remote and previously pristine atolls in the central Indian Ocean, will
further aggravate the fishing problem. Global warming has also devas-
tated the mangroves that act as a nursery for marine diversity in the
southern Gulf of Mannar, home to a marine biosphere reserve.
Activist T. S. S. Mani, who works with the fishers of the
Nochchikuppam commune, says that climate change has “a direct and
terrible effect on the livelihood of coastal fishworkers. They rate
amongst the poorest of the poor but their concerns are completely mar-
ginalized.... Although they may not understand global warming and
greenhouse emissions, their traditional knowledge of the oceans, fine-
tuned over centuries, should be providing key insights. But artisanal
fishworkers have become victims of development instead of being par-
ticipants in the process.”
THEASIANCLOUD
The global warming effects that are pushing Indian fishermen to the
brink of starvation are part of a larger picture. American military pilots
flying over the Indian Ocean from the U.S. Air Force base on Diego
Garcia first detected the presence of a large, dense cloud of sooty pol-
lution over Asia in the 1980s. Since then, it has regularly appeared in
satellite photographs and been tracked by research ships.
In 1999, a team of scientists funded by the National Science
Foundation began a $25 million surveillance of the Indian Ocean and
discovered that the huge layer of haze covers 10 million square miles,
approximately the size of the continental United States. The scientists
were astounded by the size of the cloud, which is made of tiny sun-
blocking pollutant particles called aerosols.
Not only was the enormity of the pollution an issue, but its com-
position as well. Here was evidence that soot, in gigantic concentra-
tions, could influence climate almost as much as carbon dioxide. The
haze, at an elevation of 1 to 2 miles, covers most of the northern Indian
Ocean, the Arabian Sea west of Mumbai, and the Bay of Bengal. The
source: air pollution from India and China, produced by hundreds of
millions of cooking fires and coal furnaces, blown out to sea during the
winter monsoon season.
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