Even frozen Antarctica is being walloped by
climate extremes, scientists find
Editorial Note: Antarctica’s Climate Alarm
The recent study published in Frontiers in Environmental Science paints an
alarming portrait of climate change’s impact on Antarctica. Long considered a
distant observer, this frozen continent is now bearing witness to shattered
temperature records, increased extreme weather events, and a shifting ice
landscape.
The research, led by Martin Siegert and his team, illustrates the interconnected
nature of Antarctica’s environment. From the rapid melting of the ominous
“Doomsday Glacier” to the unpredictable fluctuations in sea ice levels, the
findings underscore the urgency of addressing human-caused climate change.
Helen Fricker’s recognition of the study as a “strong signature of climate change”
serves as a poignant reminder that we are witnessing a profound shift. The
frustration expressed by Ted Scambos further highlights the need for immediate
and concerted action.
This study serves as a global call to arms. Antarctica’s fate is inextricably linked to
our planet’s future. We must heed this warning, catalyzing policy changes,
innovation, and individual responsibility. The time for action is upon us, as we
strive to protect the delicate balance of our world. – By Talukder Tetulia, Aug 8,
2023
This article was originally published on the AP News website.
(https://apnews.com/article/antarctic-ice-extreme-weather-climate-change-
d9eff33e1acc06512e4e47156745237a)
BY MELINA WALLING
Updated 12:28 AM EDT, August 8, 2023
Even frozen Antarctica is being walloped by
climate extremes, scientists find
BY MELINA WALLING
Updated 12:28 AM EDT, August 8, 2023
Even in Antarctica — one of the most remote and desolate places on Earth —
scientists say they are finding shattered temperature records and an increase in
the size and number of wacky weather events.
The southernmost continent is not isolated from the extreme weather associated
with human-caused climate change, according to a new paper in Frontiers in
Environmental Science that tries to make a coherent picture of a place that has
been a climate change oddball. Its western end and especially its peninsula have
seen dramatic ice sheet melt that threatens massive sea level rises over the next
few centuries, while the eastern side has at times gained ice. One western glacier
is melting so fast that scientists have nicknamed it the Doomsday Glacier and
there’s an international effort trying to figure out what’s happening to it. And
Antarctic sea ice veered from record high to shocking amounts far lower than
ever seen.
What follows if the trend continues, a likely result if humans fail to curb
emissions, will be a cascade of consequences from disappearing coastlines to
increased global warming hastened by dramatic losses of a major source of
sunlight-reflecting ice. That’s something scientists have long been watching and
are even more concerned about now.
“A changing Antarctica is bad news for our planet,” said Martin Siegert, a
glaciologist, professor of geosciences at University of Exeter and lead author
on the paper.
Siegert said he and his team wanted to understand more about the causes of
extreme events, and whether more of those events would happen as a result of
burning fossil fuels, so the team synthesized research on a wide range of topics
including atmosphere and weather patterns, sea ice, land ice and ice shelves and
marine and land biology. The study found climate change extremes are getting
worse in a place that once seemed slightly shielded from global warming’s
wildness. The continent “is not a static giant frozen in time,” they said, but
instead feels climate change’s wrath and extremes “sporadically and
unpredictably.”
Anna Hogg, a co-author on the paper and professor at the University of Leeds,
said that their work illustrates complex and connected changes between the ice,
ocean and air. “Once you’ve made a big change, it can then be really hard to sort
of turn that around,” she said.
And it’s a change with links to human activity. “This is indeed a strong signature of
climate change,” Helen Fricker, a professor of geophysics with the Scripps
Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego who was
not involved with the study, said in an email. “It’s not good.”
“We’ve been saying this for 30 years,” said Ted Scambos, an ice scientist at the
University of Colorado whose paper from 2000 was cited in Siegert and Hogg’s
article. “I’m not surprised, I’m disappointed. I wish we were taking action faster.”
Seth Borenstein contributed from Washington, D.C.
Follow Melina Walling on Twitter @MelinaWalling.
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