World Bank: Black carbon holds a key to thinning ice
Washington - Most of the international efforts to halt climate change are focussed on reducing carbon dioxide emissions blamed for global warming.
On Sunday, the World Bank released a report, On Thin Ice, saying that controlling short-lived pollutants such as black carbon could also make a large contribution to preserving the cryosphere – the snow-capped mountain tops, glaciers, regions with permafrost and other perpetually frozen parts of Earth.
The additional benefit could be the saving of millions of lives, says the report, which was produced by the World Bank and theInternational Cryosphere Climate Initiative (ICCI).
"The cryosphere is changing fast as a result of climate change and if warming continues unabated, the risks to human societies and sensitive ecosystems rise dramatically," said ICCI Director Pam Pearson. "It makes slowing cryosphere warming an issue of global concern."
The pollutants in question were identified as coming from cook stoves, forest burning, fossil fuel extraction and diesel transport, and must be rapidly decreased, the scientists said in the report.
Jim Young Kim, president of the World Bank, noted that limiting those emissions would contribute to the fight against climate change and improve human health.
"The damage from indoor cooking smoke alone is horrendous – every year, 4 million people die from exposure to the smoke," Kim said.
The report looks at 14 measures that could curb black carbon and methane emissions.//DPA
