There has been a lot of focus in the media/blogosphere on the climate change feedback loops associated with a warmer climate in the Arctic circle (see: one of my posts from May, an article from ScienceDaily.com from yesterday, or really just do an internet search for news articles on the subject). Everyone is very focused on melting sea ice, losing the ice on Greenland, or the release of methane from the Arctic permafrost.
However, I have seen very little reporting about the other side of the globe, so I would like to pass along an interesting article from TreeHugger: Antarctica Used to be 20 Degrees Fahrenheit Warmer, with Trees and Vegetation. While this article does not focus the effects of a warmer Antarctica on the rest of the planet, it does point out an alarming observation.
Based on an academic study of sediment core samples from below the Ross Ice Shelf, it is being estimated that "summer temperatures along the Antarctic coast 15 to 20 million years ago were 20 degrees Fahrenheit (11 degrees Celsius) warmer than today, with temperatures reaching as high as 45 degrees Fahrenheit (7 degrees Celsius). Precipitation levels also were found to be several times higher than today."
Importantly, these estimates are associated "with carbon dioxide levels of around 400 to 600 parts per million (ppm)," which are very close to global levels from 2012 (i.e. 393 ppm)! Does this mean that we can expect plants to start sprouting in Antarctica by the end of the century? What does this mean for the rest of the planet?
The full academic article is available through the journal Nature Geoscience; however to access the full text you will need a subscription the journal or will need to buy the article for $32. To find this article on your own, search for:
Feakins, S.J., S. Warny, and J. Lee (2012) Hydrologic cycling over Antarctica during the middle Miocene warming. Nature Geoscience. doi:10.1038/ngeo1498Good Luck,
Sean
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