this post was submitted on 22 Mar 2026
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Personally, I'm excited to see what kind of biomes end up emerging on a melting/melted Antartica.
Well ok, even I'm not pessimistic enough to think I'll live to see that, in a way that its dramatically different than it is now, but hey, its like uh... a subbranch of speculative evolution, sorta.
Maybe in a 100-200 years we have enough glacial loss and icemelt that West Antarctica might have parts where actual soil is regularly facing the sun.
I think this is a 'what if all the ice was gone' map:
How exactly were the names "East Antarctica" and "West Antarctica" in that map decided? What does "East" and "West" mean at the South Pole?
I googled it:
Image Source: Wikipedia
Anything between lines of longitude 0° - 180° (0° is britain GMT, 180° is opposite side of earth) is EAST.
Anything between 180° to 0 (you can think of as 360°) is WEST.
Thus you have a western hemisphere, which i guess is just tthe americas and british Isles, and an eastern hemisphere, which i guess is most of afroeurasia and australia. This is just about the only way it could've worked, but as for where 0 and 180 went, it's just arbitrary.
I would've defined the Levant as the boundary between east and west hemisphere, instead.
Fun Fact
Eastern Antarctica's ice sheet is older and more well developed than western antarctica. It will probably take longer to melt or collapse than the western half.Source: Discovering Antarctica
Collapsible bonus image + source
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/The-Antarctic-drainage-system-comprising-the-West-Antarctic-WA-ice-sheet-the-East_fig1_338109662
Unless you stand perfectly at the south pr perfectly at the north point of either pole, there will always be an east and a west.
Yes - but you can choose any point to stand on. So all arbitrary separations in to "East" and "West" are equally valid.
We shall have the compass decide, good sir! We are but mere mortals!
Same as now. European influence.
you're thinking geographic west and east. what other definitions exist for west and east?
Under the US’s political sphere of influence vs China’s?
whose map is this? does the chinese map use different words?