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Asian smog cloud threatens millions: UN
Last Updated Tue, 13 Aug 2002 14:03:35
LONDON - A three-kilometre thick cloud of toxic pollution looming over south Asia could kill hundreds of thousands of people prematurely and cause deadly flooding and drought, according to a United Nations study.
Brown cloud pattern over Asia
The "Asian Brown Cloud" is a toxic mix of ash, acids and airborne particles from car and factory emissions, as well as from low-tech polluters like wood-burning stoves.
"When you think about air pollution, many people think of industry and fossil fuels as the only causes," report co-author Paul Crutzen, a scientist at the Max-Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz, Germany, told a news conference in London.
INDEPTH: Global Warming
Crutzen said forest fires and the burning of vegetation to clear land or to warm homes is often ignored as a factor. He was a co-winner of the 1995 Nobel chemistry prize for his work on the ozone layer.
Atmospheric scientists now say microscopic particles of pollutants, called aerosols, can travel the globe and add to the effect of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels.
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The pollutants make breathing difficult and the pollution is not just found in cities. Researchers found this out by working on the Indian Ocean Experiment, and from satellite readings and computer models.
Findings
Blanket of smog reduces sunlight hitting Earth's surface by up to 15 per cent
Lower parts of atmosphere are warming
Sharp fall in winter monsoon rainfalls over northwestern Asia; increase in rainfall along eastern coast of Asia
Haze could reduce winter rice harvests in India by as much as 10 per cent
"We now think it's covering the entire Asian continent," said Prof. Victor Ramanathan of the U.S. Scripps Institution of Oceanography, one of the 200 scientists who contributed to the study. "How it spread out from urban regions is the major stunning part of the experiment."
Scientists are also worried the Brown Cloud could spread to other parts of the world, including Europe and even the Americas.
"There are brown clouds now over South America and there are brown clouds linked with the Mediterranean region," said UN Environment Program spokesman Nick Nuttal. "So it's clear that there are more brown clouds over other parts of the world, and one of the nightmare scenarios is if they all linked up."
Scientists say it's too early to draw definite conclusions about the impact of the brown clouds or their relationship to global warming, but they warn the impact could be global since winds can push pollutants halfway around the world in a week.
The Asian Brown Cloud will be a major topic of discussion at the World Summit on Sustainable Development, which opens Aug. 26 in Johannesburg, South Africa.
The environmental group Friends of the Earth said urgent action such as replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy, and tougher laws to protect the world's forests are needed to clean up pollution.
Written by CBC News Online staff |
