Soot is melting the ice, just like I said years ago. I'm sure some of you remember when I posted the video where you could see it happen.
I think that,
going by the charts, soot is well known to account for about one third of the anthropogenic effect, and about one quarter of the overall "climate forcing" effect.
And as you mention, known about for a long time now....
http://www.nature.com/news/2008/080723/full/454393a.htmlPublished online 23 July 2008 | Nature 454, 393-396
"Combining with the dust to drive climate change are emissions of 'black carbon', the soot that results when people cook with biofuels such as wood, crop waste or dung. Southeast Asia, including the Himalayas, is one of the global hotspots for black-carbon emissions...."
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http://nsidc.org/icelights/2011/02/23/is-dirty-air-adding-to-climate-change-2/February 23, 2011 “
Is dirty air adding to climate change?”
“Arctic sea ice has declined faster than climate models predicted. Could soot be one of the reasons? The graph above shows the forecast of sea ice decline in gray, based on eighteen computer models used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in preparing its 2007 assessments. The red line shows actual observed sea ice extent, based on satellite data, from 1979 to 2009.”
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Yep, and....
http://www.nature.com/news/double-threat-for-tibet-1.15738?WT.ec_id=NATURE-20140821“
Hot, dry weather and progressive urbanization are turning grasslands into sand near the headwaters of the Yellow, Yangtze and Mekong rivers.”
A comprehensive environmental assessment of the Plateau of Tibet has found that the region is getting hotter, wetter and more polluted, threatening its fragile ecosystems and those who rely on them.
But some areas, such as the headwater region of Asia’s biggest rivers, have become warmer and drier and are being severely affected by desertification and grassland and wetland degradation.
The plateau and its surrounding mountains cover 5 million square kilo¬metres and
hold the largest stock of ice outside the Arctic and Antarctic;
the region is thus often referred to as the Third Pole.
And like the actual poles, it is increasingly feeling the effects of climate change, but rapid development is putting it doubly at risk, the report says.
Pollution is coming not just from local sources. Dust, black carbon, heavy metals and other toxic compounds are being blown in from Africa, Europe and southern Asia. The dust and carbon residues are darkening glaciers, making them more susceptible to melting, and the toxic chemicals are poisoning crops, livestock and wildlife.
...
another part of the planet's cryosphere, still warming....
“But the threats from mining and pollution are dwarfed by the potential repercussions of changes in ice and vegetation cover, the assessment says.”
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In the end, the Tibetan plateau may be a crucial testing ground for how humans and the environment collide in a globally warmed world.
Can the world's
third pole be saved?
“Let's hope that the changes the plateau is going through are only transient,” says Yao.
“What we do about them probably will determine what's going to happen to it in the future.”
~ :yep:
