Current Affair 1:

2022 State of the Rhino Report

 

Every September, the International Rhino Foundation (IRF) publishes our signature report, State of the Rhino, which documents current population estimates and trends, where available, as well as key challenges and conservation developments for the five surviving rhino species in Africa and Asia.

 

 

 

Current Affair 2:

What is the Fujiwhara Effect?

 

On September 1, 2022, super typhoon Hinnamnor, the strongest tropical cyclone of the year, was hurtling towards Taiwan from the western Pacific Ocean.

Another tropical storm called Gardo was moving towards Hinnamnor from its southeast.

As the two approached each other, they started a dance around the central line between them, showcasing a textbook example of what is known as the Fujiwhara Effect.

Current Affair 3:

Global Status of Black Soil: Some important points regarding Black soil.

 

Global status of black soils is the first such report, released on the occasion of World Soil Day, December 5, 2022.

Black soils are unique soils characterized by a thick, dark-coloured soil horizon, and rich organic matter content. Due to their high inherent fertility, black soils are known as the food basket of the world or the “giant panda in arable land” in Asia.

For decades, these fertile soils have been widely cultivated, and have played a key role in global agricultural production of cereals, tuber crops, oilseed, pastures, and forage systems.

Despite representing only 5.6 percent of the global land area, these black earth belts feed not only the 223 million people settled on them, but also the countries that import various black soils’ commodities, thus contributing to global economy.

The term “black soils” refers to different soil types that contain moderate to high soil organic carbon (SOC) content derived from the decomposition of animal and plant residues that will form organic matter.

Black soils are paramount for climate change mitigation and adaptation as they contain 8.2 percent of the world’s SOC stocks and can provide 10 percent of the global total SOC sequestration potential.

The distribution of black soil areas used as croplands varied in each region. Europe and Eurasia accounted for 70 per cent of the soil in the total cropland, while North America, Latin America and the Caribbean and Asia had 10 per cent each.

Globally, in 2010, 66 percent of sunflower seeds, 30 percent of wheat and 26 percent of potato outputs were harvested from black soils.

Black soils are widespread under alpine meadows in temperate areas and in tropical mountains. These highland grasslands produce a high amount of root residues, which are responsible for dark humus accumulation.

From NCERT:

 

Current Affair 4:

China-Indian Ocean Region (IOR) Forum’

 

Beijing has recently announced that it hosted a 19-nation ‘China-Indian Ocean Region (IOR) Forum’ without inviting key player India, at Kunming in south-western Yunnan province on 21 November.

This was the first ever conference organised by the Chinese government in what is being seen as yet another attempt by Beijing to assert its sphere of influence in the Indian Ocean region, which is gradually becoming a hotly-contest region, clashing with the US-led Indo-Pacific strategic framework, of which India is a crucial part.

The theme of the conference was ‘Shared Development: Theory and Practice from the Perspective of the Blue Economy’.

India attended forum? No

 

 

 

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