China Floods, Droughts Tied to Airborne Soot
The recent southern floods and northern droughts in China may be due at least in part to soot in the atmosphere from the incomplete combustion of coal, biofuels and other materials, according to a new study in the Sept. 27 issue of Science.
The soot--essentially carbon particles--absorbs sunlight, heating the atmosphere and thereby altering weather, according to climatologists Subari Menon of NASA and Columbia University and James Hansen of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies.
China is heavily polluted because of the widespread use of wood, animal dung and a variety of other materials for cooking and heating. Inefficient combustion of these fuels produces large amounts of soot and other pollutants.
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