Climate Change in Antarctica
An Introduction to Antarctica
The land features are as follows:
- Has an area of 13,829,430km2
- Has a mountain that is 4892m tall called Mt.Vinson
- 0.32% of
- The average Winter temperature at the South Pole is -60 degrees Celsius.
- The average summer temperature at the South Pole is -27.5 degrees Celsius
- It has the record for the lowest temperature ever -89.2 degrees Celsius, and the windiest place on earth with winds reaching 248.4km/h
- Glaciers
- Deserts
- Mountains
- Plains
- Plateaus
- Valleys
- Nunataks
How has Antarctica been effected by Climate Change?
Antarctica has always been a place that has been known as the coldest place in the world, a place of ice and a place full of interesting biodiversity. And everybody has always expected it to be the same, always keeping the earth's temperature down. But what happens if the Antarctic suddenly disappears? then what happens? The truth is, this is becoming a reality as a result of global warming. Since Antarctica is such a cold place, any rises at all in temperature can have a huge effect on an area. It has been recorded that the average temperature in Antarctica has gone up by 2.5degrees celsius since the 1990s. This has caused ice fields to melt faster then they can grow back, glaciers have begun to show signs of shrinking (all around the world in fact) , it has melted away lands of ice, so that water is in its place. As a result of this, for the first time ever a polar bear has drowned from not being able to find sufficient land to rest upon. Another major thing that has happened in Antarctica is that the Larsen B iceshelf has broken away as shown:
And the terrifying truth of it is, this is only the beginning of the effects of Global warming, and if we don't stop letting off carbon dioxide and living the way we are things are only going to get more and more extreme, not just for Antarctica but for the entire world.
This graph here shows us how much our Co2 emissions have been rising with temperature
How Will This Effect the Inhabitants of Antarctica?
Antarctica has no permanent human settlers, but there are always scientists in Antarctica to study and check on everything there. So there is no-one to complain or adapt to the changing climate (apart from the scientists, because thats what they go there for). However Antarctica has a diverse range of wild life living in it, such as: Polar bears, Penguins (of all different species), whales, seals and variety of birds. At the moment global warming is only beginning to start its effects, and no animals have been forced into becoming endangered yet. But it will happen soon, because krill, a type of food for penguins and numerous other animals are being affected by the rise in temperature. This is because krill feed off algae that lives underneath the surface ice, but since the ice is breaking/melting up, the krill are starting lose their source of food. If they were ever to become extinct this would have a chain reaction effect on the entire food chain in the Antarctic.
FACT: The number of krill has declined by almost 80% since 1970
Polar bears, as mentioned before are losing pieces of land to rest upon and are now occasionally drowning because of it.
Future change to the environment
If the temperature continues to rise like it is, then the Antarctic summer ice will disappear altogether, sea ice will shrink even more, and the permafrost will begin to thaw. Krill will end up being unable to breed faster then the demand for them, and will die out, and polar bears will have to find a new habitat.These are just some of the consequences that could happen if we continue with our ways as we are now. As you see below, krill is one of the most important creatures in the Antarctic food chain therefor showing how devastating it will be if they die out. The entire landscape will eventually disappear, because almost all of Anarctica is covered in ice, and all habitats for antarctic animals will be destroyed. If this happens a huge part of the worlds unique biodiversity will be rendered extinct, or they will have to adapt very quickly.
How this effects the entire world?
Economical Effects:
If the Antarctic melts, then the global sea level will rise immensely. this means that there will be less land to live on, on top of the fact that the world is covered by over 70% with oceans. And with growing populations means the need for more houses. The price of land will sky rocket, even more then it is now and the countries will be running out of places for tourists and even their own citizens to live in. But also, this will make ship routes, and ships themselves more effective, so the boating companies could benefit greatly from this. This could also flood popular tourist attractions or certain landmarks and lose tourism for certain countries.
Political Effects
Global warming, and the Antarctic ice caps are a currently big issue in politics. As most people would know, Al Gore ex-vice president of the US has been going around flying to places around the world to get the threat of global warming across. But a lot of scientists and politicians have said all of this Global warming hype is for nothing, that our ice caps are not melting, that the temperature we have is completely normal. I believe that the truth is that politicians would prefer to focus on things they think are more important then climate change. Because they are more occupied with things like the war in Iraq, and earning more money for their country's budget. If the ice caps melted away completely in Antarctica, then people would have to believe Gore's theory and the politcal world would be thrown around, with all other current issues abandoned to try and cover up the effects of global warming, but of course by then it would be too late. And all there would be is to throw around the blame, and could lead to fighting and even maybe wars, for the blame of who has contributed most to global warming. This all my idea/ opinion on this matter so it has a high chance of being false.
Shortly put-
Short term effects : distracts politicians from other troubles in the world
Long term effects: can end up with a lot of debate and fighting with blame.
Social Effects
If the Antarctic melts then as said many times before, the global sea level will rise, this will cause societies to have to move to a more crowded place, that they cannot call their own. If the amount of water continues to expand, then it will open up new ship routes which could bring some countries closer to one another, maybe opening up more friendships. The fact that the low lying islands are being flooded, has made it so that they must move to a different country, meaning that the country will not have much room left in it, and fighting could break out, because the locals might not like having others in their country.
My Bibliography
http://www.coolantarctica.com/Antarctica%20fact%20file/science/global_warming2.htm +
http://www.coolantarctica.com/Antarctica%20fact%20file/science/global_warming.htm - for general info on
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http://www.climatehotmap.org/antarctica.html- Early warming signs that global warming is serious to the Antarctic
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http://www.livescience.com/environment/060330_warming_antarctic.html online news/science articles
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http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200508/s1429905.htm
More proof that global warming effects the Antarctic, even the news agrees.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/0203-03.htm
information on how penguins are affected by global warming
http://images.wri.org/climatescience_larsenb.jpg
Images of the Larsen B iceshelf
