Brown Clouds Over Asia Pose New Threat To Planet: Un

[sabaijai]

Brown clouds over Asia pose new threat to planet: UN

Thursday, November 13, 2008

A brown haze of soot, particles and chemicals that hangs over parts of Asia is darkening cities, melting glaciers in the Himalayas and making weather systems more extreme, the United Nations said Thursday.

Scientists who have studied the thick brown clouds, which they estimate to be more than three kilometres thick, said the haze stretches from the Arabian Peninsula to China and the Western Pacific Ocean. It is officially known as atmospheric brown clouds.

The scientists, who come from China, India, Europe and the U.S., said in a new report commissioned by the UN Environment Program that the brown clouds are aggravating the impact of climate change caused by greenhouse gases in some regions.

They said they are issuing the warning now about the brown haze because it is a "serious and significant" environmental challenge facing the planet that poses a threat to human health and food production.

"Imagine for a moment a three-kilometer-thick band of soot, particles, a cocktail of chemicals that stretches from the Arabic Peninsula to Asia," Achim Steiner, UN undersecretary general and executive director of the program, said during a news conference on the findings.

"All of this points to an even greater and urgent need to look at emissions across the planet, because this is where the stories are linked in terms of greenhouse emissions and particle emissions and the impact that they're having on our global climate," he said.

The brown clouds have darkened 13 cities in Asia, including Beijing, Shanghai, Bangkok, Cairo, Mumbai, New Delhi and Tehran, "dimming" sunlight in some places by as much as 25 per cent.

The brown clouds, produced by the burning of fossil fuels, wood and plants, form particles like black carbon and soot that absorb sunlight and warm the air, enhancing the greenhouse effect.

Mask for warming impact

Scientists, however, said the brown clouds also "mask" the warming impacts of climate change by an average of 40 per cent because they contain particles that reflect sunlight and cool the earth's surface.

According to the report, the phenomenon has been studied closely in Asia, but it is not unique to the region, with brown clouds seen over parts of North America, Europe, southern Africa and the Amazon Basin.

The scientists said the brown clouds are having a negative impact on air quality and agricultural production in Asia with risks to human health increasing. Health problems associated with the brown clouds include cardiovascular and respiratory diseases.

Veerabhadran Ramanathan, head of the scientific panel that is carrying out the research and a professor at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California in San Diego, said the huge cloud masses can cross continents in the space of three to four days.

It's not a regional issue, but a global one, he said.

"The main message is that it's a global problem. This is not a problem where we point fingers at our neighbours. Everyone is in someone else's backyard," Ramanathan said.

He said one of most serious problems noted in the report is melting of the Hindu Kush-Himalaya-Tibetan glaciers, which provide the head-waters for the major river systems including the Ganges, Brahmaputra, Mekong and Yangtze rivers.

The Ganges basin, for example, is home to more than 400 million people and holds 40 per cent of India's irrigated croplands.

He said the melting has "serious implications for the water and food security of Asia."

The Chinese Academy of Sciences estimates that the glaciers have shrunk five per cent since the 1950s and the volume of China's nearly 47,000 glaciers has fallen by 3,000 square kilometres over the past quarter century.

The brown clouds also have helped decrease the monsoon season in India. The weather extremes caused by the clouds may have also helped to reduce production of crops such as rice, wheat and soybean, according to the report.

Ramanathan said he hopes the report "triggers" an international response to the problems of greenhouse gases and brown clouds and the "unsustainable development" that underlies them both.

"The new research, by identifying some of the causal factors, offers hope for taking actions to slow down this disturbing phenomenon," he said.

Source: CBC

With files from the Associated Press

http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2008/11/13/brown-clouds.html

[Jingthing]

Saw an item about this on the tube today. First I heard of it. Very dire. The tv report stated the clouds cause 300,000 deaths every year in China and India alone (breathing in of large particulates causes heart and lung disease). The picture showed the cloud clearly went over China to India and also OVER THAILAND. Egads.

Edited November 16, 2008 by Jingthing

[Shotime]

Finally some good news.

It sounds like a science fiction movie,. Except they should have come up with a better name than the brown cloud. Especially if they're trying to get money for further studies. Like "The Brown Global Curtain of Death" or "The Brown Curtain Clashes With The Green House."

Edited November 16, 2008 by Shotime

[Jingthing]

Finally some good news.

It sounds like a science fiction movie,. Except they should have come up with a better name than the brown cloud. Especially if they're trying to get money for further studies. Like "The Brown Global Curtain of Death" or "The Brown Curtain Clashes With The Green House."

