Secretary of State John Kerry is visiting Antarctica this weekend to learn how #Climate Change is affecting the continent, despite numerous studies showing it’s gaining in size and mass. Antarctica is the largest continent seemingly unaffected by global warming and any melting can be attributed to geological heat flow and seismic activity. But Kerry, also a pilot, got to sit in the cockpit for most of the flight.
A recent study by the University of Washington and MIT showed that the Southern Ocean swirling around the continent has left the continent unfazed by the 0.8 degrees of global warming since 1900. Other studies show Antarctica is covered almost entirely in ice with only 0.18 percent of the rocky surface exposed to air. The rest is under miles of snow and ice, which radiates sunlight back into space.
Kerry congratulates Trump
Kerry and his fellow group left New Zealand on Friday and landed in Antarctica around 11 a.m. at McMurdo research station. The U.S. base is where researchers do most of their work. Before embarking on the trip, Kerry congratulated President-elect #Donald Trump on his “momentous election” and told his State Department staff to remember the “time-honored tradition of a very peaceful and constructive transfer of power.”
Once in Antarctica, Kerry will go immediately to a smaller transport plane for a three-hour flight to a research station operated by the U.S. #Government near the South Pole. He will spend about two hours at the station before going back to McMurdo for his overnight stay. Antarctica is entering its spring and summer as the Northern Hemisphere slips into winter.
