this post was submitted on 06 Oct 2023
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[–] [email protected] 149 points 10 months ago (3 children)

I wanted to learn more so i went looking for an article. Heres a pretty good write up. https://www.sciencealert.com/flowers-are-spreading-in-antarctica-as-summer-temperatures-soar

TLDR: Lots of flowering plants, moss and algae spreading. In March, temperatures near the south pole reached 39 °C above normal for three days in a row, hitting a peak of -10 °C (14 °F). Warm enough for researchers to walk around in shorts and shirtless....In Antarctica. Yeah were fucked.

[–] [email protected] 74 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I find it hilarious that they're like "It's 14F! Break out the shorts and T-shirts!" Meanwhile anyone anywhere else (except the Arctic regions) is like "This is pretty fucking cold".

[–] [email protected] 61 points 10 months ago (8 children)

It likely feels warmer. Antarctica is almost entirely desert. The "dry heat" argument works for cold, too.

I've been outside in a t-shirt and jeans in northern Greenland (also polar desert) when it was below freezing and was completely comfortable. I could have hung around out there all day if the day wasn't four months long. I like the cold and I've got extra mass to keep me warm, though.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I suspect the sunshine bouncing off all the snow helps too

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

Maybe at the south pole. There's little to no snow around where I was in northern Greenland. It gets above freezing up there during the summer and it almost never snows, so what accumulation you do get is actually from snow being blown off the ice cap rather than down from the sky. So it takes a while to build back up in the winter.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Yeah I know what you mean. I'm from the North East US and it gets pretty damn humid here (somehow it's been more humid than places with a tropical climate like Miami, Florida), which extends into the winter. The high humidity, combined with low temperatures (0-35F, not including wind chill) and moderate winds means a damn cold winter.

I was out in Denver, Colorado a few years ago during the late fall, early winter. They had a freak snowstorm which dropped their temperature from like 65F to 25F over night. I didn't know what to bring so I brought all my winter gear. I got there and was like "This is nothing!" because the humidity was low. I was outside in jeans and a heavy/double lined hoodie and was fine. Normally in NYC I'd be wearing an Arctic level jacket due to the wind and humidity.

My buddy was in the army and stationed in Fairbanks, Alaska. After being there for a year he came home for Christmas and showed up at my house in shorts, sandals, and a hoodie. It was like 30F, he said it felt like summer to him 😂

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 10 months ago

I had hoped you just missed a decimal point but it seems you did not.

I've lived on the coast of Australia most of my life, but I moved a good couple of hundred kilometres inland last year. I'm really looking forward to having waterfront property again pretty soon.

Hell, it's already too hot for human habitation here most of the year. I might as well enjoy the view before I croak.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Damn researchers walking around in shirts at -10°C??

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[–] [email protected] 104 points 10 months ago (1 children)

A reminder for context: it's not summer yet in Antarctica. Summer doesn't start until December. It's still supposed to be cold.

[–] [email protected] 45 points 10 months ago (1 children)

instead of adding ice this winter, they lost ice. during antarctic winter.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 10 months ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 90 points 10 months ago (7 children)

so what are you fellas gonna do after the water wars?

[–] [email protected] 41 points 10 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 16 points 10 months ago

raiders can have a little pillage as a treat

[–] [email protected] 36 points 10 months ago (4 children)

After???? Are you all planning on surviving the after wars? I’ll probably be taken out by a rusty nail after medical breaks down.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I’d be dead pretty quick without insulin assuming adhd doesn’t kill me first

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Right? My RA won't kill me without meds, but I'll wish it would. Now my regular infections and allergic reaction on the other hand...

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

My migraine won't kill me either, but being completely knocked out every five or so days isn't going to do me much good either.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 10 months ago

There's people who see the world all lowering birth rates and predicting a heavily geriatric global population in 50 years time, and who are already starting the "live life, suicide by 60" death cult mentality. The water wars would just kill even more young people, so I'm afraid this death cult thing is going to be more fact than fiction.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I guess I need to stop being scared to get my bad teeth pulled.

Might have to do it the old fashioned way if I don’t do it now, that is if I survive it.

My god I’m miserable. What kind of coward is more frightened of dentists than this hell?

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago

As someone with t1, I’d just die in 3-4 days without medication. It’s like a handy auto-self destruct.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 10 months ago (1 children)

After? Probably still be corpsing. I just hope I can take some rich fucks with me before I go.

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[–] [email protected] 29 points 10 months ago

Time to start canning the dryland.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 10 months ago

Probably going to be dead after few days of war starting.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago

Dunno, but im going to start collecting books

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago

I plan to volunteer with a corporation in the bio wars after that!

[–] [email protected] 48 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Fuck yeah let's go heat death

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[–] candyman337 40 points 10 months ago (1 children)

That's not entirely our fault, it is of course in part because of global warming, but there was a volcano that erupted that punched a hole in the ozone layer above Antarctica

[–] [email protected] 33 points 10 months ago (1 children)

The hole in the ozone layer is more our fault than the volcano's. The volcano was what disturbed the ozone layer (it's pretty high up there,) but the reason that the hole didn't naturally close is that we were using CFCs in aerosol cans, and those were destroying so much ozone that the hole stuck around for 25 years and gave penguins cancer. It's literally the only major change we have made in regards to climate change, and it worked! The hole is now almost closed. Moral of the story: you want any real action on climate change? Take UV lamps and give penguins skin cancer. Then the dumb apes will pay attention

[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago (1 children)

This gave me a horrible visual of someone holding a penguin and a UV Lamp threatening oil execs in a boardroom

[–] funkless_eck 7 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

you could bludgeon a penguin, a puppy, a kitten, a child to death with a dildo every day in the board room and oil execs would end up cheering if they could make an extra dollar out of it.

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 10 months ago (2 children)

What flowers? New species or one that crossed the ocean?

[–] [email protected] 57 points 10 months ago (1 children)

https://www.sciencealert.com/striking-expansion-of-two-antarctic-flowering-plants-is-a-climate-warning

From the article:

Flowering plants in the Antarctic region are rapidly expanding, scientists say, indicating the continuing effects of climate change on the continent. The findings suggest we may have reached a tipping point in this fragile, remote ecosystem.

A new study of this plant expansion looked at the two flowering plants native to Antarctica, Deschampsia antarctica and Colobanthus quitensis. Researchers measured the growth and expansion of these plants on a small subantarctic island called Signy Island from 2009 to 2019.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Ok just wondering if it was some long frozen plantlife that just thawed out recently.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 10 months ago

Nah just two full months earlier than it should have happened

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Some seeds are carried place to place on the winds. They probably came from Australia or southern Chile or Argentina or some such place.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 10 months ago (1 children)

They've been doing that for a decade

[–] [email protected] 14 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Yeah pretty sure flowers would have already had to have been there to be blooming. Not a lot of birds migrating to Antarctica spreading seeds.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

What about African swallows?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago

Well, I think in this instance, European swallows seen more likely given the distance, but either way, we'd probably need to consider them laden swallows for the purpose of our calculations...

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago

That made me curious and it looks like yes, birds do migrate there: https://polar-latitudes.com/wildlife/migratory-birds/

[–] [email protected] 20 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Important notice: Fossil fuel companies have shifted the narrive they push from "climate change isn't real" to "climate change is real but there's nothing we can do about it". We can absolutely do something about it: fight it like the existential threat that it is. Whatever power you can levy in life whether at home, at work, at the voting booth, with your investments, or in the streets: use it.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

This is literal fake news. Climate change is certainly a thing. Flowers blooming in Antarctica currently is not. Careful about spreading lies if we clothe the truth(climate change) in lies dumb people will think its all lies.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2023/10/07/false-claim-photo-shows-flowers-blooming-in-antarctica-fact-check/71067338007/

[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago

This is literal fake news. Climate change is certainly a thing. Flowers blooming in Antarctica currently is not.

Uhm, your own source says differently though?

While a 2022 study did find a global warming-related expansion in the range of two Antarctic flowering plants, the photo does not show those plant species.

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