Friday, August 03, 2007

"Soot From Cooking Fires Melting Himalayan Glaciers" - AND NOT MAN-MADE CO2

VIA NEWSBUSTERS:

Scientific American elaborated on the study's findings (emphasis added):

The primary culprit seems to be the black carbon in soot, which soaks up any sunlight it can, thereby warming whatever it touches. And the dominant source for all this black carbon is cooking fires, [Scripps climatologist Veerabhadran] Ramanathan says. All these cooking fires are, in effect, drying the region, both by contributing to the melting of glaciers that feed Asia's major rivers as well as by decreasing the evaporation that drives rainfall. Aerosols across the board, from black carbon to sulfates, appear to be increasing across Asia as it industrializes.

Wonderfully, the solution is likely much simpler than trying to reduce CO2 emissions, and doesn't require raising taxes or destroying economies:

But the problem can be solved by swapping other fuels and methods for the wood in cooking fires. "The aerosol lifetime is two weeks," Ramanathan says. "If the world pays attention and puts resources to it, we will see an effect immediately. I'm talking weeks, at most a few months, not decades or centuries."

That contrasts with solutions for CO2 emissions, which will require much longer periods to show effects. Because the brown cloud appears to be at least as important, eliminating it could buy time to implement more far-reaching solutions before catastrophic glacial melt and other climate change impacts occur, Ramanathan argues.

BOTTOM-LINE: MAN-MADE CO2 - SPECIFICALLY MADE BY THE USA AND THE INDUSTRIAL WEST - IS NOT THE CULPRIT. PERIOD. END OF STORY.

SCHEMES TO LIMITS OUR CO2 EMISSIONS WILL THEREFORE HAVE ZERO EFFECT ON THE CLIMATE.

1 comment:

  1. ...but it will allow the nutroots to run around, yelling "more, more. We've got to do more!".

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