An alarming record is shaping up in Antarctica in 2022 0:54
(CNN) --
There are few places on Earth that humans haven't littered with the waste and pollution that comes from our gasoline-powered cars, the coal-fired electricity that powers our homes, and the dust and soot that falls. of the forest fires that we have made worse.
Now even Antarctica, the only continent without permanent human inhabitants, is being altered by the grime that follows us wherever we go.
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A study published Tuesday in the academic journal
Nature Communications
reveals that the growing human presence in Antarctica is causing more snow melt, bad news for a frozen world that is already struggling with the effects of global warming caused by being human.
Tourists arrive for expeditions in Antarctica in December 2019 on King George Island.
Scientists found that black carbon pollution from tourism and research activity has led to increased melting on the frozen continent.
Scientists found that black carbon, the dark, dusty pollution that comes from burning fossil fuels, has settled in places where tourists and researchers spend a lot of time.
Even the smallest amounts of this dark pollutant can have a significant impact on melting due to its very low "albedo," or reflective ability: things that are light in color, like snow, reflect the Sun's energy and keep cool;
things that are dark, like black carbon, absorb the sun's energy and heat up.
If you add a little black carbon to the shiny white snow, you have the necessary ingredients for melting ice.
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And what happens in Antarctica has global repercussions.
It is a huge white continent that reflects a significant amount of the sun's energy back into space.
The loss of ice and snow means that land and ocean temperatures get warmer, which in turn causes more melting, in what becomes a vicious cycle of climate change.
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"Antarctica is currently one of the fastest warming regions on the planet," says Alia Khan, a snow and ice scientist at Western Washington University.
"Snow is already melting due to climate change impacts, but this is one factor that exacerbates snow melt."
Penguins are seen with a bottom cruiser in Antarctica.
Approximately 74,000 tourists visited Antarctica during the summer of 2019-2020, more than double the number a decade ago, according to IAATO.
The researchers took snow samples around tourist sites and research locations from 2016 to 2020 and found that black carbon found in those samples was considerably more abundant than levels measured elsewhere on the continent.
The research found that the highest levels of soot were measured near the Argentine research station at Esperanza Bay on the Trinidad Peninsula, near the northernmost part of Antarctica.
"Antarctic (tourist) ships typically use cleaner marine diesel, with some vessels supplementing the fuel with battery power," the study notes.
However, the researchers note that their results show that more needs to be done to reduce pollution as tourism continues to rise.
Approximately 74,000 tourists visited Antarctica during the summer of 2019-2020, the researchers reported, an increase of 32% from 2018-2019 and more than double the number a decade ago.
Large sheet of sea ice breaks off Antarctica 0:38
Khan said this study was important not only to understand what is happening in Antarctica, but because global climate models, which scientists use to predict environmental changes decades and centuries in advance, need a better understanding of the impact of albedo. of snow in the climate system.
"The snow albedo effect is one of the biggest uncertainties in regional and global climate models right now," Khan told CNN.
"That's one of the motivations for the study, to quantify the impact of black carbon in Antarctica due to local emissions from research, activities, and the role of black carbon in global ice loss."
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Marilyn Raphael, a geography professor and director of the UCLA Institute for Environment and Sustainability, explained that disturbing Antarctica could destabilize our planet's delicate balance.
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"Antarctica is there silently all year round. But if it weren't there, in its proper state, the balance that we have in the climate system, the balance that we enjoy in the northern hemisphere, would cease to exist," Raphael said. .
Tuesday's study comes alongside an alarming record in Antarctica: The ocean surface covered by sea ice around the continent is set to hit a new low this year.
Raphael said changes in sea ice could also be global in scope.
Antarctic sea ice is also important in maintaining the balance of atmospheric circulation, Raphael said.
This circulation drives the winds and is the means by which energy is transported to or from the continent.
"If the atmospheric circulation changes, the global climate changes," he said.
As the waters warm and the sea ice shrinks, some Antarctic creatures find their homes increasingly uninhabitable.
Penguin colonies in Antarctica, for example, rely heavily on krill in their diet, and krill depend on sea ice.
Scientists have observed a surprising decline in penguin colonies in recent times, as krill become increasingly difficult to find.
"Everything we do has consequences," Raphael said.
"We have to educate ourselves about those consequences, especially in systems that we know relatively little about. We have to be careful not to upset the climate balance."
Global warmingGlacial meltingGreenhouse gases