Report Warns of Pollution

The “Asian Brown Cloud,” a 2-mile-thick blanket of pollution over South Asia, may be causing the premature deaths of half a million people in India each year, deadly flooding in some areas and drought in others, a new U.N.-sponsored study indicates.

The grimy cocktail of ash, soot, acids and other harmful airborne particles is damaging agriculture and changing rainfall patterns from Afghanistan to Sri Lanka, the study found.

“We have an early warning. We have clear information, and we already have some impact. But we need much, much more information,” U.N Environment Program chief Klaus Toepfer said at a news conference in London on Sunday.

“There are also global implications, not least because a pollution parcel like this ... can travel halfway round the globe in a week.”

Toepfer said the cloud was the result of forest fires, agricultural waste incineration, dramatic increases in the burning of fossil fuels in vehicles, industries and power stations and emissions from millions of inefficient cookers.

More than 200 scientists contributed to the study, overseen by the U.N. Environment Program in preparation for the World Summit on Sustainable Development opening Aug. 26 in Johannesburg, South Africa. They used data from ships, planes and satellites to study Asia’s haze from 1995 to 2000.

The scientists say that more research is needed but that some trends are clear. Respiratory illness appears to be increasing along with the pollution in densely populated South Asia, with one study suggesting 500,000 premature deaths annually in India.

The dense cloud of pollution cuts the amount of sunlight reaching the ground and the oceans by 10% to 15%, cooling the land and water while heating the atmosphere.