New Zealand's&nbsp;livestock industry has begun a genetic program called the &lsquo;Global first&rsquo; project with an aim to tackle climate change. As part of the project, the industry will breed low 'methane-emitting' sheep. Approximately one third of the total greenhouse gas emissions in the country come from livestock.&nbsp;Breeders who want to produce these low-methane rams or male sheep will have to measure a 'methane breeding value'. This process would have no negative impact on&nbsp;farm productivity, say researchers.

New Zealand's livestock industry has begun a genetic program called the ‘Global first’ project with an aim to tackle climate change. As part of the project, the industry will breed low 'methane-emitting' sheep. Approximately one third of the total greenhouse gas emissions in the country come from livestock. Breeders who want to produce these low-methane rams or male sheep will have to measure a 'methane breeding value'. This process would have no negative impact on farm productivity, say researchers.

Offering relief to some manufacturers, Chandigarh&nbsp;has moved three products out of its banned list of&nbsp;18 categories of single-use plastic products.&nbsp;
The administration has changed three of the categories to 'extended producer responsibility' that include 500ml refill pouches, straws attached to tetra packs&nbsp;and multi-layered packaging used to pack food items.&nbsp;
'The decision was taken after receiving representations from industries saying that there were no other viable alternatives available,' UT Director of Environment, Debendra Dalai&nbsp;said as per HT.&nbsp;

Researchers in Brazil discovered 2,248 fires in the Amazon last month, making it the highest number of fires recorded in June since 2007. According to the National Institute for Space Research, the heaviest burning season occurs in July, August and September. 1,880 fires were detected in June 2019. The increase may be attributed to ranchers and illegal loggers in the area amid the&nbsp;Covid-19 pandemic. Brazil has reported the second highest Covid-19 death toll in the world, and the raging fires could increase the risk of breathing trouble and respiratory illnesses.

In a startling revelation, a new study by the United Nations has found that&nbsp;at least $10 billion worth of precious metal like gold and platinum is dumped as electronic waste every year. According to the&nbsp;Global E-waste Monitor,&nbsp;2019 saw a record 54 million tonnes of e-waste worldwide, up by 21% in five years. The amount of e-waste is rising three times faster than the world population but only 17% of it was recycled in 2019, says the report. This waste poses a threat to human health and the environment, adding to the climate crisis. The short lifespan of products and a lack of regulation is responsible for the growing waste. Most of the precious metal is just dumped or burned. In terms of recycling waste, Europe had the highest percentage at 42% in 2020 followed by Asia at 12%.

Devastating forest fires continue to ravage Sakha Republic in the Russian Arctic. The Ministry of Emergency Situations confirmed that more than 2,000 hectares of forest are up in flames with strong winds accelerating&nbsp;the fires.&nbsp;Thick smoke has even begun to engulf Sakha Republic's capital cityYakutsk and a state of emergency has been declared by the government. Over 800 fire-fighters and forest rangers have been deployed to battle the flames and reinforcements are being flown in. The situation is leading to a surge in respiratory cases amid the pandemic, and additional strain on the health-care system.&nbsp;

In a major 'conservation disaster', over 350 elephants have died in northern&nbsp;Botswana under mysterious circumstances,&nbsp;According to a report by British publication The Guardian, poisoning or an unknown pathogen could be the two possibilities for the die-off. There is no confirmation yet as the Botswana government has not tested samples. Elephants were first reported to have died in the region in the beginning of May, and now, an aerial survey shows 70% of the bodies centred on watering holes. Locals claimed that they saw some of the elephants stumbling around in circles before dying, which could indicate a neurological impairment. They have also observed more elephants looking weak, which could mean that more may die in the coming days.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Unless immediate action is taken, koalas could be extinct in New South Wales by 2050. According to a new report by a cross-party group of New South Wales lawmakers,&nbsp;habitat loss, disease and climate change have ravaged the species. It has been estimated that more than 5,000 koalas lost their lives and almost 24% of their habitats were destroyed in the devastating bushfires&nbsp;in the region last year.&nbsp;The report urged lawmakers to ensure that the remaining population does not perish in these conditions. The committee even made some recommendations which could help save the species including&nbsp;establishing new national parks in identified areas and reducing land clearing.&nbsp;

France pulled the shutters on its oldest nuclear plant Fessenheim on the 29th of June, a move that was&nbsp; celebrated by anti-nuclear campaigners. The closure of the plant was part of a change in policy to reduce the country's dependence on nuclear power. France is left with 56 pressurized water reactors at 18 plants. The country derives almost three quarters of its electricity from nuclear energy supplies. The emphasis seems to be shifting towards renewable energy as the government has outlined plans for closing 12 more reactors and deriving only half of the electricity from nuclear sources by 2035.

