Foul air melts glaciers, not warming alone

It is not only global warming that is melting the Himalayan glaciers. Locally released smoke — be it from your vehicle, or from rural kitchens using wood fires — also contributes, said a study by the NASA, released on Monday. Chetan Chauhan reports. Full coverage

Updated on: Dec 29, 2009, 01:33:24 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

Prefer HTon Google

Share via

Copy link

It is not only global warming that is melting the Himalayan glaciers. Locally released smoke — be it from your vehicle, or from rural kitchens using wood fires — also contributes, said a study by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), released on Monday.

“The rate of warming, over areas of the Himalayas, is more than five times the rate of global warming,” said William Lau, head of atmospheric sciences at NASA, in a statement on the organisation’s website.

“Based on the differences it’s not difficult to conclude that greenhouse gases are not the sole agents of change in this region,” the statement added. “There’s a localised phenomenon at play.”

The study, based on satellite data on aerosols — solid particles that float in the earth’s atmosphere — found that when fossil fuels are burnt in insufficient oxygen, they produce an aerosol called ‘black carbon’. Black carbon, which has the capacity to absorb solar radiation, travels to colder areas where it creates a layer of warm air, which in turn leads to faster melting of ice. The study found, that smoke from cities along the Ganga river basin are also to blame for the faster melting of glaciers between April and September every year.

Himalayan glaciers have shrunk by about 20 per cent since the 60s. Black carbon concentration in the air is steadily increasing the study said.

“Lau and his team have found that 17 per cent of glacier melt is due to domestic pollution known as black carbon,” said Syed Iqbal Husnain, glaciologist at TERI.

This is, however, a problem that can be tackled more easily than greenhouse gas emissions. “If we reduce particulate emission by introducing low carbon diesel and strictly enforce emissions norms for vehicles, it can be controlled to a large extent,” said Husnain.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

Catch every big hit, every wicket with Crickit, a one stop destination for Live Scores, Match Stats, Infographics & much more. Explore now!

Stay updated with all top Cities including, Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai and more across India. Stay informed on the latest happenings in World News along with Delhi Election 2025 and Delhi Election Result 2025 Live, New Delhi Election Result Live, Kalkaji Election Result Live at Hindustan Times.