Antarctica: COLDER now than in the last 5,000 YEARS

… cooled by more than -1.8°C (-0.93°C per decade) from 1999-2018  [ AMS American Meteorological Society ]

… the current frontline [of the Collins Glacier] was first attained at approximately 5000 yr BP

… then continuously retreated south of the modern extent for another 4000 years

… with peak ice loss 1000 years ago

… In the last 1000 years this glacier has rapidly re-advanced back to the glaciated extent from 5000 years ago

… in line with the sustained cooling trend ongoing since the Medieval Warm Period  [ Nature ]

… Throughout the Holocene (Medieval Warm Period, Roman Warm Period, and earlier) and until a few hundred years ago

… coastal Antarctica’s Victoria Land (VLC) was substantially warmer than today

… The Ross Sea was also sufficiently ice-free to allow for elephant seal populations (as large as ~200,000 individuals) to thrive

… elephant seal populations which require extended sea ice-free sea waters to breed, forage, and provide nourishment for their pups

… can no longer subsist anywhere even remotely close to the coasts of the Antarctic continent

… It is now too cold and the sea ice is too extensive

… “…the documented population crash and abandonment of the entire coast … was due to return of heavy sea ice”

… even the subantarctic islands in the South Pacific that SES are limited to occupying today

… not be sufficiently warm and ice-free to accommodate remaining populations

… the last few centuries (including the present) been “the coldest, iciest conditions in the post-glacial period”

… the last glacial period had periods (~50,000 to 25,000 years ago) with less sea ice than today   [ Quaternary Science Reviews ]

              AMS American Meteorological Society

            Nature

          Quaternary Science Reviews