On Thin Ice : How Cutting Pollution Can Slow Warming and Save Lives

• Main Authors: World Bank, International Cryosphere Climate Initiative
• Language: English
• Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2013
• Subjects: ACIDIFICATION; AERATION; AEROSOL ABSORPTION; AEROSOL OPTICAL DEPTH; AEROSOLS; AIR; AIR POLLUTANTS; AIR POLLUTION; AIR QUALITY; AIR TEMPERATURES; ALBEDO; ALTITUDE; ANAEROBIC DIGESTION; ANTARCTICA; ANTHROPOGENIC CLIMATE CHANGE; ANTHROPOGENIC EMISSIONS; ARCTIC CLIMATE; ARCTIC CLIMATE CHANGE; ARCTIC CLIMATE IMPACT ASSESSMENT; ARCTIC GLACIERS; ARCTIC OCEAN; ARCTIC TEMPERATURES; ASSESSMENT OF CLIMATE CHANGE; ATMOSPHERE; ATMOSPHERIC BROWN CLOUD; ATMOSPHERIC CARBON; ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY; ATMOSPHERIC CIRCULATION; BARRIERS; BASIN; BENEFITS; BIOGAS; BIOMASS; BIOMASS BURNING; BIOSPHERE; BLACK CARBON; BLACK CARBON EMISSIONS; BOILERS; CALCIUM; CALCULATION; CALIBRATION; CAPACITY; CARBON DIOXIDE; CARBON DIOXIDE GAS; CARBON FLUX; CARBON FLUXES; CARBON REDUCTIONS; CARBON SOURCES; CARBON STORES; CELLULOSE; albedo; Antarc*; Antarctic; Antarctic Peninsula; Antarctica; Arctic Climate Impact Assessment; Arctic; Arctic Ocean; black carbon; Climate change
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10986/16628; http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2013/10/18496924/thin-ice-cutting-pollution-can-slow-warming-save-lives-vol-1-2-main-report

Climate change is happening faster and in a dramatically more visible way in the Earth's cryosphere than anywhere else on earth. Cryosphere is defined as elements of the Earth system containing water in its frozen state. The average temperature has risen here at over twice the global mean in the Arctic, Antarctic Peninsula, and much of the Himalayas and other mountain regions. This report summarizes the changes already being observed in the following five major cryosphere regions: the Andes, Antarctica, Arctic, East African Highlands, and the Himalayas. It then provides a science-based assessment of the impact of addressing methane and black carbon to reduce the risk to the global environment and human societies, especially for the most vulnerable populations. Chapter 2 provides a comprehensive assessment of the changes occurring in these five regions, based on the most recent literature, including the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2013). Chapter 3 describes the pollution and climate nexus and the evolving knowledge of how methane and black carbon impact climate specifically in cryosphere regions. Chapter 4 presents the background and methods used for new modeling work conducted as part of this study, building extensively the United Nations Environment Programme/World Meteorological Organization Integrated Assessment of Black Carbon and Ozone (2010). Chapter 5 presents the results of the new modeling in these five major cryosphere regions as well as globally for health, crop impacts, and climate. Finally, Chapter 6 discusses the implications and new directions for the cryosphere regions emerging from these modeling results. El cambio climático está teniendo un impacto desproporcionado en áreas de nieve y hielo conocidas como la criosfera, con graves implicaciones para el desarrollo humano y el medio ambiente en todo el mundo. Este informe ofrece una visión de conjunto de los motivos por los que resulta crucial ralentizar la velocidad del cambio en la criosfera. ...