An unfortunate side effect of China’s expanding economy has caused it to rise to the top of countries with toxic emissions problems, in this case, a glut of carbon dioxide pollution.  Even more unfortunately for the United States, Chinese problems with air pollution are indicating signs of a serious effect that may soon impact American citizens.  And at a recent U.N. conference to discuss changing climates, no major deal was cut to deal with toxic emissions such as these.

While Chinese officials have insisted that darkening air over Beijing is only fog, the U.S. embassy has proven that the air instead is so polluted that traffic patterns have been disturbed and that airports have been forced to cancel or delay flights.

Scientists who study atmospheric chemistry have been investigating the ways that the air pollution in China will have a negative impact on American weather.

Since the atmosphere has no walls, scientists predict that polluted air can travel across the world in only five days.  In the case of Chine pollution, the jet stream carries the air across the Pacific, which can prevent the production of rain and snow.

More pollution means less precipitation.  In China, the polluted particles collect moisture but because of their miniscule size and great numbers they don’t weigh enough for the clouds to release them as rain or snow … and the water stays trapped in the clouds.

However, scientists studying this problem via atmospheric samples in California have also reported that dust accumulated from storms in the greats deserts of China may help make up for the potentially lost precipitation.  Dust particles from the deserts are larger and heavier than the polluted particles that collect in clouds, and can therefore create rain and snow.

Scientists believe that it is important to understand what factors influence, create, or prevent California’s rain and snow because the main water source for the nearly 40 million people in the state comes from the snow that accumulates in the mountains.

The complexities of this problem have not escaped scientist or meteorologists, who are working together in an attempt to study and hopefully understand more about the ways that world-wide pollution can affect climate and weather.  They feel that an additional benefit of these studies is that they might yield strategies for improving the accuracy of weather forecasting.  That way, scientists and meteorologists could explain why some clouds create storms while others dissipate or blow away.

While reports such as these are encouraging, images from Beijing are more depressing.  The city is lost under a dark, gloomy haze while endless lines of cars continue along their routes.  It is easy to understand how concerns about the air pollution in other countries might stir American consciences, but in this case, with the possibility of a disruption in weather patterns, concern might easily change to anger, as the U.N.’s conferencing has yet to reach any viable resolutions.  And, as scientists have reportedly said, these eco-problems no longer belong exclusively to the Chinese.

Carol Montrose is a conservation writer who works with NRDC and other organizations to protect our health and environment.