The Great Change: Study Gets Inside the World's "Brown Cloud" - TIME
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http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1873553,00.html
A thick photochemical smog comprised of respirable suspended particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide hangs thick over the Causeway Bay district of Hong Kong, 22 January 2009Pilot John Horwood says the worse part about flying into Hong Kong is the suffocating, two-mile-thick blanket of pollution that hovers between 15 and 18,000 feet. "The whole cockpit fills with an acrid smell," says Horwood, who started noticing the cloud in 1997. "Each year it just gets worse and worse." What comprises this nuisance — a sprawling high-altitude mass of air pollution that stretches from the Arabian peninsula to the western Pacific Ocean — has long captured the curiosity of scientists. A report released in the Jan. 23 issue of Science breathes fresh air into that ongoing study, confirming that the mass, nicknamed the 'Brown Cloud' but comprised of several small, local clouds, is soot from human burning of wood, dung and crop residue, as well as industrial processes and traffic pollution.
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ampersand
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If China and ASEAN could show leadership on this and promote effective programs to change the habits of crop burning, and substitute bio-fuels for wood and dung fuel for heating and cooking, this problem could be eliminated in a few short years. This has gone from being the "Asian Brown Cloud" five years ago, to just the "The Brown Cloud," due to its expansion from SE Asia to the Middle East. My pleas to local Asian farmers not to burn plastic bags with their brush and garbage were incomprehensible to them. Governments in SE Asia are failing to provide the simplest of public notices and education in tackling this problem. Thailand was able to cut pollution in Bangkok by 50% by not re-licensing the 2-stroke engines of the ubiquitous tuk-tuks. It also turned around it's population and early aids problem better than the U.S. in record time by fast, comprehensive and smart intervention. It can be done.
- 1 year ago
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ampersand
