"Antarctica will no longer act as an air conditioner but as a radiator". The warmest July in history has been recorded
Shattered temperature records and unprecedented changes in Antarctica have prompted a reconsideration in the stance of the British Foreign Office regarding the impact of climate change.
Scientists warn that there's a danger of Antarctica ceasing to function as a refrigerator for the planet and instead becoming a radiator.
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As massive icebergs, some as large as a quarter of Wales, began to break off from the ice sheet with "increasing frequency", the Foreign Office commissioned a review of forecasts.
The report confirms that more frequent and intense extreme events are occurring in Antarctica. According to one of the experts involved in drafting the document, every coastal country will feel the effects.
Martin Siegert, Polar Researcher: "The most significant heatwave, in terms of deviation from normal, occurred last year in Antarctica when temperatures were 38 degrees higher than they should have been. It happened during winter in a place where it should have been -50 degrees Celsius, but for a few days, it was only -10 degrees. Such magnitude of heatwave has never been seen before".
Antarctica is no longer isolated and protected as we knew it, and its transformations are becoming a global phenomenon, with the southern continent becoming increasingly interconnected with the rest of the planet. And if global warming isn't controlled, the fragile ecosystem of Antarctica is at risk of suffering irreversible damage.
The European institution monitoring the climate has just officially confirmed that last month was the warmest July in history, with an unusually large difference.
The average temperature for the month was 16.95 degrees, a third of a degree higher than the previous record set in 2019. Normally, temperature records are exceeded by fractions, at most a tenth of a degree.
Martin Siegert, Polar Researcher: "Antarctica's role is to keep the planet cool, with its white surface reflecting sunlight back into the atmosphere. However, if the snow and ice that reflect the sunlight are lost, they are replaced by a dark surface. Therefore, when solar energy comes to Earth, it is absorbed by that dark surface, causing warming. That's our main concern: that Antarctica will no longer act as an 'air conditioner' but as a radiator".
Specialists are adamant that reducing carbon emissions is an absolute urgency. While it won't solve the problem entirely, it could help us adapt to the new living conditions to some extent.
