# Should we "Terraform" Antarctica? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 24, 2001, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-we-terraform-antarctica/77912 "2001-08-24T14:44:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![buddy1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6a8cbe/32.png) [@buddy1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddy1)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2001, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-we-terraform-antarctica/77912/1 "2001-08-24T14:44:35Z")
In past threads, people have discussed the possibility of terraforming the planed Mars. Why should we travel to such a remote planet, when we can get some valuble experience (and add another continent) right here? here’s the plan: -we get some of those genetically-engineered blue-green algae to live on the ice cap of Antartica, and start it to melting. Then, we set up giant factories burning the coal (which is abundant in the dry valleys of the continent)on the coasts-we can transfer ALL of our polluting industries down there, and leave our own air clean. -then, we sit back and wait:the coal soot and the greenhouse gasses emitted by the coal-burning plants will start to trap heat, and raise the temperature. The vast updrafts created will then break up the prevailing circumpolar winds, and allow futher warming up. As the land emerges from the ice, we can build new cities-thing of how nice a condo on the Antartic peninsula will be, once it warms up to the temperature of southern alaska!The great ice sheets will continue to melt, and this will increase the oceanic area a bit-should allow increased cloudiness, and more snow to restore the now-shrinking alpine glaciers! a win-win situation for mankind-AND, Antartica will take its place as the 51st state of the Union! We will then be poised to DOMINATE the southern hemisphere, and the fisheries around the continent will be ours! Let’s do it!! ---
**Author:** ![THespos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8c91f0/32.png) [@THespos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/THespos)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2001, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-we-terraform-antarctica/77912/2 "2001-08-24T14:50:05Z")
Yeah, sure. I’m going to remember that you were the one who thought this up, buddy1, when sea level rises to the point that I float out the window of my 4th-floor walkup on Manhattan Island. ---
**Author:** ![Podkayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Podkayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Podkayne)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2001, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-we-terraform-antarctica/77912/3 "2001-08-24T14:50:10Z")
You do realize that by making Antarctica habitable, you would be making the rest of the non-arctic world _uninhabitable_, right? Global warming is, uh, _global_. And rising sea levels are considered a _bad_ thing since people live on coastlines. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2001, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-we-terraform-antarctica/77912/4 "2001-08-24T14:51:43Z")
The coastal flooding in the Southeastern U.S, India, and other places would be brutal. Your idea is very interesting, but would lead to wordwide climactic calamity. That would very difficult to manage. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2001, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-we-terraform-antarctica/77912/5 "2001-08-24T15:19:25Z")
Anybody got any numbers on how much the water level would rise if we melted the Antarctic ice cap, or how far inland the average coastline would move? Would we lose more land than we gained? ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2001, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-we-terraform-antarctica/77912/6 "2001-08-24T15:31:34Z")
I’ve heard that melting the Antarctic icecap completely would raise sea levels by approximately _100 metres_. Goodbye New York. Also San Francisco, Washington, Boston, New Orleans, Seattle… Tokyo, London, Sydney, Helsinki, St. Petersburg (both of them), Athens, Cape Town, Rio de Janeiro, Toronto (Lake Ontario is only 76 metres above mean sea level)… Bangladesh, the Netherlands, most of the islands in the Pacific, half of England, a good chunk of China… I hope that condo is really worth it. You’ll have to beat off billions of starving refugees because of the rise in water levels alone. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2001, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-we-terraform-antarctica/77912/7 "2001-08-24T15:33:50Z")
This isn’t a General Question, but it isn’t a really _great_ debate either. Maybe IMHO. bibliophage moderator, GQ ---
**Author:** ![Podkayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Podkayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Podkayne)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2001, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-we-terraform-antarctica/77912/8 "2001-08-24T15:45:19Z")
In the [Evolution 101 for Fundies thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=81659), I quoted [this site](http://www.howstuffworks.com/question473.htm) which says that melting the Antarctic ice sheet would raise sea levels by 200 feet. **tracer** pointed out that this is probably an underestimate because as the Earth warms, the water in the ocean will also _expand_; a more significant factor in the raising of sea levels than just them melting of glaciers. Just to be prefectly clear, **buddy1** the C0[sub]2[/sub] from your Antarctic factories won’t just hover over Antarctica, causing a local greenhouse effect; it will mix with the Earth’s atmosphere, causing _global_ warming. ---
**Author:** ![kingpengvin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9dc877/32.png) [@kingpengvin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kingpengvin)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2001, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-we-terraform-antarctica/77912/9 "2001-08-24T17:08:41Z")
Also by warming the ice caps you suddenly change the jet streams and currents. You would mess up the climate in the rest of the freaking world. At least that part of the world that isn’t waterlogged. ---
**Author:** ![missdavis102](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7feea3/32.png) [@missdavis102](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missdavis102)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2001, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-we-terraform-antarctica/77912/10 "2001-08-24T17:30:35Z")
I think somebody’s having a joke with us. Hope so, anyway. ---
**Author:** ![clayton\_e](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c57346/32.png) [@clayton\_e](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clayton_e)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2001, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-we-terraform-antarctica/77912/11 "2001-08-24T18:27:33Z")
Good luck. /me laughs @ u. ---
**Author:** ![thermalribbon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@thermalribbon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thermalribbon)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2001, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-we-terraform-antarctica/77912/12 "2001-08-24T18:41:26Z")
> [@](#): > > And rising sea levels are considered a bad thing since people live on coastlines Well perhaps the people in places like Atlanta, Philadelphia, and San Bernadino might enjoy a little newfound beachfront property. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2001, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-we-terraform-antarctica/77912/13 "2001-08-24T19:02:35Z")
Won’t someone please think of the penguins!!! 😛 - Tamerlane ---
**Author:** ![pukey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4491bb/32.png) [@pukey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pukey)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2001, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-we-terraform-antarctica/77912/14 "2001-08-24T19:21:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Tamerlane \* > \*\*Won’t someone please think of the penguins!!! 😛 > > - Tamerlane \*\* Was that a Simpsons reference or am I just obsesed? ---
**Author:** ![Mauvaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mauvaise/32/11084_2.png) [@Mauvaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mauvaise)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2001, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-we-terraform-antarctica/77912/15 "2001-08-24T19:46:13Z")
If it means I can stay in Phoenix and get the one thing that I feel is lacking here (an ocean), then I’m all for it! 😛 ---
**Author:** ![kingtrw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/958977/32.png) [@kingtrw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kingtrw)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2001, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-we-terraform-antarctica/77912/16 "2001-08-24T20:02:20Z")
Im glad someone else has thought of the penguins. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2001, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-we-terraform-antarctica/77912/17 "2001-08-25T00:00:23Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by buddy1 \* > **Then, we set up giant factories burning the coal (which is abundant in the dry valleys of the continent)on the coasts-we can transfer ALL of our polluting industries down there, and leave our own air clean.** Uhhhhh… My brain hurts now. I hope you just neglected to mention the giant walls you were planning on building around the continent, separating the atomsphere… ---
**Author:** ![headshok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e56c9b/32.png) [@headshok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/headshok)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2001, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-we-terraform-antarctica/77912/18 "2001-08-25T11:21:32Z")
> [@](#): > > As the land emerges from the ice, we can build new cities-thing of how nice a condo on the Antartic peninsula will be, once it warms up to the temperature of southern alaska! Nah. It would be cheaper to just cut down all of the Alaskan forests and build new cities there. I’m looking forward to putting a deposit down for my new apartment on the slopes of Denali.