(Invited Speaker) Dark Aerosol Particle Contributions to Global Warming and Air Pollution Mortality

Air pollution mortality and global warming are two significant problems today. Over 2.5 million people die prematurely each year worldwide from air pollution, and such pollution is enhanced by carbon dioxide domes over cities. Nine out of the 10 warmest years on record since 1850 were during 2000-2009. The Arctic sea ice extent has dropped 10% (1 million square kilometers) since 1979. Sea levels have risen 1.8 mm/year for the past century but 2.8 mm/year from 1993-2003. In this talk, I provide new results examining the relative contributors to global warming and air pollution health problems. In particular, fossil-fuel and solid biofuel soot particles are found to be the second-leading cause of global warming after carbon dioxide. Whereas fossil-fuel soot is a stronger warmer than biofuel soot, biofuel soot enhances mortality about 8 times more on a global scale, since it is emitted mostly in highly-populated developing countries. Controlling fossil-fuel and biofuel soot is probably the fastest method of reducing Arctic ice loss and global warming than any other control option, including control of CH4 or CO2, although all controls are needed.