Black clouds over India

India?s decision to join the Atmospheric Brown Cloud (ABC) project was inevitable, given the mounting evidence that the ABC dramatically reduces monsoon rain in the subcontinent.

India’s decision to join the Atmospheric Brown Cloud (ABC) project was inevitable, given the mounting evidence that the ABC dramatically reduces monsoon rain in the subcontinent. The ABC originally referred to the enormous blanket of pollution spreading across Asia, distorting normal weather patterns in the region and threatening to devastate many countries’ economies. It was called the ‘Asian Brown Cloud’ in 2002, when a UN report first warned of this layer of pollution comprising ash, acids and aerosols. At that time, the two-mile thick haze extended ominously across the most densely populated areas of the world: southern, south-eastern, and eastern Asia. Subsequently, however, similar patterns were detected elsewhere in the world and it was renamed ‘Atmospheric Brown Cloud’.

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Asia is particularly vulnerable as the ABC causes changes in the winter monsoon season, sharply reducing rain over northwestern parts of the continent and increasing rain along the eastern coast. This could potentially cut winter rice harvests by as much as 10 per cent. Research suggests that the impact of the haze will intensify over the next 20 years as the continent’s population touches the 5 billion mark.

Countries have no choice but to pool their resources and data to tackle the ABC’s threat. The cocktail of soot, aerosols and other pollutants results as much from forest fires, burning of agricultural wastes and fossil fuels, industries and power stations, as emissions from inefficient cookers that use wood or ‘bio-fuels’. The effort must be to develop clean, sustainable and renewable energy and provide clean energy to millions in poorer parts of the world.