Brown clouds forming over Asia

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First published in Sanctuary Asia, Vol. 28 No. 12, December 2008


When mixed with emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, they are the newest threat to the global environment, with negative effects on the climate and leading to extreme weather patterns. “All of this points to an even greater need to look at emissions across the planet," said Achim Steiner, head of UNEP. The clouds were prominent during the summer Olympics in Beijing, and have been found to be more than a mile thick around glaciers in the Himalaya and Hindu Kush mountain ranges.

 

December 2008
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