Past climate of the northern Antarctic Peninsular informs global warming debate

Past Antarctic climate

		IMAGE: The American icebreaker RV/IB Nathanial B. Palmer is shown off the South Shetland Islands. The drilling rig is clearly seen on the rear deck. Click here for more information.

The seriousness of current global warming is underlined by a reconstruction of climate at Maxwell Bay in the South Shetland Islands of the Antarctic Peninsula over approximately the last 14,000 years, which appears to show that the current warming and widespread loss of glacial ice are unprecedented.