Antarctica turns coal black and does so for two main reasons: the gigantic forest fires in Australia, Brazil or southern Africa and, to a lesser extent, the increasingly massive arrival of tourists to the continent. The ‘blackening’ detected in the Antarctic Peninsula would be contributing to the melting of ice in that polar region, given that it has been shown that soot intensifies solar radiation and, in addition, causes water clouds to form that also favor it.
In the same week that the member states of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) meet in Australia with the goal of expanding the protected areas of the Southern Ocean, scientists from several countries publish in Science Advance this exhaustive investigation. Their conclusion is that this polar peninsula, where scientific bases from all over the world are concentrated (including the two Spanish ones), is being increasingly affected by black carbon that comes from large fires and cruise ships, already reaching its northern area.
carbon footprint
The traces of the fires in Australia in 2003 and Brazil in 2007 can be seen in the ice blocks of Antarctica.
Researchers from a Chilean-Brazilian project measure and weigh sections of the ice core drilled in Plateau Detroit
To carry out this work, members of the Chilean-Brazilian drilling project CASA (Climate of Antarctica and South America) collected ice samples up to 20 meters deep in the frozen interior at 1,937 meters above sea level on a plateau known as Detroit. In the ice corresponding to the period between 2003-2008, they found high concentrations of soot that coincide with large fires in America, Africa and Australia and also with tourist seasons, since the first ‘boom’ of arrivals in the southern summer of 2007-2008. Today, those figures have already multiplied by three. “It is easy to verify this because Antarctica is a very pristine place, with almost no human activity, and that allows these impacts to be clearly identified,” the authors point out.
In fact, the Antarctic ice is a true diary of what happens on the continent: it preserves the carbon footprint of the megafires that occur in the southern hemisphere from September to October and traces of the arrival of cruise ships from those dates until April . For example, the fire season that broke the emissions record in Brazil in 2007 was recorded with a large ‘peak’ of soot.
“As in summer the ice melts superficially and crystallizes, in the cut we use it is possible to differentiate the seasons. Thus we saw how the smoke from large fires in Australia went around Antarctica, driven by the winds that surround it, until it reached the peninsula. It is evident that in recent years the fires are getting worse, so in future work we will see even more concentrations of soot,” explains Ricardo Jaña, from the Chilean Antarctic Institute (INACH), who participated in collecting the ice core.
Covid-19
The ice even reflects the stoppage of tourism due to the pandemic, when the carbon level dropped to the level of 2001.
Regarding tourism, using statistics from the International Association of Antarctic Tour Operators (IAATO), they also found correlations between soot and this traffic, which is concentrated in some specific places on the Antarctic Peninsula. In this sense, they mention the work in which the Spanish scientist Javier Benayas participated, which determined that each tourist in that area emits 5.4 tons of CO2 on a trip, almost one ton per day. If in 2007 there were 34,3000 tourists, in the 2022-2023 season 104,000 have already traveled, 216% more. The ice even reflects the stoppage due to COVID-19, when the carbon level dropped to the 2001 level.
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“There is undoubtedly a local impact of tourism, which the work places between 15% and 33% depending on the years. It is estimated that in a 10-day trip a person emits as much CO2 as a Spaniard here all year round. Although the most serious thing is the amount of pollution that comes from other continents, through fires. It is clear that fire and tourism are human activities that have been getting out of control in recent years and that require urgent measures to be adopted,” says Benayas, professor at the Autonomous University of Madrid and an expert in this research.
And that soot that remains on the ice is contributing to the melting of snow in the region. According to calculations, it can mean up to 150 grams of snow per square meter per day. They also relate it to the increase in thaw days on the platforms surrounding the peninsula and to the formation of clouds with more water. Jaña highlights that “with global climate warming, fires increase in intensity, extension and quantity in the southern hemisphere and, with them, the risk of accelerating the thaw, which confronts us with a moral conflict, because everything indicates the relationship between fire with deforestation; “We are mortgaging our future with our consumption.”
We have detected uranium from open pit mines in Australia that has been there for decades
Paul Mayewiski, director of the Climate Change Institute at the University of Maine, also a co-signatory and one of the most renowned ice scientists, recalls that the arrival of the smoke also depends on the wind: “It is most likely that it will only occur for a few days, but In that same place we have also detected uranium from open pit mines in Australia that has arrived there for decades.”
In the article, and in this same line, they mention that their findings highlight the importance of “evaluating the rapidly increasing impacts, both from tourist activities and fire, which is essential to make political decisions that mitigate them.” As an urgent measure for the arrival of Antarctic tourist ships, they recommend using low-sulfur fuels or biofuels, in addition to installing filters to minimize ship emissions. Benayas, for his part, remembers that a step was taken in 2008 by changing the type of fuel for cruise ships, but he also believes that “extra measures must be taken to regulate tourism,” in addition to continuing to battle large fires.
Source: www.lavanguardia.com
