Climate change is having an incredible impact on the continent of Antarctica, and it’s Australia which will also feel the effects.
Historic drops in sea ice are accelerating the melt of ice sheets and the slowing of ocean currents, as well as catastrophic failures of emperor penguin colonies.
Listen to the episode of The Briefing here:
In this episode of The Briefing, we’re joined by Professor Matt King, an Antarctic expert at the University of Tasmania, and Director of the Australian Centre of Excellence in Antarctic Science.
We find out how Antarctica’s climate crisis will impact Australia, but also, just what the Antartic is putting itself through amid the climate catastrophe.
“If you put a dollar sign on it, what is the value of Antarctica?” Professor King said.
“To the planet, there’s more than just numbers and we don’t want to put just dollar values on all of nature, but the Southern Ocean absorbs so much carbon dioxide that if you priced it at European prices for carbon, it’s worth about $250 billion AUD a year.
“It’s a huge amount of carbon that’s being sucked up by the Southern Ocean and stored at the bottom of the ocean and locked away.”