CURRENT AFFAIRS Newspaper Analysis and Summary– 01st April 2014 SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY Just in case – The Indian Express I’m an astrobiologist — I study the essential building blocks of life, on this planet and others. But I don’t know how to fix a dripping tap, or what to do when the washing machine goes on the blink. I don’t know how to bake bread, let alone grow wheat. My father-in-law used to joke that I had three degrees, but didn’t know anything about anything, whereas he graduated summa cum laude from the University of Life. It’s not just me. Over the past generation or two we’ve gone from being producers and tinkerers to consumers. What would we do if, in some science-fiction scenario, a global catastrophe collapsed civilisation and we were members of a small society of survivors? What key principles of science and technology would be necessary to rebuild our world from scratch? You would need to start with germ theory — the notion that contagious diseases are not caused by whimsical gods but by invisibly small organisms invading your body. Drinking water can be disinfected with diluted household bleach or even swimming pool chlorine. Soap for washing hands can be made from any animal fat or plant oil stirred with lye, which is soda from the ashes of burned seaweed combined with quicklime from roasted chalk or limestone. When settling down, ensure that your excrement isn’t allowed to contaminate your water source — this may sound obvious, but wasn’t understood even as late as the mid-19th century. In the longer term, you’ll need to remaster the principles of agriculture and the ability to stockpile a food reserve and support dense cities away from the fields. Then there are the many materials society requires: How do you transform base substances like clay and iron into brick or concrete or steel, and then shape that material into a useful tool? To learn a small piece of this, I spent a day in a traditional, 18th-century iron forge, learning the essentials of the craft of the blacksmith. Of course, it needn’t take a catastrophic collapse of civilisation to make you appreciate the importance of understanding the basics of how devices around you work. Localised disasters can disrupt normal services, making a reasonable reserve of clean water, canned food and backup technologies like kerosene lamps a prudent precaution. Thought experiments like these can help us to explore how our modern world actually came to be, and to appreciate all that we take for granted. Dartnell, an astrobiology research fellow at the University of Leicester, is author of the forthcoming book ‘The Knowledge: How to Rebuild Our World From Scratch’ The New York Times ENVIRONMENT World not prepared to face climate change: experts - The Hindu A U.N.-backed panel said on Monday climate change impacts are already taking place on all continents and across the oceans, however, the world is unprepared for risks from a changing climate. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) finalized a report on the www.indiancivils.com An Online IAS Academy Page 1 CURRENT AFFAIRS impacts of climate change on human and natural systems, and possible methods of adaptation during the five-day conference last week in the Japanese city of Yokohama. “Impacts from recent climate-related extremes, such as heat waves, droughts, floods, cyclones and wildfires reveal significant vulnerability and exposure of some ecosystems and many human systems to current climate variability,” the report said. “We live in an era of man-made climate change,” Vicente Barros, co-chair of the working group in charge of drawing up the latest report, said in a statement. Climate change is a growing threat to human security as it causes damage to homes and property, disrupts access to food and water and leads to forced migration, according to the IPCC, which is composed of hundreds of scientists and government representatives. However, “in many cases, we are not prepared for the climate-related risks that we already face,” Mr. Barros said. “Nobody on this planet is going to be untouched by the impacts of climate change,” Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the IPCC, told a news conference on Monday. Risks from climate change are “high to very high” if temperatures increase over 4 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, where the world is now heading, the report said. If temperatures rise between 1 to 2 degrees Celsius, risks increase “disproportionately,” it said. The report issued on Monday assesses the impacts of climate change, adaptation and vulnerability of human and natural systems. It is the second of three assessment reports by the IPCC. “One thing that we have come up with is the importance of adaptation and mitigation choices because this is the only way we might be able to reduce risks of climate change,” Mr. Pachauri said. Adaptation to reduce such risks is starting to take place, but, with a stronger focus on reacting to past events than on preparing for a changing future, said Chris Field, co-chair of the working group. “Governments, firms and communities around the world are building experience with adaptation,” Mr. Field said. “This experience forms a starting point for bolder, more ambitious adaptations that will be important as climate and society continue to change.” “We’re walking a tightrope, but if we act boldly and cut climate pollution faster major threats to human security can still be avoided and vital ocean systems, forests and species protected,” said Kaisa Kosonen, a Greenpeace International official. “The report makes it clear that we still have time to act,” said Samantha Smith from the World Wide Fund for Nature campaign group. “We can limit climate instability and adapt to some of the changes we see now. But without immediate and specific action, we are in danger of going far beyond the limits of adaptation,” she said. In September, the IPCC warned that humans were primarily responsible for global warming, which has led to a faster-than-predicted rise in sea levels, rapidly melting glaciers and ice sheets. A third report, which will focus on mitigation of climate change, is due for release in April in Berlin. A summit in Paris in 2015 will focus on the creation of new international climate treaty to replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, the first phase of which came to an end in 2012. www.indiancivils.com An Online IAS Academy Page 2 CURRENT AFFAIRS POLITY AND GOVERNANCE Second round of fishermen talks may be after Lok Sabha polls – The Hindu Even as fishermen of Northern Sri Lanka are concerned over delay in holding the second round of talks with their Tamil Nadu counterparts, fisher-folk here see merit in the State government’s stand that the next round of talks be held only after the release of all the fishermen and their boats by the Island government. The State government’s position “is in line” with the widespread feelings among the fisher-folk here, said Chitravelu of Nambiyar Nagar fishing hamlet. He is one of the four members representing Nagapattinam in the bilateral talks between the fishermen of both countries. As the released fishermen by Sri Lanka continue to arrive in batches on the Indian shores – the third batch of 21 fishermen arrested by the Lankan Navy arrived at Rameswaram on Monday night and another batch scheduled to arrive at Karakial port on Tuesday - fisher-folk are now hopeful of an early announcement of the second round of talks. The batch of 58 fishermen belonging to Thanjavur, Pudukottai, Ramanathapuram and Karaikal are expected to arrive along with their 11 boats at Nagapattinam on Tuesday. Speaking to The Hindu , Assistant Director of Fisheries of Karaikal, N. Elayaperumal, who is also an official member of the negotiating team, said the team will be informed of the date for the second round, once all men and their boats are released. As of last week, there were 98 fishermen lodged in Sri Lankan jails. On Sunday, 19 fishermen had arrived in the first batch. However, with the Lok Sabha poll campaign heating up and the bureaucratic machinery tied down by the model code of conduct, it is believed that the date for the second round of talks will be announced only after the elections. Meanwhile, in Rameswaram, local leaders have advised fishermen to exercise restraint till the second round of talks between the two countries was held. After the Lankan government had ordered the release of all the 98 fishermen arrested since March 19, the first batch of 19 fishermen had arrived here on Sunday. Even as the repatriation of the second batch of 58 fishermen on Monday has been rescheduled for Tuesday, the third and final batch of 21 fishermen arrived here with five boats. The Indian Coast Guard vessel, Abheek, which was stationed at the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) received the 21 fishermen on being handed over by the Lankan Navy and escorted them to the fishing jetty here. With five more ‘fishing days’ left before the 45- day ban on fishing, coming into force on April 15, leaders of fishermen associations advised the fishermen to exercise caution of restraint and avoid getting arrested till the talks were held. P. Sesu Raja, district coastal mechanised boat fishermen association leader, said the fishermen in the coastal districts have been advised not to cause any hindrance to the Lankan fishermen and complicate things. They were also strictly warned against using banned nets, he said. The leaders were anxious to have the talks at the earliest.