Deadly cloud over Asia ‘masking global warming’

A 3KM-THICK cloud of brown soot and other pollutants hanging over Asia is darkening cities, killing thousands and damaging crops — but may be holding off the worst effects of global warming, the UN said.

The vast plume of contamination from factories, fires, cars and deforestation contains some particles that reflect sunlight away from the Earth, cutting its ability to heat the Earth.

“One of the impacts of this atmospheric brown cloud has been to mask the true nature of global warming on our planet,” United Nations environment programme head Achim Steiner said at the launch in Beijing of a report on the phenomenon.