Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Soot causing Arctic ice to darken and melt rapidly


Soot darkens the ice which causes it to absorb heat, increasing the speed of melting. Methane is produced from sources like oil, gas and agriculture, and ozone is produced by industrial pollutants. "Reductions in these pollutants would have a greater impact" in the upcoming two decades instead of stopping emissions of carbon dioxide. This information is coming from scientists at the 187-nation U.N. climate talks set in Poland.


"The Arctic sea ice may already have passed a 'tipping point'," said Pam Pearson, an Arctic pollution expert at the Climate Policy Center. "An ice-free summer Arctic is now possible well before 2050."

…The three main pollutants of soot, ozone and methane, remain in the atmosphere a shorter time than carbon dioxide, implying that decreasing emissions may have a faster impact in reducing the toxins in the air. "The question is: is all of the rapid melt of the Arctic ice in summer all due to human induced climate change or is part of it some natural cycle? We clearly have to understand it," Watson said….

A black ice growler from a melting glacier in Greenland, shot by Kim Hansen, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution license versions 2.5, 2.0, and 1.0.

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