This is Stunning: Greenland's Black Snow

[n2doc]

By Eric Holthaus
Jason Box knows ice. That’s why what’s happened this year concerns him so much.

Box just returned from a trip to Greenland. Right now, the ice there is … black:






The ice in Greenland this year isn’t just a little dark—it’s record-setting dark. Box says he’s never seen anything like it. I spoke to Box by phone earlier this month, just days after he returned from his summer field research campaign.

“I was just stunned, really,” Box told me.

The photos he took this summer in Greenland are frightening. But their implications are even more so. Just like black cars are hotter to the touch than white ones on sunny summer days, dark ice melts much more quickly.

As a member of the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, Box travels to Greenland from his home in Copenhagen to track down the source of the soot that’s speeding up the glaciers’ disappearance. He aptly calls his crowdfunded scientific survey Dark Snow.

more

http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2014/09/16/jason_box_s_research_into_greenland_s_dark_snow_raises_more_concerns_about.html?wpsrc=fol_tw

[librechik]

1. there is a nearby volcano in pre-eruption...

but whatever the soot source, this is terrible news.

[n2doc]

5. That volcano is small, and downwind

If you read the article, there have been massive fires in Canada this year, which is upwind of Greenland.

[librechik]

6. rt, thx doc!

I have been trying to convince my neighbors to put light colors on their roof (we had destructive hail this year, as usual!0 No dice, though.

Sometimes I think folks are in a big hurry to die off.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

8. "Sometimes I think folks are in a big hurry to die off."

No, they have been told the choice is between science and religion. Anyone who talks about global warming is the enemy.

[busterbrown]

9. Why not be in a hurry to die off?

Spending eternity in heaven sounds divine...

[Spitfire of ATJ]

10. Tell them they're being suicidal then, and it's a sin.

[busterbrown]

11. But, But it’s all in Jesusis’s Plan..

[Spitfire of ATJ]

20. Considering how things turned out for him, he's a bad planner.

[busterbrown]

24. You just don’t get it..

Jesus now lives in a Mansion similar to MIchael Jordans’..
What else could you want?

[Spitfire of ATJ]

25. I guess a yacht race...

Assuming he doesn't cheat and run the course on foot.

[RedRocco]

44. kinda like this?

[img][/img]

[Spitfire of ATJ]

48. Nice to see I'm not alone on this.

[raouldukelives]

2. Sad k&r. nt

[postulater]

3. That has to be really really bad.

Looking down on Greenland and seeing nothing but white stretching on forever was an amazing sight.

That will be gone sooner rather than later.

[Octafish]

4. Rx for a Dying Planet

Global Action Now

[Ex Lurker]

14. The planet isn't dying. Humans, OTOH, may be in the process of going extinct NT

[AverageJoe90]

22. We're not. Would take a lot more than 3 or 4*C worth of global warming to kill US off.

Yes, we are that tough. Our ancestors survived Toba 75k years ago, and they were about as primitive as could be, and still survive.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

31. There's ALWAYS Soylent Green.

[XemaSab]

34. Shut up with your denial bullshit

n/t

(And for anyone who alerts on this, google that dude's username + "doomers." He's a denier.)

[BlancheSplanchnik]

35. and the QUALITY of OUR lives will be soooooooooooo fabulous.

Hot. Flat. Crowded.

[valerief]

7. Don't the PTB want the Poles to melt so they'll have more

access to oil and gas? I know this is an insane theory. Everything the PTB do is insane, however.

[ChisolmTrailDem]

13. The thing is, they know where the recoverable oil is and it's harder to get to

and there's not a lot of the accessible oil left. An Arctic clear of ice gives them new places to explore for oil.

[valerief]

23. Right, but destroying the planet to get to more oil is insane when there's tons

of sun and wind. If only they could find another way to stay rich.

[Louisiana1976]

26. Yeah they could invest in solar and wind power.

[valerief]

30. Not enough for them. nt

[VScott]

12. Meh... come to any urbanized area in NE around March, early April

when the snow banks are starting to melt away if you want to see black snow.

[TRoN33]

15. Time to hit panic button

With tar sands pipelines operational and potential eruption of Yellowstone super volcano along with methane gas eruptions in Serbia... It's game over for Earth.

[Louisiana1976]

29. The end is near.

[AverageJoe90]

32. The end is indeed near. Feel free to panic and pray that the Apocalypse happens soon................

[RufusTFirefly]

16. Don't worry. We can grow our way out of this!

What a wonderful new business opportunity!

