Yes, personally I’m terrified of the thought the South Pole might warm from -80°C to -60°C or even -50C. What can I do? Who can I telephone?
A century ago, the South Pole was one of Earth’s last frontiers, but now the Antarctic is under threat from human activity.
Led by Monash University’s Professor Steven Chown, a multidisciplinary team of experts from around the globe has set out the current and future conservation challenges facing the Antarctic in a Policy Forum article published today in Science.
The team analysed the effectiveness of the existing Antarctic Treaty System for protecting the region, one of the world’s largest commons, from the threats of climate change and, as technology improves, increasing prospects of use of the Antarctic’s natural resources.
Using a horizon scanning approach, the team determined that the major short-term threats included climate change impacts on marine systems, marine resource use, ocean acidification, invasive alien species, pollution, habitat alteration, and regulatory challenges within the Treaty system.
Professor Chown, incoming Head of Biological Sciences at Monash said the impacts of climate change were particularly worrying.
Whatever happened to Al Gore and his band of idiots that were going to show the world that Antarctica was melting? Where’s the report?
Antarctica: vulnerable. Another “fragile” ecosystem.
Not.
4.5 million square miles of ice, and it’s “vulnerable.”
At first I thought it said “Professor Clown”. That would have been appropriate had it been true.