GW-ND : brown clouds over Asia promoting global warming and a threat to the world

The top story on 14th of Nov about global warming :

The United Nations said Thursday, that a brown haze of soot, particles and chemicals is hanging over parts of Asia and is darkening the cities there. It is melting himalayan glaciers and is also making weather conditions more extreme.

These Hazes, officially known as atmospheric brown clouds, according to the scientists in this field, stretches from the Arabian Peninsula to China and the Western Pacific Ocean. Usually, these brown clouds, are three kilometres thick according to theresearchers.

These brown clouds are aggravating impact of climate change caused by greenhouse gases in some regions. This is according to the scientists from China, India, Europe and the U.S., this report was commissioned by the UN Environment Program.

Considering the brown hazes as a "serious and significant" environmental challenge being faced by the planet, which is also posing a threat to the human health and food production, the scientists said they are issuing a warning for it.

Achim Steiner, who is UN undersecretary general and executive director of the program, while addressing a news conference on the findings, said

1) "Imagine for a moment a three-kilometer-thick band of soot, particles, a cocktail of chemicals that stretches from the Arabic Peninsula to Asia."
2) "All of this points to an even greater and urgent need to look at emissions across the planet, because this is where the stories are linked in terms of greenhouse emissions and particle emissions and the impact that they're having on our global climate."

The brown clouds will be "dimming" the sunlight by as much as 25% in some places, with its impact on 13 major cities in Asia like Beijing, Shanghai, Bangkok, Cairo, Mumbai, New Delhi and Tehran.

These Black clouds, are mainly produced by the burning of fossil fuels, wood and plants, particles like black carbon, soot particles. These clouds gradually absorb the sunlight, and warm the air, consequently enhancing the greenhouse effect and the global warming.


The mask on warming due to brown clouds and melting of glaciers :

Most surprisingly, scientists have also predicted that these brown clouds will be able to "mask" the impact of global warming and its effect on climate change by an average of 40% because they contain particles that reflect sunlight and cool the earth's surface.

The studies reflects that the phenomenan has been closely observed only in Asia, but brown clouds have also been seen over parts of North America, Europe, southern Africa and the Amazon Basin.

Scientists have also predicted the negative impact of these clouds, which will mostly click the areas like, the degradation of air quality and agricultural production in Asia, with risks to human health increasing. Health problems associated with the brown clouds include cardiovascular and respiratory diseases.

The scientific panel that is carrying out the research, has its head namely Veerabhadran Ramanathan, who is also a professor at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California in San Diego. He said that huge cloud masses is likely to cross continents in the span of three to four days. Also he added considering this issue, not a regional, but global one.
Ramanathan also said "The main message is that it's a global problem. This is not a problem where we point fingers at our neighbours. Everyone is in someone else's backyard."

Most seriously, the problem faced will be the melting of the Hindu Kush-Himalaya-Tibetan glaciers, which provide the head-waters for the major river systems viz. Ganges, Brahmaputra, Mekong and Yangtze rivers.

For example, the ganges basin has given shelter to more than 400 million people in India and also holds nearly 40% of indian irrigated croplands.

Ramanathan also said that the melting has "serious implications for the water and food security of Asia."

According to the studies performed in Chinese Academy of Sciences, since the 1950s, the glaciers have shrunk to nearly five per cent. Also, over the past quarter century, the volume of China's nearly 47,000 glaciers has fallen by 3,000 square kilometres.

The extreme conditions, that have developed due to these clouds, have helped reduce production of crops such as rice, wheat and soybean. They have also helped to decrease the monsoon season in India.

Ramanathan, while addressing, also couldn't deny his hope about the international response to the problems of greenhouse gases and brown clouds. He also hopes that the report "triggers" "unsustainable development" that underlies them both. He also added "The new research, by identifying some of the causal factors, offers hope for taking actions to slow down this disturbing phenomenon."

ND : Will the World End in 2012 !! -- Some related facts

According to the several predictions from the experts, it is highly predicted about the end of the world in 2012, whatever may be the reason, either it be change in climate due to global warming, or any war, or any human activity, or any mythological reason. Here we would try to elaborate some arguments "for" why this will be happening.

Some Reasons behind this prediction :

1st reason - Mayan Calender : Mayans Were the first to predict 2012 as the end of the world were. Mayans were a bloodthirsty race that were good at two things — building highly accurate astrological equipment out of stone and sacrificing virgins.
Thousands of years ago they managed to calculate the length of the lunar moon as 329.53020 days, only 34 seconds out. The Mayan calendar predicts that the earth will end on December 21, 2012. Given that they were pretty close to the mark with the lunar cycle, it’s likely they’ve got the end of the world right as well.

2nd reason - Sun storms : Solar experts from around the world who monitor the sun continuously, have made a startling discovery. Our sun is in a bit of strife. The energy output of the sun is, like most things in nature, cyclic and it’s supposed to be in the middle of a period of relative stability. However, recent solar storms have been bombarding the earth with lot of radiation energy. It’s been knocking out power grids and destroying satellites. This activity is predicted to get worse and calculations suggest it’ll reach its deadly peak sometime in 2012.

