European Parliament adopts nature restoration law (GS Paper 3, Environment)
Why in news?
- The European Parliament recently adopted the first European Union (EU) law to restore degraded ecosystems across the 27-nation political and economic bloc.
Details:
- The new law sets a target for the EU to restore at least 20 per cent of its land and sea areas by 2030 and all ecosystems in need of restoration by 2050, the statement added.
- The law calls on EU members to restore at least 30 per cent of drained peatland by 2030, 40 per cent by 2040 and 50 per cent by 2050.
Targets for agricultural ecosystems:
- To improve biodiversity in agricultural ecosystems, EU countries will have to make progress in two of the following three indicators:
- The grassland butterfly index;
- The share of agricultural land with high-diversity landscape features;
- The stock of organic carbon in cropland mineral soil.
- Measures to increase the common farmland bird index must also be taken as birds are good indicators of the overall state of biodiversity.
- Targets for agricultural ecosystems can be suspended under exceptional circumstances if they severely reduce the land needed for sufficient food production for EU consumption, according to the law.
Other highlights:
- The legislation also demands a positive trend in several indicators in forest ecosystems and an additional three billion trees to be planted.
- EU nations must restore at least 25,000 km of rivers into free-flowing rivers and ensure there is no net loss in the total national area of urban green space and of urban tree canopy cover.
Background:
- The legislation was introduced by the European Commission on June 22, 2022. An amended version of the law faced deadlock as the Committee on Environment, Food Safety and Public Health (ENVI) rejected the proposal.
- The law now has to be adopted by the European Council, before being published in the EU Official Journal and entering into force 20 days later.
New Uranus, Neptune moons to get names from Shakespeare plays, greek mythology
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
Why in news?
- After a long gap of 20 years, a new moon has been discovered around Uranus and two around Neptune increasing the lunar family of the solar system.
Details:
- The newly discovered moons will now be named after characters from fabled plays by William Shakespeare and Greek mythology.
- These are some of the faintest moons to have been discovered around the two giants at the edge of the Solar System. The International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center has announced the discovery.
Uranus Moon:
- With the new discovery, Uranus has 28 moons orbiting it. At only 8 kilometers, it is probably the smallest of Uranus’ moons and orbits the planet once every 680 days.
- The Uranian moon has been named S/2023 U1, which will eventually be named after a character from a Shakespeare play, in keeping with the naming conventions for outer Uranian satellites.
Neptune moon:
- The brighter Neptune moon, provisionally named S/2002 N5, measures approximately 23 kilometers and completes an orbit around the ice giant in nearly 9 years.
- The fainter Neptune moon, provisionally designated S/2021 N1, has a size of about 14 kilometers and an orbit lasting almost 27 years.
- Both moons will eventually be named based on the 50 Nereid sea goddesses from Greek mythology.
