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The best way to slow the rapid decline in Arctic sea ice
is to reduce soot emissions from burning fossil fuels, wood
and dung.
This is the conclusion of a Stanford University study published
in the Journal
of Geophysical Research (Atmospheres).
The paper, authored by Mark Z. Jacobson, director of Stanford's
Atmosphere/Energy Program, says that soot is second
only to carbon dioxide as a contributor to global warming.
"Controlling soot may be the only method of significantly
slowing Arctic warming within the next two decades," says
Jacobson. "We have to start taking its effects into account
in planning our mitigation efforts and, the sooner we start
making changes, the better."
Because soot has been "mischaracterised" in previous climate
models, it has been "ignored completely" in international
and national climate policy.
Jacobson's work (Abstract)
has focused on developing a model that uses weather, global
climate and air pollution data over the past 20 years to analyse
how soot heats clouds, snow and ice. He stresses the importance
of mitigating the rapid increase of Arctic sea ice melt.
"There is a big concern that, if the Arctic melts, it will
be a tipping point for the Earth's climate because the reflective
sea ice will be replaced by a much darker, heat absorbing,
ocean below," he said.
"Once the sea ice is gone, it is really hard to regenerate
because there is not an efficient mechanism to cool the ocean
down in the short-term."
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