Rapid Greening of Antarctica: Scientists Alarmed by Climate Change Impact

[Social Media]

 

Parts of Antarctica are turning green at a much faster rate than previously thought, as the region experiences extreme heat events due to climate change. New research, based on satellite imagery, reveals a dramatic increase in vegetation across the icy continent, raising concerns about the future of this fragile landscape.

 

 

Scientists from the universities of Exeter and Hertfordshire, along with the British Antarctic Survey, analyzed vegetation levels on the Antarctic Peninsula, a mountainous region pointing toward South America. They discovered that plant life, predominantly mosses, has expanded more than tenfold over the last 40 years. In 1986, vegetation covered less than 0.4 square miles, but by 2021, it had spread to almost 5 square miles. What’s more, the rate of this greening has accelerated significantly, increasing by more than 30% between 2016 and 2021.

 

 

Thomas Roland, an environmental scientist from the University of Exeter and one of the study's authors, emphasized the far-reaching effects of human-induced climate change. “Our findings confirm that the influence of anthropogenic climate change has no limit in its reach,” Roland told CNN. “Even on the Antarctic Peninsula – this most extreme, remote and isolated ‘wilderness’ region – the landscape is changing, and these effects are visible from space.”

 

The study highlights how Antarctica, the coldest place on Earth, is no longer immune to the impacts of rising global temperatures. Recently, parts of the continent have been gripped by extreme heat events. In mid-July, temperatures soared up to 50 degrees Fahrenheit above normal, while in March 2022, some regions experienced temperatures as much as 70 degrees higher than usual, the most extreme temperature departures ever recorded in the area.

 

 

The researchers predict that as fossil fuel pollution continues to warm the planet, this greening will only accelerate. The growth of vegetation on the Antarctic Peninsula could have far-reaching consequences, including the formation of more soil, which could make the region more hospitable to invasive species. “Seeds, spores and plant fragments can readily find their way to the Antarctic Peninsula on the boots or equipment of tourists and researchers, or via more ‘traditional’ routes associated with migrating birds and the wind – and so the risk here is clear,” Roland explained.

 

 

In addition to threatening native wildlife, the spread of plant life could have another impact: reducing the continent’s ability to reflect solar radiation back into space. Darker surfaces absorb more heat, which could, in turn, further accelerate the growth of vegetation.

 

Olly Bartlett, a senior lecturer at the University of Hertfordshire and one of the study's authors, warned that this change could permanently alter the iconic landscape of Antarctica. “This iconic landscape could be changed forever,” he said.

Matthew Davey, an expert on polar plant and microbe ecology from the Scottish Association for Marine Science, who was not involved in the study, called the findings “an important progression” in understanding the spread of plant life in Antarctica.

 

He also suggested that there may be even more vegetation than what was identified in the study, as the methods used were primarily focused on detecting larger moss fields. “But we know that there are also large areas of lichens, grass, and green and red snow algae that will also contribute to the vegetation area in Antarctica,” he added.

 

Although the overall area of vegetation remains small, the rapid percentage increase demonstrates a concerning trend. The next step for scientists will be to investigate how plants colonize newly exposed land as glaciers continue to retreat across the continent. This research highlights the urgent need to understand how climate change is reshaping one of the most remote and delicate ecosystems on Earth.

 

Based on a report from CNN 2024-10-07

 

 

 

[newbee2022]

Well, the last few years you could have strawberries and apples in Greenland already.

Do you need more as evidence of climate change?

[CallumWK]

6 minutes ago, newbee2022 said:

Well, the last few years you could have strawberries and apples in Greenland already.

 

Great, so they don't have to pay import prices anymore

[newbee2022]

3 minutes ago, CallumWK said:

 

Great, so they don't have to pay import prices anymore

Well, an excellent place to live. Probably no heatwaves as we have in Thailand. 

[newbee2022]

1 hour ago, CallumWK said:

 

Great, so they don't have to pay import prices anymore

Well, as it's part of Denmark there hadn't been any taxes because it's not an import.

[koolkarl]

As per Sir Isaac Newton, the human race will go the way of the dinosaur by 2050.  I believe him.  Have a horse and cart in every driveway and the Earth will thank you and the muslims can go back to where they came from.

[Red Forever]

1 hour ago, koolkarl said:

As per Sir Isaac Newton, the human race will go the way of the dinosaur by 2050.  I believe him.  Have a horse and cart in every driveway and the Earth will thank you and the muslims can go back to where they came from.

