A new campaign plans to relocate polar bears to Antarctica to protect them from the effects of climate change. Based on the rates of ice melt in the North, scientists say most polar bears will be gone by 2050. The first bears will be moved on Earth Day, April 22. The relocation will be the initial step in a planned five-year program to migrate 3,000 polar bears from the Northern Arctic to the southern continent of Antarctica. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service plans to rule soon on whether to list polar bears as endangered species; however, it has indicated that relocating polar bears would be much less expensive to taxpayers than listing them under the 1973 act.
posted on Mar 31, 2008 - View this thread

The Strange Lives of Polar Dinosaurs: How did they endure months of perpetual cold and dark? See also Taking A Dinosaur's Temperature: Polar species heat up one of paleontology's great debates. And Bones To Pick: Paleontologist William Hammer hunts dinosaur fossils in the Antarctic. From Smithsonian Magazine.
posted on Jan 20, 2008 - View this thread

Landsat Image Mosaic Of Antarctica UK and US researchers peice together the most detailed map of Antarctica yet, searching through years of data to find cloud free images.
posted on Nov 27, 2007 - View this thread

Introducing Nunatak They are an indie-folk fusion band, but you've probably never heard of them unless you've been to Rothera Research Station in Antarctica. Their first live gig will be broadcast 07/07/07 to hundreds of millions of people on more than 120 networks around the world. Al Gore invited them to play Live Earth because the runway at Rothera is too small for major rock stars. And he promised concerts on all 7 continents. They will have a gorgeous stage, performing outside on the ice if the weather is nice, say minus 15F or so.
posted on Jun 14, 2007 - View this thread

After two big Antarctic ice shelves broke off several years ago, a world of new species was found underneath. Pictures and a press release came out yesterday, showing spindly orange starfish among other interesting creatures. Here is some more information on the expedition. The fact that the shelves melted when they did is most likely a result of global warming, but having them out of the way gave researchers a golden opportunity to study what lives beneath the ice. Other occassions where a disaster has simultaneously been a great research opportunity include radioactive fallouts: at Chernobyl the evacuated area has been monitored for the past decades to see which species move in and how they thrive (previously on Metafilter)
posted on Feb 26, 2007 - View this thread

Why are political extremists so interested in UFOs? The Nation of Islam has its “Great Mother Wheels.” Their melanin-challenged brethren in the Neo-Nazi movement have the myth of Neu Schwabenland, an Antarctic redoubt where the remnants of the Third Reich fled after the war, with the U.S. military in hot pursuit. There, hidden among the ice and the Emperor Penguins, the frostbitten Aryans plotted to reconquer the world. To that end, they created a fleet of UFOs, using top-secret Nazi technology that They don’t want you to know about. Nizkor has recreated pamphlets published by the Holocaust denier Ernst Zundel on this topic, one of which includes a helpful list of German phrases to be used during an encounter of the Third Kind. (This myth is also covered in the eighth chapter of this book.)
posted on Aug 16, 2006 - View this thread

More gloomy news on the whole climate change thing. It seems that Greenland's ice caps are melting three times as fast as previously measured (ultimately, in a thousand years or so, leading to a 6.5m sea level rise). While at the other end of the planet, it's not snowing as much as we hoped to limit sea level rises. But hey, we can still laugh about it, right?
posted on Aug 10, 2006 - View this thread

The last hope of life on earth: Svalbard. Most of humanity depends on just 12 plant species, down from over 7,000 historically. Fortunately, seeds can be viable for up to thousands of years, and seed banks have already preserved many species, including the entire plant population of Antarctica. But with seed banks being destroyed as the result of wars and accident, Norway has has begun work on an underground facility, protected by polar bears, in the Arctic permafrost that is designed to hold millions of seeds, as "final safety net" for humanity.
posted on Jun 19, 2006 - View this thread

Lone ranger or lunatic? Colin Yeates is about to set off from the Falkland Islands on his second attempt to row alone and unsupported around Antarctica. His previous attempt ended in spectacular failure after just two days of plotting an erratic course in the wrong direction and crash landing on a beach just 50 miles from where he set off. Undeterred by the danger he places in the path of those who will, inevitably, have to rescue him, the father of seven has repaired his tiny rowing boat and seems unbothered that winter is nigh and the local sailors don't want to shake the hand of this dead man walking.
posted on Feb 9, 2006 - View this thread

It is the dead of winter at the bottom of the Earth.
Therefore, it's a great day for some lucky intrepid foolhardy souls to join The 300 Club! Those wishing to join in the future are advised to hurry, though.
posted on Aug 1, 2005 - View this thread

75 Degrees South :: blogging from Antarctica
posted on Jun 28, 2005 - View this thread

Terrorists from Antarctica. Two Seaworld penguins flying out of San Diego airport are sent walking through the metal detector. Better safe than sorry. via BoingBoing, via Schneier
posted on Apr 23, 2005 - View this thread

