Environment & Biodiversity MCQs

Notes:
Carbon Diet refers to reducing the impact on climate change by reducing greenhouse gas production especially CO2 , without lowering their standard of living. A low-carbon diet involves making lifestyle choices related to food consumption which reduce resulting greenhouse gas emissions (GHGe).

Notes:
Gene banks are established to protect genetic material, be it plant or animal. In plants, genetic material can be saved by freezing cuts from the plant, or stocking the seeds. In animals, genetic material can be saved by freezing of sperm and eggs in zoological freezers until further need.

Notes:
As non-biodegradable wastes like plastic bags, glass bottles, etc., cannot be broken down by decomposers, their disposal poses a big problem. Non-biodegradable wastes can be managed by practicing the concept of 3R— Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle.

Notes:
In the gas tragedy that occurred at the Union Carbide India Limited pesticide plant in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, on 2-3 December 1984, over 500,000 people were exposed to toxic methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas and other chemicals. An estimated 10,000 or more people died in human disaster.

Notes:
An ecosystem is a community of living organisms in conjunction with other living and nonliving components of their environment, interacting as a system. The nature of the organisms—the species, functional groups and trophic levels to which they belong—dictates the sorts of actions these individuals are capable of carrying out, and the relative efficiency with which they do so.

Notes:
The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer was designed to reduce the production and consumption of ozone depleting substances in order to reduce their abundance in the atmosphere, and thereby protect the earth’s fragile ozone Layer. The original Montreal Protocol was agreed on 16 September 1987 and entered into force on 1 January 1989. In 1995, the United Nations named September 16 the International Day for the Protection of the Ozone Layer, also known as World Ozone Day.

Notes:
The Kyoto Protocol was an international treaty which extended the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change that commits state parties to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, based on the scientific consensus that global warming is occurring and that human-made CO2 emissions are driving it. 

Notes:
A greenhouse gas is a gas that absorbs and emits radiant energy within the thermal infrared range, contributing to the greenhouse effect. The essential greenhouse gases in the Earth’s atmosphere include:

• Water vapor
• Carbon dioxide
• Methane
• Nitrous oxide
• Ozone

Here, Nitrogen is not considered a greenhouse gas.

Notes:
The Mudumalai National Park and Wildlife Sanctuary, now also declared a Tiger Reserve, lies on the northwestern side of the Nilgiri Hills, in Nilgiri District, about 150 km north-west of Coimbatore city in the westernmost part of Tamil Nadu, on the interstate boundaries with Karnataka and Kerala states in South India. The sanctuary is a haven for Bengal Tigers and Indian Leopards and other threatened species.

Notes:
The Heard and McDonald Islands are located in the sub-Antarctic region and serve as external territories of Australia. These volcanic islands, discovered in the 1850s by American mariners John Heard and William McDonald, were proclaimed as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1997. These islands, recognized for their unique wildlife and geology (including active volcanoes), are considered one of the world’s most remote places. Initially claimed by the UK in 1910, they were transferred to Australia in 1947, hence, the land boasting the highest mountain under Australian sovereignty.