Great News! The Fires in the Last few Weeks Have Slowed Global Warming

Is it possible that the smoke that we choked on for the past few weeks and the homes and lives lost were for a greater cause?  The fires actually will slow global warming?

 

According to scientists, the Arctic may cool for weeks or months at a time as smoke from northern wildfires drifts into the region, according to researchers at the

University

of

Colorado

and the

U.S.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The cooling effect was observed above the snow-free tundra and to a greater extent over the darker, ice-free ocean, according to the study which appears in the Journal of Geophysical Research.

 

The study claims that smoke in the atmosphere temporarily reduces the amount of solar radiation reaching the surface.  Robert Stone, an atmospheric scientist at the

University

of

Colorado

and lead author of the study, also said in a statement that the “transitory effect could partly offset some of the warming caused by the buildup of greenhouse gases and other pollutants.”

Warming temperatures are extending wildfire seasons, raising the threat to communities and to forest ecosystems, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said in a report last year.  Wildfires are likely to occur more often as warming increases the risk of drought and reduces the amount of winter snow that accumulates at higher elevations.

California

current wildfires forced 10,000 people to abandon their homes in the foothills of the

Sierra Nevada

earlier this month, the largest fire evacuation in the state this year. Wildfires are likely to increase in

California

, the West, Southwest and the Southeast, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said in a report last week.

 

More Proof?

 

Researchers analyzed the short-term impact of wildfires that swept through

Alaska

and western

Canada

in 2004.  That summer, fires burned a record 10,000 square miles of

Alaska

's interior and another 12,000 square miles in western

Canada

.

 

Researchers as far away as Greenland and the Svalbard archipelago north of Norway also observed that smoke was blocking more solar radiation during the 2004 summer, suggesting that the effect North American wildfires was far-reaching.  Smoke from the same fires was observed as far south as the

Gulf of Mexico

.

So, should we encourage wildfires from time to time?  Are the preservationists right to not allow better harvesting of forests?  Have we heard anything about this from Al Gore?  Too many questions…