In a first-of-its-kind study, researchers have tested the efficacy of microplastic&nbsp;filters used in washing machines. The University of South Wales team found that these filters can be very effective in reducing microplastic&nbsp;fibres being released into the ocean but not all of them actually work. Their findings show that&nbsp;majority of fibres were removed but up to a third were still getting through. The team says that&nbsp;an estimated 50 billion garments are washed in machines every year around the world and clothes release up to&nbsp;1,900 fibres during each wash. If these microplastics&nbsp;enter the ocean, they can enter the marine food chain and&nbsp;alter the cellular structure of organisms.

The National Green Tribunal has imposed an interim penalty of ₹25 crore on PSU major Oil India over its failure to stop fire in Assam's&nbsp;Baghjan&nbsp;oil well that is damaging the environment.&nbsp;Well number 5 at&nbsp;Baghjan&nbsp;in Tinsukia district, has been spewing gas uncontrollably for the last 27 days and it caught fire on June 9, killing two of OIL's firefighters at the site.&nbsp;A bench comprising Justice S P Wangdi and expert member&nbsp;Siddhanta&nbsp;Das constituted a committee headed by former high court judge B P&nbsp;Katakey&nbsp;to&nbsp;look into&nbsp;the matter and submit a report in 30 days.&nbsp;

A new study, by researchers from the University of Southern California and the Barcelona Institute for Global Health, has found that air pollutants, population density and parents who smoke increase the risk of childhood obesity. The study, which was published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, analysed 1,300 children living in six countries, measuring&nbsp;77 pregnancy and 96 environmental exposure factors. Childhood obesity is increasing at an alarming rate across the globe and especially now due the Covid-19 lockdown, indicates&nbsp;the study.&nbsp;These findings are early warnings to modify exposure to environmental factors that could result in childhood obesity, says researchers.&nbsp;

It is a proud moment for a 7-year-old girl Jannat&nbsp;and her father as her story of cleaning Srinagar's&nbsp;Dal&nbsp;Lake has been published in the curriculum of a Hyderabad-based school. Jannat&nbsp;has been cleaning the lake for the last two years and was inspired by her father to do so. You'll often find them rowing across the lake, collecting all the waste using nets.&nbsp;Her story titled 'Jannat Ki Jannat' has been published in a Hindi school book named 'Megha'. Jannat&nbsp;has also received praise from Prime Minister Narendra&nbsp;Modi&nbsp;in his radio programme 'Mann Ki Baat' for her efforts.&nbsp;

Scientists&nbsp;have found traces of microplastic in the digestive tract of some of the most isolated animals in the world. Visiting the King George Island in Antarctica, researchers found contamination in the gut of tiny creatures, often called springtails, that live on Antarctic soil. The findings&nbsp;published in the journal&nbsp;Biology Letters put other animals including seals, sharks and penguins at high risk. The lead author told CNN&nbsp;that they think that the creatures must have ingested plastic while eating the algae, moss and lichen coating a polystyrene block that found littering the coldest place on earth. The team also warned that microplastics&nbsp;can carry pathogens and contaminants making the findings more worrisome.&nbsp;

As our struggle with the coronavirus&nbsp;pandemic goes on, experts warn there is another medical crisis waiting for us on the other side. The mountain of contaminated waste is growing at unprecedented&nbsp;levels.
According to China's Environment Ministry, the outbreak's epicentre Wuhan&nbsp;generated 240 tons of medical waste in a day at the peak of the pandemic. The Asian Development Bank estimated that Jakarta generated 212 tons a day and Manila&nbsp;created an additional 280 tons of medical refuse in a day.
There has&nbsp;been a surge in the demand of single-use products like gloves, masks and test kits undoing years of efforts in reducing such waste. Experts say the mountain is still growing and while incineration is an emergency solution to tackle the waste, we must be mindful of the air quality and public health consequences of the same.&nbsp;

