.

🔆 Climate Change: Sensitivity, Adaptability and Vulnerability

✅ Sensitivity:
- Sensitivity refers to the extent a system is impacted by climate-related changes.
- It includes the response to changes in temperature or extreme weather events (e.g., crop yield changes due to temperature or coastal flooding due to sea level rise).

✅ Adaptive Capacity:
- Adaptive capacity refers to a system's ability to adjust to climate change, including variability and extremes.
- This ability helps to manage potential damage and take advantage of opportunities or cope with the effects of climate changes.

✅ Vulnerability:
- Vulnerability describes the degree to which a system is susceptible to, or unable to cope with, adverse effects of climate change.
- It depends on the magnitude, rate, and variation of climate change and its sensitivity and adaptive capacity.

📍 Conclusion:
- Sensitivity, adaptability, and vulnerability form the three key factors that determine how a system will respond to climate change, with each factor influencing the overall resilience of the system.

🔆 Cooking Oils Help Extract Silver from E-Waste

📍 Scientists found that fatty acids in cooking oils (like sunflower or groundnut oil) can recover silver from e-waste like old phones and computer parts.
✅ A mobile phone contains up to 200 mg of silver; laptops even more.
✅ This eco-friendly method avoids toxic chemicals and helps recycle precious metals from discarded electronics.

🔆 MV Wan Hai 503 Fire: Ship Towed Away from Coast

📍 The Singapore-flagged ship Wan Hai 503, which caught fire off the Kerala coast, is now stable and being towed away by the Indian Navy and Coast Guard.
✅ Ship still tilted, smoke continues.
✅ Containers may reach Kerala shores (Ernakulam, Alappuzha, Kollam) between Monday and Wednesday.
✅ Public warned to maintain 200m distance from debris.

🔆 New AC Temperature Norms Proposed to Save Energy

📍 Union Power Minister Manohar Lal Khattar proposed limiting AC temperature range to 20–28°C, building on BEE’s 2018 guidelines.
✅ Aim: Energy conservation through optimal temperature use in public and commercial buildings.
✅ India’s AC power demand could reach 200 GW by 2030.
✅ Default AC setting is already 24°C in government guidelines.

🔆 Who’s Responsible When a Ship Sinks?

📍 Recent Kerala coast incidents: MV Wan Hai 503 (June 9) and MSC ELSA (May 25).
✅ IMO regulates global shipping rules via conventions like SOLAS and HNS, covering safety, pollution, and compensation.
✅ Shipowners are liable for cargo loss and environmental damage.
✅ India may ratify more conventions as shipping accidents rise.

🔆 Ocean Pollution: A Global Environmental Threat

📍 What is Ocean Pollution?
Ocean pollution refers to the introduction of plastics, toxic metals, chemicals, and agricultural runoff into marine ecosystems, leading to ecological imbalance and human health risks.

📍 Key Impacts

✅ Microplastics Menace
• Account for 80% of ocean debris
• Ingested by marine animals, reaching humans via seafood
• Detected at 100m depth, disrupting the carbon cycle
📖 Source: Nature (2023)

✅ Harmed Marine Life
• Ingestion leads to reduced feeding and poor health
• Pollutants destroy habitats, threaten biodiversity

✅ Oxygen Depletion
• Decomposing waste consumes oxygen, suffocating marine life

✅ Risks to Human Health
• Contaminated seafood
• Toxic aerosols from sea spray may affect coastal populations

📍 Mitigation Measures

✅ Climate Change Action
• Cut greenhouse gas emissions to ease ocean stress

✅ Enhanced Monitoring
• Invest in data, satellite tech to track oxygen levels & pollution sources

✅ Awareness & Behaviour Change
• Public education to reduce plastic use & marine dumping

📍 Global Action & Treaties

✅ MARPOL – Regulates pollution from ships
✅ UNCLOS – Ensures sustainable ocean governance
✅ High Seas Treaty (BBNJ Agreement, 2023)
• Adopted under UNCLOS
• Focus: Conserve marine biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction
• Targets: Reduce pollution, support sustainable use of high seas resources

