As if to underline the environmental message of David Cameron's visit to an Arctic glacier last month, Norwegian scientists have now discovered European smog just a few miles from where he staged his photo op, writes David Fickling.
Scientists at the Alfred Wegener Institute on Svalbard recorded pollution levels that would put a British city centre to shame at their weather centre in the tiny settlement of Ny Alesund.
Their instruments recorded levels of PM10 aerosols that are equivalent to standing next to the Marylebone Road in central London, and high enough to exceed European Union air quality directives.
Ozone was recorded at 160 micrograms per cubic metre, a level considered moderate-to-high on the UK's pollution index and almost twice as high as Aberdeen, which had the UK's worst ozone levels at time of writing.
A vivid illustration of the pollution is provided by two photographs published by the Institute, showing Svalbard before and after the smog blew in.
Svalbard is traditionally seen as one of the most unpolluted inhabited places on earth. The nearest major city, St Petersburg, is more than 1,300 miles to the south across the Arctic Ocean.
The Institute's Dr Andreas Herber blamed an unusual weather system dumping eastern European pollution within the Arctic circle, and said that a temperature spike could be expected.
"The present air pollution is more than 2.5-fold higher than values measured in spring 2000. As a result, we expect significantly increased warming," he said.
But he added that further data would be needed to know whether this incident is an anomaly or the start of a long-term trend.
