Needless to fear that the Antarctic ice completely melts? All this has already happened in the history of the Earth. A team of scientists led by Sarah Picins has completed a study which showed that millions of years ago the climate of Antarctica was much warmer than previously thought. The study was based on the study of various biological materials, frozen into the ice of the Ross ice shelf.

Dr. Picins says: "just as the study of history helps us learn the future, the climate of the past will help us to know the climate of the future. The study of the samples showed the scientists that millions of years ago, in the epoch of the middle Miocene, air temperature along the coast of Antarctica was warmer than today, on average, by 11 degrees. This in turn allowed the researchers to create possible picture of the nature of Antarctica.

They assumed that the temperature of the air, the concentration of carbon dioxide had to be no less than 400 parts per million.

Such conditions are quite suitable for the growth of vegetation and the lives of many animal species. Potential residents of Antarctica Miocene epoch scientists referred horses, deer, camels, and monkeys. One of the results of work of group of scientists was the graphics as possible of the nature of Antarctica, related to that period.

At current rates of growth of carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere terms identical to the terms of the middle Miocene, formed on Earth by the end of this century. At least now we can look at the pictures, created by a group of doctors of Picins, and know what we expect.