Scientists have discovered that temperatures in the Antarctic are rising three times faster than the world as a whole. They have also found the first signs of record levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere that may be trapping heat above the ice sheets of the South Pole.
Meteorologists at the British Antarctic Survey have concluded that temperatures in the polar troposphere – the layer of air reaching from the surface to an altitude of about 5 miles – have risen by 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit since the early 1970s. Above that in the stratosphere, temperatures are cooler – just as the climate models had predicted.
“We have the classic global warming signal,” argues climate specialist John Turner, who led the research team. “It is like the blanket on the bed: When we wrap the Earth with a blanket of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane, we trap heat under it at the expense of the atmosphere above, which then cools.”
So what the scientists are saying is that we are beginnig to seee what the climate models predicted. Only the tempreatures are higher. Should that worry you? In one word – YES.