Green | November 13, 2008 | 45 comments

U.N. report finds new pollution threat

source: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/14/world/14cloud.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

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BEIJING — A noxious cocktail of soot, smog and toxic chemicals is blotting out the sun, fouling the lungs of millions of people and altering weather patterns in large parts of Asia, according to a report released Thursday by the United Nations.

The byproduct of automobiles, slash-and-burn agriculture, wood-burning stoves and coal-fired power plants, these plumes of carbon dust rise over southern Africa, the Amazon basin and North America. But they are most pronounced in Asia, where so-called atmospheric brown clouds are dramatically reducing sunlight in many Chinese cities and leading to decreased crop yields in swaths of rural India, say a team of more than a dozen scientists who have been studying the problem since 2002.

But the scientists who worked on the report said the blanket of haze might be mitigating the worst effects of greenhouse gases, by absorbing solar heat or reflecting it away from the earth. Greenhouse gases, by contrast, tend to trap the warmth of the sun and lead to a rise in ocean temperatures.

“All of this points to an even greater and urgent need to take on emissions across the planet,” said Achim Steiner, executive director of the United Nations Environment Program, in Beijing, which the report identified as one of the world’s most polluted cities, and where the report was released. “The imperative to act has never been clearer.”

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45 comments // U.N. report finds new pollution threat

  • djit14
  • abbym0308
  • stopnoise
  • Katmai512
    • 0
      Katmai512  

    • I think everything points to the fact that economic health is of primary concern by any state.

      I think we're just seeing the dawn of a new age. I hope a new socio-economic philosophy is being thought of to address this.

    • 3 years ago
  • satanskidney
  • ssppeencceerr
  • arcticspirit
  • numinant
    • 0
      numinant  

    • i really think it's ridiculous the way americans keep blaming the chinese. it's a bit like decrying foreign nations for seeking nuclear weapons. well, instead of an arms race or a competition in industrialization, why don't we just commit to have the cleanest environment in the world. we'd be the envy of other nations and it wouldn't be long before they were competing for the same title.

    • 3 years ago
  • Deltone
  • stephenthomson
    • 0
      stephenthomson  

    • if you went back in time and asked the human race "do you want to be able to talk to someone across the world - or fly across the world - but NOT BE ABLE TO BREATHE?" they'd think that was a ridiculous question.

      and yet, we're answering it NOW, in a ridiculous fashion.

    • 3 years ago
  • stopnoise
    • 0
      stopnoise  
    • stephenthomson:

      That it is a good analogy to go back to the past and ask questions to ourselves about the present. The true reality is that great part of this crisis is because US invested in bad polluted business and now the Government and Corporations are dodging the media to not admit it. However, the general people are waking up now and many have realized that their relatives have died prematurely in part caused by pollution. I visited Dallas last week and riding a bike in their electric polls line trail I saw a great architecture planned communities and beautiful large size houses, all with SUvs on their garages. Predictions anyone?

      http://current.com/items/89130415/poison_and_flowers.htm

    • 3 years ago
  • stopnoise
  • ZEROGreenhouseEmissions
  • Bigdog_mike
  • numinant
    • 0
      numinant  

    • riding a bike is great, but the absolute best thing you can do for the environment is go vegan. also happens to be the best thing you can do for your health and for animals. it's a panacea, i'll never tire of saying so.

    • 3 years ago
  • Bigdog_mike
    • 0
      Bigdog_mike  
    • numinant:

      please explain how veganism is the best thing you can do for the enviroment. Just because you stop eating meat does not mean they stop factory farming. Infact, the more steaks and hamburgers I buy the less cows spouting methane into the atmosphere. Don't you lose iron when you stop eating meat???

    • 3 years ago
  • numinant
    • 0
      numinant  
    • numinant:

      what the hell?

      do you not realize that your meat consumption creates a demand for the cows they raise in factory farms? less meat demand means less meat production which means less air, water and land pollution, less burning of fossil fuels, less soil degradation, less atherosclerosis, less colon cancer, etc. it's not as if they round up free-living bovines for your hamburger meat. they inseminate them, raise them and slaughter them. if people were eating free living bovines, they'd have all gone extinct long ago.

      i'm full of iron, buddy, and i don't need to pilfer mine from other sentient beings.

