background preloader


Facebook Twitter

Climate change is turning Antarctica green, say researchers. Antarctica may conjure up an image of a pristine white landscape, but researchers say climate change is turning the continent green.

Climate change is turning Antarctica green, say researchers

Scientists studying banks of moss in Antarctica have found that the quantity of moss, and the rate of plant growth, has shot up in the past 50 years, suggesting the continent may have a verdant future. “Antarctica is not going to become entirely green, but it will become more green than it currently is,” said Matt Amesbury, co-author of the research from the University of Exeter. “This is linking into other processes that are happening on the Antarctic Peninsula at the moment, particularly things like glacier retreat which are freeing up new areas of ice-free land – and the mosses particularly are very effective colonisers of those new areas,” he added.

In the second half of the 20th century, the Antarctic Peninsula experienced rapid temperature increases, warming by about half a degree per decade. Topher White: What can save the rainforest? Your used cell phone. Should tourists be banned from Antarctica? This season around 37,000 tourists are expected to visit Antarctica - home to about 20 million pairs of breeding penguins.

Should tourists be banned from Antarctica?

But is it ethically acceptable to go on holiday to such a pristine environment? Enfolded in two glacial arms the bay before us sparkles ultramarine, the water flecked with ice-lilies and dotted with bits of floating icebergs. A sheer cliff towers dark above us, flanked by snow slopes as pure white as the glistening fronts of the little Adelie penguins whose spectacled eyes peer curiously around as they waddle and toboggan about their business just a few feet away. This is Brown Bluff on the Antarctic Peninsula and togged up in layer upon layer of fleece, topped with vivid red wetskins I am all too aware that this is not my habitat. Which begs the question: Should I be here? Nonetheless, he argues, carefully controlled tourism is not just OK but useful.

Not everyone is convinced the benefits outweigh the risks but most are pragmatic. Belo Monte, Brazil: The tribes living in the shadow of a megadam. By the Great Bend of the Xingu river in the depths of Amazonia, the Juruna tribe is being drowned by what seems at first sight to be a flood of TV game-show prizes.


There’s a shiny new motorboat moored by the old canoe, the latest four-wheel drive parked beside a chicken coop, satellite dishes outside every home and wide-screen plasma TVs inside. But these are not the spoils of victory. They are the consolations for defeat in an existential battle against Brazil’s biggest engineering project, the Belo Monte dam. Science Cuts Deep Into The Mystery Of Antarctica’s Bleeding Glacier.

TRS_Blog_DTOP_BelowTitle_336x280 posted By The Rainforest Site The Rainforest Site Antartica’s phenomenal “Blood Falls” at Taylor Glacier is one of the world’s most unique natural wonders.

Science Cuts Deep Into The Mystery Of Antarctica’s Bleeding Glacier

According to the Weather Network, microbes chew at the glacier’s bedrock, allowing salt water to enter. Iron deposits from the bedrock interact with the salt water to form rust, giving off a blood red coloration and causing the glacier to appear as if it is bleeding. To learn more about glaciers and the devastating effects of calving, visit The Rainforest Site.

TRS_Blog_DTOP_BelowContent The Rainforest Site is a place where people can come together to protect our environment for generations to come. South America: Physical Geography - National Geographic Education. South America, the fourth-largest continent, extends from the Gulf of Darién in the northwest to the archipelago of Tierra del Fuego in the south.

South America: Physical Geography - National Geographic Education

South America’s physical geography, environment and resources, and human geography can be considered separately. South America can be divided into three physical regions: mountains and highlands, river basins, and coastal plains. Mountains and coastal plains generally run in a north-south direction, while highlands and river basins generally run in an east-west direction. South America’s extreme geographic variation contributes to the continent’s large number of biomes. A biome is a community of animals and plants that spreads over an area with a relatively uniform climate.