9781422279236

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C L I MAT E C H A NG E A N D T H E P O L A R R E G I O N S

I ntroduction

Words to Understand extracting  removing something floes  large sheets of floating ice glaciers  large masses of ice that move slowly over land indigenous  native to a particular region lichen  a plant-like structure made up of fungus and another life form meteorologists  scientists who study the climate and make predictions about the weather

W hen most people think of the Arctic,they imaginepolarbears on ice floes , or indigenous peoples bundled against the cold, trudging over snow-covered stretches of land. Or they think of the North Pole, the alleged home of Santa Claus. At the other end of Earth, an even colder and harsher climate defines Antarctica, a continent larger than the United States and surrounded by the SouthernOcean.Antarctica is the planet’s coldest, driest, and windiest continent.Winds during blizzards can reach 200 miles (321 km) per hour, and in places the ice is more than one mile (1.6 km) thick. In his 2003 book The Ice ,historianStephenPynewrote

that “ice is the beginning ofAntarctica and ice is its end.” During the winter, ice that forms along its coasts nearly doubles the continent’s size. Unlike the Arctic, no one lived in Antarcti- ca before scientists set up research bases during the 20th century. At one of those bases, the temperature once plunged to -129°F (-89.4°C)—the coldest temperature ever recorded on Earth. All the ice and snow in theworld’s polar regions, though, doesn’t mean they lack some warmth. During the summer, thanks to Earth’s tilt and its orbit around the sun,thedays are long. Parts of the Arctic warm enough to blossomwith small plants,andwildlife