BBC News School Report @ LCS

The loss of arctic sea ice has been linked to the air pollution that plagued eastern China for nearly a month in 2013.

The melting ice and increase in snowfall changed wind patterns, causing the cloud of pollution to last for an extremely long time, a study says.

Scientists fear that this will most likely reoccur if global warming continues to eat away at the arctic ice. Some say that the Beijing Winter Olympics, set for 2022, could be vulnerable.

China has experienced air quality problems before, but never anything that lasted as long as the pollution in January 2013.

The haze posed a serious threat to health as approximately 70% of China exceeded the daily air quality standard.

The event puzzled many scientists, as Chinese government worked to reduce pollution by curbing emissions from coal fired power plants.

Ventilation conditions over the past 35 years were investigated by the research team, and the results showed that the poor conditions in 2013 was unique.

Deeper research as to what caused this strange airpocolypse lead to global warming and arctic sea ice loss. "Had the Chinese government not reduced emissions as much as they did in the last four years we would have seen the same or worse airpocalypse events," said Professor Wang. While the Chinese are helping reduce the ice loss, to conquer it will take a worldwide effort.