Dirty Snow Responsible for Over a Third of Arctic Warming

Soot from industry in China and other industrial northern nations, and soot from forest fires, is staining Arctic snow darker, helping to cause a substantial amount of arctic warming. Other causes of arctic warming include other atmospheric particles, clouds, land use, solar variability, and possibly greenhouse gases.

The public has a difficult time mentally distinguishing soot and other atmospheric particles from CO2 and other greenhouse gases. That is unfortunate, since the distinction is extremely important when considering the future of climate, and possible human interventions to mitigate possible warming.

Such a huge impact on arctic warming should have been discovered prior to this time, and would have been, if GCM climate models actually had any credibility. The stubborn tendency of climate modelers to refuse to look at other reasons for warming suggests that many other credible causes of warming may have been suppressed in the rush to blame CO2.