One of my main aims, when i started blogging was to explore some of the potential threats to the
Polar Regiions. So far I have covered many scintillating topics such as oil
exploitation (in posts 2 and 3), the reactions of the individual poles to
climate change and the global impacts of sea ice reduction (in posts 5 and 6)
however I am yet to touch upon the influence of pollutants in the polar
regions. Within this post I aim to introduce the topic of long range pollution
in the Arctic. So here goes…
Green house gases (causing global warming) are often seen
as one of the largest threats to the Polar Regions, but it is
important not to forget other pollutants, which can be equally detrimental.
These pollutants can be accountable for causing similar warming effects by altering the
disruption the radiative budget (Law and Stohl,
2007).
After deciding to focus my blog on long range pollution I thought I would just
provide a quick definition of what long range pollution actually
is. Long range pollution consists of the transportation of atmospheric
pollutants, over a distance over 100 KM. Simple!
I thought this
diagram perfectly expresses
the issues of long range pollution and the transportation of pollutants such as
black carbon, sulphates and hydrocarbons, to remote areas (such as the Arctic,
where pollution is not produced locally).
Recently, I have been finding
lots of literature surrounding the impacts of aerosols in the Arctic, so over
the next few blogs they will be taking center stage of the long range pollution
show. Until next time people!
The scary aspect of long range pollution is the fact that you don't fully realise the impacts you can have on somewhere so far away!
ReplyDeleteExactly! This is something i find really interesting, the fact that many people can not possibly think that using a can of spray deodorant could influence climate in the Arctic! I am interested to see whether or not people consider Long Range Pollution as a threat to the Arctic or not, hopefully my poll will highlight that.
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