Talking of dinosaurs your racist post flags you as one.

Hate to break this to ya but many, if not most of the Muslims in USA or Europe were born there.

You just didn't think that one through did ya?

[soalbundy]

1 hour ago, koolkarl said:

As per Sir Isaac Newton, the human race will go the way of the dinosaur by 2050.  I believe him.  Have a horse and cart in every driveway and the Earth will thank you and the muslims can go back to where they came from.

The human race has survived worse and even thrived in the ice age, perhaps in a 100 years Antarctica could be a viable place to live, the countries in the northern hemisphere will no doubt have a renaissance with improved weather conditions. Sorry about the southern regions though, many will be partially submerged if conditions worsen but there's plenty of room in Siberia, it may even be possible to grow rice there later.

[placeholder]

2 hours ago, koolkarl said:

As per Sir Isaac Newton, the human race will go the way of the dinosaur by 2050.  I believe him.  Have a horse and cart in every driveway and the Earth will thank you and the muslims can go back to where they came from.

Stop making things up. Isaac Newton never said any such thing.

[black tabby12345]

Rapid Greening of Antarctica: Scientists Alarmed by Climate Change Impact

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The only occasion the Greening of the land worries people...

[still kicking]

8 hours ago, koolkarl said:

As per Sir Isaac Newton, the human race will go the way of the dinosaur by 2050.  I believe him.  Have a horse and cart in every driveway and the Earth will thank you and the muslims can go back to where they came from.

What a racist post.

[koolkarl]

16 hours ago, Red Forever said:

Talking of dinosaurs your racist post flags you as one.

Hate to break this to ya but many, if not most of the Muslims in USA or Europe were born there.

You just didn't think that one through did ya?

Read the Koran re the future of infidels or non believers which I assume you are one. 

[koolkarl]

9 hours ago, still kicking said:

What a racist post.

Really!  Read the Koran re the future of infidels which I assume you are one. 

[JonnyF]

Great news.

 

Moss has many benefits for the environment.

 

https://www.kew.org/read-and-watch/moss#:~:text=They help to soak up,the development of new ecosystems.

 

[koolkarl]

16 hours ago, Red Forever said:

Talking of dinosaurs your racist post flags you as one.

Hate to break this to ya but many, if not most of the Muslims in USA or Europe were born there.

You just didn't think that one through did ya?

If no one burned fossil fuels, no revenue to muslims to fund terrorism everywhere.  Not racist but reality.

[impulse]

20 hours ago, newbee2022 said:

Well, the last few years you could have strawberries and apples in Greenland already.

Do you need more as evidence of climate change?

 

Are you claiming that strawberries and apples are a bad thing?

 

Meanwhile WaPo said the quiet part out loud:

 

Climate change has been going on for billions of years, long before industry.  So I hope you don't mind if I object to fraudsters asking for my money to fix the billion year old process.

 

[James105]

2 minutes ago, impulse said:

 

Are you claiming that strawberries and apples are a bad thing?

 

Meanwhile WaPo said the quiet part out loud:

 

Climate change has been going on for billions of years, long before industry.  So I hope you don't mind if I object to fraudsters asking for my money to fix the billion year old process.

 

 

There fraudsters are not asking for your money though as they are taking it regardless to enrich themselves, and as long as there are enough useful idiots who believe humans have any significant impact on the climate then they will continue to get away with it.   

 

Labour in the UK are wasting £22bn of taxpayers money on ludicrous, unproven nonsense such as "carbon capture", which aims to capture just 2.4% of the total emissions per year of the UK's emissions and bury them in the ground, and the UK are responsible for just 1% of the global emissions anyway.  They could have planted trees which have been doing this job free of charge for millions of years, but of course that would not make the rich people richer.   

[newbee2022]

52 minutes ago, impulse said:

 

Are you claiming that strawberries and apples are a bad thing?

 

Meanwhile WaPo said the quiet part out loud:

 

Climate change has been going on for billions of years, long before industry.  So I hope you don't mind if I object to fraudsters asking for my money to fix the billion year old process.

 

Yeah,....and the Earth is flat, sure😂😂😂

[placeholder]

2 hours ago, impulse said:

 

Are you claiming that strawberries and apples are a bad thing?

 

Meanwhile WaPo said the quiet part out loud:

 

Climate change has been going on for billions of years, long before industry.  So I hope you don't mind if I object to fraudsters asking for my money to fix the billion year old process.

 

And I hope you don't mind to me pointing out  ignorramuses who don't understand that the issue isn't climate change per se but the rate of change and what's causing it.

