Key Points
Black carbon consists of tiny particles generated from the incomplete combustion of fuelswhether thats Canadian trees and soils, cooking fuels like wood and charcoal, or coal..
If black carbon wafts from such wildfires in the Arctic, it darkens ice and snow, dramatically accelerating melt..
The black carbon that makes it to the Arcticwhich is already warming up to four times faster than the rest of the planetmelts more snow and ice, leading to more local warming, and more melting, and more warming, and on and on..
So the uniting factor here is fossil fuels: Decarbonizing our economy as rapidly as possible will stop emissions of greenhouse gases and black carbon, simultaneously improving public health..
By reducing global temperatures, well keep wildfires from getting even worse and jettisoning ever more black carbon into the Arctic, hastening its rapid decline..