    • 3 years ago
  • standingchair
  • standingchair
    • 0
      standingchair  

    • I'm tired of waiting for a response from our goverment, I'm thankful to all the other bikers out their who gave up driving this summer. Let's keep it up!

    • 3 years ago
  • breakthepower
  • Kepano
    • 0
      Kepano  

    • I don't know what is so hard for the Super Powers of the governments to change this challenge, it has been given and presented before world leaders about the need of change and the need to move from a fossil fueled world to a green and enviornmental friendly fueled world, the governments are what are killing the world not the people. Governments allow the people and Corporations to contiune the development of less Fuel Combustable Engines. News Flash World Leaders, move to green or other natural sustainable energies or you will have no people to control or govern. Stop Drilling, Build more Wind Farms, Solar Farms, and Energy Farms that can sustain the energy requirements of all the people of the world. Push for Green Technologies Leaders.

    • 3 years ago
  • animalia_libero
  • current89
  • BillionJawingNeurons
  • current89
  • ralph69
    • 0
      ralph69  

    • china is a member of the UN
      for goodness sakes
      they should have the other 191 members of the UN on their ass
      they are not only harming their own citizens, but neighboring countries AND the entire world
      and WHY wont any neighboring countries offer any help

    • 3 years ago
  • current89
  • samthesixth
    • 0
      samthesixth  

    • Without question we need to do more. But to have an impact on this particular part of the eco problem we need to have China on board.

    • 3 years ago
  • duasol
  • needu
  • ii386
    • 0
      ii386  

    • Oh the irony of that smog cloud blocking out the sun and mitigating the effects of warming. Hopefully that cloud doesn't blow over to California.

    • 3 years ago
  • daledrops
    • 0
      daledrops  

    • too bad for those people affected by it. Not only are they getting sick from the noxious fumes but they get to watch as their days turn into night.

    • 3 years ago
  • NeoDotCom
    • 0
      NeoDotCom  

    • America needs to become a global role model
      They still look up to us
      If we st the standard they will do everything to catch up with us and improve upon our design
      We created the 20th century
      We can dominate the 21st.
      But not at the rate we're going

    • 3 years ago
  • ProfessorFunk
  • stephenthomson
  • krush_productions
  • huntre
    • 0
      huntre  

    • (post amended)
      Asia's coal emissions are completely out of control. A new facility is added in China on, nearly, a weekly basis.
      They're not the only culprits but, that kind of output is contributing in major ways to a slow burning death for us all.

    • 3 years ago
  • onechance
    • 0
      onechance  

    • Damn. I wish they still rode bikes. Asia seems pretty doomed at the rate they are running. The US is no role model though... *rides bike away.

    • 3 years ago
  • current89
  • Not_A_Fox
    • 0
      Not_A_Fox  
    • onechance:

      ...

      Even with all the Bush Administration's efforts of sabotaging the EPA: We are by contrast enviromental saints compared to China.

      We DO need to give.

      But far more important is that CHINA needs to give. FAR MORE & FAR QUICKER. The People's Democratic Republic has at this point has nearly destroyed the many lands that once harbored it's nation's splendor. Much of it has been perhaps forever. Indeed: I doubt Russia at the end of the cold war, even, was as polluted then as China is today.

      That doesn't mean they get to pull the rest of the world down with them. To hell with that. The sooner they pull their heads out of their asses and make dramatic & far sweeping improvements to it's environmental policies, the better it is for all of us.

    • 3 years ago
  • samanthadian
    • 0
      samanthadian  
    • onechance:

      If Asia is this polluted it's only a matter of time before those gases make it over here. There should be some sort of Global Environmental Authority that regulations emissions. We are one continuous planet, not just a section of nations seperated by walls. If Asia goes down, the rest of us are soon to follow.

    • 3 years ago
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