03-15-2017, 04:43 PM
"Arctic" and "Antarctic" do not have anything like the same latitudinal definition. The Antarctic is defined either by the Antarctic Convergence (where temperate-zone ocean waters meat polar waters and both sink) that imply very different oceanic worlds, or 60S.
The southernmost extension of any ice cap in the Northern Hemisphere is at 60s just north of the southernmost point in Greenland. But even that lies to the south of some of the northernmost forests in the Northern Hemisphere. Such cities as Oslo, Helsinki, St. Petersburg, and Anchorage are at roughly the same latitude. The Kerguelen Islands which have glaciers reaching the sea are about as far south as Vancouver, Winnipeg, Paris, Prague, and Kiev -- clearly middle-latitude locations. It's telling that parts of Ireland are borderline -- subtropical.
Anything south of 60S is unambiguously polar. The unbroken seas surrounding Antarctica shield anything in the Antarctic from any semblance of middle-latitude warmth. Greenland's ice cap is a relic of the Ice Age, and it is not in equilibrium with the weather conditions. If the ice melts to any extent, then that ice is likely gone indefinitely.
This said, it would not take much for the Falkland Islands to become fully temperate. Should the Antarctic Convergence change location, then something really is changing.
The southernmost extension of any ice cap in the Northern Hemisphere is at 60s just north of the southernmost point in Greenland. But even that lies to the south of some of the northernmost forests in the Northern Hemisphere. Such cities as Oslo, Helsinki, St. Petersburg, and Anchorage are at roughly the same latitude. The Kerguelen Islands which have glaciers reaching the sea are about as far south as Vancouver, Winnipeg, Paris, Prague, and Kiev -- clearly middle-latitude locations. It's telling that parts of Ireland are borderline -- subtropical.
Anything south of 60S is unambiguously polar. The unbroken seas surrounding Antarctica shield anything in the Antarctic from any semblance of middle-latitude warmth. Greenland's ice cap is a relic of the Ice Age, and it is not in equilibrium with the weather conditions. If the ice melts to any extent, then that ice is likely gone indefinitely.
This said, it would not take much for the Falkland Islands to become fully temperate. Should the Antarctic Convergence change location, then something really is changing.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.