Clouds serve as an atmospheric blanket that controls the Earth’s surface temperature
Context:
According to a new study, Climate change is shrinking the gap between the daily high and low temperatures in many parts of the world.
Relevance:
GS-I: Geography (Physical Geography, Climatology, Important Geophysical phenomena), GS-III: Environment and Ecology (Climate Change and its effects)
Dimensions of the Article:
- Key points
- Clouds
Key points:
Researchers attribute the asymmetry between the daily high and low temperatures to an increase in clouds during the daytime.
Increased cloud cover reduces the amount of incoming solar shortwave radiation. It pulls down the rate at which the daily maximum temperatures rise.
The difference between the two, or the diurnal temperature range (DTR), impacts — seasons, crop yields, residential energy use and heat-stress-induced ailments.
The formation of clouds affects weather and climate on all levels of the atmosphere. Precipitation is influenced by the kind and volume of clouds that frequently form over a location. Temperatures on the planet’s surface may also be impacted by cloud cover.
Additionally, clouds serve as an atmospheric blanket that controls the Earth’s surface temperature. A part of the solar energy that strikes Earth during the day is reflected back into space by clouds. This regulates the Earth’s surface temperature and prevents it from becoming too warm.
Also, clouds can behave as a blanket, trapping heat on Earth by absorbing heat emitted by the planet’s surface. They return this heat to Earth, warming the lower atmosphere.
Factors impacting local temperature:
- land-use modifications (such as deforestation),
- soil moisture,
- precipitation,
- cloud cover and so on.
Clouds play a vital role in the diurnal temperature variation by modulating solar radiative processes, which consequently affect the heat exchange at the land surface.
The daily maximum and minimum temperatures are anticipated to continue to rise due to climate change.
Hence, it is very important to know how DTR will change in the future because it modulates human, animal and plant metabolisms. It also modulates the local atmospheric circulation such as the land-sea breeze.
Nearly Every Child Will Face Frequent Heatwaves by 2050: UNICEF
Context:
According to a new United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) report, nearly all the world’s children will be exposed to more frequent and severe heatwaves by 2050.
Relevance:
GS III- Environment (Climate change)
Dimensions of the Article:
- Key Points
- About Heat Wave
- Criteria for Heat Waves
- Risks associated with Heatwave
- Way forward
Key points:
- Currently, some 559 million children are exposed to at least four to five hazardous heatwaves annually, according to The Coldest Year of the Rest of Their Lives report.
- The number will quadruple to over two billion by 2050 — up from 24 per cent of children in 2020. This amounts to an increase of about 1.5 billion children.
- “Virtually every child on earth” will face severe heatwaves even under a low greenhouse gas emission scenario — with an estimated 1.7 degrees celcius of warming in 2050.
- Heatwaves with longer duration pose more risks for children as they spend more time outdoors than adults for — sports and other activities — putting them at greater risk for heat injury.
- One in four children lives in areas where the average heatwave event lasts 4.7 days or longer as of 2020. This percentage will rise to over three in four children under a low-emission scenario by 2050.
- Children in southern, western and south-eastern Asia, eastern and southern Europe and northern Africa experience heatwaves of longer duration.
- Children are affected by heat in two broad ways:
- Risks to health and well-being and
- Social and educational risks
About Heat Wave
- A heat wave is a period of abnormally high temperatures, more than the normal maximum temperature that occurs during the summer season in the North-Western and South Central parts of India.
- Heat waves typically occur between March and June, and in some rare cases even extend till July.
- Higher daily peak temperatures and longer, more intense heat waves are becoming increasingly frequent globally due to climate change.
Cyclone Sitrang
Context:
The remnants of Cyclone Sitrang, which made landfall over Bangladesh recently, will cause widespread moderate to heavy rainfall over Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, and Tripura.
Relevance:
GS-I: Geography (Physical geography – Climatology, Important Geophysical phenomena), GS-III: Disaster Management
Dimensions of the Article:
- Key points
- What are Tropical Cyclones?
- Conditions for cyclone formation:
- How are Tropical Cyclones Formed?
- Why tropical cyclones don’t form in the eastern tropical oceans?
- Names of Tropical Cyclones
- Structure of the tropical cyclone
- Landfall, what happens when a Cyclone reaches land from the ocean?
- Cyclone Management in India
Key points:
In Bangladesh, Sitrang left at least 35 people dead and about 8 million without power. The Bangladesh government said about 10,000 homes were damaged and more than 6,000 hectares (15,000 acres) of crops were destroyed. Thousands of fishing projects were also washed away.
The tropical storm, which moved towards Bangladesh from north Bay of Bengal at a speed of 56 kmph, caused moderate to heavy rain.
CCI Imposes Penalty On Google
Context:
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) on Tuesday imposed a penalty of Rs. 936.44 crore on Google for “abusing its dominant position with respect to its Play Store policies”, in the second such penalty on the Internet giant within a week.
Relevance:
GS II- Polity and Governance (Government Interventions)
Dimensions of the Article:
- Key points
- About competition commission of India
Key Points:
- For app developers, app stores have become a necessary medium for distribution of their apps to the end users and the availability of app store(s) is directly dependent on OS installed on a smart device.
- Google’s Play Store constitutes the main distribution channel for app developers in the Android mobile ecosystem, which allows its owners to capitalize on the apps brought to market.
- Selling of in-app digital goods constitutes an important means for app developers to monetize their creations/innovations.
- Google’s Play Store policies require the App developers to exclusively and mandatorily use Google Play’s Billing System (GPBS) not only for receiving payments for Apps (and other digital products like audio, video, games) distributed/sold through the Google Play Store but also for certain in-app purchases.
- Further, app developers cannot, within an app, provide users with a direct link to a webpage containing an alternative payment method or use language that encourages a user to purchase the digital item outside of the app (anti-steering provisions).
- If the app developers do not comply with Google’s policy of using GPBS, they are not permitted to list their apps on the Play Store.
- Thus, they would lose out the vast pool of potential customers in the form of Android users.
- Making access to the Play Store dependent on mandatory usage of GPBS for paid apps and in-app purchases is one sided and arbitrary and devoid of any legitimate business interest.
- The app developers are left bereft of the inherent choice to use payment processor of their liking from the open market.
- The CCI has also examined the allegations of exclusion of rival UPI apps as effective payment options on Play Store.
- Google is found to be following discriminatory practices by not using GPBS for its own applications i.e., YouTube. This also amount to imposition of discriminatory conditions as well as pricing as YouTube is not paying the service fee as being imposed on other apps covered in the GPBS requirements.
- Mandatory imposition of GPBS disturbs innovation incentives and the ability of both the payment processors as well as app developers to undertake technical development and innovate and thus, tantamount to limiting technical development in the market for in-app payment processing services.
- Hence, Google was found to violate various provisions of the Competition Act, 2002.
About competition commission of India:
- Nodal: Ministry of corporate affairs
- Competition Commission of India (CCI) is a statutory body of the Government of India responsible for enforcing the Competition Act, 2002.
- Competition Commission of India aims to establish a robust competitive environment.
- Through proactive engagement with all stakeholders, including consumers, industry, government and international jurisdictions.
- By being a knowledge intensive organization with high competence level.
- Through professionalism, transparency, resolve and wisdom in enforcement.
