"Asian Brown Cloud" is speeding melt of Himalaya glaciers: study - AFP

[Eugene]

Source: Agence France-Presse

"Asian Brown Cloud" is speeding melt of Himalaya glaciers: study

by Richard Ingham
2 hours, 31 minutes ago

PARIS (AFP) - The haze of pollution that blankets
southern Asia is accelerating the loss of Himalayan
glaciers, bequeathing an incalculable bill to China,
India and other countries whose rivers flow from this
source, scientists warned on Wednesday.

In a study released by the British journal Nature, the
investigators say the so-called Asian Brown Cloud is
as much to blame as greenhouse gases for the warming
observed in the Himalayas over the past half century.

Rapid melting among the 46,000 glaciers on the Tibetan
Plateau, the third-largest ice mass on the planet, is
already causing downstream flooding late summer. But
long-term worries focus more on the danger of drought,
as the glaciers shrink.

The new report triggered an appeal from UN Environment
Programme (UNEP) chief Achim Steiner, who urged the
international community "to ever greater action" on
tackling climate change.

-snip-

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070801/sc_afp/climatewarmingasia_070801172619

[MADem]

1. They'll probably wait until their people are dropping like American pets on Chinese petfood

before they do anything...and then it might be too late.

They want to make money. And clean air is expensive. They're terribly shortsighted in this regard.

[Vincardog]

2. IT sounds like the so-called Asian Brown Cloud is the same as greenhouse gases

Or isn't smog counted as a factor in global warming?