[thaibeachlovers]

On 10/7/2024 at 9:31 AM, Social Media said:

The researchers predict that as fossil fuel pollution continues to warm the planet, this greening will only accelerate.

Ah, they never fail to disappoint with their endless drum banging for man made climate change. Pity they don't have any solutions that are affordable, acceptable and possible.

[thaibeachlovers]

3 hours ago, James105 said:

They could have planted trees which have been doing this job free of charge for millions of years, but of course that would not make the rich people richer.   

Even better they could have stopped the destruction of the rain forests, that when burnt have to be releasing a lot of carbon into the atmosphere.

[JonnyF]

Surely the answer to all this is to build more wind turbines.

 

Nothing greener than that.

 

 

[impulse]

35 minutes ago, placeholder said:

And I hope you don't mind to me pointing out  ignorramuses who don't understand that the issue isn't climate change per se but the rate of change and what's causing it.

 

Looking at the WaPo data, and understanding the woefully compacted timescale reminds me of a ScAm article I read on a flight to China in the early 2000's.  Their research at the time indicated that the earth was headed into another ice age before agriculture turned that around 2500 years ago.  Seems like global warming kept us out of an ice age.

 

Looking at the WaPo graph, it's obvious that climate has changed many times before industrialization.  And blaming it on CO2 from industry is just a temporal correlation.  The very CO2 that makes modern life possible.  Otherwise, billions of us would be freezing in the dark.

 

BTW, ScAm is my new name for Scientific American, since they (for the first time in their 175 year history) came out and endorsed a candidate.  That was basement candidate Biden.  So much for their scientific powers of deduction, and their credibility.

[James105]

23 minutes ago, JonnyF said:

Surely the answer to all this is to build more wind turbines.

 

Nothing greener than that.

 

 

 

Don't forget solar panels!! Look how green these fields are:

 

 

[Lacessit]

10 minutes ago, impulse said:

 

Looking at the WaPo data, and understanding the woefully compacted timescale reminds me of a ScAm article I read on a flight to China in the early 2000's.  Their research at the time indicated that the earth was headed into another ice age before agriculture turned that around 2500 years ago.  Seems like global warming kept us out of an ice age.

 

Looking at the WaPo graph, it's obvious that climate has changed many times before industrialization.  And blaming it on CO2 from industry is just a temporal correlation.  The very CO2 that makes modern life possible.  Otherwise, billions of us would be freezing in the dark.

 

BTW, ScAm is my new name for Scientific American, since they (for the first time in their 175 year history) came out and endorsed a candidate.  That was basement candidate Biden.  So much for their scientific powers of deduction, and their credibility.

What's the point of staying silent when one of the candidates is utterly anti-science?

 

Trying to deny climate change is not the result of anthropomorphic emissions of carbon dioxide since the Industrial revolution is akin to King Canute trying to hold back the tide.

 

True, fossil fuels have given us our current standard of living. They have had their day, time to get on board with renewable energy.

 

Basic thermodynamics says as we get hotter, storms become more violent. Have a chat to Floridians who just lived through Hurricane Helene.

[impulse]

9 minutes ago, Lacessit said:

Have a chat to Floridians who just lived through Hurricane Helene.

 

They'd say about the same thing as they did in 1928.  And for hundreds of years before that.  "That's Florida weather, fer ya."

 

 

 

Edited 4 hours ago by impulse

[Lacessit]

1 hour ago, impulse said:

 

They'd say about the same thing as they did in 1928.  And for hundreds of years before that.  "That's Florida weather, fer ya."

 

 

 

Hurricane Milton is on its way, Category 5 storm. I doubt they will be saying anything but "HELP!!!!!"

[Will B Good]

 

 

The world needs MTG....she knows how to control the weather and stop this happening.

[digger70]

23 hours ago, Red Forever said:

Talking of dinosaurs your racist post flags you as one.

Hate to break this to ya but many, if not most of the Muslims in USA or Europe were born there.

You just didn't think that one through did ya?

Don't have to think  that through.  If they are born in the USA or not it doesn't matter .

It's the way that they have been Thought/Brainwashes from Birth that is what count .

That is where the Problem Lies

[digger70]

Rapid Greening of Antarctica: Scientists Alarmed by Climate Change Impact 

 

Not to worry ,  Rapid greening means that it will Cool down Quicker/Faster than before instead of 10/100000 Thousands of years  , Probable much better for the Planet Earth.