THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XI, Issue # 37, January 30, 2009
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
ASIA'S BROWN POLLUTION CLOUD:
CAUSED BY RENEWABLE FUEL!
By Dennis T. Avery
BURNING WOOD & DUNG IN OPEN COOKING & HEATING FIRES: USE OF RENEWABLE FUELS IN ASIA -- ENERGY USE
THAT DEPLETES FORESTS, POLLUTES THE AIR, & IS HAZARDOUS TO THE HEALTH OF ASIANS: FACTS WHICH THE
ENVIRONMENTALISTS WOULD LIKE TO COVER UP -- FACTS NEVER MENTIONED IN THE PROPAGANDA DISSEMINATED BY
THE ENVIRONMENTALIST MOVEMENT
FULL STORY:
That vast cloud of brown pollution hanging over Asia comes from wood and cattle dung being burned in millions of
Third World home-fires, according to Orjan Gustafsson, a bio-geochemist from Stockholm University. Gustaffsson
recently tested the smoke of the Asian brown cloud with a newly developed radiocarbon technique, and found that
two-thirds of the brown cloud’s particles are organic matter, mostly wood, straw, and dung.
These are the “renewable fuels” that Greenpeace and the Sierra Club do not want publicized. They would rather not
focus on the harsh reality that these open cooking and heating fires are dreadful for the health of Asian women and
children. The lung diseases caused by the indoor smoke are equal to a two-pack-a-day cigarette habit, says Barun Mitra
of India’s Liberty Institute.
The burden of indoor smoke has been worse in the past two globally-colder winters, as temperatures have turned
sharply downward from the peak warming of 1998. More than 60,000 cattle froze to death in Vietnam in February.
Homeless people have frozen to death in Kyrgistan, and travelers have been suffocated under snow avalanches in
Afghanistan. Crumbling Soviet-era electricity and gas systems in Tajikistan have forced homeowners to burn dung
again in a country that thought it had graduated to a better life.
Even in the best of times, burning the wood, straw, and dung are costly in human labor. Finding wood where trees are
scarce — and/or don’t belong to the villagers — can take hours per day. And the problem is worsening. Mitra says
India’s fuel-wood requirements will double in the coming years, unless it can burn more propane and kerosene. The
landscape is being stripped of trees now; where will the extra trees come from?
The manure should not be burned at all — ever. It should be returned to the fields, to maintain soil fertility on the
millions of crop acres which produce Asia’s rice and wheat. The farmers, however, can’t afford to give up a key source
of scarce heating fuel; they own the dung, and they seldom own trees.
The open fires, whether dung or wood, do not even provide much heat. A ton of wood produces only one-tenth as
much heat as a ton of kerosene. Moreover, the lack of electricity condemns families to go without lights or refrigeration
Slash-and-burn farmers also contribute massively to the pollution cloud. Nitrogen fertilizer (taken from the air with
natural gas) is scarce and expensive. So, tropical forests are cleared, depleted of nutrients, and the farmers move to the
next forest area. Because of Green restrictions, Westerners are driving up fertilizer costs for poor farmers by using more
natural gas, instead of burning coal.
The world could save massive tracts of forest and vastly enhance the soil nutrients in its crop fields by shifting from
wood and dung to natural gas, electricity, or kerosene heaters. That would mean more CO2 in the air. but there is no
evidence that a bit more CO2 in the air is a bad thing. Sunspots have had a 79 percent correlation with our temperatures
over the past 150 years, while CO2 has only a 22 percent correlation. Over the last decade, temperatures have actually
declined as atmosphere CO2 rose another 5 percent. CO2 is not the forcing agent; the earth’s warming (and cooling) is
tied to a long, natural, solar driven cycle.
How long must the non-correlation of CO2 and temperatures go on before we start a new crusade — to get natural gas,
oil, and electricity for the world’s poor so we can preserve the health of Third World women and children while saving
forests and topsoil?
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Political Environmentalism Versus Human Progress & Prosperity:
Policy Issues Relating to Energy, Environment,
& Natural Resources
The Earth's Natural History, Global Climate Changes,
& the Future of Human Life & Civilization on the Planet:
Science, Ideology, & Public Policy
Dennis T. Avery is an environmental economist and a senior fellow for The Hudson Institute in Washington, DC. He
was formerly a senior analyst for the U.S. Department of State. He is co-author, with S. Fred Singer, of Unstoppable
Global Warming Every 1500 Hundred Years. Readers may write him at P.O. Box 202, Churchville, Virginia, 24421.
Email: cgfi@hughes.net
Return to Top of Page
Go to the WEBSITE INDEX
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA,
Public Issues & Political Controversies
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
Most Recent Articles
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA,
Volume XI, 2009
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA,
Subject Matter Highlights
Return to POLITICAL EDUCATION Homepage
CONTACT & ACCESS INFORMATION
This is not a commercial website. The sole purpose of the website is to share with interested persons information regarding civics,
civic and social education, political science, government, politics, law, constitutional law and history, public policy, and political
philosophy and history, as well as current and recent political developments, public issues, and political controversies.
POLITICAL EDUCATION, CONSERVATIVE ANALYSIS
POLITICS, SOCIETY, & THE SOVEREIGN STATE
Website of Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr.
Government, Politics, Public Policy, Legal Issues, Constitutional Law, Government & the Economy, Cultural Values, Foreign Affairs,
International Relations, Military Defense & National Security, Geopolitics, Terrorism & Homeland Security, American National Interests,
Political Systems & Processes, Political Institutions, Political Ideologies, & Political Philosophy
INDEX FOR THE ENTIRE WEBSITE
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Conservative & Free-Market Analysis of Government, Politics & Public Policy, Covering Political, Legal, Constitutional, Economic,
Cultural, Military, International, Strategic, & Geopolitical Issues
Conservative Government Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity