Wherever There's Smoke, There's Climate Change
According to a four-year assessment by an international panel, smoke is the number two contributor to global warming, second only to carbon dioxide.
The new study concludes that black carbon, the soot particles in smoke and smog contributes about twice as much to global warming as previously estimated, even by the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
"We were surprised at its potential contribution to climate," said Sarah Doherty, a University of Washington atmospheric scientist and one of four coordinating lead authors. The silver lining may be that controlling these emissions can deliver more immediate climate benefits than trying to control carbon dioxide, she said.
Therefore we should all endeavor to reduce the human acts that lead to the emission of smoke into our precious atmosphere. Acts like bush burning should be curbed. Also, with an estimated 15 billion cigarettes smoked per day, one can only wonder what negative impact the smoke of those cigars have on our planet.
The paper was made freely available online Jan. 15 in the Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres
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| Smoke: A major contributor to global warming |
The new study concludes that black carbon, the soot particles in smoke and smog contributes about twice as much to global warming as previously estimated, even by the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
"We were surprised at its potential contribution to climate," said Sarah Doherty, a University of Washington atmospheric scientist and one of four coordinating lead authors. The silver lining may be that controlling these emissions can deliver more immediate climate benefits than trying to control carbon dioxide, she said.
Therefore we should all endeavor to reduce the human acts that lead to the emission of smoke into our precious atmosphere. Acts like bush burning should be curbed. Also, with an estimated 15 billion cigarettes smoked per day, one can only wonder what negative impact the smoke of those cigars have on our planet.
The paper was made freely available online Jan. 15 in the Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres
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