South Pole heats up three times faster than the rest of the earth

Contrary to popular belief, the South Pole has warmed three times faster than the rest of the planet in the past thirty years.

Researchers from New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the US analyzed sixty years of weather station data and used computer models to determine the cause of the accelerated warming.

They found that higher temperatures in the western Pacific have caused atmospheric pressure to drop above the Weddell Sea in the southern Atlantic in recent decades. This in turn led to a stronger airflow above the South Pole. The area has been warmed by 1.83 degrees since 1989.

Natural warming is likely to be amplified by human greenhouse gas emissions and may mask the warming effect of CO2 emissions above the South Pole, the most remote place on Earth.

“In the west of Antarctica and on the Antarctic Peninsula, temperatures rose during the twentieth century, but the Antarctic cooled,” says researcher at Victoria University in Wellington. “We thought this part of Antarctica was immune to global warming, but that’s no longer the case,” the study’s lead investigator told AFP news agency.

According to the data, the South Pole is heating up at 0.6 degrees per decade, compared to 0.2 degrees for the rest of the planet.

Bron(nen): Science Alert –

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