Even Antarctica Can't Resist Climate Change

from Nasa - a QuikScat satellite image of Antarctica taken in January 2005 shows areas of snowmelt in yellow and red.

According to a New York Times article published today, Antarctica, which has largely resisted the worldwide climate crisis known as global warming, is finally beginning to melt.

NASA has found that a large warm spell occurred over one week in 2005 and did significant damage to the continent. "Unusually warm air pushed to within 310 miles of the south pole and remained long enough to melt surface snow across a California-size expanse," wrote Times reporter Andrew Revkin. NASA detected this area with the satellite QuikScat, which uses radar to distinguish between snow and ice in areas like Antarctica and Greenland. In the past, other areas of melting have been detected in Antarctica, but not so far inland as this.

“It is vital [that] we continue monitoring this region to determine if a long-term trend may be developing,” said NASA scientist Son Nghiem.