Home/Posts Tagged ‘black carbon’
Posts Tagged ‘black carbon’
Climate Change, Health, Pollution, Jun 15th, 2011,
The dirty, low-tech burning of fossil fuels, wood and other biomass produces poisonous pollution and “short-lived climate forcers”, mainly black carbon, methane and ground-level ozone. Black carbon (soot) from sources such as crop burning, dirty diesel engines and simple coal or wood burning stoves causes cardio-pulmonary diseases and low birth weight. UN figures put deaths due to indoor smoke from cooking stoves alone at 1.9 million per year – mostly women and children in developing countries. A study from the University of Delaware states that soot from diesel freight ships contributes to 60,000 deaths from lung disease every year. Ground-level…
Tags: biomass, black carbon, coal, diesel, ground-level ozone, Health, methane, soot, stoves
Climate Change, Pollution, Feb 24th, 2011,
A new UN report concentrates on the warming effects of black carbon (soot) and ground-level ozone like methane. Both are considered “short-lived climate forcers”, which have more immediate effects on temperatures than CO2. Therefore limiting their production would also have a more immediate impact on the climate. In the past this strategy has been largely ignored in favor of plans to limit CO2 emissions, which have so far proved ineffective and lack the immediacy of results that can be so problematic in terms of politics and public opinion. The Guardian reports: Soot is a particular problem because when it falls…
Tags: black carbon, co2, emissions, ground-level ozone, Health, methane, UN, warming
Climate Change, Feb 23rd, 2010,
There’s a simple form of pollution that lurks in many places. It comes from internal combustion engines, boilers, and burners. You’ll find it near fires, furnaces, and perhaps even while cooking. It can sift through the air, land on clothes, furniture, and even pollute water. What am I talking about? Soot—the icky, black stuff you may find mixed with smoke or ash. Small as the particles may be, soot is enough to cause big alarm, at least for one environmental organization. The Center for Biological Diversity petitioned the EPA to do something about this very problem. In particular, they want…
Tags: black carbon, center for biological diversity, Clean Water Act, EPA, petition, soot
Climate Change, Videos & Documentaries, Nov 18th, 2009,
You think you know but you have no idea… about global warming, that is. Some estimates state that 18% of global warming is caused by something called black carbon, most of it coming from the developing world: Asia, Latin America and Africa – especially India and China. Black carbon is basically soot. Produced mainly by the burning of biomass and by diesel combustion engines, as well as coal, black carbon is fast acting and stays in the air for only a few weeks before falling to the ground in the familiar form of soot. CO2, on the other hand, can…
Tags: black carbon, carbon emissions, co2, cop15, global warming, soot
Climate Change, Pollution, Nov 5th, 2009,
When you were younger, did you have to go through the dread of riding the bus to school? And if you have kids, do they have to suffer through the same? Cramped seating, screaming children and one very ticked off bus driver do not make for a pleasant travel experience, especially back and forth from one of the most stressful places of a young person’s life: school. To make the experience even more pleasant, an idling school bus can cause quite a bit of pollution and other problems, particularly asthmatic ones. In New York City, for example, there are a…
Tags: asthma, black carbon, children, Health, Pollution, school bus
