A US-Norwegian scientific expedition headed towards the Norwegian Troll Research Station in Antarctica on Monday, to meet with policymakers and Environment Ministries from several countries. The purpose was to discuss the state of the ice sheets in the region and to assess the threat that they posed to global sea levels. With waters expected to rise swiftly over the next few decades, lawmakers are a bit on the edge, seeing how the decisions they make will directly influence the way in which our planet will behave for future generations.

“It's important to hear the latest science. I was impressed that they're finding temperatures rising. But there is still so much not known,” Britain's environment minister Hilary Benn shared. “Our preliminary finding is that there's a slight warming trend in East Antarctica,” US glaciologist Ted Scambos told the visiting group of officials yesterday.

Whether or not the politicians understand the impact of their future actions will become obvious at this year's Copenhagen convention on climate change, to take place in the fall. Global leaders expect that the summit will yield a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, which the US hasn't ratified even until this moment. In the international community, there is talk that this endeavor will be unsuccessful for two reasons. One is that the economic crisis looms over the head of officials from most countries of the world, and the other is that last year's conference, held in Potsdam, Poland, brought forth little conclusive results.

The findings of the US-Norwegian group, which collected core ice samples along a 1,400 mile (2,300 kilometer)-long trek through the harshest continent in the world, support previous satellite studies, which prove that Antarctica is actually getting warmer, and not cooler, as some who do not believe in global warming have maintained. Right now, the pieces of evidence to contradict them are amassing, but some never see the reason, despite being presented with numerous facts.

More than 12 countries sent their representatives here. The officials spent four days together, touring various regions of the world. On Sunday, they went to South Africa, where they passed several hours discussing the problems the world was facing, as far as the environment was concerned. The US, China and Russia all had representatives present at the talks, which took place behind closed doors, so nothing leaked to the press. The Copenhagen conference will most likely reveal what has been discussed in Africa and Antarctica over this weekend.