In a startling revelation, man-made toxic mercury pollution has made its way to the deepest part of the ocean in the Marianas Trench. Researchers from China and US used robots to identify mercury in fish in the western Pacific Ocean and found it 11,000 metres below the ocean's surface. Fossil fuels, mining and manufacturing&nbsp;are sources of mercury in the atmosphere and may have entered the ocean through rainfall. Even the most remote marine ecosystems have now been hit by human-released mercury, the researchers noted. Once it enters the food-web, it can be toxic when ingested.

As part of the 'Clean India, Green India' mission, the J&amp;K Forest Department has planted seeds for over 1 lakh&nbsp;trees at the&nbsp;Central Nursery in the&nbsp;Mand village of Udhampur. According to nursery in-charge Rajiv Gupta, they have sown seeds for different species of trees and will produce over 1 lakh trees next season to be planted in degraded areas. The nursery is also offering employment opportunities to local youth in the region.

There has been an increasing concern over the return of single-use plastics during the Covid-19 pandemic as restaurants shift to disposable containers and there is a rising demand for PPE&nbsp;kits. However, over 100 scientists from across the globe from organisations including Greenpeace UK and Oxford university, have now signed a statement that reassures the public that it is safe to use reusable&nbsp;containers as long as they are thoroughly washed. The group included epidemiologists, virologists, biologists, chemists and doctors. They based their statement on&nbsp;science and guidance from public health professionals. They shared that it is essential to be as sustainable as possible during the pandemic to protect the future of our planet.&nbsp;

Large scale tree planting could do more harm than good to the environment, say researchers from&nbsp;Stanford University. They found that global&nbsp;campaigns and subsidy schemes expanded the area covered by trees, but decreased the area of native forest.&nbsp;For instance, 80% of the commitments in the Bonn Challenge aim at&nbsp;planting monoculture trees, which produce products like rubber, rather than restoring natural forests. Another study by the Colorado State University has found that the amount of carbon that new forests can absorb may be overestimated.&nbsp;If policies to incentivise tree plantations are poorly designed or poorly enforced, there is a high risk releasing more carbon and losing biodiversity, say researchers.&nbsp;

A small Russian town in the Arctic circle recorded the 'highest-ever' temperature of 38&deg;C in the region on June 20th.&nbsp;The record still needs to be verified, but it appears to have been 18&deg;C higher than the average maximum daily temperature in June.&nbsp;Verkhoyansk&nbsp;is known to be the coldest place on Earth and is home to only 1,300 people. A persistent heat wave this year in the Arctic Circle has worried meteorologists and it is believed to be warming twice as fast as the global average. This could lead to&nbsp;thawing of permafrost and the release of carbon dioxide and methane previously locked up below the ground.&nbsp;

Combining sustainability and style, legwear&nbsp;brand Swedish Stockings turns discarded stocking into tables. Giving a second life to their own product, the brand aims to create a truly circular chain of fashion products. Each table, depending on its size, is made from anywhere between&nbsp;80 and 350 pairs of tights that have been diverted from landfills through the brand's recycling program. The brand's CEO&nbsp;says approximately 2 billion pairs of tights are worn once and then discarded every year and being a petroleum product, the stocking never degrade. They should be recycled just like plastic bottles.&nbsp;

In a bid to prevent an Italian glacier from melting, a team of conservationists has begun laying vast sheets of tarpaulin on the Presena glacier. The process of covering over 1,00,000 square metres of the glacier is repeated every year when summer begins and the ski season is over. Since 1993, the glacier has lost almost a third of its volume. The conservation project was first undertaken in 2008 by an Italian firm Carosello-Tonale. According to an AFP report, the tarpaulins made of geotextile&nbsp;reflect sunlight and maintain a temperature lower than the external temperature. The sheets will be removed in September, a process that will take at least months.

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New Zealand begins breeding 'low methane-emitting' sheep

Dec 03, 2019 11:52 IST

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