Science

Antarctica shock: Why Al Gore was left ‘surprised’ after scientists dug below ice


Antarctica is a frozen desert where temperatures are known to reach -90C. It is Earth’s southernmost continent and is of great interest to thousands of scientists due to its isolation from the rest of the world. Al Gore revealed during his book “An Inconvenient Truth” how researcher Lonnie Thompson carried out experiments on the polar region to measure the impact of climate change, by digging deep below the surface and taking what are known as ice core samples.

However, Mr Gore, who was Bill Clinton’s running mate for their successful presidential campaign in 1992 and 1996, did not see what he expected.

He wrote in 2006: “Yet another surprise for me was when scientists showed me that near the South Pole, the presence of air pollution in the ice cores visibly declined not long after the passage of the US Clean Air Act in 1970.

“Looking back through the annual layers of ice, you can actually see the before and after with your own eyes.

“One thing both Antarctica and the Arctic have in common is the remoteness from civilisation. 

“Yet both of these formally prestige locations are now marked by industrial pollution.”

However, Mr Gore was far from celebrating. 

He revealed how some of the samples date back 650,000 years, and it is not good news in terms of global warming.

Referring to a graph where the CO2 level shot up over the last 1,000 years, he said: “In Antarctica, measurements of CO2 concentration and temperature go back 650,000 years.

“The blue line shows CO2 concentration over this period.

“The top right side of the blue line represents the present era and the dip down is the last ice age.

“At no point in the last 650,000 years did the CO2 concentration go above 300 parts per million.”

Mr Gore then referred to a second graph reflecting temperatures in the world, which mirrored the first.

He continued: “The grey line shows the world’s temperature over the same 650,000 years.

“It’s a complicated relationship, but the most important part is when there is more CO2 in the atmosphere the temperature increases because more heat from the sun is trapped inside.

“If we allow this to happen, it would be deeply and unforgivably immoral, it would condemn coming generations to a catastrophically diminished future.”

The revelation comes after Mr Gore also revealed how NASA made their own shocking find while scanning the ice with mapping technology.

He wrote: “Scientists believe global warming is responsible for the rising temperature and changes to sea ice, though they can’t be certain.

“Sea ice has decreased only in certain parts of Antarctica, but the frozen freshwater that covers most of the land mass is thinning across the whole continent.

“A recent NASA study using satellite mapping technology found that Antarctica is losing land ice at a rate of 31 billion tonnes of water a year.

“The Emperor penguins, who rely on sea ice to breed and hunt for food, are feeling the impacts first.”



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