World leaders are facing calls to take action to reduce a three-kilometer thick haze over South Asia that scientists say may lead to "several hundreds of thousands" of premature deaths in the region over years to come.

Greenpeace International is urging government delegates at the forthcoming World Summit on Sustainable Development--scheduled to open in Johannesburg, South Africa, on August 26--to implement global policies that tackle both environmental problems and poverty, following evidence of the spread across the Indian subcontinent of a cloud of toxic particles.

"The haze is just another manifestation of the problem with current lifestyles, whether it be the burning of fossil fuels or poor people's use of inefficient cookers," said Paul Horsman, Greenpeace International's climate change campaigner. Horsman stressed that the evidence presented this week in a report by a group of scientists working for the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), "clearly illustrates that climate change and development are completely intertwined."

The UNEP report, 'Asian Brown Cloud: Climate and Other Environmental Impacts,' blamed a combination of factors--including forest fires, agricultural waste incineration, fossil fuel emissions from vehicles and heavy industry, as well as the widespread use of cookers burning wood or other biomass, such as cow dung--for the brown cloud which has affected the health and livelihoods of those in some of the most impoverished areas in the region.

In addition to increasing the risk of respiratory problems among thousands of people in the region--which stretches from Afghanistan and Pakistan to Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka--the blanket of pollutants could also disrupt weather patterns, leading to reduced rates of rainfall over northwestern parts of Asia and increased rates over the eastern coast of the continent, said the report.

The scientists pointed out that there had been two consecutive droughts during 1999-2000 in Pakistan and northwestern parts of India, while Bangladesh, Nepal, and the northeastern states of India suffered severe flooding. In 1998, two thirds of Bangladesh's land area was submerged, ruining 1.6 million hectares of cropland.

According to Greenpeace, the solution lies not only in the implementation of treaties, such as the Kyoto Protocol on reducing emissions of "greenhouse gases," but also in providing cleaner and renewable energy sources for those dependent on organic fuels.

"Over 2.5 million people die each year as a result of pollution from indoor cookers," Horsman said Wednesday as the effects of the Asian haze continued to feature prominently in the international media. "Efficient cookers that use sustainably managed biomass, would save lives, and they would also help the environment by polluting less."

Greenpeace will present a petition to delegates at high-level discussions during the Johannesburg summit that calls on governments around the world to produce a timetable for action on the introduction of renewable energy.

Meanwhile, on Thursday, a Greenpeace ship will arrive in Bangkok, Thailand, to focus on ways to reduce fossil fuel consumption and to help communities set up local renewable-energy programs.

Copyright © 2002 OneWorld.net

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