Anomalocaris Posted February 17, 2015 #1 Share Posted February 17, 2015 (edited) A forest fire may not sound like a great way to cool off, but Earth's climate is a complicated beast. It turns out that some of the world's fiercest blazes are actually lowering our planet's temperatures. In a paper which appears in Nature Geoscience this month, a group of ecologists demonstrated that these fires scorching Earth's northernmost forests can, paradoxically, have a chilling effect on our climate. A smoldering blaze kicks up plumes of heat-trapping soot, which eventually settle back to the ground, hastening snowmelt. Combustion also releases carbon dioxide, our planet's most important heat-trapping greenhouse gas. These effects, like the heat from the blaze itself, tend to warm the planet up. http://www.nature.com/ngeo/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/ngeo2352.html But as wildfires eat through forests, they also expose the ground, and in the far north, that means uncovering snow and ice. The dark, leafy landscape becomes a bright, reflective one. In climate science lingo, reflectivity is called albedo, and it's a critically important factor for determining how much of the sun's energy our planet absorbs. By increasing a landscape's albedo, fires can reflect more of the sun's radiation back to space and cool the climate. https://www.climate.gov/climate-and-energy-topics/albedo Edited February 17, 2015 by Anomalocaris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bubblykiss Posted February 17, 2015 #2 Share Posted February 17, 2015 So smoke cools the earth. I'mma gonna tell that I smoke to save the planet to the next whiny person who complains at me while I am enjoying a healthy death stick of menthol flavored joy. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Von Bismarck Posted February 17, 2015 #3 Share Posted February 17, 2015 There are far way more downsides to deforestation than upsides. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashotep Posted February 19, 2015 #4 Share Posted February 19, 2015 (edited) Maybe this is why it was so cold here this morning, -23F, it doesn't usually get that cold here. I'm freezing to death. Edited February 19, 2015 by Ashotep Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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