18 Aug 2022: UPSC Exam Comprehensive News Analysis

C. GS 3 Related

Category: ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY

1. What is causing Arctic warming?

Syllabus: Environmental Pollution and Degradation

Prelims: Arctic amplification

Mains: Arctic amplification – causes and consequences

Context:

• A recent study conducted by Finnish Meteorological Institute researchers notes that the Arctic is heating four times faster than the rest of the planet. 

• It takes note that this arctic warming is all the more concentrated in the Eurasian part of the Arctic, consisting of the Barents Sea north of Russia and Norway. This region is found to be warming at almost seven times faster than the global average.

• Multiple studies have observed this trend of differential rate of heating and this has been described as polar amplification or arctic amplification.
  • The Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change in its ‘Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate’ in 2019, noted this arctic warming.
  • The Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP) in its 2021 report noted the faster Arctic warming as compared to the global average. The report noted that the average annual temperature in the region increased by 3.1 degrees Celsius compared to the 1 degree Celsius for the planet.

Polar amplification and arctic amplification:

• Polar amplification is the phenomenon that any change in the surface air temperature and the net radiation balance contributing to global warming, tends to produce a larger change in temperature near the poles than in the planetary average. This is commonly referred to as the ratio of polar warming to tropical warming.
• Notably, these changes are more pronounced at the northern latitudes and are known as Arctic amplification.

Causes of arctic amplification:

Ice-albedo feedback:

• Sea ice has a high albedo.
  • Albedo is the fraction of light that is reflected by a body or surface and is thus a measure of the reflectivity of the surface.
• Notably, Arctic sea ice cover has been declining owing to global warming. Open water reflects less sunlight than sea ice and absorbs more incoming solar radiation, thereby driving the amplification.

Lapse rate feedback:

• The atmosphere’s temperature decreases with height in the troposphere. This is referred to as the lapse rate.
• Since the emission of infrared radiation varies with temperature, longwave radiation escaping to space from the relatively cold upper atmosphere is less than that emitted toward the ground from the lower atmosphere. Thus, the strength of the greenhouse effect depends on the atmosphere’s rate of temperature decrease with height. 
• The lapse rate or the rate at which the temperature drops with elevation decreases with warming.
• However, in regions with strong inversions, such as the polar regions, one observes positive lapse rate feedback because the surface warms faster than at higher altitudes, resulting in inefficient longwave cooling. This contributes to polar amplification.
• Studies show that the ice-albedo feedback and the lapse rate feedback are responsible for 40% and 15% of polar amplification respectively.

Water vapour feedback:

• A lot more water vapour is being transported northward by big swings in the jet stream. Since water vapour is a greenhouse gas that traps heat in the atmosphere, this is contributing to polar/arctic amplification.
• Also, water vapour in the atmosphere can condense into droplets and form clouds. Since clouds also trap more heat than a cloudless sky, this is also contributing to polar amplification.

Ocean heat transport:

• Changes in atmospheric and ocean circulation have been noted due to global warming. A more pronounced poleward flow of ocean currents has been noted which could be contributing to arctic amplification.

Consequences:

Decreasing sea ice:

• Global warming in general and the arctic amplification can result in the disappearance of sea ice from the region in summers. This can lead to a vicious cycle of further temperature rise through the ice-albedo feedback mechanism.

Melting of Greenland ice sheet:

• The Greenland ice sheet is melting at an alarming rate. The melting of the Greenland ice sheet is a big contributor to the global rise in sea level. If the sheet melts completely, the global sea level would rise by seven metres. This would lead to the submergence of island countries and major coastal cities.
  • The Greenlandic ice sheet holds the second largest amount of ice, after Antarctica.
• This is all the more critical for a country like India with a long coastline and major cities with substantial populations along its coastal borders. According to the World Meteorological Organization’s report, ‘State of Global Climate in 2021’, the sea level along the Indian coast is rising faster than the global average rate.

Impact on flora and fauna:

• Polar warming also affects many ecosystems, including marine and terrestrial ecosystems. This will have an adverse impact on the fauna of the region, including both the marine species and land species and the dependent species. This will impact the biodiversity of the region.

Permafrost thawing:

• Due to the polar amplification, the permafrost in the Arctic is thawing.
• This will result in the release of greenhouse gases like methane which will further increase global warming.
• The thaw and the melt may also release the long-dormant bacteria and viruses that were trapped in the permafrost and can potentially give rise to new diseases.

Impact on climate systems:

• The arctic amplification can change the existing climate systems like monsoons in the Indian subcontinent.
• A study by a group of Indian and Norwegian scientists has found that the reduced sea ice in the Barents-Kara sea region can lead to extreme rainfall events in the latter half of the monsoons, in September and October.
• This can have serious consequences for India due to the likelihood of more frequent and more intense extreme weather events and their impact on water and food security.

IndARC:

• IndARC is India’s first underwater moored observatory in the Arctic region. It was deployed in 2014 at Kongsfjorden fjord, Svalbard, Norway which is midway between Norway and the North Pole. Its research goal is to study the Arctic climate and its influence on the monsoon.

Nut Graf: The arctic amplification could have serious consequences for humans in terms of changes it could cause in ecosystems and climate systems. All efforts must be made to better understand this phenomenon to better predict the temperature rise.

