India, China among biggest carbon dioxide emitters, report reveals stark reality (GS Paper 3, Environment)
Why in news?
- Scientists have reported a 1.1% surge in carbon dioxide emissions in 2023 compared to the previous year.
- This increase has been attributed primarily to heightened pollution levels from China and India, with global officials at international climate talks grappling with the reality of emissions that continue to climb despite ambitious targets.
Details:
- The Global Carbon Project, an esteemed collective of international scientists, disclosed that a staggering 36.8 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide were released into the atmosphere in 2023, double the amount from four decades ago.
- This alarming figure emerged as world leaders convened to discuss strategies aimed at slashing emissions by 43% by 2030.
- With the current trajectory, even maintaining the 2-degree Celsius threshold is becoming increasingly precarious, necessitating rapid and substantial cuts in fossil fuel emissions.
Key Highlights:
- The equivalent of 2.57 million pounds of carbon dioxide was pumped into the air every second due to fossil fuel combustion and cement manufacturing. If China and India were excluded from the calculations, global emissions would have seen a decline.
- The detailed figures reveal that China's emissions surged by 458 million metric tons from last year, while India's increased by 233 million metric tons. Aviation emissions also climbed by 145 million metric tons.
- In contrast, the rest of the world collectively reduced fossil fuel emissions by 419 million metric tons, with Europe leading the way with a 205 million metric ton reduction, followed by the United States with a decrease of 154 million metric tons.
- Europe's 8% drop in emissions spanned coal, oil, gas, and cement, while the U.S. saw a significant reduction in coal emissions, albeit with minor upticks in oil and gas.
- The report suggests that China's 4% jump in emissions mirrors the post-pandemic recovery experienced by other regions in 2022.
Way Forward:
- These findings, based on comprehensive data from nations and companies projected through the end of the month, serve as a clarion call for immediate action.
Penguins sleep for just 4 seconds as they guard newborns
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
Why in news?
- In Antarctica's breeding colonies, chinstrap penguins have developed a remarkable strategy to balance the demands of parenting with the need for sleep.
Adaptation:
- Researchers have discovered that these dedicated penguin parents manage to accumulate approximately 11 hours of sleep each day through thousands of microsleeps, each lasting only about four seconds.
- This extraordinary sleep pattern allows the penguins to maintain constant vigilance over their vulnerable eggs and chicks, protecting them from predators such as the brown skua bird and from other penguins that may attempt to pilfer pebbles from their nests.
- The findings reveal how these birds adapt to the challenges of raising offspring in a crowded and noisy environment.
Key Highlights:
- The study involved attaching sensors to measure brain waves on 14 adult chinstrap penguins over an 11-day period on King George Island. The recorded brain activity confirmed that the penguins were indeed engaging in microsleeps.
- Chinstrap penguins, easily identified by the distinctive black line under their chins, lay their eggs in November and share the responsibilities of incubation and chick-rearing with their mates.
- While one parent fishes for food, the other stands guard, ready to fend off threats to their progeny.
Way Forward:
- The research team has not yet studied the penguins' sleep patterns outside the breeding season and is curious whether they might enjoy longer periods of uninterrupted sleep at other times.
- While unique sleeping adaptations have been observed in other animals, such as frigatebirds and northern elephant seals, the chinstrap penguins' use of microsleeps is an unprecedented discovery.
Steps taken by the Government to provide free of cost digital tools to Marginalised Communities
(GS Paper 2, Social Justice)
Why in news?
- Recently, the Minister of State for Education, in a written reply in the Lok Sabha gave detail of steps taken by the Government to provide free of cost digital tools to marginalised communities.
- The National Education Policy 2020 calls for investment in digital infrastructure, online teaching platforms and tools, virtual labs, digital repositories, online assessments, technology and pedagogy for online teaching-learning etc., with the promotion of multilingualism and the power of language in teaching and learning through innovative and experiential methods.
- NEP (para 4.23) further mentions that certain subjects, skills, and capacities should be learned by all students.
- These skills also include digital literacy, coding, and computational thinking which are promoted through various digital initiative.
PM e-VIDYA:
- A comprehensive initiative called PM e-VIDYA was initiated as part of Atma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan on 17th May, 2020, which unifies all efforts related to digital/online/on-air education to enable multi-mode access to education.
- The PM eVidya initiative are available to all the students across all the states free of cost.
Key components:
- DIKSHA the nation’s digital infrastructure for providing quality e-content for school education in States/UTs and QR coded Energized Textbooks for all grades (one nation, one digital platform).
- As per the Union Budget announcement for Financial Year 2022-23, the 12 DTH Channels have been expanded to 200 PM e-VIDYA DTH TV Channels to enable all States to provide supplementary education in various Indian languages for classes 1-12.
- Extensive use of Radio, Community Radio and CBSE Podcast- Shiksha Vani.
- Special e-content for visually and hearing impaired developed on Digitally Accessible Information System (DAISY) and in sign language on NIOS website/ YouTube.
- To promote crucial critical thinking skill and to give space for creativity, it has been proposed to establish 750 virtual labs and 75 Skilling e-labs by 2023. The Virtual Labs are proposed for Science and Mathematics subjects for Classes 6th – 12th, and Skilling e-labs would provide for simulated learning environment.
- A vertical on Virtual Labs has been created on DIKSHA platform. Training on Virtual labs has been conducted through PM eVidya DTH TV channels for teachers and teacher educators across the country.
Other initiatives:
- ICT and Digital initiatives component of centrally sponsored scheme of Samagra Shiksha covers Government and Aided schools having classes VI to XII. Under this component financial assistance is provided for establishing ICT Lab and Smart Classrooms in schools.
- To assist students preparing for competitive exams across the country, a SATHEE portal has been developed in collaboration with IIT Kanpur. Feedback on the beta version of the platform is currently being collected from students from all over the country.
