Antarctic peninsula temperatures have fallen, study shows
The Guardian, 23 Jul 2016.
Scientists said cooling of tip over past 15 years is related to wind patterns, but does not mean that global warming has stopped, says The Guardian.
Photo: Glacier in Antarctica - Wikimedia, author: Liam Quinn from Canada. Creative Commons.
The tip of the Antarctic peninsula has cooled over the past 15 years, scientists have found, but the discovery does not mean global warming has stopped.
Researchers analysed air temperature data from the area, which covers about 1% of the continent, and found it had warmed quickly from the 1920s until the late 1990s, as climate change drove up global temperatures. Since then, temperatures have fallen.
The scientists said the change is related to local changes in wind patterns, partly driven by the recovery of the ozone hole. If carbon emissions continue to rise at the current rate, they expect temperatures on the peninsula to rise by several degrees by 2100.
Prof John Turner of British Antarctic Survey (BAS), who led the study published in Nature, said: “The Antarctic peninsula climate system shows large natural variations, which can overwhelm the signals of human-induced global warming.”
Globally, June was the 14th month in a row to set a record high temperature and 2016 is expected to be the hottest year recorded, beating the previous record set in 2015.
In Antarctica, another paper published last week showed that the retreat of 90% of the Peninsula’s glaciers since 1940 is mostly due to warming of the oceans, not the air. Previous work has shown the collapse of parts of the giant Antarctic ice cap may already be unstoppable, potentially causing 4 metres of sea level rise in coming centuries.
