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A dirty brown haze sometimes more than a mile thick is darkening skies not only over vast areas of Asia, but also in the Middle East, southern Africa and the Amazon Basin, changing weather patterns around the world and threatening health and food supplies, the U.N. reported Thursday.

The huge smog-like plumes, caused mainly by the burning of fossil fuels and firewood, are known as “atmospheric brown clouds.”

When mixed with emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases blamed for warming the earth’s atmosphere like a greenhouse, they are the newest threat to the global environment, according to a report commissioned by the U.N. Environment Program.

“All of this points to an even greater and urgent need to look at emissions across the planet,” said Achim Steiner, head of Kenya-based UNEP, which funded the report with backing from Italy, Sweden and the United States.

Brown clouds are caused by an unhealthy mix of particles, ozone and other chemicals that come from cars, coal-fired power plants, burning fields and wood-burning stoves. First identified by the report’s lead researcher in 1990, the clouds were depicted Thursday as being more widespread and causing more environmental damage than previously known.

Perhaps most widely recognized as the haze this past summer over Beijing’s Olympics, the clouds have been found to be more than a mile thick around glaciers in the Himalaya and Hindu Kush mountain ranges. They hide the sun and absorb radiation, leading to new worries not only about global climate change but also about extreme weather conditions. “All these have led to negative effects on water resources and crop yields,” the report says.

Health problems associated with particulate pollution, such as cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, are linked to nearly 350,000 premature deaths in China and India every year, said Henning Rohde, a University of Stockholm scientist who worked on the study.

Soot levels in the air were reported to have risen alarmingly in 13 megacities: Bangkok, Beijing, Cairo, Dhaka, Karachi, Kolkata, Lagos, Mumbai, New Delhi, Seoul, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Tehran.

Brown clouds were also cited as dimming the light by as much as 25 percent in some places including Karachi, New Delhi, Shanghai and Beijing. The phenomenon complicates the climate change scenario, because the brown clouds also help cool the earth’s surface and mask the impact of global warming by an average of 40 percent, according to the report.

Though it has been studied closely in Asia, the latest findings, conducted by an international collaboration of scientists, reveal that the brown cloud phenomenon is not unique to Asia, with pollution hotspots seen in North America, Europe, South Africa and South America. More specifically, researchers found, brown clouds are forming over eastern China; northeastern Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Myanmar; Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam; sub-Saharan Africa southward into Angola, Zambia and Zimbabwe; and the Amazon Basin in South America.

The enormous cloud masses can move across continents within three to four days. Although they also form over the eastern U.S. and Europe, winter snow and rain tend to lessen the impact in those areas.

An international response is needed to deal with “the twin threats of greenhouse gases and brown clouds and the unsustainable development that underpins both,” said the lead researcher, Veerabhadran Ramanathan, a professor of climate and ocean sciences at the University of California in San Diego.

One of the most serious problems, Ramanathan said, is retreat of the glaciers in the Himalaya and Hindu Kush and in Tibet. The glaciers feed most Asian rivers and “have serious implications for the water and food security of Asia,” he said.

Monsoon rains over India and southeast Asia decreased between 5 and 7 percent overall since the 1950s, the report says, naming brown clouds and global warming as a possible cause. Likewise, they may have contributed to the melting of China’s glaciers, which have shrunk 5 percent since the 1950s. The volume of China’s nearly 47,000 glaciers has fallen by 3,000 square kilometers (1,158.31 square miles) in the past 25 years, according to the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Soot winds up on the surface of the glaciers that feed the Ganges, Indus, Yangtze and Yellow rivers, which makes the glaciers absorb more sunlight and melt more quickly and also pollutes the rivers, the researchers say. But the U.N., which began studying the problem six years ago, still finds “significant uncertainty” in understanding how brown clouds affect conditions regionally, Ramanathan cautioned.

Hurricane Gustav hurtled toward collision with the Louisiana coast on Monday, bringing pounding rain, surging wind and the most direct threat to New Orleans since the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.Nearly 2 million people fled the Louisiana coast and more than 11 million residents in five U.S. states were braced for the impact from the fast-moving storm, which was expected to make landfall on Monday morning around New Orleans.