3rd reason - The atom smasher : the world’s largest particle accelerator is being developed by the European scientists. Basically, its a 27 km tunnel designed to smash atoms together to find out what makes the universe tick. However, the mega-gadget has caused serious concern, with some scientists suggesting that it’s properly even a bad idea to turn it on in the first place. They’re predicting all manner of deadly results, including mini black holes. So when this machine is fired up for its first serious experiment in 2012, the world could be crushed into a super-dense blob the size of a basketball.

4th reason - The bible predicts : If having scientists warning us about the end of the world isn’t bad enough, religious folks are getting in on the act as well. Interpretations of the Christian Bible reveal that the date for Armageddon, the final battle between good an evil, has been set for 2012. The I Ching, also known as the Chinese Book of Changes, says the same thing, as do various sections of the Hindu teachings.

5th reason - The Super Volcano : Yellowstone National Park in United States is famous for its thermal springs and old faithful geyser. The reason for this is simple — it’s sitting on top of the world’s biggest volcano and geological experts are beginning to get nervous sweats. The Yellowstone volcano has a pattern of erupting every 650,000 years or so, and we’re many years overdue for an explosion that will fill the atmosphere with ash, blocking the sun and plunging the earth into a frozen winter that could last up to 15,000 years. The pressure under the Yellowstone is building steadily, and geologists have set 2012 as a likely date for the big bang.
6th reason - The physicists : This one’s case of bog — simple maths mathematics. Physicists at Berkely University have been crunching the numbers. They’ve determined that the earth is well overdue for a major catastrophic event.Even worse, they’re claiming that their calculations prove that we’re all going to die, very soon. They are also saying that their prediction comes with a certainty of 99 per cent; and 2012 just happens to be the best guess as to when it occurs.

7th reason - The Magnetic field of earth : We all know the Earth is surrounded by a magnetic field that shields us from most of the sun’s radiation. What you might not know is that the magnetic poles we call North and South have a nasty habit of swapping places every 750,000 years or so — and right now we’re about 30,000 years overdue. Scientists have noted that the poles are drifting apart roughly 20-30 kms each year, much faster than ever before, which points to a pole-shift being right around the corner. While the pole shift is under way, the magnetic field is disrupted and will eventually disappear, sometimes for up to 100 years. The result is enough UV outdoors to crisp your skin in seconds, killing everything it touches.

SOURCE ARTICLE : Click Here

GW : global warming will free billion of tons of carbon from the peat bogs

Global warming could free billions of tonnes of carbon concentrated in the world’s peat bogs within the coming decades, according to a new analysis of the interplay between peat bogs, water tables and climate change.

Such a release of even a tiny percentage would vastly aggravate manmade emissions of carbon, scientists at Harvard University, Worcester State College and Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology have warned in a new study.

‘Our modelling suggests that higher temperatures could cause water tables to drop substantially, causing more peat to dry and decompose,’ said Paul R. Moorcroft, professor of organismic and evolutionary biology in Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

‘Over several centuries, some 40 percent of carbon could be lost from shallow peat bogs, while the losses could total as much as 86 percent in deep bogs.’

Found at northerly latitudes, peat bogs are swampy areas whose cold, wet environment preserves organic matter from decaying. This new work shows how warming could upset peat bogs’ stability, which has disproportionately affected the higher latitudes where they are found, said a Harvard statement.

Each square metre of a peat bog contains anywhere from a few to many hundreds of kilos of organic matter, comprising 200 to 450 billion metric tonnes of carbon in peat bogs. This figure is equivalent to up to 65 years’ worth of the world’s current carbon emissions from fossil fuel burning.

‘Peat bogs contain vast stores of carbon,’ Moorcroft said. ‘They will likely respond to the expected warming in this century by losing large amounts of carbon during dry periods.’

These findings were published in the current issue of Nature Geoscience.

Source : IANS

GW : Global warming approaching a point of no return !!

The recent report of an international climate change task force warned that global warming is proceeding towards a point of "no return". After this, the widespread drought, crop failure and rising sea levels will be irreversible. It called on the group of 8 leading industrial nations to cut carbon emissions, double their research spending on technology and work with India and China to build on the Kyoto Protocol for cuttings emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases blamed for global warming. The report stressed that it is becoming a necessity to stop the continuous rise in temperature as soon as possible. This temperature has already risen by 2 degree celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) as it was in the year 1750. That time was the approximate start of the industrial revolution. Mankind, at that time, started significantly, adding the carbon dioxide (CO2) to the atmosphere.

GW : Pollution in Himalayas could impact the monsoon cycle

According to the study of the researchers, the pollution arising from the countries like India, China, Nepal, & Pakistan, into the atmosphere can reach altitudes of nearly over 5000 m to the atmosphere. This can contribute to the climate there and the warming of atmosphere and most interestingly, this will be showing its potential effect on the south-east Asian monsoon cycle.

Researchers have also traced new kind of aerosol particles suspended in the atmosphere namely "ultrafine particles" at these heights.

The French-Italian team, whose studies were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences this week (13 October), conducted a study of theirs in the Nepal's Khumbu Valley, at nearly about 5079 m height, for nearly 16 months, and gave their conclusions.

Hervé Venzac, from the Blaise Pascal University in France, who was the lead author, along with his entire team made an observation that, when pollutants from the plains of the himalayan countries like Nepal, meets the cleaner air of troposphere, they form the aerosol particles.

The Co-author, Paolo Laj, at the Joseph Fourier University, France, told SciDev.nt, "Aerosol particles emitted by burning processes absorb sunlight, causing warming of the lower atmosphere and thus contributing to global temperature rise to the same extent as major greenhouse gases."

The functioning of Monsoon relies on the temperature regulation along with the calculated production of warmth, and this is the only reason that there is a clear probability of the warmth on the himalayas affecting the South-East monsoon of Asia. If there is a continuous rise or fall in the atmospheric temperature, the monsoon cycles can be abruptly affected.

The findings and research of this team are expected to provide an understanding on the production of warmth and also enlighten the melting of the glaciers in these regions at a rapid pace.

Ngamindra Dahal, a hydrometeorologist at the National Trust for Nature Conservation, Nepal, said - "This study is remarkable as it can explain the phenomenon of the melting of glaciers that we have started to observe in the Himalayas."

This study was all about the aerosol formation at higher altitudes and that too in the form of long- term data analysis. Additionally, it reveals that the frequency of this formation is high.

"Though further study is necessary to find out what could be the exact source of the up-sloping pollutants, this research clearly shows how pollution can affect particle formation [at high altitudes] and hence climate change and the monsoon cycle in the region," says Laj.

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GW : Global Warming can be predicted while travelling

There have been a lot of predictions on global warming. Effects of global warming is seen in day to day life. But the main effect of global warming is seen while traveling. Many of the current tourist hotspots that are currently in the eyes of tourists will be literally too hot for the comfort. And the other tourist spots will definitely lose their beauty, due to any reason, like catastrophic storms, or we can say that they will be going underwater.

According to the reports of the Intergovernmental panel on the climate change, the planet's average temperature can rise by 3.5 degrees (estimated) by 2100 leading to nearly 4 feet rise in the sea level. If, then, there is a melt of the ice sheets of antarctic and greenland, there could be an additional rise of nearly 25-30 feet of sea level. Some side effects would also be there viz. the increment in heat waves, catastrophic storms etc. and these too, more specifically towards the tourist spots, because most of the tourist spots are separated from rest of the places by some of their natural features.

But due to these changes, the places, far from the equator and those at higher altitudes can also become more inviting for the tourists.

ND : Lightning and thunder kills people in Jharkhand - India

8 deaths and 3 more casualties were recorded in Jharkhand, last week, due to the lightning there in 2-3 districts, which happens there nearly every week.

October 2nd :

Lightning struck a hut in Kambo village, about 40 km from Ranchi city, and took away 5 lives, and 4 injuries, according to the news of local police.

October 4th :

On spot death of a 12 yr old boy and 25 more injuries were recorded due to lightning at Islamnagar village in Jharkhand's Lohardagga district at about 12 noon. Injured people were admitted to Lohardagga Sadar Hospital. 2007 & 2008 data :

* 2007 : >=150 people died including 5 of Ranchi.
* 2008 : >=70 people till now have died and more than 100 injured due to lightning.

The weather in Jharkhand is so nice for the local people as always, that it is preferring lightning over the deadly heat waves to kill the people, since the last few years, at an alarming rate. Mainly high elevated places , and people who makes their shelter beneath the trees during storm, are more prone to lightning attack. The lightning type, which is most frequent in the state, is Fork Lightning.

Lightning has been used as a natural instrument for measuring the electrical nature of the ground, according to the recent studies. Few modern studies tell that soils having higher conductivity viz. marsh, are more lightning-prone.

Jharkhand forest areas are also more prone to lightning because the trees act as conductors for the lightning to the ground. Earlier, Ranchi was named as "summer capital" of Bihar ( before Jharkhand was differentiated ). Now it has been captured by the regional ( Global) warming. According to prediction of a model, doubling of CO2 could increase the amount of lightning occurrences by 30–77% .

No of lightning deaths have been almost doubled in the past several years with additional injuries, and annual loss of peoperties and cattle. There is almost panic everytime the people living there sees magnificent flashes and thundering sound in the sky. Still no clear agreement is there, on the formation of lightning. It is believed still, that it’s largely due to collisions between ice crystals. Whatever be the thoughts, Lightning and Thunders are the most common outcomes of nearly each storm. With due course of time, the lightning can also be included with the huge disasters like earthquake and tsunami.