{"id":347258,"date":"2024-10-18T17:56:18","date_gmt":"2024-10-18T15:56:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=347258"},"modified":"2024-10-18T17:56:20","modified_gmt":"2024-10-18T15:56:20","slug":"its-an-emergency-green-plants-spreading-at-alarming-rate-in-antarctica","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=347258","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s an emergency! Green plants spreading at alarming rate in Antarctica"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From JoNova <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Jo Nova<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lesson #457 in how to lie with science<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

File this lesson away in the Decline and Fall of Enlightenment Science. Nature<\/em>, formerly known as the esteemed science journal, is now achieving everything a captured tabloid industry sales mag could hope for.  They\u2019ve squeezed a disaster out of a tiny change in a short record<\/a>, and from a good news story. Let\u2019s not forget, for the last 100,000 years most humans would have been happy that a bit of Antarctica was greening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLush\u201d? The only people who call this lush are penguins:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Believe it or not, this lush landscape is Antarctica (nature.com)<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

To appreciate the Black Belt level of naked exaggeration going on here, consider the opening hyperbole:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A fast-warming region of Antarctica<\/a> is getting greener with shocking<\/strong> speed. Satellite imagery of the region reveals that the area covered by plants increased by almost 14 times over 35 years<\/strong> \u2014 a trend that will spur rapid change of Antarctic ecosystems<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the beginning of dramatic transformation<\/strong>,\u201d says Olly Bartlett, a remote-sensing specialist at the University of Hertfordshire in Hatfield, UK, and an author of the study1<\/a><\/sup>, published today in Nature Geoscience<\/em>, that reports these results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All this shock and drama arise from an area of  \u201cless than a square kilometer\u201d expanding all the way up to \u201cnearly 12 square kilometers\u201d. These numbers \u201cshocked us\u201d say the PR team, I mean, the scientists, who continue on in their best Agony-Aunt impression: \u201cIt\u2019s simply that rate of change in an extremely isolated, extremely vulnerable area that causes the alarm.\u201d<\/em> Sob sob, and Boo hoo too. It\u2019s a lonely peninsula. Can we find it a friend?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everything about this shows the pathetic decay of Western Science. We\u2019re talking about 12 square kilometers of more habitable land on a continent with 14 million square kilometers of ice. The horrible affliction of unexpected tundra now covers 0.00009% of Antarctica.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It could get worse, the mosses might make \u2026 soil:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The research is \u201creally important\u201d, says Jasmine Lee, a conservation scientist at the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge, UK. Other studies2<\/a><\/sup>,<\/sup>3<\/a><\/sup> have found evidence that vegetation on the peninsula is changing in response to climate change, \u201cbut this is the first study that\u2019s taken a huge-scale approach to look at the entire region\u201d, she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Previous visits to the peninsula led the authors to think that most of the vegetation is moss. As mosses spread to previously ice-covered landscapes, they will build up a layer of soil, offering a habitat for other plant life, Roland says. \u201cThere\u2019s a huge potential here to see a further increase in the amount of non-native, potentially invasive species,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is, of course, due to climate change:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The researchers point to climate change as the driver of the landscape\u2019s shift from white to green. Temperatures on the peninsula have risen by almost 3 \u00b0C since 1950, which is a much bigger increase than observed across most parts of the planet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nobody mention the 91 volcanoes they discovered there<\/a>  seven years ago which line up with the warmest parts of Antarctica. We sit on a ball of lava, and there is an edge of crustal plate under there. But really, it\u2019s more likely the warming is caused by your Ford fiesta and those beef kebabs\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

File this lesson away in the Decline and Fall of Enlightenment Science.\u00a0Nature, formerly known as the esteemed science journal, is now achieving everything a captured tabloid industry sales mag could hope for.\u00a0 They\u2019ve\u00a0squeezed a disaster out of a tiny change in a short record, and from a good news story. Let\u2019s not forget, for the last 100,000 years most humans would have been happy that a bit of Antarctica was greening.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":347266,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691818326,691831000,691818448],"class_list":["post-347258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-antarctica","tag-greener","tag-volcanoes","fallback-thumbnail"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/0Screenshot-2024-10-18-175300.png?fit=1122%2C750&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1skW","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":269628,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=269628","url_meta":{"origin":347258,"position":0},"title":"Antarctica Heat Hype","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"07\/26\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Much has been written in the\u00a0tabloids, and repeated by the fashionable, about it being very hot through June \u2013 even in Antarctica. Really, I wondered.\u00a0Is Antarctica melting?","rel":"","context":"In \"Antarctica\"","block_context":{"text":"Antarctica","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=antarctica"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/image-805.png?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/image-805.png?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/image-805.png?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/image-805.png?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":361503,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=361503","url_meta":{"origin":347258,"position":1},"title":"Massive Recovery in Antarctica Sea Ice Unreported by Net Zero-Obsessed Mainstream Media","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"01\/11\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Remember all that alarmist guff about Antarctica sea ice recording lower levels in winter a couple of years ago? Georgina Rannard of the BBC wrote a story headed \u2018Antarctic sea ice at \u201cmind-blowing\u201d low alarms experts\u2018, while Clive Cookson at the\u00a0Financial Times\u00a0gave us his suggestion that the area \u201cfaces a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Antarctica\"","block_context":{"text":"Antarctica","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=antarctica"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/0Screenshot-2025-01-09-190028.jpeg?fit=1200%2C654&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/0Screenshot-2025-01-09-190028.jpeg?fit=1200%2C654&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/0Screenshot-2025-01-09-190028.jpeg?fit=1200%2C654&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/0Screenshot-2025-01-09-190028.jpeg?fit=1200%2C654&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/0Screenshot-2025-01-09-190028.jpeg?fit=1200%2C654&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":351440,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=351440","url_meta":{"origin":347258,"position":2},"title":"Antarctica Sea Ice Has \u201cSlowly Increased\u201d Since 1979, Science Paper Finds","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"11\/17\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Sea ice around Antarctica has \u201cslowly increased\u201d since the start of continuous satellite recordings in 1979 with any changes caused by natural climate variation. In a paper published earlier this year, four environmental scientists further state that any sign that humans are responsible for any change is \u201cinconclusive\u201d. Not of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Antarctica\"","block_context":{"text":"Antarctica","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=antarctica"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/0arctic-circle.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/0arctic-circle.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/0arctic-circle.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/0arctic-circle.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/0arctic-circle.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":377271,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=377271","url_meta":{"origin":347258,"position":3},"title":"Antarctica\u2019s Ice Sheet Stages a Remarkable Comeback","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"05\/06\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"A groundbreaking study published in\u00a0Science China Earth Sciences\u00a0has unveiled a stunning reversal in the fortunes of the Antarctic Ice Sheet (AIS), which gained mass at an unprecedented rate between 2021 and 2023. 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