Oil companies shut down nearly all production in the energy-rich Gulf of Mexico, a region that normally pumps a quarter of U.S. oil output and 15 percent of its natural gas.

Gustav also took center stage in U.S. presidential politics as Republicans prepared to open their convention on Monday to nominate presidential candidate John McCain with a bare-bones program stripped of the usual pomp and circumstance.

By Sunday night, the streets of New Orleans were ghostly quiet after some 95 percent of the city’s population responded to desperate calls by officials for a sweeping evacuation.

An estimated 1.9 million people had fled coastal areas. Only 10,000 people were believed to have stayed behind in New Orleans. Police and national guard troops patrolled the empty city as a curfew went into effect in a bid to prevent looting.

By early Monday the outer bands of the storm were nearing the coast and had kicked up strong, gusting winds south of the city that were expected to gather force through the morning.

The storm packed maximum sustained winds of 115 mph (185 kph), making it a Category 3 storm, the National Hurricane Center said.

Forecasters said Gustav could still strengthen but said the hurricane was no longer expected to be a Category 4 hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale.

Even so, a storm surge of up to 14 feet could threaten the same levees that failed during Hurricane Katrina. Federal officials say the levees protecting New Orleans are stronger now but still have gaps.

Hurricane Katrina brought a 28-foot (8.5 meter) storm surge that burst levees on August 29, 2005. New Orleans degenerated into chaos as stranded storm victims waited days for government rescue and law and order collapsed.

Gustav was expected to swamp parts of Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas and Texas with up to 12 inches of rain and could spin off isolated tornadoes, forecasters said.

Centered some 170 miles offshore, southeast of New Orleans, Gustav was rumbling toward the Louisiana coast at a 16 mile-per-hour (26 km-per-hour) pace as of 1 a.m. EDT.

The approach of the storm stirred uneasy comparisons to Katrina which flooded some 80 percent of New Orleans, killed some 1,500 people in five states and cost near $80 billion.

President George W. Bush, who was criticized for the slow relief efforts after Katrina, canceled his appearance at the Republican convention as scheduled instead a visit to Texas on Monday to oversee emergency response effort.

McCain headed to the Gulf to survey preparations and ordered political speeches canceled on Monday for his nominating convention.

Fearing televised images of a choreographed Republican celebration would be seen as out of touch, McCain’s campaign sought to distance itself from the botched response to Katrina’s chaos almost exactly three years ago.

In New Orleans, Mayor Ray Nagin ordered a mandatory evacuation and imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew, warning looters they would be sent straight to jail.

‘A BIG, UGLY STORM’

Long lines of cars and buses streamed out of New Orleans on Sunday after Nagin ordered an evacuation of the city of 239,000 and told residents, “This is still a big, ugly storm, still strong and I encourage everyone to leave.”

New Orleans resident Vanessa Jones, 50, said she had planned to stay but changed her mind after watching the news all night. “I can’t take a chance because so many people died in Katrina,” she said as she prepared to board a bus headed to an unknown destination.

The government lined up trains and hundreds of buses to evacuate 30,000 people who could not leave on their own and Nagin said 15,000 had been removed from the city, including hundreds in wheelchairs.

Flights from New Orleans and other Gulf Coast cities were canceled on Monday as the storm bore down on the region.

Residents boarded up the windows of their shops and homes before leaving town, while others hunkered down as “hold-outs” with stockpiled food, water and shotguns to ward off looters.

“I saw quite a bit of looting last time with Katrina, even 30 minutes after the winds had stopped,” said construction contractor Norwood Thornton, who opted to stay behind to protect his home in New Orleans’ historic Garden District.

Gustav weakened to a still-dangerous Category 3 storm after it passed over Cuba. It killed at least 86 people in the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Jamaica.

The U.S. Coast Guard reported the first storm-related death in Florida on Sunday, where a man fell overboard as his craft ran into heavy waves.

