Melting ice in the Arctic leads to air pollution in China

The enormous air pollution in major Chinese cities could be related to arctic melting sea ice. This surprising link between global warming and air pollution is the result of a study, that has now been published in Science Advances.

Air pollution is nothing new in China’s big cities. However, the haze was particularly bad in January 2013, where the limit values were exceeded in almost all major Chinese cities for four weeks.

Melting sea ice in the Arctic and persistent snowfall over Siberia led to a change in air circulation at the end of 2012. The cold air masses moved towards east to Korea and Japan, while in eastern China the air was not moving at all. In Winter there are usually strong winds in regions such as Beijing.

The scientists are sure that melting ice and heavy snowfall have at least intensified the haze. They suspect that similar events will happen in the future and that the Olympic Winter Games in 2022 could also be affected.

Foto: Erhard Stenz, Creative Commons

Quellen: Malaysian Digest, Science Advances