That was all very Nero fiddled while rome burned ...

[geriatrickid]

I wonder if Thailand will be sending its ToT emissaries to China and India to thank them for these visitors?

[jayjayjayjay]

Finally some good news.

It sounds like a science fiction movie,. Except they should have come up with a better name than the brown cloud. Especially if they're trying to get money for further studies. Like "The Brown Global Curtain of Death" or "The Brown Curtain Clashes With The Green House."

Da "Brown Cloud of Death" , well, shouldn't this cloud be reflecting or absorbing gamma rays back into space and fulfilling the role of depleted ozone, therefore it is saving 428,321 lives a year, preventing snow around the dying glacier from melting so quickly, AND, stopping 920,000 Europeans from getting burnt on Asian beaches every year. The total sum is so beneficial to the global head count the Unified National Deptment of Environmental Radical Peace and Apples in Island Dogs (UNDERPAID) are setting up rice paddy burnt-offs to start in mid December. Chiangmai airport will be closed from Jan 1st, 2009 until April 1st. (great, we might have some peace!)

[Gravelrash]

Finally some good news.

It sounds like a science fiction movie,. Except they should have come up with a better name than the brown cloud. Especially if they're trying to get money for further studies. Like "The Brown Global Curtain of Death" or "The Brown Curtain Clashes With The Green House."

Da "Brown Cloud of Death" , well, shouldn't this cloud be reflecting or absorbing gamma rays back into space and fulfilling the role of depleted ozone, therefore it is saving 428,321 lives a year, preventing snow around the dying glacier from melting so quickly, AND, stopping 920,000 Europeans from getting burnt on Asian beaches every year. The total sum is so beneficial to the global head count the Unified National Deptment of Environmental Radical Peace and Apples in Island Dogs (UNDERPAID) are setting up rice paddy burnt-offs to start in mid December. Chiangmai airport will be closed from Jan 1st, 2009 until April 1st. (great, we might have some peace!)

This one of those posts that just leaves you shaking your head in bewilderment, somewhat like the guy that wanted to knit beanies for the PAD or whatever it was.

[Shotime]

No, but yours and jimgaling's are.

[dotcom]

It seems we have more than a few "climate change" skeptics. Congrats on being able to think for ourselves.

The scare mongers are in hysteria mode.

[Jingthing]

Acceptance of the science behind global warming is very mainstream. Even former deniers such as W. Bush are now on the global warming is real page. I guess if you don't care about the future of our species you can make a big joke about it. I don't have kids, maybe I shouldn't care either ...

This brown cloud thing is new to me and I have an open mind about it and would like to learn more. Can the skeptics supply sources of why we should deny the brown cloud's existence? As far as I can tell, although this is related to global warming, this is a totally different thing indeed. And it directly concerns THAILAND.

Edited November 17, 2008 by Jingthing

[ThaiAdventure]

Soots contribution to global warming isn't "new" news and IMHO is more believable than that of CO2. I find it very difficult to believe that such a vast phenomenon has just popped in to existence! More scaremongering!

soot worse for global warming than thought (2003)

Global Warming Soot (2003)

Soot particles, which absorb toxic organic material, are minute enough to penetrate skin when breathed in. Soot is the aerosol most responsible for the haze in rapidly developing countries such as India and China, the scientists said.

Edited November 17, 2008 by ThaiAdventure

[Jingthing]

Scaremongering? You want scaremongering? OK, how about this:

Health problems associated with particulate pollution, such as cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, are linked to nearly 350,000 premature deaths in China and India every year, said Henning Rohde, a University of Stockholm scientist who worked on the study.

Soot levels in the air were reported to have risen alarmingly in 13 megacities: Bangkok, Beijing, Cairo, Dhaka, Karachi, Kolkata, Lagos, Mumbai, New Delhi, Seoul, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Tehran.

Pretty good scaremongering, huh?

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?.../i091942S32.DTL

Edited November 17, 2008 by Jingthing

[DiamondJack]

Acceptance of the science behind global warming is very mainstream. Even former deniers such as W. Bush are now on the global warming is real page. I guess if you don't care about the future of our species you can make a big joke about it. I don't have kids, maybe I shouldn't care either ...

This brown cloud thing is new to me and I have an open mind about it and would like to learn more. Can the skeptics supply sources of why we should deny the brown cloud's existence? As far as I can tell, although this is related to global warming, this is a totally different thing indeed. And it directly concerns THAILAND.

