'Asian Brown Cloud' Threatens U.S.

[Still Waters]

China and India are some of the world's top polluters, with countless cars, factories, and households belching more than 2 million metric tons of carbon soot and other dark pollutants into the air every year. These pollutants aren't just bad news for the countries themselves. A new study reveals that they can affect climate thousands of kilometers away, warming the United States by up to 0.4°C by 2024, while cooling other countries.

Some forms of pollution—especially light-colored aerosols such as sulfates that spew from power plants and volcanoes—scatter light back into space, cooling Earth. But dark aerosols, such as soot from diesel engines and power plants, absorb more sunlight than they scatter, gaining heat and warming the air around them. Rapidly developing countries, especially China, India, and those in southeastern Asia, are prolific sources of such aerosols. Over the past few decades, the pall hanging over the region has come to be known as "the Asian brown cloud."

http://news.sciencem...-us.html?ref=hp

[Mikko-kun]

I was thinking going to Japan to see some beautiful nature, but I guess I wont be seeing the sky if I go there.

[Ashotep]

So in other words if they do start consuming the amount of electric and gas the US and Europe does we are doomed because they won't do anything to curtail pollutants that are emitted. What kind of respiratory problems can this cause too. China is not a third world country they need to clean up their act. If they won't we need to stop buying goods from them so they won't have a reason to pollute.