Comments on: Asia’s Great Brown Cloud Is Spewed by Millions of Wood-Burning Hearths

By: Corey's Momma

Corey's Momma — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 07:39:20 +0000

Corey: Shut up, you liberal!

By: Corey

Corey — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 19:00:05 +0000

Dear Insecure Narcissist
Scientists have proved that global warming exists by showing that Antarctica is melting. Many people have taken an initiative and are creating greener energy solutions. Are natural resources aren’t going to last forever. So whether you believe in global warming or not does not matter were going to have to go to renewable resources eventually like wind solar or hydro.

By: The Insecure Narcissist

The Insecure Narcissist — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 15:21:43 +0000

Dear “Ike Solem”,
I am offended. Utterly and entirely offended. How could you be so ignorent as to say that global warming is a danger. It’s as real as aliens in Area 51 (for those of us who are sane and do not believe in aliens.) You are a horrible scientist. In your fifth paragraph you use the word “fact”, there are no facts in science, only educated guesses. So put or shut up. And learn how to argue scientifically.

By: PrisonMike

PrisonMike — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 15:18:00 +0000

Dear Ike,
you’re an idiot.

By: Paranoid Android

Paranoid Android — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 15:13:26 +0000

To whom it may concern,
Your theories of this so called “brown cloud” are entirely false and moronic. I’m in my 11th grade physics class and even your theory is a complete embarrassment to science. The brown cloud is purely fiction; coming from nursery rhymes, poetry, and old fundamental religion. What are you gonna tell me next? Maybe you’ll say that global warming has become an actual threat to the world. Yeah right. Stick to your pacifier you little baby and quit whining about irrelevant topics you Nancy! Everyone knows that the brown cloud is created by the sad children that frown.

Good day to you sir,
An inexperienced scientist

By: hjk

hjk — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 15:00:07 +0000

I do believe that you are entirely over reacting to this “threat” that is truly no threat at all. So what if there is a gigantic suffocating cloud. Suck it up and deal with it. Find something useful to do.

By: Ike Solem

Ike Solem — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 17:17:08 +0000

I don’t know who these “many” are that have blamed global extreme weather events on the Asian Brown Cloud – could you name them? Plenty have blamed them on deforestation and fossil fuel combustion, however.

Extreme weather events (heat waves, floods, etc.) are predicted to increase as global warming progresses for several reasons: more water vapor in the atmosphere, steeper temperature gradients from continental interiors to the coast, more powerful hurricanes (could be offset by stronger winds, tho), etc.

Second, the two points chosen for this study were in the Maldives and in India – two points. Not exactly comprehensive coverage of the Asian Brown Cloud, is that? For that you might want a hundred points, at least. Aerosols vary radically across timescales of hours, days and weeks, as does water vapor.

In some areas, the anthropogenic aerosols are mostly biomass, and in others they are from coal or diesel, and they are subject to chemical transformations as they are warmed by sunlight and interact. However, there’s no way you can say from just looking at two points!

The fact that this is due to rapid industrial expansion across Asia can be seen in recent snow and glacial records from Tibet, which show a rapid increase in anthropogenic aerosols over the past eight years.

Second, this is not exactly new news… for example, see Gatari et. al, who looked within capital cities using different methods: “Atmospheric elemental concentrations in both Hanoi and Nairobi were orders of magnitude higher than their respective rural towns. Traffic, biomass and waste burning emissions were implicated as the main sources of air pollution in Nairobi, while coal combustion and road transport were the major sources in Hanoi.”