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They call it the Asian Brown Cloud. Anyone who has flown over South Asia has seen it – a vast blanket of smog that covers much of the region.
It is also what colours those sunsets at the Taj Mahal. Now a group of scientists has carried out the first detailed study of the phenomenon and arrived at a troubling conclusion.
They say that it is causing Himalayan glaciers to melt, with potentially devastating consequences for more than two billion people in India, China, Bangladesh and other downstream countries.
In a study published yesterday by Nature, the British journal, they say that black soot particles in the cloud are absorbing the Sun’s heat and pushing up temperatures at the same altitude as most Himalayan glaciers.
Scientists have already observed that two thirds of the 46,000 glaciers in the Himalayas are shrinking, leading to increasingly severe floods downstream and, eventually, to widespread drought. Greenhouse gases were previously thought to be the main cause of the problem, which threatens the sources of Asia’s nine main rivers – including the Indus, the Ganges and the Yangtze.
But the research team from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in California says that the Asian Brown Cloud – made up of gases and suspended particles known as aerosols – is just as much to blame. “My one hope is that this finding will intensify the focus of Asian scientists and policy makers on the glacier issue,” Veerabhadran Ramanathan, who led the research, told The Times. “These glaciers are the source for major river systems, so at least two billion people are directly involved in this.”
The cloud is an enormous plume of smoke from factories, power plants and wood or dung fires that stretches across the Indian subcontinent, into SouthEast Asia.
Professor Ramanathan’s team examined it using three unmanned aircraft similar to those used by the US military, but fitted with fifteen instruments to measure temperature, humidity and aerosol levels. The drones were launched from the Maldives island of Hanimadhoo and carried out 18 missions over the Indian Ocean in March 2006, flying simultaneously through the cloud at different altitudes. They found that the cloud amplified the effects of solar heating on the surrounding air by 50 per cent.
The professor said that some aerosols in the cloud reflected sunlight, cooling the earth beneath in a process known as “global dimming” that is also worrying climate change experts.
Others absorbed heat radiation from the Sun because of their dark colour.
When he put his data into a computer model for climate change, it estimated that Himalayan temperatures had risen 0.25C (0.45F) a decade since 1950 – twice the average rate of global warming. “If we continue to use outdated technology to achieve industrialisation, this is only going to get worse,” said Professor Ramanathan. “But there is some good news.” Unlike greenhouse gases, which can stay in the atmosphere for 200 years, aerosols drop to the ground after two to three weeks.
Asian countries can therefore tackle the problem relatively quickly if they find alternatives to fuels such as coal, diesel, wood and dung, which account for the majority of aerosols in the air.
The United Nations Environment Programme, which supported the research, urged all governments to take similar steps since brown clouds have now been observed in Africa, America and the Middle East.
“The main cause of climate change is the build-up of greenhouse gases from the burning of fossil fuels,” said Achim Steiner, the United Nations under-secretary-general and the executive director of UNEP. “But brown clouds, whose environmental and economic impacts are beginning to be unravelled by scientists, are complicating and aggravating their effects.”
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Yes, Marylin. It's always good to do something. We all know what greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide can do, whether or not they cause warming on a global scale or not. Who would want to breathe polluted air anyway?
Ironically, scientists have proposed the use of controlled pollution to counter global warming. They base this on the .5 degree Centigrade cooling experienced globally after Mt. Pinatubo exploded. Read about in TheNewsRoom link below:
http://www.thenewsroom.com/details/8334?c_id=wom-bc-ar
- Alvin from TheScienceDesk at TheNewsRoom.com
alvinwriter, Manila,
Personally, I strongly believe that the release of greenhouse gases, like carbon dioxide, in the atmosphere should be minimized. But I don't think people should be arguing and getting angry at each other about the issue of global warming. Both sides must agree on something, and it should be about facts. I think activists and their critics will both agree that air pollution, along with the gases (greenhouse or otherwise) it adds to the air, is not good for people.
The Earth has just come from an ice age which just ended about 100,000 years ago and the Earth's climate has warmed much since then. The Earth may still be in this stage of warming and the excess carbon emissions in the air may just be a coincidental factor. Still, it wouldn't hurt to minimize artificial emissions.
I'd like to share this news from TheNewsRoom about a $100,000 prize to whoever proves that global warming is anthropogenic: http://www.thenewsroom.com/details/575853
alvinwriter, Manila,
I'm not sure I totally agree on the warming effect of aerosols. Of course, aerosols like carbon particles serve to make our atmosphere dirty and less breathable. But they can really block much of the Sun's radiation, causing a dimming, even cooling effect. As for the dark particles absorbing heat, well, I think this has a bigger impact if the carbon particles are coated on ice, which, I believe could be the reason why more ice is melting in the Himalayas and elsewhere.
Here's an interesting link to TheNewsRoom on how the atmosphere's aerosol layer is thinning, adding to the warming phenomenon we are experiencing: http://www.thenewsroom.com/details/128200?c_id=wom-bc-ar
I'm writing from TheScienceDesk at TheNewsRoom. We have a group of users interested in climate change who have found great news on the subject. Email jtowns@voxant.com and see how TheNewsRoom can be your partner in content. We'll be happy to hear from you.
alvinwriter, Manila,
Forget the floods and droughts, these are just the effect. Shouldn't we be more interested in addressing the cause?
It's also rather foolish to blame George Bush for pollution in Asia. He is responsible for so many other faults in the world, why damage your credibility by blaming him for something he doesn't has control over i.e. how China/India/Russia/other pollute?
Farrukh, Woking, UK
Is our large population to blame?
- Daily solid waste produced by humans- 1-2Kg X 6.5billion
- Daily liquid waste produced by humans- 1-2Ltrs X 6.5billion
- Daily CO2 produced by humans- ?? X 6.5billion
- Daily packaging/wrappers/tins- 1-3avg X 2billion (western countries produce most of the packaging waste)
- The 100s of millions of cars we drive.
- The 100s of millions of people who smoke.
- Millions of Ltrs. of toxis cleaners/chemicals/toxic makeup/creams/lipsticks/perfumes/hair gels/colours we use.
That is a lot of waste, and does not include industrial waste and pollution. Of course, the large population IS the problem. Control the population and the problem is solved. If we don't do it, nature will and soon.
Michael S., London,
OHHHHHHH MYYYYYY GGGGGGOOOOOOODDDDDDDD!!!!!!!!!!!
WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!!! AND IT'S BUSH'S FAULT! AND BLAIRS, AND THE LITTLE DOORMOUSE FROM THE LOOKING GLASS!!!!! OOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHH NOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!
Where's our "hero" Algore? Inventing the internet again? Or jetting around scaring the crap out of everyone?
Cycles, kids, cycles.........
RAY, Nashville, TN
Harry, pollution in Asia is Bush's fault now? Huh. He knows when every sparrow falls, he causes every particle of soot to rise over China, he sends the dung to the peasants in India to burn as fuel...
Lugo, Reston, VA
Our own Government are purposly spraying chemical aerosols into the atmosphere everyday, everybody can see the lines, all across the sky, that spread out and even block out the sun, where is the outrage for this. Even the trees and plants are now suffering from this assault. Governments do not care about the Planet only money and enslavement, because they are all psychopaths. There is one cure for pollution and that is to get rid of all Governments. Global warming is another scam to make money and control the population. Government is keeping the alternative power technologies that would free us from oil, suppressed and even kill anybody who tries to get this technology out to the public, this is the real reality of the World, the psychopaths in power.
Arthur Guy, Gloucester, Gloucestershire
The planet will right itself whether it involved the deaths of billions of homo sapiens or not. Its a closed system and there is no free lunch. Better that human wisdom is involved than human desperation. People should stop having children and instead, adopt whenever possible. And leave the most basic footprint on resources. No that this is going to happen, mind you, but it will after New York and London are flooded and the rest of us are foraging in the foothills for something to eat. The next decades are certainly going to be exciting. JHS
James, Kew Gardens, , New York
Instead of warming, which is a natural event, why doesn't anyone ever mention that we also have to breathe this air. That is more worriesome to me
Dan, lake worth, FL
There is clear and unambiguous evidence we are entering a new cyclical ice age. The warming of the oceans is how it starts. The owners of plantation earth, the Rothschilds, are using this as another fear tactic just as they do with terror, drugs, and all the other ways of striking fear in the hearts of humans so they'll be compliant and pay.
Bonanzaman, blaine, wa
The governent of India has shown its true colors by spending millions and millions of dollars to get Benie and his F1 show to their country, but display unconcern for the peoples health.
Pat, The Woodlands, Texas USA
Global pollution requires a global response. We need alternative sources of energy and a new consciousness, if we are to avoid catastrophe.
We are in a race against disaster and at present it looks like we are not winning.
We need to limit population growth and accept the need for greater controls of fertility and mortality. At risk is our species. We cannot gamble with that.
Future global government will be harsh, and needs to be if we are to survive at all.
Peace
Gaius Magnus, London, England
Marilyn, you could make a good start by dumping Bush.
Harry Davies, Galway, Ireland
Marilyn, you can't. Even if the sun was 10m off the face of the Earth, everyone would come on here and say it was a natural process observed 100 million years ago.
Jamie, Halifax, West Yorkshire
I think it's about time we stop saying global warnings are BS and start being concerned.! How much more do we have to go through before everyone realizes it??
Marilyn, Gilette, Wyoming