Read the passage carefully and answer the questions given below it. Global warming, largely caused by industrial development and consumer demands, has...

Question

Read the passage carefully and answer the questions given below it. Global warming, largely caused by industrial development and consumer demands, has been causing havoc across the world. Temperatures are shooting up, floods have been ravaging South China and Northeast India, unseasonal rains and, ironically, delayed and poor monsoon rains are experienced. A major solution to mitigate such climate changes is to reduce the levels of greenhouse gases, particularly carbon dioxide, which causes this warming. In an effort to try and limit this warming, many countries across the world are gathering together and agreeing to make efforts to limit the rise in temperature to no higher than 1.5 degrees by the year 2050.The major way to do so is to increase the number of plants, trees and forests across the world. They all absorb carbon dioxide from the air, and with the help of sunlight and water, produce food (staple for us) and oxygen (which we breathe). And the wood and timber they offer are used by us in buildings and furniture. They are, thus, justly named in Sanskrit as Kalpataru — the wish-giving tree. Yet, we kill them: deforestation has been going on decade after decade across the world, affecting the weather as well as the lives of plants, animals, microbes and the livelihood of human tribes that live in forests. The total surface area of our Earth is 52 billion hectares (Ha), and 31% of this has been forest cover. But the huge Amazon forests of South America are being chopped off for commercial reasons. Peru and Bolivia in the western Amazon region are the worst affected by such deforestation; so are Mexico and its neighbours in Mesoamerica. Russia, with forests occupying 45% of its land area, is chopping off trees. Large scale deforestation this kind has contributed to global warming over the years. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) defines a “forest” as a land area of at least 0.5 hectares, covered by at least 10% tree cover,________________________________ . Using this definition, a group of Swiss and French ecologists have analysed these 4.4 billion hectares of tree canopy that can exist under the current climate. And, excluding existing trees and agricultural and urban areas, there is room for an extra 0.9 billion hectares. Their analysis using the latest ecological methods, was published two weeks ago. Thus, there is the potential climate change mitigation through global tree restoration. They point out that more than 50% of this restoration potential can be found in six countries (Russia, USA, Canada, Australia, Brazil and China). While it is not clear how much of this land is public or private, they confirm that the calculation of 1 billion hectares (>10% tree cover) is achievable. Happily enough, several group (and governments) in countries, notably Philippines and State government in India have moved towards more tree plantations. In India with its 7,08,273 sq km land area, 21.54% has tree cover. And between 2015 and 2018, we have added 6,778 sq km. Madhya Pradesh has the largest forest cover, followed by Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Arunachal Pradesh while Punjab, Haryana, UP and Rajasthan have the least.
Question: Which of the following phrases correctly fills the blank in the passage?

Options

A.

(a) Comply with the consumer demands for zero deforestation products.

B.

(b) Poor implementation of the existing ones cited as the main causes.

C.

(c) Deforestation due to commodity-driven plantations.

D.

(d) Without any agricultural activity or human settlement.

E.

(e) The amount of forest land taken over by industrially valuable crops.

global warmingdeforestationenvironmentclimate changeforest coverfao definition

Solve This Question

Get instant feedback with detailed step-by-step solution

Start Solving →