What goes up must come down right?
But what if what goes up into our atmosphere doesn’t come down in the same place?
Hey guys thanks for watching DNews, I’m Julia
A recent viral documentary called Under the Dome shined a spotlight on China’s pollution
problem.
According to the film, last year, in beijing, 175 days were considered “polluted” where
people couldn’t even go outside the smog was so bad.
According to EU air quality standards, less than 1% of China’s population breathes clean
air daily.
It’s so bad it’s even been compared to what a nuclear winter might look like.
Smog is made of aerosols, small particles of matter emitted mostly from the burning
of fossil fuels.
In China most of the smog comes from car exhaust and coal fired power plants which blasts large
amounts of sulfur dioxide.
This reacts with water vapor and other gases in the atmosphere to create sulfate aerosols.
Once in the atmosphere these particles can have a huge impact on the climate.
In strong concentrations they can refract or scatter sunlight and even change the way
clouds form.
But China’s so far away, what has that got to do with us in America?
Well we’ve had a nasty winter the past few years.
There were Snowpocalypses and Snowmaggedons.
Boston was buried in snow for the beginning of this year.
One study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggested
that China’s pollution is to blame.
A team from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the California Institute of Technology
found that once these Aerosols enter the atmosphere but they don’t just hover above China.
They’re picked up by wind currents and move fast.
Particles moving with the atmosphere at 16.4 feet per second will travel thousands of miles
in a week.
China’s pollution can travel across the Pacific Ocean, along the way it makes clouds
bigger and wetter.
The particles give the water molecules something to cling to.
This may make more storms and make them bigger and wetter and in turn changes the polar jet
stream and then everything gets all messed up and we get worse winters.
Although not surprisingly, the researchers say they haven’t reached a final conclusion
and SAY IT WITH ME PEOPLE “More research is needed”!
But smog isn’t the only thing going into the air.
Two recent studies showed how dust from the Sahara Desert might feed the Amazon.
In the same way smog is picked up in the atmosphere, so is dust from the desert.
One study published in Remote Sensing of the Environment found that wind and weather pick
up 182 million tons of dust a year.
The dust then travels 1,600 miles across and 27.7 million tons of it falls on the Amazon.
But that dust is carrying something important, phosphorus.
A recent paper published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters found that an estimated 22,000
tons of it from the Sahara falls on the Amazon every year.
Phosphorus is a vital nutrient plants need to grow.
How crazy is that?
Something from the one of the most barren places on Earth, makes another place the most
fertile.
Like the author of the Sahara study said, "This is a small world and we're all connected
together."
Switching gears for a second, did you know we’re all connected by poop?
Yeah not really but poop transplants are a thing that could potentially save lives.
Our brand spanking new sister channel, Seeker has a whole amazing video about it, where
DNew’s own Trace went to go see how it’s done.
Check it out.