Black Carbon can Significantly Play a Role in Global Warming

A researcher has discovered that black carbon which comes out as diesel engine exhaust and cooking fires can play a role in global warming.

Increasing the ratio of black carbon to sulphate in the atmosphere increases climate warming, suggests a study by University of Iowa professors Greg Carmichael, Karl Kammermeyer Professor of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering and colleagues.

'Black Carbon' Is Responsible For 18 Percent Of The Planet's Warming, Says Indian Scientist
According to a climate scientist Veerabhadran Ramanathan, soot from mud cooking stoves in tens of thousands of villages in India is emerging as a major source of global warming.

They found that the amount of solar radiation absorbed increased as the black carbon to sulphate ratio rose.

Also, black carbon plumes from fossil fuels cause 100 percent more warming than plumes arising from biomass burning.

"There is currently great interest in developing strategies to reduce black carbon as it offers the opportunity to reduce air pollution and global warming at the same time," Nature quoted Carmichael as saying.

Global Warming Predictions may be Exaggerated
Computer climate models, has suggested that those models may be overestimating global warming predictions after detailed analysis of black carbon.

The team also said that coal and cow dung-fuelled cooking fires in China and India produce about one-third of black carbon.

The rest is largely due to diesel exhaust in Europe and other regions relying on diesel transport.

Also, soot and other forms of black carbon could equal up to 60 percent of the current global warming effect of carbon dioxide, the leading greenhouse gas.

The study is published in May 2008 in Nature Geoscience.

Source-ANI