Katrina and Hurricane Rita, which followed it three weeks later, wrecked more than 100 Gulf oil platforms, but Gustav could deal a harsher blow.

In a special trading session to accommodate the Labor Day holiday and the storm’s impact, U.S. crude oil features on Sunday rose nearly $3 to over $118 per barrel.

“It remains likely that Gustav will prove to become a worst case scenario for the producing region and places the heart of the oil production region under a high risk of sustaining significant or major damage,” said Planalytics analyst Jim Roullier.

ya but……… it hard to be a vegetarian there, you get most of you product from china, were there are very little environmental concern. but besides that there very nice people.

I just met Edmond X Ramirez in a super market(about an hour ago),hes 73 years old and we got to talking,he told me about how he had invented the mini van,and a version of the electric car with a computer way before they were putting computers on board automobiles.Edmonds stories were interesting I thought, then he told me to look up amectran.com.Im amazed that weve had this technology for 20 years and we havent pushed it.This guy was way ahead of his time. If you have a moment look up amectran.com and tell me if you think this guy got a raw deal(much like Tucker did),Have the auto manufacturers been hiding this tech,so they could get govt grant money and squander it?

We had virtually free oil from the end of Gulf War 1 so it hasn’t been worth developing. We had weapons inspectors touring Iraq and a cuckholded Saddam undercutting OPEC for years so electric made no sense economically and couldn’t attract investment.
Beware the environmental arguments, shipping the chemicals around the world to make the batteries then disposing of those poisons is vastly more dirtly than clean combustion at source. The lifetime carbon footprint of small electrics that are disposable/waste after not many miles is greater than even Land Rovers or Jeeps.

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Company’s do restrict developments that might commericaly damage them ( such as the ‘everlasting lightbulb) but electric cars have a slightly different issue. they are caught in an infrastructure trap which they must break out of to be commercialy viable for a large market.
To gain mass acceptance and there by be a big commercial success they need a mass market. For a mass market in a new car type a new kind of infrastructure is needed. Charging facilities and mechanics parts to support the new engine etc. These wont occur with out demand, demand wont occur with out them since people are leery of buying a car that will be hard to fule and maintain. Catch 22. Many car manufacutes do research in to alternate car engines, hydrogen fule cells etc. So that should a big switch happen there not left behind the market curve. But they wont develop it for general release because it would loose them money, why make an electric car that will be a loss for several years, when a new petrol engine design will make you money this year? So you get slow incremental growth of the ‘alternate’ car market occasionally built up when circumstances like the current oil price make selling a non-petrols car a good marketing prospect.

go to www.earth911.org they can help you locate a local recycle center

Hydrogen is the most abundant fuel on earth. It is also the basis for ignition of all the carbon cased liquid or gaseous fuels used in transportation vehicles. There are three ways to produce hydrogen for fuel. Thermal, Electro-chemical, and Nuclear.

Thermal requires heat to transform Natural Gas using steam reformation in a retort contained environment. At 600-700 degree F, the Methane gases and Hydrogen in Natural Gas are pressurized and charged with steam. Under the extreme heat and pressure the H2O molecule cracks and separates into fractions of H2+CO+CO2. Once cooled to 400 degree, these components are separated and compressed.

Electro-Chemical requires the cracking of the H2 molecule from water using positive and negative charged anodes and catodes in an electrolyte solution of sodium or potassium hydroxide. This system is available for “Hydrogen on Demand” systems for most cars and trucks. I have built one myself and get 24% increase in fuel mileage.

The third option is Nuclear and is probably the most promising aside from solar powered thermal-chemical. In a nuclear reaction, superheated molecules of hydrogen are produced. Nuclear Reactors of the Third Generation are developing H2 generation systems to manufacture large amounts of hydrogen from a single reactor facility.

