Report: California drought could worsen air pollution

Report: California drought could worsen air pollution: "Drought conditions may be exacerbating air pollution throughout California, according to a report released by the American Lung Association on Wednesday.

ALA experts said many Western cities, as well as Riverside County as a whole, have been recording record numbers of days with high levels of short-term particle pollution. Low levels of precipitation can trap fine particles of pollution close to the ground, contributing to asthma attacks and hospitalizations for respiratory disease.

Drought conditions can also cause hotter weather, which increases levels of ozone or smog in the air.

"The drought is having a very real impact," said Alexander Sheriffs, a member of the California Air Resources Board and a family physician based in Fresno. "With the increasing frequency of heat events, we can expect more stagnant air days, which will increase ozone days (...) Agricultural burning and wildfires, which are going to become much more common, will contribute to poor air quality.""



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Burn waste, pay Rs 5,000 fine: NGT | The Indian Express

Burn waste, pay Rs 5,000 fine: NGT | The Indian Express: "The National Green Tribunal (NGT) directed authorities in Delhi and NCR to impose a fine of Rs 5,000 on anyone caught burning waste — garbage, leaves, plastic, rubber or other items — in open areas.
The bench noted that “it is on record” that while burning of garbage and other waste was not the only source of pollution, it accounted for “29.4% of air pollution, with regard to PM 10”. It also noted that burning of waste emitted pollutants, some of which were even carcinogenic."



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Study blames global warming for 75 percent of very hot days - San Jose Mercury News

Study blames global warming for 75 percent of very hot days - San Jose Mercury News: "WASHINGTON -- If you find yourself sweating out a day that is monstrously hot, chances are you can blame humanity. A new report links 3 out of 4 such days to man's effects on climate.

And as climate change worsens around midcentury, that percentage of extremely hot days being caused by man-made greenhouse gases will push past 95 percent, according to the study published Monday in the journal Nature Climate Change.

Humans have not had as great an effect on heavy downpours, though. The Swiss scientists who did the study calculated that 18 percent of extreme rain events are caused by global warming. But if the world warms an additional 2 degrees Fahrenheit -- expected to happen around midcentury -- about 39 percent of the downpours would be attributed to humanity's influence, according to the study. That influence comes from greenhouse gases, mostly carbon dioxide from the burning of coal, oil and gas."



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Warming climate may release vast amounts of carbon from long-frozen Arctic soils -- ScienceDaily

Warming climate may release vast amounts of carbon from long-frozen Arctic soils -- ScienceDaily: "While climatologists are carefully watching carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere, another group of scientists is exploring a massive storehouse of carbon that has the potential to significantly affect the climate change picture.

University of Georgia Skidaway Institute of Oceanography researcher Aron Stubbins is part of a team investigating how ancient carbon, locked away in Arctic permafrost for thousands of years, is now being transformed into carbon dioxide and released into the atmosphere. The results of the study were published in Geophysical Research Letters.

The Arctic contains a massive amount of carbon in the form of frozen soil -- the remnants of plants and animals that died more than 20,000 years ago. Because this organic material was permanently frozen year-round, it did not undergo decomposition by bacteria the way organic material does in a warmer climate. Just like food in a home freezer, it has been locked away from the bacteria that would otherwise cause it to decay and be converted to carbon dioxide."



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