The little talked about accomplice to CO2: Black Carbon

[Chuck]

Black carbon may be 18% of AGW....fortunately it last a few months - not centuries

Brian Walsh - TIME - Nov 13, 2009

Black carbon is the sooty stuff from coal, biomass, and diesel --Ed.

That soupy brown air is the result of so-called black carbon expelled into the atmosphere in and around the Indian capital, from the burning of biomass for cookstoves and of black coal for electricity, and the incomplete combustion in the old diesel engines that propel most of the cars and trucks in the city. Breathing here isn't all that good for you — there's a reason the city is home to the "Delhi cough" — and now scientists are discovering that the sooty air isn't good for the climate either. According to some estimates, black carbon may be responsible for as much as 18% of the planet's warming, making it the No. 2 contributor to climate change after carbon dioxide, which accounts for 40%. "The world could think that we just cut CO2 and the problem is solved and we all go home, but it's not," says Veerabhadran Ramanathan, a climatologist from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and an expert on black carbon. "That's my nightmare."... [Read More]