Can we control black carbon in the Arctic by reducing agricultural fires?
November 9th, 2010 by David McCabe, Atmospheric Scientist
David McCabe
One long day down, and one to go at a global meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia, where climate scientists, fire experts, farmers, regulators and NGOs have been discussing the role of springtime fires on climate change in the Arctic and what must be done to reduce the occurrence of set fires in northern latitudes. The Arctic is warming at an alarming rate, threatening not just regional ecosystems but coastal areas around the world that are vulnerable to sea level rise. Carbon dioxide is the main pollutant responsible for this warming, but recent research shows that black carbon, or soot, from incomplete combustion may also be responsible for much of the Arctic’s warming. Samples from snow indicate that most of the black carbon in Arctic snow comes from burning biomass, and much of that is from burning crops and grasslands in northern Eurasia.
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Minding Methane
September 9th, 2010 by Armond Cohen, Executive Director
Two major pieces of unfinished business on the global atmospheric pollution agenda could be addressed through a single strategy: cut methane emissions. In an era where so many climate initiatives face fierce opposition, methane mitigation is low-hanging fruit.
The first issue is ground-level ozone. As a 2008 report by the UK Royal Society concluded,
In large areas of the industrialised and developing world, ground level O3 is one of the most pervasive of the global air pollutants, with impacts on human health, food production and the environment even at current ambient concentrations of 35-40 parts per billion. . . . Existing emission controls are insufficient to reduce current background O3 concentrations to levels acceptable for human health and environmental protection . . . [A new framework must] reduce both background and peak O3, at global, regional and national scales.
