It’s Official: Antarctica is Warming! Surprise, Surprise …
A small group of scientists – from NASA, the University of Washington, the National Center for Atmospheric Research and a couple other prestigious meteorological universities – today released a study concluding that, yes, Antarctica is warming.
While admitting that parts of East Antarctica are actually growing colder, the study – published in Nature – concludes that West Antarctica is definitely getting warmer and that overall the continent’s temps are rising. What makes the study particularly useful is that it’s based on satellite study which provides new insight into temperature patterns across the entire continent; previously much of the information about Antarctica has been gathered only from weather stations, most of which are located close to the coastline.
“The thing you hear all the time is that Antarctica is cooling and that’s not the case,” says the report. “If anything it’s the reverse, but it’s more complex than that. Antarctica isn’t warming at the same rate everywhere, and while some areas have been cooling for a long time the evidence shows the continent as a whole is getting warmer.” A major reason parts of Antarctica are thought to be cooling is because of the hole in the ozone layer.
Having been to West Antarctica for several consecutive seasons I could have saved them a lot of time and money with my own empirical evidence. This past month we saw a six-foot ice sheet on Porquoi Pas Island disappear in 11 days. We experienced temperatures that often climbed into the 40s. And traveled through sizable bays generally chocked with broken-up pack ice this time of year completely void of ice.
It’s clear the place is changing and valuable to have the backing of hard science to support what we are seeing with our own eyes.
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