Scientists Drill Nearly 2 Miles Down to Pull 1.2 Million-year-old Ice Core from Antarctic

An international team of scientists announced successfully drilled one of the oldest ice cores yet - The AP
An international team of scientists announced successfully drilled one of the oldest ice cores yet - The AP
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Scientists Drill Nearly 2 Miles Down to Pull 1.2 Million-year-old Ice Core from Antarctic

An international team of scientists announced successfully drilled one of the oldest ice cores yet - The AP
An international team of scientists announced successfully drilled one of the oldest ice cores yet - The AP

An international team of scientists announced Thursday they’ve successfully drilled one of the oldest ice cores yet, penetrating nearly 2 miles (2.8 kilometers) to Antarctic bedrock to reach ice they say is at least 1.2 million years old.

Analysis of the ancient ice is expected to show how Earth's atmosphere and climate have evolved. That should provide insight into how Ice Age cycles have changed, and may help in understanding how atmospheric carbon changed climate, they said, The AP reported.

“Thanks to the ice core we will understand what has changed in terms of greenhouse gases, chemicals and dusts in the atmosphere,” said Carlo Barbante, an Italian glaciologist and coordinator of Beyond EPICA, the project to obtain the core. Barbante also directs the Polar Science Institute at Italy's National Research Council.

The same team previously drilled a core about 800,000 years old. The latest drilling went 2.8 kilometers (about 1.7 miles) deep, with a team of 16 scientists and support personnel drilling each summer over four years in average temperatures of about minus-35 Celsius (minus-25.6 Fahrenheit).

Italian researcher Federico Scoto was among the glaciologists and technicians who completed the drilling at the beginning of January at a location called Little Dome C, near Concordia Research Station.

“It was a great a moment for us when we reached the bedrock,” Scoto said. Isotope analysis gave the ice's age as at least 1.2 million years old, he said.

Both Barbante and Scoto said that thanks to the analysis of the ice core of the previous Epica campaign they have assessed that concentrations of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide and methane, even during the warmest periods of the last 800,000 years, have never exceeded the levels seen since the Industrial Revolution began.

“Today we are seeing carbon dioxide levels that are 50% above the highest levels we’ve had over the last 800,000 years," Barbante said.

The European Union funded Beyond EPICA (European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica) with support from nations across the continent. Italy is coordinating the project.

The announcement was exciting to Richard Alley, a climate scientist at Penn State who was not involved with the project and who was recently awarded the National Medal of Science for his career studying ice sheets.

Alley said advancements in studying ice cores are important because they help scientists better understand the climate conditions of the past and inform their understanding of humans’ contributions to climate change in the present. He added that reaching the bedrock holds added promise because scientists may learn more about Earth’s history not directly related to the ice record itself.

“This is truly, truly, amazingly fantastic,” Alley said. “They will learn wonderful things.”



Spain’s Top Court Backs Barcelona’s Plan to Ban Holiday Apartments

A demonstrator holds a house-shaped sign that reads "from touristic flat to temporary rent to Airbnb" during a protest to demand lower housing rental prices and better living conditions, in Barcelona, Spain, November 23, 2024. (Reuters)
A demonstrator holds a house-shaped sign that reads "from touristic flat to temporary rent to Airbnb" during a protest to demand lower housing rental prices and better living conditions, in Barcelona, Spain, November 23, 2024. (Reuters)
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Spain’s Top Court Backs Barcelona’s Plan to Ban Holiday Apartments

A demonstrator holds a house-shaped sign that reads "from touristic flat to temporary rent to Airbnb" during a protest to demand lower housing rental prices and better living conditions, in Barcelona, Spain, November 23, 2024. (Reuters)
A demonstrator holds a house-shaped sign that reads "from touristic flat to temporary rent to Airbnb" during a protest to demand lower housing rental prices and better living conditions, in Barcelona, Spain, November 23, 2024. (Reuters)

One of Spain's top courts on Thursday backed a plan by Barcelona to ban holiday apartment rentals by 2028, rejecting an appeal that argued the measure infringed on the rights of private property owners.

Barcelona was the first Spanish city to adopt a radical decision to shut down all short-term rentals as a way of addressing rising rents.

Following the court ruling, Barcelona's local authorities said they will not renew tourism licenses for short-term rentals after 2028.

"The ruling by the Constitutional Court reinforces, validates and gives legal security to this measure," Barcelona's mayor Jaume Collboni told reporters. "We are on the right path."

Spain is the world's second-most visited country after France, with a record 94 million visitors last year. The country is wrestling with how to balance sustaining tourism, one of the main drivers of its economy, with the needs of locals who say they are being priced out of the housing market by affluent visitors.

In June, Collboni said he would scrap the licenses of more than 10,000 short-term rental apartments, basing his plan on a regional housing decree adopted in 2023 that allows municipalities to decide whether to include holiday flats in their planning permits.

The court said that the regional decree for tourist lets "does not constitute a suppression of property rights".

Airbnb has urged Collboni to reconsider his crackdown on short-term rentals, arguing it only serves to benefit the hotel sector.

The European Holiday Home Association, which represents short-term rentals on online platforms such as Airbnb, also filed a complaint with the European Commission against the region of Catalonia, where Barcelona is located, for allowing cities to ban such rentals.

Other Spanish regions such as the Canary Islands are putting limits on the short-term letting market to contain surging house prices.

Barcelona aims to support the creation of new hotel beds to provide tourist accommodation in areas outside the city center once the ban on renting holiday apartments to tourists comes into force.