Ah, the miracle of the market!

[TBF]

17. Well obviously God wants it black -

[Xithras]

18. Particulate pollution has been a major driver of arctic climate change for some time now.

While many people are focused on GHG emissions as a driver of climate change and attribute the rise in arctic temperatures (and sea ice) to greenhouse gasses, there has been a huge amount of research over the past 20 years implicating particulate pollution as an equal, and possibly greater, contributor to sea ice loss.

The massive expansion of coal fired power plants in China over the past few decades has been fingered as a potential major cause, but it's far from the only one. Particulates rise high into the stratosphere in the lower latitudes, where they are carried northward into the arctic. Once there, they drop straight down as they cool, and spread outward again at lower elevations (this is why cold air flows southward from the arctic). As the air drops and cools, it also forms snow, which tends to form AROUND particulates in the air.

Pollution in and on top of the snow changes the albedo of the ice field. Darkening the field increases the amount of heat it retains, causing it to melt off faster. Reduced snow and ice cover increases the temperature of the local air masses, causing even more snow to melt. It also increases the temperature of the air flowing southward to the rest of the hemisphere.

The good news is that particulate pollution is ridiculously easy to eliminate, if we're willing to do it. The bad news is that particulate emissions are also a counterbalancing force to GHG related climate change, reflecting sunlight back into space before it can be trapped in the atmosphere. By eliminating particulate emissions, we may exacerbate other aspects of global climate change. It's a lose-lose scenario.

[AverageJoe90]

33. What's really interesting.....,

Is that it seems that the sudden massive decrease in particulates in the 1970s, definitely correlates with the temperature spike that happened between 1980-95. How much was causation is debatable, but no doubt it played some role in that, at least.

Vice versa, the significant (temporary) expansion of dirty power plants in China, India, and certain other countries, probably has indeed also helped keep temperatures down, at least a little bit, since the middle '90s.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

36. interesting read.

Definitely more thoughtful than my own fears and freaking out.......but not necessarily more hopeful.

[daleanime]

19. kick, kick, kick.....

[AverageJoe90]

21. I'd bet that much of it is probably from that volcano in Iceland.

Although the wildfires in Northern Canada aren't helping, that's for sure. K & R.

[JaneyVee]

27. Black ice not good for driving.

[Feral Child]

28. Also, clean ice reflects sunlight back to space.

Dark ice will absornb the heat, increasing global warming.

[alfredo]

37. I remember that when we wanted to make snow ice cream, we had to do it soon after the snow

falls. If we waited too long, a coat of soot would cover it. As the snow melts, the soot forms a black lace.

[shenmue]

38. Zoiks

On the one hand, as others have said, that's probably a bad sign for the environment. On the other- it does look cool.

[ChiciB1]

39. The Recent Documentary Talked About How Melting Ice

is affecting Iceland, but they have no real economy and are willing to have drilling for oil there so they can survive. And the oil companies don't even know HOW to stop a deep well oil disaster! This is to be experimental for them so they can see what to do if it should happen. Heard that and my head almost exploded!

What a calamity!

[Judi Lynn]

40. Hard to believe this could happen. OMG. What have the greedy bastards wrought? n/t

[blkmusclmachine]

41. Religionists say they don't worry about Climate Change, because "God's on OUR side."

They think they'll just be raptured right from Waterworld, and straight to "heaven."

[ReRe]

42. The only black snow I ever seen was the snow...

... at the side of the road that had been pushed there by the street graders, after which it rained a little on, snowed and frozen again... about five times. That is one frightening picture. Is there any wildlife up there? Or has the soot killed it all off?

[a kennedy]

43. That's it we're f*cked.....

[L0oniX]

45. Cold lands are a sink for industrial pollutants.

[Sunlei]

46. good article. didn't realize NE Canada had so many wildfires/loss of their oldest birch forests

Lots of soot blankets our World.

[Octafish]

49. Incredible loss.

250,000 acres at the time image was taken.

http://www.climatecentral.org/news/nw-fires-weather-climate-change-boreal-forests-17778

[Sunlei]

51. huge fire! guess climate change will bringin a great grasslands to that area or brush/weeds if,

there are no wildlife grazing herds, to create a grasslands.

[snappyturtle]

47. When the springtime ice turned black on the 5,000+ acre lake I

lived on in northern MN, I knew the lake would soon be open. I was always happy to see it occurring. THIS black ice...whoa, I'd say a massive and fast meltdown is near.

[Uncle Joe]

50. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, n2doc.