USA Today International Edition
January 31, 2020
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND — In a shocking release early Friday morning, the European Space Agency (ESA) has confirmed reports that the Envisat satellite has detected the presence of a 2-kilometer wide stretch of forest surrounded by a ring of hurricane-like storms on the frozen continent of Antarctica. In their press statement, ESA Director-General Johann-Dietrich Worner confirmed multiple other Earth-facing satellites corroborate their findings.
The ESA indicates that the stretch of Antarctic territory now occupied by a living forest appears to be a part of Queen Maud Land, claimed as a dependent territory of Norway. The 2-kilometer forest occupied what was last known to be a frozen valley in the Vostok Subglacial Highlands as of Envisat's last survey of Antarctica in September of 2019.
The announcement of this strange discovery has prompted numerous points of speculation among the scientific community. Roger Langstrom, spokesperson for the National Science Foundation in the United States was the first to suggest the forest may be the work of SLC-Expressive individuals utilizing terrakinetic or otherwise plant-related abilities to terraform portions of Antarctica. Langstrom's claim was met with some skepticism by the larger scientific community. However, anonymous sources within British Parliament indicate that the UK is carefully considering the implications of Expressive abilities at use on such an enormous level.
Multiple scientific organizations are petitioning Norway to authorize an expedition into the anomaly, but so far the Norwegian government has been slow to open discussions. Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg has indicated the nation intends to investigate the anomaly but will not authorize a hasty expedition so deep into a dangerous continent like Antarctica.
So far no expeditions have been officially planned into the unexplored territory until further remote study of the phenomenon is performed.