Antarctica and the Arctic are one of the most extreme places on Earth, and for geographical reasons, the two of them will always be in opposite seasons, for example: when the Antarctic region is in summer, the Arctic will be in winter; when the Arctic is in a low temperature environment, the Antarctic will be in a high temperature state.
It is now the spring equinox, under normal circumstances, the temperature in Antarctica will gradually drop, but the Concordia Antarctic Research Station in Antarctica, jointly built by France and Italy, measured a temperature of minus 11.5 °C on the 18th, about 40 °C higher than the average of the same period in previous years.
American meteorologist Matthew Lazara observed that the temperature in the C-ii region of the ice dome in Southeast Antarctica reached minus 10 °C on the 18th, compared with the average temperature of -43 °C in the same period of previous years.
Such unusually hot weather has also been observed in the Arctic, and according to the Associated Press, the average temperature in the Arctic in mid-March is about 30 °C higher than the average temperature in the same period of previous years, which is extremely rare.
American scientist Meyer said that the current two seasons in the north and south are opposite, but at the same time there is extreme high temperature weather, which is absolutely unusual, even very rare.
However, it is still necessary to say that the extreme heat in the north and south poles at the same time, although rare, but the extreme high temperature is not to break through the temperature of 40 ° C or even higher, but to be about 40 ° C higher than the average temperature of the same period in previous years, for example: minus 30 ° C in the same period of previous years, and now the temperature of 10 ° C is measured, which is not extreme from the perspective of temperature range.
On the other hand, although high temperatures will have an impact on the North and South Poles, it also depends on its duration, and the shorter the duration, the smaller the impact on the local area.
The occasional occurrence of extreme heat does not change the local ecological environment. However, when extreme heat becomes more and more common, the polar environment will change very much, far from only affecting local organisms, but even directly or indirectly affecting all human beings.
Effects of polar high temperatures
Affects animal survival
Polar heat first affects animals, especially those living in the polar regions.
Polar bears live in the Arctic, and they rely heavily on ice floes when foraging in the summer, which can help them find prey, as well as prey. But the persistent heat has reduced the ice floes, making it difficult for polar bears to forage for food, and even have to move to human gathering places to rummage through garbage cans in search of food.
Penguins live in antarctica, and emperor penguins need just the right amount of ice to hatch their pups.
In the past, the area where the emperor penguin lived would only melt in January and February, but now the time for sea ice to melt is greatly advanced, resulting in baby penguins being covered in mud.
Baby penguin feathers do not have waterproof function, the ability of muddy water to carry away body temperature is much stronger than the ability of air to carry away body temperature, if the body is covered with muddy water, this will cause them to lose temperature, and eventually lead to the death of baby penguins.
The rapid melting of sea ice will also cause baby penguins to go into the water too early, and when they have not changed into waterproof feathers, the mortality rate will be higher.
Changing the local environment
The high temperature of the North and South Poles will also change the local environment, for example: watermelon snow appeared in the Antarctic two years ago, which is a kind of snow algae that can withstand low temperatures. It's just that although they can tolerate lower temperatures, the low and low temperatures of antarctica are not suitable for them to grow, so in the past Antarctica had only one color: white.
However, with the rise of Antarctic temperatures, hardy organisms such as snow algae began to spread to the Antarctic, making "watermelon snow" and "green snow" appear in Antarctica.
It should be known that the white ice layer has a very strong ability to reflect sunlight, which can reflect about 90% of the solar energy back into space and slow down the occurrence of global warming. Green and red have a weaker ability to reflect solar energy, resulting in more solar energy remaining on the ground, which in turn leads to a further rise in local temperatures.
Nowadays, not only snow algae such as watermelon snow appear in the Antarctic region, but even flowering plants, and their appearance is not a good thing, which means that the ecological balance here has been broken.
Germs in the ice may respawn
The main way for people to preserve germs is "low temperatures", and the glaciers and permafrost layers of the Arctic and Antarctic are natural refrigerators, where the ice layer does not melt all year round, and the temperature remains below 0 °C.
In this context, the remains of many creatures are very well preserved, and people often excavate the remains of creatures from the Siberian permafrost, such as: mammoth remains, pony remains, etc., although they have been dead for tens of thousands of years, they are still vivid, as if asleep.
Some of these germs can also be preserved in such environments for a long time, such as: in 2014, scientists found a virus up to 1.5 microns in the Siberian permafrost, and this virus lived 30,000 years before the extinction of Neanderthals.
Although many germs are no longer able to infect humans, there are also some germs in the permafrost that are deadly to humans.
For example, in the summer of 2016, reindeer and herders in Siberia were infected with a mysterious disease, and after research, they were found to be infected with anthrax, a bacterium that many people in the region have not seen.
The final study found that in 1941, there was an anthrax epidemic in the local area, which led to the death of many reindeer, and after many years, scientists found this germ from a reindeer that had been dead for 77 years, and scientists believed that the warming climate caused the permafrost to thaw, so that the bacteria that had disappeared in the local area for many years came back.
It should be noted that the Arctic is not a barren land, many people have settled here in the past, and if there has been an epidemic in the local area, and the remains of people who have died from the epidemic are buried in the permafrost, then the germs in their remains may be preserved for a long time.
But we don't have to panic, because many viruses can't infect humans, and even if some viruses can infect humans, they mutate faster, and harmful viruses may soon become harmless after they are released.
climatic change
High temperatures in the polar regions can also cause climate change, especially in the Arctic, which has a greater impact on the Northern Hemisphere.
It is reasonable to say that the Arctic should be very cold, the equator should be very hot, and a strong pressure gradient force is formed between one cold and one hot, making the westerly wind belt more powerful, which can make the polar vortex firmly bound to the Arctic region and will not easily go south.
However, due to the reduction of Arctic sea ice and the melting of the permafrost, the Arctic is heating up 2-3 times faster than other regions, a phenomenon called the "polar amplification effect".
The increase in temperature in the Arctic region has reduced the pressure gradient between the polar region and the equator, and the westerly wind belt has become more unstable, resulting in large ridges and large grooves being more likely to form, so that the northern hemisphere is more likely to experience extreme cold weather in winter, such as the obvious extreme cold weather in winter in recent years.
It's March, so it stands to reason that temperatures in the Antarctic should be falling, and temperatures in the Arctic will rise slowly. But today's North and South Poles are experiencing temperatures of 30°C-40°C higher than the average in previous years, which is not a good thing for people.
Polar ecology
The Arctic and Antarctic regions are ecologically fragile, and a slight anomaly in the local climate may lead to ecological collapse here. Nowadays, extreme heat occurs simultaneously in the North and South Poles, and meteorologists say it may be just an accidental phenomenon.
If it really happens only once, the impact on the local environment is limited, but if it becomes the norm, or extreme high temperature weather occurs frequently, the polar ecology is easily destroyed.
Although the causes of the simultaneous extreme heat in the Arctic and Antarctic have not yet been announced, global warming must be one of the important factors, in the context of global warming, extreme weather appears more and more frequently, such as: North American thermal domes, European floods, Drought in Australia caused serious wildfires, More precipitation in Africa caused locust plagues, etc., typhoons, hurricanes bring more and more impact to people.
Curbing global warming requires the efforts of all countries and regions in the world, hoping that the world can really reduce greenhouse gas emissions and curb global warming from continuing to occur.