Cooking Fires Are Major Pollutant in South Asia

Home cooking fires are the major source of potentially climate-changing soot in the air over South Asia, a team of Indian and U.S. researchers reported in the journal Science.

The soot comes from the burning of wood, agricultural waste and animal manure. The effect of soot in the air over the Indian Ocean is about 10 times that of the so-called greenhouse gases, they said. The pollution causes the air to absorb more sunlight, warming the atmosphere and cooling the surface beneath. Such changes can affect rainfall patterns, contributing to intensity of floods and droughts.