The air around us

I was travelling with my friends in a public bus at Nasik road where we saw a huge pile of garbage burning. All of us immediately shouted "Carbon emission". This is very common sight at everywhere in India. People burn garbage, dry leaves etc on roadside which results in emission of black smoke which contains carbon dioxide. The question that comes to my mind and I would like to ask the readers to respond to this,

Is carbon emission has became more prominent issue then air pollution when talking about local environment?

We all know burning of garbage or for that matter anything cause air pollution which has a direct impact on us. Air pollutants that are inhaled have serious impact on human health affecting the lungs and the respiratory system. They are also taken up by the blood and pumped all round the body. These pollutants are also deposited on soil, plants and in the water, further contributing to human exposure. Moreover, we all are aware about impact of global warming too which is caused as a result of mainly carbon emission. 

It is indeed important for us to work on this issue of burning garbage and come up with solution. Whatever is the solution, it would result in addressing both the issue of air pollution and climate change. But to be more effective, it is important to me to understand which issue out of the two, air pollution and climate change should be the focus area for planning any solution. When I am talking about local impact, air pollution becomes focus issue as it has direct impact on the health of people, then why we all shouted "Carbon emission" when we sighted burning garbage.

Please help me understand by sharing your thoughts on this.