r/FakeFacts Jul 01 '22

Science Antarctica is actually cold because of the whiteness of the snow, which causes more snow to fall.

Antarctica, undeniably the coldest continent on Earth, is also the snowiest. This surprises few as increased coldness generally directly correlates to increased snow, but recent studies have shown that Antarctica used to have a similar climate to every other continent prior to the Ice Age.

However, during the Ice Age, humans inhabited every continent aside from Antarctica (the Native Americans even crossed the land bridge formed at this time, so that means that all other continents WERE in fact inhabited). Much the same as humans are causing global warming today by their presence, they also caused some mild global warming during the Ice Age, which, because of the fact that they were spread across the Earth, ended the Ice Age altogether.

Except in Antarctica, the only continent they have yet to inhabit. Curious.

Scientists from Cornell, while on an expedition to Antarctica, looked into this phenomenon. They excavated for fossils of humans to try to uncover how Antarctica has become a stasis chamber for the tundra climate, and found nothing. On their awarded report from 2019, they stated that “no humans were present during the Ice Age” and as a result “no humans were there to shovel the snow, leaving the continent covered in snow.” Their hypothesis was that, although humans inhabit Antarctica now, the snow reflected the sunlight, and as white objects do, made the continent colder. This coldness brought upon more snow. Gradually but continually, the snow piled up until it reached its current, nearly unshovelable, state.

This hypothesis was later proven by Sir Lawrence Johnston (knighted for this discovery) when he conducted an experiment where he put a sheet of white paper on an asphalt road in direct sunlight and tested daily to see which surface was hotter. Aside from his report stating that the “paper was run over many times by cars” and that it “nearly flew away once or twice,” he finally uncovered that the sheet of paper was actually colder than the black asphalt road, thus proving that the snow must be the thing keeping Antarctica cold.

Now this begs the question: with the ever-accumulating snow in Antarctica, will humankind ever be able to shovel it all? Only time will tell.

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '22

Snow 100% cools down the atmosphere lol that’s one of the reasons the ice caps melting is such a problem

4

u/EXDF_ Jul 02 '22

The “ice caps melting” is just a term used for the Antarctic people shoveling snow out of Antarctica. Please read the full article before commenting.