Based on last year study, despite some past evidence to the contrary, the continent of Antarctica is warming together with the rest of the planet. The study took into account satellite measurements and found that between 1957 and 2006, temperatures in Antarctica rose an average of 0.18 degrees Fahrenheit. This could be a real problem in the future because the ice sheets hold enough water to raise sea levels by 187 feet if they will melt.

“We now see warming is taking place on all seven of the earth’s continents in accord with what models predict as a response to greenhouse gases,” said Eric J. Steig, a professor of earth and space sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle, who is the lead author of a paper published in the journal Nature in 2009. Because the climate record is still short, more work needs to be done to determine how much of the warming results from natural climate swings and how much from the warming effects of carbon dioxide released by the burning of fossil fuels, Dr. Steig said.

Credit: NASA, The dark red shows the area that has warmed the most.

Source: nytimes.com

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