Grass Now Growing In Antarctica - Times of London

"Grass has become established in Antarctica for the first time, showing the continent is warming to temperatures unseen for 10,000 years. Scientists have reported that broad areas of grass are now forming turf where there were once ice-sheets and glaciers.

Tufts have previously grown on patches of Antarctica in summer, but the scientists have now observed bigger areas surviving winter and spreading in the summer months. Some fear the change portends a much wider melting of the ice-cap that formed at least 20m years ago. Pete Convey, an ecologist conducting research with the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), said: “Grass has taken a grip. There are very rapid changes going on in the Antarctic’s climate, allowing grass to colonise areas that would once have been far too cold.”

Convey said many species of wildlife were at serious risk from such rapid change including penguins, seals, cold-water fish and giant sea spiders. The findings come at a politically sensitive time with Europe and America clashing over the latter’s refusal to sign up to the Kyoto treaty to limit greenhouse gas emissions. The confrontation may worsen with Tony Blair saying he is determined to push the issue up the international agenda when Britain assumes the presidencies of the European Union and the G8 countries next year.

The latest research was carried out on the Antarctic peninsula, which juts northwards towards Cape Horn, and the islands around it. More strongly influenced by changes in sea and air temperatures than the rest of Antarctica, these areas are an excellent place to measure effects of climate change. Measurements over the past three decades show these are among the fastest-warming places on earth, with winter temperatures already 5C higher than in 1974. Many glaciers and ice-sheets are melting. Convey said Antarctic hair grass and another species called pearlwort were the only complex plants capable of surviving on the Antarctic mainland. He said: “In the past they were at the limit of their range. They used to appear sporadically with one or a few plants growing in sheltered north-facing areas where birds or the wind dropped the seeds but they never did very well. “What we are seeing now is dense swards or lawns forming and both plants growing much further south than ever before. It is quite remarkable.”"

EDIT

I don't really have too much to add . . .

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1415627,00.html

It should be a lush golf resort/condo town by then, and you'll make millions off the Bushes and Chaneys who will live there while the rest of us drift perpetually on rafts. :eyes:

what the h*ll is going on??? I knew the environment was getting worse, but it´s all going so damn fast :s

how long before the oceans rise significantly from the melting icecap?

---Would he call you a liar?
---Would he believe it but suppress it in his mind?
---Would he defend Bush's Kyoto policy?
---Would he reach for a bottle of something?

are you some tree huggin, libby, commie, pinko, feminazi or sumpin? Hey...you better grow a brain where the sun don't shine our you will be on the outside lookin in baby!!!

you must be listening to revrund JACK . . . . . znnnnnn.

"giant sea spiders"

:scared: :scared: :scared: