Soot pollution is accelerating climate-driven melting in Antarctica, a new study suggests, raising questions about how to protect the delicate continent from the increasing number of humans who want to visit.
Researchers estimate that soot, or black carbon, pollution in the most popular and accessible part of Antarctica is causing
an extra inch of snowpack shrinkage every year.
Black carbon is the leftover junk from burning plants or fossil fuels.
Soot in Antarctica comes primarily from the exhaust of cruise ships, vehicles, airplanes and electrical generators, although some pollution travels on the wind from other parts of the globe.
Cruise ships and vehicles be electric, for example, or limiting the number of visitors each year.
Click here to see information we have gathered about snow in Antartica.
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NPR