The South Pole has warmed more than three times the global rate over the past three decades, a new study reports.
Scientists involved in the study, which was published Monday in the British peer-reviewed journal Nature Climate Change, believe this warming is linked to the acceleration of ice melt in other parts of Antarctica, which in turn could accelerate global sea level rise.
According to the researchers’ findings, the warming at the South Pole is mainly due to natural weather patterns, but has been intensified by man-made climate change. The two factors “have worked together to make this one of the strongest warming trends on Earth,” the study warns.
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Iceberg floating on the Western Antarctic Peninsula, Antarctica, the Southern Ocean.
(Steven Kazlowski / Barcroft Media / Getty Images)
“This study clearly demonstrates that the remoteness of a region is not a barrier to its being susceptible to rapid climate change,” study co-author Gareth Marshall of the British Antarctic Survey said in a statement.
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The study’s lead author, Kyle Clem, a researcher at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand, along with colleagues, used data from weather stations and climate models to learn more about the warming trend of the South Pole.
The South Pole has heated approximately 1.1 degrees Fahrenheit per decade in the past three decades, the study found.
“We have natural processes that will always take place amid global warming and human influence on the climate system,” Clem told CNN. “When the two work together, it is quite remarkable.”
