absorbing more and more heat because it’s dark,” says Prior. “So you lose the albedo effect, which is the reflectivity of the snow and the ice.”
This leads to a vicious cycle of warming. Less sea ice means more open, dark ocean which absorbs more heat and accelerates temperature rise, not just in the Arctic but worldwide.
“Some of that warming is going to be transported further south,” says Pam Pearson, director of the International Cryosphere Climate Initiative. “So, a warmer Arctic also translates into warmer mid-latitudes because of black carbon.” If the Arctic sea ice melts completely during the summer, there is going to be “so much more sea level rise and extreme weather globally,” says Pearson.
A 2021 report by the Climate Crisis Advisory Group warned that the Arctic is “ground zero” for cascading climate impacts across the planet. Rising temperatures there are leading to warmer ocean temperatures and shifts in atmospheric circulation, and are expected to weaken the jet stream, leading to more extreme weather.
THE IMPACT ON ARCTIC COMMUNITIES
“The melting of sea ice is [causing] global climate disruption, but also local, cultural disruption,” says Dumbrille. Black carbon’s impact is already being felt by indigenous communities living in the Arctic. There are serious health risks associated with exposure to black carbon. A component of fine particulate matter, black carbon has been linked to lung and heart disease and can impair cognitive and immune functions.
“Black carbon is changing our culture,” says Lisa Koperqualuk, vice president international of the Inuit Circumpolar Council. She explains that the rapid melting of ice is drastically changing the Inuit way of life by delaying harvesting seasons and making it more difficult for communities to travel. “We call the ice our highway,” she says. “We use it to travel and to go hunting on the edge of the sea ice.”
There are concerns that black carbon could contaminate the main food source for Inuit communities, seafood, according to Koperqualuk.
The Report • June 2023 • Issue 104 | 125
“The migration patterns of animals could also change [as the ocean warms] because there are some marine mammals that follow colder waters,” she says. “The Arctic is a very important area to protect and to keep as pristine as possible, not only for our culture, but for the [entire] world,” says Koperqualuk. “The Arctic is linked to the rest of the globe. So protecting it is protecting the world as well.”
THE RISE (AND FALL?) OF BLACK CARBON
Between 2015 and 2019, the Arctic saw an 85% rise in black carbon due to increased shipping traffic. “Black carbon emissions are increasing because there are more and more ships going to the Arctic. In recent years, there have been more oil tankers and bunker carriers going to the Arctic,” says Prior.
Maritime traffic grew by 25% between 2013 and 2019, while the distance covered by ships in the region increased by 75%. The increase in shipping traffic in the Arctic is “very much related to the loss of sea ice,” says Prior. The ice is also “forming later in the year and melting earlier,” she says. This means that more ships can sail for longer periods in the Arctic region. It’s leading to a “really nasty feedback loop,” says Pearson. “As you lose more sea ice, you get more ships, more emissions, [and] less sea ice.”
There is an easy way to rapidly cut black carbon emissions, according to environmental groups. If all ships using heavy fuel oil were to switch to a cleaner distillate fuel (similar to diesel) there would be an immediate reduction of around 44% in black carbon emissions from these ships, according to the Clean Arctic Alliance. If all ships also installed diesel particulate filters, which capture soot, black carbon could be reduced by over 90%.
BLACK CARBON COULD RAPIDLY DISAPPEAR FROM THE ATMOSPHERE IF REGULATIONS WERE INTRODUCED
can remain in the atmosphere for 300 to 1,000 years. This means that black carbon could rapidly disappear from the atmosphere if regulations were introduced. “Black carbon could be resolved very quickly, which is why we call it the ‘low hanging fruit’,” says Prior. “Whereas with carbon dioxide you’ve got a very potent warming gas that is staying in the atmosphere for hundreds of years.”
Black carbon is a short-lived climate pollutant with a lifespan of just a few days or weeks, whereas CO2
If the European Union required ships sailing in the Arctic to switch from bunker fuels to cleaner distillate fuels, it would reduce their black carbon emissions in Arctic waters by 50–80%, according to analysis by the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT). Technically, it is easy for ships to make the switch. “It’s seen as an overnight solution, because ship engines can run, and already do run, on both heavy bunker fuel and lighter distillate fuel,” says Dumbrille.
“Most engines can just switch between the fuels. In fact, they often do already,” says Prior. “Ships often use the lighter diesel fuels in the coastal waters, and then switch over to the heavy fuels when they’re offshore.”
But uptake of distillate fuels is lagging due to cost. They are more expensive due to higher demand (especially from road vehicles) and because they require more refining, says Dumbrille.
“It’s about twice as expensive to use the cleaner fuel,” says Bryan Comer, who leads the marine programme at the ICCT.
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