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) the largest power generation authority in the world and operated by the United States Department of Energy, is currently working on the 3rd generation hydrogen reactors that will eventually remove the need for crude oil from the planet. (see also research in Japan)

Someday we may see hydrogen pipelines being installed from the Heart of the Tennessee Valley to all parts of the United States to power our cars, boats, and airplanes. Can you imagine that if an airplane didn’t need to carry the weight of fuel at 7.69 lbs per gallon, and H2 was stored in carbon fuel tanks in the wings, how many passengers it could carry.

While Hydrogen is volatile, it is manageable. It is being produced daily in the United States for it’s increased use in removing high sulfur compounds from diesel fuel in compliance with US Air Quality Standards. Hydrogen is and will be the fuel of the universe.

US DOE/Hydrogen Production
Wikipedia/Hydrogen
University of Tennessee-Knoxville
TVA
Biotenpower.com

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I don’t think so. Refueling a hydrogen tank for a vehicle is not very user friendly. The hydrogen must be pumped at high pressure and low temperature with an airtight seal between the nozzle and receptacle. Hydrogen is also much more flammable (your cell phone really could combust the fuel). It would require too much responsibility on the part of the consumer.

I think hydrogen and CNG will be used more by motor pools like public transportation, police, fire, government and company fleets. The average person will use biofuels like recycled oils as biodiesel and ethanol from cellulose. Many commuter cars will also be either hybrids or electric.

All fuels have their pros and cons. The trick is to realize these and use the fuel for the application that gains the most from the pros and loses the least from the cons.

I was just wondering if the average PHEV will give at least 40 miles of driving on pure electric and that satisfying 80% of the average daily commute of the average driver. Also with the combination of this new cellosic ethanol that can convert waste materials and switch grass to gas for under $1 per gallon then how many gallons decrease would we actually accomplish say in the next 5 years if say at least 50% of americans actually buys one of these cars. I leave out there for you to mull over. I am truly curious of your thoughts and if you want to add even one more dimension then adding solar roofing to cars and houses as well. Hmmmm sounds nice doesn’t it?

This is a very good question….and unfortunately, the answer is not much…..too many other consumer goods are derived from petroleum. On top of that, those cars that run 40 miles on Electricity alone will only be bought by those who can afford them ($48k initial price for the Chevy Volt - unsubsidised) and they’ll probably be just like the Prius was at first, lost of demand, very little supply, so dealers get to charge a fee to “find” you one. My guess, demand will decrease gradually in the USA over the next 15 years but that doesn’t mean China and India’s demand will do anything but soak up our decline. The days of $50 oil are gone unfortunately. You’re still going to have to buy gas for the next 15-20 years and it’s going to cost you $100’s to fill up your tank…maybe as early as 3 years from now. It doesn’t matter if they turn switchgrass or corn or beats into ethanol, they still have to deliver it to a station and that = diesel fuel…..oil prices aren’t going to come down anytime soon because diesel demand will do nothing but increase over time globally. Oh ya, forgot to mention….if any thought of a hurricane enters the Gulf of Mexico this summer…oil prices will be over $200 per barrel and fill ups will be nightmarishly high…….

Is this cellosic ethanol even commercially viable yet? i dont think so, and how much that that can produce extra in ethanol is questionable. Also it take about 14yrs for all the current vehicles out there to be replaced by new cars. Also despite the gas prices (i drive an SUV), im not gonna sell it at a loss then buy a car just to save some money on gas. And most people arnt going to get rid of their car unless they overspent in the first place to buy their SUV. Oil is gonna dominate the vehicle energy for the next two decades either way. Answer is drill

http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Ar…
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB12120172…

Trout: pH 5.0
Bass: pH 5.5
Perch: pH 4.5
Frogs: pH 4.0
Salamanders: pH 5.0
Clams: 6.0
crayfish: 5.5
Snails: 6.0
Mayflies: 5.5

Best material used for water absorbing or water containing are silica crystals (gel) as they are odorless, cheap, and safe. Micro porous cloth are good moisture absorbing materials too. Hessian sacking too stays wet for a long time and is sweet smelling. Polymer gels are non-toxic moisture retaining soil additives. They resemble sugar crystals when dry and act like sponges when wet. They look like small cubes of gelatin.