📍 Fact Sheet

✅ Plastic = 80% of all marine pollution
✅ 8–10 million metric tons/year plastic enters oceans
✅ By 2050, plastic could outweigh all fish
📖 Source: UNESCO, Environmental Studies

#environment

🔆The International Big Cat Alliance (IBCA)
✅The IBCA was established through the nodal organisation viz. National Tiger Conservation Authority, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change 2024.
✅The IBCA became a legal entity after five countries—Nicaragua, Eswatini, India, Somalia, and Liberia—had signed the Framework Agreement to formally become members of the IBCA.
✅It is a coalition of 95 range countries.
✅The IBCA primarily aims for conservation of seven big cats namely Tiger, Lion, Leopard, Snow Leopard, Cheetah, Jaguar and Puma.
Objectives: 
✅Facilitation of collaboration and synergy amongst the concerned stakeholders, 
🔸consolidation of successful conservation practices;
🔸and expertise to achieve conservation of big cats around the globe.
✅The initiative seeks to foster international collaboration for the sustainable future of big cats, as well as underscores India’s leadership and commitment to global wildlife conservation

📍2025 Summit Outcome:
✅First General Assembly Held: The inaugural Assembly of IBCA convened in New Delhi on June 16, 2025, marking a global milestone in big cat diplomacy.
✅Nine Nations Participated: Countries like Bhutan, Cambodia, Eswatini, and Kazakhstan joined India to discuss collaborative conservation goals.
✅India Designated as HQ: The Headquarters Agreement was ratified, formally establishing India as the permanent secretariat of IBCA.
✅Bhupender Yadav Elected President: India’s Environment Minister was unanimously endorsed as the first President of the Alliance, reflecting India’s leadership.
✅Funding Commitment by India: India allocated ₹150 crore (2023–28) to support IBCA’s initial setup, coordination, and capacity building efforts globally.

🔆 Key Takeaways: Flue Gas Desulphurisation (FGD) Units in India

📍 🧪 What Are FGD Units?
✅ FGD units remove SO₂ from flue gas—SO₂ is acidic, and FGDs neutralise it using basic compounds.
✅ Three main types:
 • Dry sorbent injection – powdered limestone reacts with SO₂; residue filtered.
 • Wet limestone treatment – limestone slurry used; highly efficient and widely used.
 • Seawater scrubbing – used in coastal plants, seawater absorbs SO₂, treated before discharge.

📍 🇮🇳 India’s Current Status
✅ 2015: Environment Ministry mandated FGDs in all 537 coal-fired TPPs.
✅ As of August 2024, only 39 units had FGDs installed.
✅ By April 2025, India’s coal-based power capacity was 2,19,338 MW—46% of total electricity capacity.

📍 💰 Cost & Policy Implications
✅ Installation cost: approx. ₹1.2 crore/MW.
✅ Estimated cost for 97,000 MW: ₹97,000 crore.
✅ Tariffs may increase by ₹0.72/kWh, largely due to fixed costs (over 80%).
✅ Variable cost rise remains under ₹0.1/kWh.

📍 🌱 Environmental & Health Impact
✅ SO₂ contributes to global warming and respiratory issues.
✅ Leads to secondary particulate matter (PM) formation—80% of PM linked to SO₂ from coal burning.

📍 ⚠️ No Viable Alternatives
✅ Experts affirm: no substitute for FGDs to remove SO₂ from coal emissions.
✅ Urgent compliance needed to avoid further delays and health costs.

#environment

🔆 New Jumping Spider Found in Southern India

📍 A new spider species, Spartaeus karigiri, was discovered in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
✅ Belongs to the Spartaeinae subfamily, known for intelligent hunting and web invasion.
✅ First time Spartaeus and Sonoita genera, seen only in Africa & Southeast Asia, are recorded in India.
✅ Found at Karigiri (Elephant Hill) and Villupuram district.

🔆 Delhi boosts anti-air pollution efforts with tech-driven machines
✅ CM Rekha Gupta launched 460 water sprinklers, 70 road sweepers, and anti-smog guns.
✅ Aim: Mechanised cleaning before winter air worsens.
✅ CM called it a “technology-driven sanitation mindset.”
✅ Earlier ₹2,388 crore plan failed; new approval in May 2024 includes waste and road management.