Permafrost

According to a new study, with rising global temperatures, thawing permafrost is likely to destabilise thousands of industrial sites and linked contaminated areas in the Arctic.

What is Permafrost?

• Permafrost is essentially any soil or underwater sediment that stays frozen — 0 degree Celsius or lower — for at least two years straight.
• In areas not covered by ice, it exists beneath a layer of soil, rock or sediment, which freezes and thaws annually and is called the “active layer”.
• Around 11% of the global surface is underlain by permafrost, with total area of around 18 mnsq km.
• Permafrost region includes – Alaska, Greenland, Canada, Sibera in North as well as regions like Tibetan mountains etc. In south only a minority of permafrost exists like in Andes, Southern Alps of New Zealand and beneath the massive ice sheets of the Antarctica.
• This region contains large amounts of dead biomass that have accumulated throughout millennia without having had the chance to fully decompose and release their carbon, making tundra soil a carbon sink.

 

Developments 

• As of 2021, there are 1162 settlements located directly atop the Arctic permafrost, which host an estimated 5 million people.
• The region witnessed a expansion of industrial and economic development during the Cold War — it became a center for resource extraction and military activities.This led to the accumulation of industrial and toxic waste on or in permafrost which was never removed.
• The toxic waste from these industrial facilities has been buried in the permafrost, on the assumption that it would stay locked away permanently. But danger looms as the planet continues to heat up.
• As Earth’s climate warms, the permafrost is thawing. That means the ice inside the permafrost melts, leaving behind water and soil.

 

Consequences 

• The Arctic is getting warmer nearly four times as fast as the rest of the planet due to climate change.
• Toxic substances would be unleashed across the region, threatening numerous species living there and the health of people who depend on them.Thawing permafrost would unleash thousands of dormant viruses and bacteria.Scientists have discovered microbes more than 400,000 years old in thawed permafrost.

• Genetic material from the H1N1 influenza virus that caused the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918, as well as that of smallpox have been recovered from permafrost.
• Recently, 15,000-year-old-viruses (including 28 different kinds identified for the first time) were found in glacial ice from the Tibetan Plateau.

• Warming temperatures are also causing changes in the habitats of wild birds such as ducks and geese that can carry avian flu. Earlier, Russia has reported the first case of the H5N8 avian flu passing from birds to humans.
• One of its most dangerous consequences is the release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
• Moreover, “Plant matter frozen in permafrost doesn’t decay, but when permafrost thaws, microbes within the dead plant material start to break the matter down, releasing carbon into the atmosphere.

Measures 

• Scientists use satellite observations from space to look at large regions of permafrost that would be difficult to study from the ground.
• NASA’s Soil Moisture Active Passive( SMAP)mission orbits Earth collecting information about moisture in the soil.
  • SMAP’s measurements will help scientists understand where and how quickly the permafrost is thawing.

 

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Israel-Palestine Conflict

In 1947, the United Nations adopted Resolution 181, known as the Partition Plan, which sought to divide the British Mandate of Palestine into Arab and Jewish states.

Arab Israel War, 1949

On May 14, 1948, the State of Israel was created, sparking the first Arab-Israeli War. The Arabs especially blamed Britain and USA. The Arab states refused to recognise Israel as a legal state and they vowed to destroy it. The war ended in 1949 with Israel’s victory, but 750,000 Palestinians were displaced and the territory was divided into 3 parts: the State of Israel, the West Bank (of the Jordan River), and the Gaza Strip.

 

Suez War of 1956

• Nasser of Egypt was aggressively in favour of Arab unity and independence, including liberation of Palestine from Jews and did many acts which irritated USA, UK and France. Since this was the era of Cold War, Egypt also became a player. The Nasser nationalised the Suez Canal. So now UK and France along with Israel thought to invade Egypt. But this attracted huge international criticism and these countries agreed to withdraw.
• Following the 1956 Suez Crisis and Israel’s invasion of the Sinai Peninsula, Egypt, Jordan, and Syria signed mutual defense pacts in anticipation of a possible mobilization of Israel troops.

 

Six Day War 1967

In June 1967, following a series of maneuvers by Egyptian President Abdel Gamal Nasser, Israel pre-emptively attacked Egyptian and Syrian air forces, starting the Six-Day War. After the war, Israel gained territorial control over the Sinai Peninsula and Gaza Strip from Egypt; the West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan; and the Golan Heights from Syria.

 

Yom Kippur War/October War, 1973

• Egypt and Syria launched a surprise two-front attack on Israel to regain their lost territory; the conflict did not result in significant gains for Egypt, Israel, or Syria, but Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat declared the war a victory for Egypt as it allowed Egypt and Syria to negotiate over previously ceded territory.
• An important development during the war was that the Arab oil-producing states tried to bring pressure to bear on the USA and on western European states which were friendly to Israel, by reducing oil supplies. This caused serious oil shortages, especially in Europe. At the same time producers, well aware that oil supplies were not unlimited, looked on their action as a way of preserving resources. With this in mind, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) began to raise oil prices substantially. This contributed to inflation and caused an energy crisis in the world’s industrial nations.

 

Camp David Accord

• Finally, in 1979, following a series of cease-fires and peace negotiations, representatives from Egypt and Israel signed the Camp David Accords, a peace treaty that ended the thirty-year conflict between Egypt and Israel.
• The state of war that had existed between Egypt and Israel since 1948 was now ended.
• Even though the Camp David Accords improved relations between Israel and its neighbors, the question of Palestinian self-determination and self-governance remained unresolved.

 

First Intifada (shaking off)

In 1987, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip rose up against the Israeli government in what is known as the first intifada.

It was civil disobedience movement which involved strikes, non payment of taxes etc.

 

Osla I Accords, 1993

The 1993 Oslo I Accords mediated the conflict, setting up a framework for the Palestinians to govern themselves in the West Bank and Gaza, and enabled mutual recognition between the newly established Palestinian Authority and Israel’s government.

 

Osla II Accords

• In 1995, the Oslo II Accords expanded on the first agreement, adding provisions that mandated the complete withdrawal of Israel from 6 cities and 450 towns in the West Bank.
• Israel formally recognized the PLO;
• the PLO recognized Israel’s right to exist and promised to give up terrorism;

 

Second Intifada

Palestinians launched the second intifada, which would last until 2005. In response, the Israeli government approved construction of a barrier wall around the West Bank in 2002, despite opposition from the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court.

 

Clash between Israel and Palestine, 2014

In the summer of 2014, clashes in the Palestinian territories precipitated a military confrontation between the Israeli military and Hamas in which Hamas fired nearly three thousand rockets at Israel, and Israel retaliated with a major offensive in Gaza. The skirmish ended in late August 2014 with a cease-fire deal brokered by Egypt, but only after 73 Israelis and 2,251 Palestinians were killed.

 

Abraham Accords, 2020

In August and September 2020, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and then Bahrain agreed to normalize relations with Israel, making them only the third and fourth countries in the region—following Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994—to do so. In 2020 only, Morocco also joined Abraham Accords, in 2021 Sudan joined,

India has adopted de-hyphenation Policy which simply means that India’s relationship with Israel would stand on its own merits, independent and separate from India’s relationship with Palestinians.