Q : World Wildlife Fund was founded in :
Answer: 1961

Q: World Oceans Day falls on :
Answer: June 8

Q : Who wrote the autobiographical book, My Life : My Trees ?
Answer: Richard St. Barbe Baker

Q : Which is the world’s largest private international nature conservation organisation ?
Answer: World Wide Fund for nature

Q : Which Indian region is the only place in the world where the Asiatic Wild Ass is found ?
Answer: Rann of Kachchh

Q : Which animal is the main attraction in Assam’s Kaziranga National Park?
Answer: The one-horned rhinoceros

Q : Which animal can look two ways at the same time ?
Answer: Chameleon

Q : Which is the world’s largest private international nature conservation organisation ?
Answer: World Wide Fund for nature

Q : Which Indian region is the only place in the world where the Asiatic Wild Ass is found ?
Answer: Rann of Kachch

Q : Which bird constructs the largest unit nest structure in the world ?
Answer: Sociable Weaver

Q : What is the gestation period of an African elephant ?
Answer: 22 Months
Q : WHO WROTE “ORIGIN OF SPECIES”
Answer: CHARLES DARWIN

18th September 2010 – today celebrates as World Bamboo Day

World Bamboo Day is a day of celebration to increase the awareness of bamboo globally. Where bamboo grows naturally, bamboo has been a daily element, but its utilization has not always been sustainable due to exploitation.

The World Bamboo Organization aims to bring the potential of bamboo to a more elevated exposure – to protect natural resources and the environment, to ensure sustainable utilization, to promote new cultivation of bamboo for new industries in regions around the world, as well as promote traditional uses locally for community economic development.

World Meteorological Organization (WMO). This  Bureau operates a network of ozone monitoring stations, where the total amount of ozone above the station (the total column ozone) is monitored each day. The total column ozone is measured with an instrument called a Dobson spectrophotometer, compares the amount of sunlight at two ultraviolet wavelengths. One wavelength is affected strongly by ozone, the other is not. The difference between the two is directly related to the total column ozone.

What is a Dobson unit?

Ozone is measured in Dobson Units (DU). 100 DU is equivalent to a 1 millimetre thick layer of pure ozone at sea level temperature and pressure.

The commonly accepted definition of the ozone hole, is the region above Antarctica where the ozone level is below 220 DU.

The British Antarctic Survey first revealed the obvious decreases in ozone in the late 1970s to early 1980s. The Japanese station at Syowa also reported decreases in ozone.

The ozone hole starts to appear in September and breaks up in December.

Ozone is the major absorber of UVB (Ultraviolet radiation in the wavelength range 280-320 nanometres) in sunlight, absorbing approximately 90% of it. Many experimental studies of plants and animals, and clinical studies of humans have shown the harmful effect of excessive exposure to UVB radiation.

About 90% of ozone is concentrated between 15 and 30 kilometres above the earth’s surface (stratospheric ozone). It is also found at ground level in lower concentrations where it is a key component of smog over major cities (tropospheric ozone).

Ozone is one of the several gases that make up the earth’s atmosphere. It is the triatomic form of oxygen and makes up approximately one part in three million of all of the gases in the atmosphere. If all the ozone contained in the atmosphere from the ground level up to a height of 60 km could be assembled at the earth’s surface, it would comprise a layer of gas only about 3 millimeters thick, and weigh some 3000 million tonnes. Ozone is toxic at high concentrations because it reacts strongly with other molecules.

Ozone depleting substances (ODS) are those substances which deplete the ozone layer and are widely used in refrigerators, air-conditioners, fire extinguishers, in dry cleaning, as solvents for cleaning, electronic equipment and as agricultural fumigants.

Ozone depleting substances include:

• Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)
• Halon
• Carbon tetrachloride, Methyl chloroform
• Hydrobromofluorocarbons (HBFCs)
• Hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs)
• Methyl bromide
• Bromochloromethane (BCM)

Since 1995, on 16 September each year, the International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer is celebrated. This date has been designated by the United Nations General Assembly in its resolution 49/114, to commemorate the signing of the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer.

This commemoration around the world offers an opportunity to focus attention and action at the global, regional and national levels on the protection of the ozone layer. All Member States are invited to devote this special day to promotion, at the national level, of concrete activities in accordance with the objectives and goals of the Montreal Protocol and its Amendment.

Country, Peaks,  Height in metre

Asia
Everest (Himalaya-Nepal/Tibet)
8,848

Asia
Godwin Austen (Karakoram-India)
8,611

Asia
Kanchenjunga (Himalaya India / Nepal)
8,598

Asia
Lhotse (Himalaya-Nepal-China)
8,501

Asia
Makalu (Himalaya-Nepal)
8,470

Asia
Dhaulagiri (Himalaya-Nepal)
8,172

Asia
Nanga Parvat (Himalaya-Nepal)
8,126

Asia
Gasherbrum (Karakoram-Tibet)
8,068

Asia
Gosainthan (Himalaya-Tibet)
8,013

Asia
Nanda Devi (Himalaya-India)
7,817

South America
Aconcagua (Andes-Argentina)
6,960

North America
McKinley (Alaska-USA)
6,194

Africa
Kilimanjaro (Solitary-Tanzania)
5,888

Europe
Elborus (Caucasus-CIS)
5,633

Europe
Mont Blanc (Alp-France)
4,810

Antartica
Vinson Massif
5,139

Oceania
Caestensz (Nassau Range-New Guinea)
5,000

The  amendment  to the treaty on United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, called Kyoto Protocol,  aims at cutting global emissions of Green House Gases (GHG). The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has predicted an average global rise in temperature of 1.4°C to 5.8 °C between 1990 and 2100. Current estimates indicate that even if successfully and completely implemented, the Kyoto Protocol will reduce that increase by somewhere between 0.02 °C and 0.28 °C by the year 2050 (source: Nature, October 2003).

Objectives: Kyoto is intended to assign mandatory  targets for the reduction of global emissions of greenhouse gas to signatory nations. The objective is the “stabi-lisation of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system” UNFCCC-2.

Status: The treaty was negotiated in Kyoto, Japan in December 1997, opened for signature on March 16, 1998, and closed on March 15, 1999. The agreement came into force on February 16, 2005 following ratification by Russia on November 18, 2004. As of July 2006, a total of 164 countries have ratified the agreement (representing over 61.6% of emissions from Annex I countries). Notable exceptions include the United States and Australia. Other countries, like India and China, which have ratified the protocol, are not required to reduce carbon emissions under the present agreement.