THE ANTARCTIC IS WARMING
By Al Gore
blog.algore.com
February 5, 2009

Original Link

Previously, there was some uncertainty with regard to the rate of warming in areas of Antarctica outside of the Antarctic Peninsula and west Antarctic. In fact, some claimed that East Antarctica -- the largest part of the frozen continent was actually cooling.

However, a report published last week in the peer-reviewed journal Nature by climatologists Eric J. Steig and Drew Shindell using satellite observations over the entire continent combined "with evidence from more than 100 manned and unmanned weather stations both inland and along the continent's coasts to determine climate trends for the past 50 years" came to a very clear conclusion.

The data they uncovered demonstrated that all of Antarctica -- including East Antarctica has been warming since 1957. In addition, it made clear that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is warming more extensively and rapidly than we thought.

Two new studies, one which has come out in Geophysical Research Letters in January and the other which was accepted by the journal Climate Dynamics in November 2008 reached essentially the same finding.

So it's clear now that all seven continents are manifesting the impact of the global climate crisis. As a result, our sense of urgency must increase yet again as we work to build the political will necessary to solve this rapidly worsening planetary emergency.

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