Plants resistant to extreme weather in Antarctica offer hope to a warming planet
Île du Roi-George, Antarctica — A decade ago, a thick layer of ice covered the Collins Glacier on Antarctica’s King George Island. Now, the rocky landscape is visible to the naked eye, in a region that is both a victim of, and a laboratory for, climate change. "I had the opportunity to come here over a 15-year period, and even within a human’s lifetime, you can already see the changes brought about by climate change," the director of the Chilean Antarctic Institute (Inach), Marcelo Leppe, said. Observers can now see "rocks that we weren’t seeing five or 10 years ago, and that is direct evidence of the shrinking of these glaciers and loss of mass," he said. But even as these melting glaciers worry the scientific world, the presence in Antarctica of plants proving resistant to extreme conditions has also sparked hope for a warming planet. Chile is one of about 20 countries with scientific bases on the cold continent. Its Professor Julio Escudero complex on King George Island is where ...
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