The Emperors’ Downfall: Can Penguins Survive Climate Change?
Emperor penguins in Antarctica have been declining for two decades as climate change melts the sea ice they depend on for survival.
Emperor penguins in Antarctica have been declining for two decades as climate change melts the sea ice they depend on for survival.
If Thwaites Glacier, one of the largest glaciers in Antarctica, melted entirely it would raise the global sea level by two feet.
Five of the world’s 18 penguin species are considered endangered and 10 other species are at risk according to IUCN.
Dear EarthTalk: To what extent is Antarctica really melting and what impact might it have on coastlines around the world? — Andrea Hutchinson, Cary, NC The Antarctic continent, roughly the size of the United States and Mexico combined, is composed of rock covered by glaciers some 16,000 feet thick. The glaciers form from fallen snow compacting […]
While only small section of the Antarctic continent is melting quickly, the result could be somewhere between four and ten feet in global sea level rise over the next 200-1000 years.
Ice shelves are thick plates of ice that float on the ocean around much of Antarctica. Snow, glaciers and ice floes feed these large plates in the colder months. In warmer periods, surface melting creates standing water that leaks into cracks and speeds the breaking off (calving) of icebergs, decreasing the continent’s mass in a natural cycle as old as Antarctica itself.