Louise Gray Thinks Antarctica Is Green

11 Responses to Louise Gray Thinks Antarctica Is Green

1. Latitude says:

   April 1, 2011 at 8:50 pm

   ABIC Show News

   Antarctic hair grass teaches Aussie wheat a lesson
   9/26/2007
   Only two plants grow wild in Antarctica. Not surprisingly, they’ve learned a lot about frost tolerance, and it’s something Australia’s wheat industry thinks that it can learn too.

   An Australian biotech team has isolated the gene that lets the Antarctic hair grass keep growing through temperatures down to -22’ C, said Ian Edwards, professor at the University of Western Australia. Now, they’ve transferred that gene to a laboratory plant called Arabidopsis, and soon hope to transfer it to wheat.

   With that gene, when an ice crystal starts to form within a cell, Edwards said the plant builds a kind of jail cell around it, preventing it from getting big enough to rupture cell tissues.

   The traits is still several years from commercialization, but Edwards estimated it would save $200 million a year for Australia’s wheat growers, who plant spring wheat during the continent’s winter months, making it vulnerable to frost damage during flowering and early grain fill.

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2. Andy Weiss says:

   April 1, 2011 at 9:22 pm

   So even assuming the lie is true, what is so terrible about Antarctica having vegetation?

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   • Dave N says:

     April 1, 2011 at 9:55 pm

     I don’t think they mean it’s “terrible”.. Just trying to cite it as “evidence” of AGW.. Since the plant grows in such cold conditions anyway, have they ruled out any other cause for the spread? Where has it spread to? How much by? Has it declined in other areas?

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     • Latitude says:

       April 2, 2011 at 12:42 am

       Dave, how about another approach…

       Assume the hairgrass is just returning to it’s original habitat,
       it’s also found all over South America.

       So the real question is not, why is it spreading….

       …but why did it’s habitat shrink

       Reply
3. Jimbo says:

   April 1, 2011 at 10:57 pm

   Louise Gray is a nut! Chief alarmist at the Daily Telegraph.

   These Warmists just love western peninsula and surrounding islands. For one reason or another they avoid the VAST majority of Antarctica. I wonder why? They may soon ignore the Arctic and look at a hotspot in Death Valley as a sure sign of global warming.

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4. Jimbo says:

   April 1, 2011 at 11:20 pm

   Louise Gray is a pratt! Why does she not look at cooling stories like last year’s snow in Brazil? Or the snow on the beach of the Med? Australia’s droughtflood warmcold?

   The public has become very bored with these climate bandits. They overplayed their hand and are losing public support hand over fist.

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5. Charles Higley says:

   April 2, 2011 at 4:04 am

   The extent of green is probably measured in square meters, more likely single digits, and only on the Peninsula. BUT, the ignorant public, who also think that the Arctic is almost a swimming pool, will gleefully imagine that there might be good real estate down there for retirement homes, just as governments think that there will be open ocean in the Arctic for oil drilling.

   The uninformed will always make uninformed decisions.

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6. Sleepalot says:

   April 2, 2011 at 4:50 am

   From this photo, I say that’s South Georgia Island (Long. 55 S) …
   http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://images.forbes.com/media/2009/02/10/0210_vacation-remote-islands_03_south-georgia.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.forbes.com/2009/02/10/remote-island-getaways-lifestyle-travel_0210_vacations_slide_4.html&usg=__ZDEnWCKNbVv3_NPLz_-4aQqLMVM=&h=280&w=400&sz=25&hl=en&start=56&zoom=1&itbs=1&tbnid=FGngawaVbAifnM:&tbnh=87&tbnw=124&prev=/images%3Fq%3DSouth%2BGeorgia%2Bislands%26start%3D40%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26gbv%3D2%26ndsp%3D20%26biw%3D1024%26bih%3D609%26tbs%3Disch:1&ei=lamWTeS0KomJhQeRoMXkCA

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   • John Edmondson says:

     April 2, 2011 at 7:16 am

     You would be right. Gold Harbour to exact.

     http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthpicturegalleries/8209278/Penguins-in-Antarctica-and-South-Georgia-photographed-by-Nick-Garbutt.html?image=7

     I pointed this out to Louise on the comments section of her piece. There was no reply.

     Reply
     • Al Gored says:

       April 2, 2011 at 7:43 am

       Too much. She or somebody must have known that photo was not Antarctica… or it is just another convenient error.

       Reply
7. Mike Davis says:

   April 3, 2011 at 4:49 am

   At 54 to 55 south it is about equal to the islands off British Columbia, Newfoundland or even Ireland if they were in the Northern Hemisphere.
   That would be like claiming The United Kingdom is part of the Arctic region!

   Reply