E. Editorials

Category: INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

1. Geopolitics of fourth Taiwan Crisis

Syllabus: Effect of Policies & Politics of Developed & Developing Countries on India’s Interests

Mains: Indo-Pacific policy

Context: China recently conducted large-scale military drills around Taiwan following the visit of United States House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan.

Taiwan-China relationship:

• Taiwan, officially known as the Republic of China (ROC), is an island separated by the Taiwan Strait from China.
• It has been governed independently of mainland China since 1949. The People’s Republic of China views the island as a renegade province and vows to eventually “unify” Taiwan with the mainland. 
• Taiwan has its own democratically elected government and is home to 23 million people; political leaders of Taiwan have differing views on the island’s status and relations with the mainland.
• China opposes any engagement by Taiwan with foreign governments or officials. About 15 small and remote island countries around the world recognise Taiwan.
• China also rejects Taiwan’s participation as a member of UN agencies and other international organizations that limit membership to states.
• The ROC became the non-communist frontier against China during the Cold War.

US-Taiwan and China:

• In 1971 the US inaugurated ties with the PRC through the secret diplomacy of Henry Kissinger, national security adviser to President Richard Nixon.
• The US has a policy of “strategic ambiguity” towards Taiwan. This means that it maintains ties with Taipei, and sells weapons to it, but officially subscribes to the PRC’s “One China Policy” in which Taiwan does not exist as a separate entity.

First and Second Taiwan Crisis:

• In 1954-55, and in 1958, the PRC bombed the Mazu, Jinmen, and Dachen islands under Taiwan’s control, bringing in the US. 
• The U.S. Congress passed the Formosa Resolution authorizing President Dwight D Eisenhower to defend RoC territory.

Third Taiwan Crisis:

• In 1995, President of Taiwan Lee Teng-hui visited Cornell University in the U.S.and China conducted military drills and missile tests in the Taiwan Strait, triggering the Third Strait Crisis.
• U.S. President Bill Clinton responded by sending U.S. aircraft carriers to the Strait, eventually forcing China to de-escalate.

Fourth Taiwan Strait Crisis:

• The US deepened ties with Taiwan under President Donald Trump by selling more than $18 billion worth of arms to Taiwan and unveiling a $250 million complex for its de facto embassy in Taipei. 
• Trump also sent several senior administration officials to Taiwan.
• The Biden administration has taken a similar approach, continuing arms sales and affirming the Trump administration’s decision to allow U.S. officials to meet more freely with Taiwanese officials. 
• The latest proposed legislation, the Taiwan Policy Act of 2022 includes designating Taiwan as a major non–NATO ally and the recent visit by Nancy Pelosi.
• China’s response to the above developments is manifesting as the fourth Taiwan Strait crisis. 

Relevance of Taiwan to China: 

• China and Taiwan’s economies are inseparably linked. China is Taiwan’s biggest export partner, with an export value of 515 billion dollars from 2017 to 2022, more than double of its next biggest partner the U.S
• Taiwan is much closer to mainland China than the other islands, and has been claimed by Beijing since Nationalists were driven there during the Chinese revolution in 1949.
• Geopolitically, Taiwan is critical for China to establish regional hegemony and become a global superpower. 
• China, despite its military capabilities, is a caged naval power in a crowded neighbourhood.
• Taking control of Taiwan fulfils a historical promise and builds up its geopolitical stature as a great power in the western Pacific.

Roadblocks ahead for China:

• Taiwan has been outside China’s control since 1949. 
• Given Taiwan’s topography and nationalist groups, it will be difficult to keep the situation under control once China takes over the island.
• There is no geographical contiguity from the mainland to Taiwan, which could continue to pose security challenges. 
• Any strategic miscalculation would prove counterproductive to China’s standing in the region.

Nut Graf: Fourth Taiwan Strait Crisis can become the most dangerous one if Taiwan emerges as a front line in the new Cold War. China believes that the strategic environment around Taiwan is in favour of China which presents an opportunity to initiate the takeover as the U.S. is caught in a triangular entanglement — its desire to defeat Russia in Europe, its failures in the Muslim world, and a strategy to contain China’s rise in the Indo Pacific.

Q1. Which of the given statements with respect to West Nile Virus is/are correct?
 (Level – Medium)

Q2. How many of the statements given below with respect to River Godavari is/are
 correct? (Level – Medium)

Q3. Which of the following products that have secured the GI in Telangana state?
(Level – Difficult)

Q4. “Lumpy Virus” recently seen in the News affects: (Level – Medium)

Q5. With reference to Indian history, who among the following is a future Buddha,
 yet to come to save the world? (Level – Difficult)

I. UPSC Mains Practice Questions

1. “Any data accessibility-and-use policy is incomplete without adequate public safeguards provided through a comprehensive data protection framework”. Analyze this statement in the context of the Government of India’s efforts to pass the Data Protection Bill. (250 words; 15 marks) (GS- 3, Science and Technology)
2. Mismatch between the number of people looking to adopt a child and the number of children available for adoption points out towards a lacunae in Government’s policies. Comment. (250 words; 15 marks) (GS- 2, Social Justice)