Human Pollution Of Arctic Dates Back At Least 138 Years, Study Reveals - Deseret News

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For how long have humans polluted the Arctic? Thirty years? Forty? According to research published by two University of Utah scientists, the answer is at least 138 years, and possibly much longer. The study may improve understanding of global climate change. "Perhaps there was significant warming of the Arctic even 100 years ago or so," said Tim Garrett, assistant professor of meteorology at the U.

Garrett and Lisa Verzella, former undergraduate students in the department of meteorology, researched the question of air pollution in the Arctic and found that particulates from industrial sources were observed by an Arctic explorer in 1870. The findings of Garrett, lead author, and Verzella are to be published in the March edition of the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society under the title "An Evolving History of Arctic Aerosols."

In earlier work, Garrett attempted to estimate the effect of haze on the Arctic climate, particularly its effect on clouds. He showed that aerosol pollution blows northward from developed countries and into the Arctic. The pollution affects the clouds in a way that warms the arctic surface and is involved in melting the region's ice. It is most prevalent in the winter and spring.

When air pollution in the Arctic was measured in detail during the 1970s by Glenn Shaw of the University of Alaska, he said, "There was a huge amount of skepticism that this could possibly be true, that the Arctic, which is such a remote place, would have high levels of aerosol pollution." The amount Shaw measured was equivalent to air pollution in a city at more temperate climes. Studies continued through the 1990s, and Shaw found reports from Air Force pilots who had carried out reconnaissance flights in the Arctic in the 1940s and '50s. They had discovered haze at high altitudes, but the reports had gone largely unnoticed until Shaw dug them up.

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