Heat From The Haze.

(From Indian Express)

"This eagerness on the part of the government to refuse to accept the possibility that this brown haze could drastically change our lives is, quite plainly, stupid," says one of the study team's scientists When Klaus Toepfer broke the news that an elite group of scientists had found a dirty brown cloud hanging over India and much of Asia, he was caught unprepared by its immediate effects."Their research suggests the thick brown haze, which forms over much of Asia during the tropical dry season, could have profound effects on human health, crop yield and rainfall patterns in the Asian region," Toepfer, executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) said on August 9 in London, after being briefed by the chief scientists of the Indian Ocean Experiment, as the programme was called.Though Indian officials would have liked to refute the existence of the cloud, that was difficult (see graphic). But on August 24, a day before its delegation left for the earth summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, the government tore into the report. Environment Minister T.R. Baalu met with a cross-section of scientists and then insisted there was no scientific basis for the alarm. Toepfer sought an appointment with the minister in Johannesburg and at the end of the half-hour meeting, they agreed scientists on both sides would discuss the issue further. "I can say that the UNEP chief was a little inconvenienced by our denial (of the report)," Baalu told The Indian Express in Johannesburg. "He has agreed that it requires better investigation and more through study before these drastic and alarming predictions were made." Why did the government react so violently to the report? After all it was brought out by 250 of the world's leading scientists, including a Nobel laureate, and 21 Indian scientists employed in government research institutions. That's because the timing of the report was uncomfortable in the murky politics of climate change. The Kyoto Protocol - as the world's effort to reduce greenhouse gases suspected of causing global warming is called - has been signed by 58 countries. India and Brazil are among the major developing countries that have agreed to commitments to limit greenhouse gases. But the Kyoto Protocol won't come into effect until one of the big polluters signs it. Canada, Australia, and the U.S. steadfastly refuse: they disagree with the prescribed cuts. It's made them often look like ecological villans. "It could well have been done to put India on the defensive," argues a senior bureaucrat of the Ministry of Environment. Ask Baalu if it is possible that India is shutting its eyes to a reality and he says: "If the report was based on scientific facts, it would be blown up in a forum like this (the Earth Summit). If it is correct, then I will be the first to act on it." The government lists many disagreements with the study's findings. Some are technical: many conclusions are extrapolated without scientific evidence, like the suggestion that the haze could cause droughts and disrupt the monsoons. Some are economic: biofuels (like wood and cow dung) produce "survival ...