The escalating temperatures on Earth have sparked significant concern. In a concerning development, scientists stationed at the eastern edge of the Antarctic plateau, specifically at the Concordia research station, have documented a related phenomenon. On March 18, 2022, they observed the biggest temperature rise on the planet that was ever recorded at the meteorological center.
A world record temperature of 38.5 degrees centigrade was noted, which was a significant surge above its seasonal average.
The alarming temperature surge, that too in one of the coldest regions on Earth left researchers concerned amid fears of catastrophe. The science head of the British Antarctic Survey, Professor Michael Meredith found the phenomenon to be a “simply mind-boggling” affair. “If we had a 40C rise in the UK now that would take temperatures for a spring day to over 50C – and that would be deadly for the population,” he said, as quoted by The Guardian. Sharing the sentiment was the University of Exeter Professor Martin Siegert. “ It is extraordinary and a real concern,” he said to the Observer.
Scientists claim that an increasing amount of warm and humid air from lower latitudes has penetrated deep into Antarctica by poleward winds. Some reports of unsettling meteorological abnormalities throughout the continent in the last two years include the shrinking of the sea ice levels surrounding the continent which have been previously stable for almost a century. Also, the glaciers that border the west Antarctic ice sheet are losing mass to the ocean at an accelerating rate.
Concerns have been raised by these occurrences that the Antarctic, which was previously believed to be too freezing to experience the early effects of global warming, is now succumbing to the increasing amounts of greenhouse gases that humans continue to release into the atmosphere through their activities.
Given that west Antarctica's ice sheets and glaciers are continuing to recede, there is now an actual danger that some sizable sea level rises will take place in the next decades. Warming ocean water is eroding these at their bases, and they may completely collapse in a few decades. Sea levels would rise by 5 meters if they completely vanish, endangering coastal communities all around the world.
Besides the human concern, there also lies “serious ecological impacts that threaten to spread through the food chain” claims chemical oceanographer Professor Kate Hendry, based at the British Antarctic Survey.
