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Pollution in Asia a growing threat to global environment
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Cars drive through thick smog on a street in Beijing
in September 2008 (AFP/File/Peter Parks)
With the Olympics over, China is back in business. That means the choking pollution is back from all the coal-fired power plants and industrial companies. The U.N. reported that a huge thick brown cloud of soot, particles and chemicals stretches from the Persian Gulf to Asia threatening the health of the people living there. Cities such as Cairo, New Delhi, Mumbai, Cairo, Beijing and Shanghai have there light dimmed by as much as 25%.
The brown cloud traps heat in the atmosphere, contributes to the melting of Himalayan glaciers, and causes weather extremes that threaten to reduce crop production in the area.
The World Energy Outlook 2008 from the International Energy Agency (IEA) predicted that China and India will account for just over half of the increase in world primary energy demand between 2006 and 2030. Middle Eastern countries will account for an 11% incremental increase in world energy demand. A lot of this new energy use in India and China will come from dirty energy sources like coal.
China and India are trying to grow their economies very rapidly, which consumes huge amounts of energy. China is already the largest emitter of carbon dioxide, having passed the United States just recently. At 10% per year growth, they could double their emissions in the next 7 years!
This is a serious problem for the entire world. I hope that our new president will make a serious effort to address these global environmental challenges soon after he takes office. A way needs to be found to get these emissions under control and will probably involve our helping countries like China and India develop more of their energy from clean renewable resources.
