Monday, December 3, 2012

These clouds have no silver lining

As dark clouds ominously hang low over most of Asia, environmentalists are urging nations to transform into low-carbon economies...

In the words of William Ruckelshaus, “nature provides a free lunch, but only if we control our appetites.” If not judiciously used, it stands to change the ABCs of our very lives. In the present day scenario, the elements threatening to play havoc with our lives are the ABCs in our environment. Atmospheric Brown Clouds (ABCs) are expanding and assuming alarming proportions these days. These Atmospheric Brown Clouds are hovering over Asia and have been blocking out the sun and are aggravating the climatic imbalance brought on by the greenhouse effect. A noxious concoction of soot, smog and toxic chemicals has played havoc with the health of over a million in Asia, according to United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) reports, and has altered the weather patterns in Arabian Peninsula, China and around the western Pacific Ocean. The three-kilometer thick ‘brown cloud’ of man-made pollution has had an immediate effect on the Himalayan-Hindu Kush glaciers, causing the ice-caps to melt.

Often termed as regional haze, these Atmospheric Brown Clouds have become the newest threat to global environment. The environmentalists believe that these brown clouds are caused mainly by the burning of fossil fuels and biomass, and ejections from motor vehicles and thermal plants. Nick Nuttall, Spokesperson to the Executive Director, UNEP, also adds that “if these gases are combined with other harmful emissions like C02, methane and other greenhouse gases, it would lead to further complexities.”


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri

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