Clipping Board » Environmental Pollution & Change ─ How dirty the human heart is, how dirty the environment will be...
Update Date: 2008/07/15 07:40 Compiled by Zhu Xiaoming
Global warming has caused drastic climate changes in Antarctica, with more rain and less snow, severely threatening penguin reproduction. Newborn Adelie penguins, whose feathers have not yet developed and whose down is not waterproof, are freezing to death in the cold wind by the tens of thousands. Scientists believe that if the heavy rain climate persists, the number of Adelie penguins could decrease by 80%, potentially leading to their extinction within ten years.
The survival of the King penguins, featured in the Oscar-winning documentary "March of the Penguins," is also under threat.
Scientists point out that just as miners used canaries to test air quality in mines, penguins are natural alarm systems for the marine environment. The fate of penguins indicates that the oceans are truly sick.
Over the past fifty years, the temperature of the Antarctic Peninsula has risen by three degrees Celsius, with the current average temperature being minus 14.7 degrees Celsius. More importantly, fifty years ago, the ratio of snowfall to rain was two days of snow for every one day of rain, but in recent years, this ratio has reversed.
Newborn Adelie penguins have only thin down and do not develop waterproof feathers until they are forty days old. When heavy rain comes, penguin parents try to protect their chicks from getting wet, but adult penguins must go out to forage and may become prey for seals. Without their parents, the chicks get soaked and die from hypothermia.
New York explorer Bowermaster said that over the past five years, heavy rains in Antarctica have increased, sometimes lasting for six days, causing little Adelie penguins to shiver from the cold. While their down can protect them from the cold during snowfall, it gets soaked in heavy rain, much like our down jackets. With nighttime temperatures dropping, the chicks often do not survive until morning.
Bowermaster said, "The melting of the Antarctic ice cap might sound abstract, but seeing the remains of the next generation at the feet of penguins is the most shocking and direct evidence of climate change."
In December 2006, Professor Boersma of the University of Washington in Seattle returned to the filming location of "March of the Penguins" in eastern Antarctica. Less than two years later, the landscape had completely changed. Boersma said that looking around, there were no King penguin chicks to be seen, and only a dozen or so icebergs remained. The once-thriving King penguin paradise was no more.
Having studied penguins for thirty years, Boersma noted that penguins are highly sensitive to environmental changes and are always the first to know. Their fate reflects human impact on the environment.
Source: http://tw. news. yahoo. com/ article/ url/ d/ a/ 080715/ 2/ 138eb. html
Antarctic Unusual Rainstorm Kills Tens of Thousands of Penguin Chicks
Global warming has caused drastic climate changes in Antarctica, with more rain and less snow, severely threatening penguin reproduction. Newborn Adelie penguins, whose feathers have not yet developed and whose down is not waterproof, are freezing to death in the cold wind by the tens of thousands. Scientists believe that if the heavy rain climate persists, the number of Adelie penguins could decrease by 80%, potentially leading to their extinction within ten years.
The survival of the King penguins, featured in the Oscar-winning documentary "March of the Penguins," is also under threat.
Scientists point out that just as miners used canaries to test air quality in mines, penguins are natural alarm systems for the marine environment. The fate of penguins indicates that the oceans are truly sick.
Over the past fifty years, the temperature of the Antarctic Peninsula has risen by three degrees Celsius, with the current average temperature being minus 14.7 degrees Celsius. More importantly, fifty years ago, the ratio of snowfall to rain was two days of snow for every one day of rain, but in recent years, this ratio has reversed.
Newborn Adelie penguins have only thin down and do not develop waterproof feathers until they are forty days old. When heavy rain comes, penguin parents try to protect their chicks from getting wet, but adult penguins must go out to forage and may become prey for seals. Without their parents, the chicks get soaked and die from hypothermia.
New York explorer Bowermaster said that over the past five years, heavy rains in Antarctica have increased, sometimes lasting for six days, causing little Adelie penguins to shiver from the cold. While their down can protect them from the cold during snowfall, it gets soaked in heavy rain, much like our down jackets. With nighttime temperatures dropping, the chicks often do not survive until morning.
Bowermaster said, "The melting of the Antarctic ice cap might sound abstract, but seeing the remains of the next generation at the feet of penguins is the most shocking and direct evidence of climate change."
In December 2006, Professor Boersma of the University of Washington in Seattle returned to the filming location of "March of the Penguins" in eastern Antarctica. Less than two years later, the landscape had completely changed. Boersma said that looking around, there were no King penguin chicks to be seen, and only a dozen or so icebergs remained. The once-thriving King penguin paradise was no more.
Having studied penguins for thirty years, Boersma noted that penguins are highly sensitive to environmental changes and are always the first to know. Their fate reflects human impact on the environment.
Source: http://tw. news. yahoo. com/ article/ url/ d/ a/ 080715/ 2/ 138eb. html