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Politics : The Donkey's Inn -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mephisto who wrote (4170)	8/13/2002 5:50:49 PM
From: Mephisto	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 15516

Climate threatened by the 'Asian brown haze' By Paul Daley London August 12 2002 A three-kilometre-deep noxious cloud of pollution floating above South Asia could irreversibly affect agricultural production and permanently change weather patterns, a United Nations report claims. Scientists working for the UN Environment Program have found that the "Asian brown haze" has the potential to threaten the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. The program, which has released the results of a preliminary study into the cloud, says the haze - made up of acids, ash aerosols and other particles - is already triggering droughts and could cause "several hundreds of thousands" of deaths from respiratory illnesses. Although the study does not focus specifically on Australia, its findings indicate that the El Nino weather phenomenon could become more pronounced. The program's executive director, Klaus Toepfer, said: "The haze is the result of forest fires, the burning of agricultural wastes, dramatic increases in the burning of fossil fuels in vehicles, industries and power stations and emissions from millions of inefficient cokers burning wood, cow dung and other bio fuels. "There are also global implications, not least because a pollution parcel like this, which stretches three kilometres high, can travel halfway round the globe in a week." Visit theage.com.au for the most up-to-date news Copyright © 2002