Researchers have warned against the growing air pollution in the Asian continent, saying it is affecting the weather and climate patterns across the globe.
The most serious, they say is the rising rate of pollution in China. This season, China has witnessed worst smog and air pollution. The pollution levels in Chinese capital Beijing is rising dangerously with the city’s air quality diminishing day by day.
The city’s air quality is often poor, especially in winter when stagnant weather patterns combine with an increase in coal-burning to exacerbate other forms of pollution and create periods of heavy smog for days at a time.
Experts blame China’s booming economy in the last 30 years responsible for the diminishing quality of air. The advancement of economy led to the set up of manufacturing factories, industrial plants, power plants and other facilities that produce huge amounts of air pollutants.
The levels of air pollution in some of the Chinese cities like Beijing are often more than 100 times higher than acceptable limits set by the World Health Organisation standards.
Scientists attribute coal burning and car emissions as the major drivers of pollution in China and other Asian countries.
According to a study led by Texas A&M University and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory researchers, the extreme pollution from Asia is affecting precipitation, cloud formations, storm intensity besides diminishing the air quality.
Researchers Renyi Zhang, Yuan Wang and R Saravanan used climate models and data of aerosols and meteorology collected over the past 30 years. During the study they found that air pollution over Asia, mainly China is impacting global air circulations.
The study was published in the journal Nature Communications.