During the 1970s, it was discovered that even remote parts of the Arctic were influenced by air pollution. Part of this is due to human activities at lower latitudes. There is a strong link between the regional acid deposition problem and the Arctic haze phenomenon, which was first observed in the 1950s and further studied in the mid-1970s. Within the Arctic itself, there are only a few, but significant, sources of acidifying air pollutants: the non-ferrous smelters on the Kola Peninsula and in Norilsk, which have very large emissions of sulfur in particular. Consequently, the areas of
greatest concern with respect to acidification in the Arctic are the northern areas of Finland and Norway and the regions in Russia surrounding the large smelter complexes. At the Second Ministerial Conference on the Arctic Environment, Ministers agreed to accord acidification a priority status under AMAP in a subregional context.
Notes
Book available in UAA/APU Consortium Library Alaskana Collection: TD190.5.A75 1998; and in ARLIS General Collection: TD190.5A46 1998