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Pollution Affects Weather
Our manipulation and ignorance about dangerous production and
consumption is leading us down a horrible path that is irreversible and
may take thousands of years for the earth to recycle man's vanity. Alternative energy technology is hidden or expensively forced
upon poor countries as solar or air energy that is not yet efficient.
Environmentalist jump in the middle and miss the boat by not being
willing to sacrifice existing practices, but tell others how to live.
What a mess!
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Asian Pollution Affects Weather Over Pacific
15 March 2007 - By Rosanne Skirble - voanews.com
Severely polluted air has become the norm in many
Asian cities today. With the rapid growth and industrialization
of Asia's economy, fossil fuel emissions from factories, power
plants and automobile tailpipes are spewing into the atmosphere.
Scientists believe this concentrated pollution has the potential to
change weather patterns far beyond Asia.
Texas A&M atmospheric scientist Renyi Zhang studies tiny airborne
particles known as aerosols that are suspended in the clouds. Some
of these tiny particles, such as sea salt, are natural, but others,
such as soot and sulfates, are produced when coal is burned. Zhang
says his research is the first to link Asian air pollution and
changing Pacific weather patterns. He says the abundance of
aerosol pollutants changes how clouds are formed. "Over the last
decade the amount of deep convective clouds has increased
from somewhere between 20 and 50 percent."
These dense high-altitude clouds can be many kilometers thick and
lead to more intense storms over the Pacific. The findings, says
Zhang, are based on satellite measurements from 1984 to 2005 and on
computer climate models. "If you introduce polluted aerosols into
the model the clouds are deeper, more energetic and produce more
precipitation similar to the satellite measurements."
Zhang says the storm track over the Pacific is a major weather event
and part of a complex global weather system, vulnerable to change.
"If you change this weather pattern over the Pacific region, it is
very likely that you are going to change the weather patterns over
the West Coast and Canada. The weather patterns will be altered.
"Scientists are also concerned that the movement out of Asia of
polluted aerosols could affect climate at the Earth's poles. As more
soot in the form of black carbon collects on ice packs, it attracts
more heat from the sun and could accelerate melting.
Bill Chameides, a senior atmospheric scientist with the non-profit
Environmental Defense says while the Texas A&M study focuses on
Asia, the region is not alone in sending its pollution around the
globe. "I think that it is also important to bear in mind that there
is a good deal of pollution that comes from the United States that
has an impact on our weather and our air quality."
U.S. pollution also has the potential to impact air quality around
the globe, Chameides says, noting, "If China's pollution is having
an impact on us, our pollution has the potential for having an
impact on Europe." Zhang says more research must be done to further
evaluate the interaction between clouds and aerosols and what effect
that might have on climate change. The Texas A&M study is published
in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. |
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The
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Living on the Lost Planet 
