‘Brown clouds’ stir Asian conspiracy storm

A controversial United Nations report claiming “atmospheric brown clouds” generated by Asia are harming the world’s climate, agriculture and health has created a storm of controversy in India, which has slammed it as part of Western pressure on Asia’s efforts to counter global warming.

The brown cloud was more pointedly called the “Asian brown cloud” in an earlier United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) report in 2002, before protests from India and China led it to be changed to the politically-correct “atmospheric brown cloud”.
India’s scientific community have said the atmospheric brown clouds over Asia are a seasonal, temporary phenomena which may look bad, but have none of the catastrophic implications mentioned in the UN report.

The Indian government has also unceremoniously trashed the UN report, pointing fingers at UNEP’s credibility, with India’s Science and Technology minister Kapil Sibal describing the latest brown cloud report as “propaganda,” according to a Press Trust of India news agency article from November 21.

Sibal said India’s scientists have examined the issue and have dismissed the report’s claims that burning of fossil fuels in Asia has caused the brown haze. He pointed out that India’s per capita greenhouse gas emissions are 1.2 tonnes compared to 23 tonnes in the US and 10 tonnes in European countries.

Sibal, also one of India’s senior lawyers, said, “For anybody who says India and China are responsible for this, I can only say, we certainly are not.”

Asia Times