Blog 6: An Upside to China’s Air Pollution: More Snowfall in the Sierra Nevada

This year in California’s Sierra Nevada mountain range, the annul precipitation levels were expected to decline. However, there was a slight climate change and a snowstorm delights the travelers. Researchers from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the University of California, San Diego, have discovered that dust storms in Asia could help douse the Sierras with snow, bolstering California’s economy and rejuvenating its environment. This is important because in the spring and summer snowmelts in the Sierras provide fresh water for 25 million people, for wildlife and millions of acres of farmland, as well as for hydropower that meets up to 15 percent of the state’s electricity needs. Industrial pollution and heavy metals flow freely from Asia to California. Research suggests that as much as one-third of the airborne lead in the San Francisco Bay Area wafted over from Asia. This “research” has been going on since 2009 and is supposed help out future forecasting of weather.

 Although this is great for America’s economy and the environment, you would have to wonder whether that is alright to have it at all. Why is it considered a good thing for a relatively bad environment in another country to bring much fortune to ours? How should we go about making sure that this does not happen again, or do we want this event to happen again? Should we be celebrating snowfall from pollution? I also would like to see the evidence that these two incidences are related and how much it has been studied. Who are these "scientists" doing the research?

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/17/science/earth/chinas-air-pollution-brings-snowfall-to-sierra-nevada.html?_r=2