George W. Bush has certainly switched on to this "Global Warmings" thingy and he agrees with the Creationist Theory. It all came about six thousand years ago, just ask Mrs. Palin

Have a chuckle at this young man.

Bush_Jnr._Jnr._on_Global_Warming.wmv

[Gary A]

Now brown clouds! Which is it? Is it cooling the earth or warming the earth? You can't have it both ways. The sky is NOT falling and life goes on. People believe whatever they like and nothing will change their minds.

[samuibeachcomber]

well diamondjack how do you know that Palin's not correct?Learned scholars believe the aborigines, (in australia)are the oldest living(still alive)species known to man and are at least 40,000years old.IMHOi f you can believe that,then you will believe anything!

[animatic]

Now brown clouds! Which is it? Is it cooling the earth or warming the earth? You can't have it both ways. The sky is NOT falling and life goes on. People believe whatever they like and nothing will change their minds.

Well when I was in Shanghai and the took a train to Canton/Guanchaow,

I did NOT like the look of the clouds of pollution I could see.

I had onely seen something like this trapped over NYC in august

by evaporation from the two rivers around Manhattan.

Looking back from thre train I saw, hovering over the city was a noxious cloud.

It was a heat and evaporation barriar, clear all around the city,

but inside was a horror of particulates. Perfectly clear to the eye.

I was VERY happy to be heading out, and it was in my calculation

when I moved out of NYC.

I saw the SAME THING in China, and never anything like that in between,

but nothing to hold it in like rivers on all sides. It was scary knowing this

was JUST HANGING THERE. If this is how bad it is in general...

we DO have reason to fear. Another reason I am out on an island with

lots of winds to diffuse crap in the air.

[Shotime]

Finally some good news.

It sounds like a science fiction movie,. Except they should have come up with a better name than the brown cloud. Especially if they're trying to get money for further studies. Like "The Brown Global Curtain of Death" or "The Brown Curtain Clashes With The Green House."

That was all very Nero fiddled while rome burned ...

I'm not a skeptic. I believe global warming is a real thing. The way the brown cloud was presented sounded a little funny to me, but I don't doubt it's existence or how many deaths it's caused already. I'm more of a fatalist. I'm also a little curious to know what contributions you've made to reduce CO2 emissions, or do you think that just believing it exists will make it go away. This also goes for the bewildered guy who's shaking his head. What's so bewildering about someone wanting to make beanies? I find that remark more bewildering than anything else I've read so far. I'm also getting tired of being made to feel scared.

[patklang]

Doesnt take the brains of brittain to realise that Bangkok is a polluted hel_l hole.I always have problems with my eyes running and a ticklish cough within 20 minutes of getting into Bangkok,the rats seem to be much bigger too urggghhhh,hate the place

[JimsKnight]

That's the big city for you. Like it or leave it buddy

The Scaremongers need to calm down.

Unless they want us all to pull down the cities and live in the tree's we've got to accept that pollution is just the way it goes.

Everytime I hear Unitied Nations and scientist I get a bit critical, those guys are out for currying favour and getting xx millions spent on the next white elephant. The result is they get to pull the strings again, until the next 'excuse' comes along.

They see pollution and suddenly come running with there hand out for money.

It's up to the nations to come up with there own ways of dealing with this.

[animatic]

That's the big city for you. Like it or leave it buddy

The Scaremongers need to calm down.

Unless they want us all to pull down the cities and live in the tree's we've got to accept that pollution is just the way it goes.

Everytime I hear Unitied Nations and scientist I get a bit critical, those guys are out for currying favour and getting xx millions spent on the next white elephant. The result is they get to pull the strings again, until the next 'excuse' comes along.

They see pollution and suddenly come running with there hand out for money.

It's up to the nations to come up with there own ways of dealing with this.

Two days in Bangkok and my voice starts sounding like Bill Clinton's after a election tour.

Same happened in Canton, but in one day.

[patklang]

jimsknight,

yes mate i did make my choice and and its certainly not in a big city.Realy glad i dont have to work there too,but i do appreciate that some people have no choice.

[sabaijai]

It seems we have more than a few "climate change" skeptics. Congrats on being able to think for ourselves.

The scare mongers are in hysteria mode.

Count me among the climate change sceptics, recognising that historical records don't go back far enough to say whether current warming trends are cyclical/natural or human-induced.

However the brown cloud phenomena is undeniable, whether related to climate change or not, and the health threats appear to be quantifiable.

