Black Carbon, Snow Pace Glacial Melt - Dr. Tami Bond

Everybody knows that snow is white. But that's precisely the problem facing the glaciers on Greenland and in the Himalayan Plateau: the once white snow, in many places, is black. Because of the color change, it's melting much faster than it otherwise would, from the extra focus of the sun's rays. Dr. Tami Bond has received one of the MacArthur Foundation's "Genius" Grants for her research on black carbon, the microscopic agent that floats through the atmosphere and ultimately lands back on earth, sometimes settling on top of glaciers. Dr. Bond is studying ways to cut down on atmospheric black carbon. And, she says, that while it may be expensive to cut down on, "the cost of fixing an environmental problem always has to be compared to the cost of not doing anything."