Based on analysis of satellite data, the size of the areas covered by vegetation in Antarctica has increased more than tenfold. The first images from 1986 showed less than a square kilometer of green space, and this will rise to nearly 12 square kilometers by 2021. According to the analysis, the spread of vegetation consisting mostly of mosses has been accelerating since 2016. The Guardian.
Greening was also evident in Arctic Greenland, where rain fell instead of snow for the first time in recorded history in 2021.
In Antarctica, ice cover is decreasing in parallel with greening. The warming effect caused by human activity is many times greater here than in other areas of the Earth. At the same time, the climate of the continent, considered the driest area on the planet, has become wetter.
According to British scientists, the expanding vegetation also faces the problem of attracting non-native species, putting the region's unique and fragile wildlife at risk.
A few million years ago, when atmospheric carbon dioxide levels were similar to today's levels, trees grew in Antarctica and sea levels were 20 meters higher. According to experts, the Pliocene era is an apt analogy for where we are currently headed – at that time, the maximum summer temperature in Antarctica was 5 degrees, compared to today's temperatures of between 15 below zero and 20 below zero.
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