• FireTower@lemmy.world
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    17 hours ago

    Why am I just now finding out Antarctica has foliage? What the hell Blue Planet and David Attenborough? This is big. Are we looking at normal plants? Or have we got special antarctic plants. It says lichen and moss. But how far back do they evolutionary diverge? Do these fellas have some sort of adaptation that helps them live in their niche?

    • GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca
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      1 hour ago

      There was a cool guide/meme about lichen a while back. The stuff is weird and very hardy (until it isn’t). Like, sits on a rock and just lives there year round. -40? Not a problem, it will just do nothing until it warms up then it will keep growing. So Antarctica isn’t really going to stop it, just slow it down.

  • sp3tr4l@lemmy.zip
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    20 hours ago

    Well, this is good news in the sense that I am hoping to one day make a video game set in a not too distant future set on a mostly green Antarctica, you know dystopian corporate but also post apocalypse future type thing.

    Good news for my estimated timelines being able to shift closer to present, less worldbuilding time gap.

    Yep… all good news. No bad news whatsoever.

    • psud@aussie.zone
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      17 hours ago

      This is absolutely the best world to set a post apocalyptic fiction on. Apocalypse aversion fiction is getting less credible

      • sp3tr4l@lemmy.zip
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        15 hours ago

        Hah, well thanks for the idea endorsement, I guess!

        Turns out Antarctica actually has some very interesting geography if you take the ice away.

        That and the winter being totally devoid of daylight, the summer being totally devoid of night… the aurora australis being visible basically all the night time…

        Sets up an interesting world, if you crank the temperature up enough.

        • psud@aussie.zone
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          15 hours ago

          Life would be like the northern extremes, just with much more land and less sea ice

  • Ogmios@sh.itjust.works
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    20 hours ago

    TL;DR: The percentage has grown rapidly, because there was almost nothing to begin with, and is still almost nothing.