[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

giant sea spiders????

I didn't know about such critters...

[farmfriend]

Rights, farms, environment ping.
Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from this list.
I don't get offended if you want to be removed.

[WL-law]

Common sense reality check -- why would GRASS be anything to merit such ridiculous propositions such as ".. Tufts have previously grown on patches of Antarctica in summer, but the scientists have now observed bigger areas surviving winter and spreading in the summer months. Some fear the change portends a much wider melting of the ice-cap that formed at least 20m years ago."

Fear? When did grass become scary? Doesn't grass absorb CO2 and release oxygen -- thereby reducing the so-called and feared "greenhouse effect"?

This would be just silly except for the fact that these Luddites are deadly serious.

[Peace will be here soon]

"The findings come at a politically sensitive time with Europe and America clashing over the latter’s refusal to sign up to the Kyoto treaty to limit greenhouse gas emissions."

Gee, who would have seen this one coming? It is all America`s fault.

[Kurt_D]

Grasslands in Antarctica? Quick! Who wants to join me in setting up a cattle ranch in the real "down under"?

[Asclepius]

Grassy steppes at the bottom of the world. Imagine vast, ambling herds of antarctic steen-bok, dik-dik, and gnu, culled by polar cheetahs and prides of white snow lions.

[PianoMan]

The findings come at a politically sensitive time with Europe and America clashing over the latter’s refusal to sign up to the Kyoto treaty to limit greenhouse gas emissions.

That's because the treaty asks basically no sacrifice from Europe, and huge sacrifice from the US. The whole stupid thing is just another UN-based get-the-US ploy.

Funny how he didn't "frame" it that way.

[LoneRangerMassachusetts]

The latest research was carried out on the Antarctic peninsula, which juts northwards towards Cape Horn, and the islands around it. More strongly influenced by changes in sea and air temperatures than the rest of Antarctica, these areas are an excellent place to measure effects of climate change.

Funny how they only report measurements of the places that are warmer. Meanwhile, Europe is worried about entering a cooling period. It all adds up to a net zero to me.

[Necrovore]

So, Antarctica is warming up and grass is growing. Interesting. It isn't like Antarctica was always covered in ice. I suppose that the "scientists" who are "warning" us about "global warming" have never seen the Piri Re'is Map of 1513 or the Oronteus Finaeus World Map of 1532. both show sub glacial areas of Antarctica, the Finaeus map moreso. Both maps were drawn using older source maps. Perhaps we are not looking at "global warming" but a shift of the Earth's axis.

[FreedomFarmer]

Winter Rules?

[CzarNicky]

King and his colleagues believe such trends could continue, possibly even raising winter temperatures on the peninsula from their past average of -10C to near freezing. Eventually this could give the peninsula a climate comparable to that of Scandinavia.

The last thing we need are more Scandinavians

[Dan Evans]

From Christian Science Monitor.
January 18, 2002

Guess what? Antarctica's getting colder, not warmer

... Dr. Dornan's study points to an average cooling of 0.7 degrees per decade from 1986 to 2000 at the McMurdo Dry Valleys Long-Term Ecological Research Station. Using estimates from British data taken since 1966, the team calculates that the cooling trend has been under way since at least that date."

The report, published in the current issue of the journal Nature, appears to confirm a study published last year in the Journal of Climate by Josephino Comiso, an atmospheric scientist at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. Using satellite data for the months of January and July from 1979 to 1999, he reported a drop in the continent's average temperature that amounted to 0.4 degrees per decade.

http://www.christiansciencemonitor.com/2002/0118/p02s01-usgn.html

[Dan Evans]

This hasn't been the first time grass has been noticed growing on the Antarctic Peninsula"

"The island has a relatively diverse flora and luxuriant development of plant communities, representative of the southern maritime Antarctic region. The rich terrestrial biology of Lagotellerie Island was first noted by Herwil Bryant, biologist at East Base (US, on Stonington Island; now Historic Monument No. 55), during a visit in 1940-41 when he observed growths of moss, the Antarctic hair grass Deschampsia antarctica, and "a small flowering plant" (almost certainly the Antarctic pearlwort Colobanthus quitensis), in a small gully – believed to be that found at the north-eastern end of the island – which he considered of such unusual richness for the region that he unofficially referred to it as "Shangri-la Valley".

"He did not describe the less luxuriant but more extensive communities of Deschampsia antarctica and Colobanthus quitensis found on the higher north-facing slopes of the island. These slopes and terraces also provide favourable microclimatic conditions for growth, with a relatively long snow-free growing season, and support an abundance of Deschampsia antarctica and Colobanthus quitensis, the grass forming closed swards of up to 10 m2 on some of the terraces.

"These are among the largest stands of these plants known south of the South Shetland Islands. Both species flower abundantly and the seeds have a greater viability than those produced in the South Orkney or South Shetland Islands, yet they are close to the southern limit of their range. Lagotellerie Island, however, is notable for the growth of Deschampsia antarctica at the highest altitude recorded south of 56° S, with scattered small plants observed at heights of up to 275 m. Colobanthus quitensis has been observed growing up to 120 m on the island."

http://www.scar.org/publications/bulletins/143/spa19/

[x1stcav]

There goes the neighborhood.

[Dan from Michigan]

I wish global warming in the winter hit us here. This is one of the worst winters in a long long time here.

[fella]

And just, pray tell, did the grass seed come from? And enough of it to cover vast areas?

[editor-surveyor]

Wow, more B.S. - I can hardly contain myself.

It's hard to believe that at a time when ice flows are growing so fast that island-sized icebergs are breaking off, and the bergs are threatening New Zealand's shipping lanes. Warming? couldn't we use some?

[snopercod]

Cool. Golfing in Antarctica next.

[metacognative]

Wonderful news, let's have trees and much more warmth!