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100 million years ago the icy regions of Antarctica resembled a lost tropical paradise. At least this is what a geological drilling seemed to indicate. Today this cold and bleak part of the planet with its glacial winds and an inhospitable landscapeis far from that vision of lush vegetation and humid weather. 

 

As the result of drilling, a team of researchers found sediments containing the pollen from plants that could only thrive in the tropics today. The sediments were a kilometre into the seabed at Wilkes Land in east Antarctica. Similar results occurred in the Arctic as well, showing that life in the poles was just as warm as in the Equator. 

 

According to new evidence, Antarctica was therefore a tropical paradise, home to furry mammals such as possums and beavers. Geological drillings and satellite surveys revealed that the South Pole was a piece of heaven on earth, the data also confirmed that the whole world was affected by temperature rises and that these were strongly related to the fluctuations in the level of atmospheric carbon dioxide.

 

55 million years ago, there was enough carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to heat the world at a rate that would have melted all of the planet’s ice caps. Available data also showed that sea levels were 200ft higher than present times. Moreover, if we draw comparisons between now and then, we can see that 55 million years ago there were more than 1,000ppm (parts per million) of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and that today it is still only 390ppm (pre-industrial levels were around 280ppm). At the current pace - an increase of 2ppm a year – it will be a slow progression until we reach the same 1,000ppm. However, scientists concluded that by the time we get to 500ppm we will witness major melting of the ice caps.

 

The major worry for scientists is to find out exactly what triggered this massive rise in CO2 back then. Some of it could be explained with movements of tectonic plates which might have caused carbonate-rich rocks and sediments to release large quantities of CO2 over a period of time, followed by episodes of absorption of the CO2 through different natural processes and subsequently cooling the world once more.