As predicted and previously discussed, the world's largest collision took place in Antarctica when a 115km (71mile) long iceberg collided with the Drygalski ice tongue in McMurdo Sound. The resulting satellite photographs show the results of the collision quite clearly, but somehow fail to convey the sheer scale of the event.
posted on Apr 20, 2005 - View this thread

Listening to Antarctica is a daily web diary, including audio clips (RealMedia) of ambient sounds and conversations onboard the Aurora Australis, a research vessel currently on its way to the Australian Antarctic bases. Margot Foster's next port of call is Casey Base.
posted on Mar 16, 2005 - View this thread

Images of Antarctica: "some of them are mundane, some are fantastic, and some are, frankly, crappy." Don't miss the art page.
posted on Feb 22, 2005 - View this thread

Big Crash! An iceberg the size of Long Island is about to impact a land-bound ice mass in Anarctica. Stand back!
posted on Jan 12, 2005 - View this thread

Henry Kaiser visited Antarctica in 2001 and kept a photojournal. He brought back some amazing photos of ice towers, strange and gross creatures, ice caves, ice dives, and a South Pole exorcism, as well as videoclips. And if you liked those, there are more photos of the icy continent here.
posted on Aug 11, 2004 - View this thread

Mt. Erebus from space. NASA's Autonomous Sciencecraft Experiment software, which controls the Earth Observing-1 spacecraft, took some amazing images of the lava lake of Antarctica's Mount Erebus volcano without any human interaction. [Via Fark.]
posted on Jun 27, 2004 - View this thread

SandwichGirl is (was?) a "dining attendant" at the McMurdo Station in Antarctica. She also keeps an intermittent journal, and takes pictures. Fun, wacky stuff.
posted on Apr 2, 2004 - View this thread

Dream Dollars "Discover the mystery of Nadiria, the Lost Colony of Antarctica. Nadiria flourished as a utopian colony deep inside the Antarctican ice shelf for over thirty years until its mysterious disappearance in 1899. Here are the beautiful reproductions of its unusual currency, Dream-Dollars, studied by scholars and dream researchers for almost a century. Long unavailable, these exotic notes will amaze, astound, and fascinate all those interested in the strange and the beautiful."
posted on Jan 15, 2004 - View this thread

Iceblog! "Antarctica: the best place in the world to be naked" (and take a bunch of awesomely beautiful pictures, too).
posted on Dec 23, 2003 - View this thread

Austrailian pilot stuck in Antarctica That story is interesting enough, but the background on the pilot (just your typical nurse-midwife homebuilt avionics adventurer) available here is fascinating. I love reading these stories about common folk following their dreams and accomplishing huge things. Dare I say inspiring? Lifted from SlashDot
posted on Dec 11, 2003 - View this thread

Seal kills scientist A British scientist has been killed by a leopard seal whilst snorkelling in Antarctica. I had no idea that a seal could (or would) attack a human. These things can grow to 23ft long! They are known to feed on penguins, but a human is a fair bit bigger than a penguin, so this is one nasty animal, not the doe-eyed creature we coo over in nature programmes...
posted on Jul 24, 2003 - View this thread

'A colossal squid has been caught in Antarctic waters, the first example of Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni retrieved virtually intact from the surface of the ocean. ' Related (old news from January) :- giant squid attacks boat.
More squid sites :- Search for Giant Squid, a Smithsonian exhibit about a 1999 expedition. 'Whether living or extinct, on land or at sea, in literature or in life, large animals have long fascinated people. The largest animals have been known and hunted since prehistory: whales, walruses, elephants, rhinos, hippos, giraffes, and large fishes... However, one large animal has gone almost unnoticed or certainly unobserved in its habitat. That animal is the giant squid. Although these animals have been found in the nets of commercial fishermen, in the stomachs of sperm whales, and washed ashore on different continents, no scientific information has been gathered by direct observations of live giant squid ... '
The UnMuseum's article on the giant squid.
posted on Apr 3, 2003 - View this thread

I have dreamed of Erebus. mcwetboy took you to the Arctic today. Now read one man's fascinating diary of his trip to Antarctica in 2001, as well as this year's coming journey to the bottom of the world. Lots of words here, and some cool pictures. Not to mention margaritas and guacamole.
posted on Nov 5, 2002 - View this thread

Global Warming with Regional Variations: Antarctic Ice Growing over the last 20 years.
posted on Aug 23, 2002 - View this thread

Bye Bye, Tuvalu...

"In 1998, BAS predicted the demise of more ice shelves around the Antarctic Peninsula. Since then warming on the peninsula has continued and we watched as piece-by-piece Larsen B has retreated. We knew what was left would collapse eventually, but the speed of it is staggering. Hard to believe that 500 billion tonnes of ice sheet has disintegrated in less than a month."
speccy piccy this.(link via Ethel)
posted on Mar 19, 2002 - View this thread

70 South, a community weblog and news page for Antarctica. Strangely familiar in many respects.
posted on Oct 27, 2001 - View this thread

Map.net maps the Open Directory onto Antarctica. The 2d view is nice. Shows the relative size of everything. It reminds me of SmartMoney's dang cool marketmap.
posted on Nov 22, 2000 - View this thread