Source: Mass drowning of chicks puts emperor penguins at risk of extinction | Climate crisis | The Guardian The mass drowning of emperor penguin chicks as sea ice is melted by the climate crisis has led the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to declare the species officially in danger of extinction. Some comfort they won’t be subject to a tariff. Bob Wilson
Sad. Everything's connected. "Global warming" is high on your current admin's list of terms deserving of derision. Watched a documentary some time back on Emperor Penguins; they have a tough life.
There are >200 thousand breeding pairs of Emperor penguins now. Numbers decrease during years with low sea ice. Highest projected CO2 increase by year 2100 is a model. Second model is of those (thermal) effects on sea ice extent. Third model is of sea ice extent on EP population dynamics. Product of those 3 models is no populations persisting in the wild by 2100 in the worst case. That is not the most likely outcome. -- If the food base (fish and krill) persist, so will the EPs I suppose. -- Penguins in general are amenable to captive rearing and population support. So complete extinction seems off the table. OTOH I do not object to using charismatic animals to guide humanity against unwise actions such as substantially increasing [CO2]. Perhaps that is best done by emphasizing the crisis side. Not my call. -- An earlier penguin species was 1.5 to 2 times size of EPs and went extinct about 35 million years ago. So that also happens.
Another animal, a bipedal primate, notices the severe drought: Exceptionally low snow pack on the West coast North Alabama, drought not yet severe due to cool temperatures Diesel and gas needed for tilling and planting is recently more expensive My garden plans put off a week. Bob Wilson
