Black carbon: the super pollutant melting Asia’s glaciers

A dark, barely visible powder is hastening the melt of glaciers from the Himalayas to the Arctic. Black carbon, a “super pollutant” whose warming power far exceeds that of carbon dioxide, is a ticking bomb for the planet’s water systems, and Asia is at the centre of the storm.

A major component of PM2.5 – microscopic particles that can penetrate deep into the lungs, wreaking havoc on human health – black carbon absorbs sunlight with deadly efficiency. When it settles on snowy and icy surfaces, it darkens them, accelerating the absorption of heat and triggering glacial melt.

“As glaciers melt at an accelerated rate, the risk of floods, water shortages and other environmental consequences increases,” Khushboo Sharma, an air-pollution analyst at the Kathmandu-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), told This Week in Asia.

A new report, published by global philanthropic initiative the Clean Air Fund, named China and India as the world’s largest black carbon emitters. Their power plants, steel and cement factories, brick kilns, and even rice mills and sugar factories are pumping out the pollutant in staggering amounts. But another source looms larger.

“The residential sector is the primary source of black carbon emissions in both China and India,” the report said, pointing to widespread use of traditional fuels for cooking and heating that causes high emissions. “Wildfires are the largest source in Russia and transport in the United States.”