[jbowman1993]

The rising CO2 levels are higher than any time in the past 600,000 years. And they are going to double in the next 50. The cause - burning fossil fuels. The sceptics say "its a cyclical phenomenon". OK, maybe it is. Everything is still going to hel_l with the ice caps melting, etc. But what if its not, and we don' t do everything in our power to prevent it? That is the question that skeptics never have an answer for. What if their wrong? If the world's scientists are wrong, and we switch to green energy and CO2 emissions are cut by 80%, what is the downside? Answer - none. If the skeptics are wrong - humanity plays a role in a huge climactic cataclysm. If you can't figure out which side it er on, you're a nub.

The time for "skepticism" is past. Its time for action, accountability, and decisiveness.

[Jingthing]

I think there is room for serious debate about exactly how long it will be until we have crossed the point where we can't do anything to stop it. Hopefully, we haven't reached that yet. However, I am not optimistic because it appears to be entrenched human nature to wait until a major crisis to take action, and in this case, it may be too late. Remembering watching the famous Al Gore movie, my impression was Mr. Gore was way too optimistic about his hopes that the world will actually get its act together to prevent this.

[Crossy]

Not exactly a new phenomenon, been noticed since the 1950s.

Excellent Horizon programme in 2005 (should be available on a torrent somewhere) BBC website http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/tvradio/programmes...g_summary.shtml

Edited November 18, 2008 by Crossy

[Shotime]

The rising CO2 levels are higher than any time in the past 600,000 years. And they are going to double in the next 50. The cause - burning fossil fuels. The sceptics say "its a cyclical phenomenon". OK, maybe it is. Everything is still going to hel_l with the ice caps melting, etc. But what if its not, and we don' t do everything in our power to prevent it? That is the question that skeptics never have an answer for. What if their wrong? If the world's scientists are wrong, and we switch to green energy and CO2 emissions are cut by 80%, what is the downside? Answer - none. If the skeptics are wrong - humanity plays a role in a huge climactic cataclysm. If you can't figure out which side it er on, you're a nub.

The time for "skepticism" is past. Its time for action, accountability, and decisiveness.

What's your next move?

[Thai at Heart]

Anything that makes the activities of industry or individuals less noxious to the world has to be a good thing. We all know that oil has a finite supply, so irrespective of whether the ice caps melt, why shouldn't we try to reduce the environmental/oil costs of our activity. We can choose to start doing it now, or in 100 years time but by then what will a barrel of oil cost?

Edited November 18, 2008 by Thai at Heart

[jayjayjayjay]

well diamondjack how do you know that Palin's not correct?Learned scholars believe the aborigines, (in australia)are the oldest living(still alive)species known to man and are at least 40,000years old.IMHOi f you can believe that,then you will believe anything!

I never met any 40,000 year old aborigines around my farm!

[jayjayjayjay]

I think there is room for serious debate about exactly how long it will be until we have crossed the point where we can't do anything to stop it. Hopefully, we haven't reached that yet. However, I am not optimistic because it appears to be entrenched human nature to wait until a major crisis to take action, and in this case, it may be too late. Remembering watching the famous Al Gore movie, my impression was Mr. Gore was way too optimistic about his hopes that the world will actually get its act together to prevent this.

Don't worry Jingthing, they found a new plant with the Hubble telescope in a neighbouring galaxy a few days ago. I hear in might no be inhabitable, but I trust scientists to the "n" degree, therefor I am sure they will have a new home lined up for us before our globe goes into meltdown. I've got a funny feeling that aint going to be in my lifetime, nor my great great great great grand childrens.

What is more of a concern is how we are going to feed 10 billion Chinese and Indian's by the turn of the next century!

[exexpat]

Personally I think a bigger issue isn't the brown clouds, but dirty diesel, collectively called particulate matter (PM). Diesel particles are 0.1 (PM0.1) microns in size, just small enough so our lungs can't filter them out, and they collapse alveoli resulting in permanently reduces lung capacity. Not good. The bigger sizes get filtered out by our lungs easier, so are less of a threat, which is why gasoline engines are much less harmful than diesel. Also, Thailand and generally poor nations in Asia use cheap sulfuruous diesel, which can cause emissions to increase 100 times. Gases responsible for the brown cluod may be irritating to our lungs, but damage can be reversed. I don't think the diesel particles travel very far, I may be wrong, but it certainly seems far worse near traffic zones. I don't really know how far you must be away from traffic to minimize effects of PM0.1, I wish someone could answer this question! As far as brown clouds go, anyone who has flown into Los Angeles knows it a giant brown cloud, so brown you can't see the ground.