The last few months of 2019 coincided with COP Madrid, or a Conference of Parties to the UN Climate Convention, and a flurry of scientific reports warning about the climate emergency. Among them was a study published by Stefanie Jénouvrier, a biologist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, about the imminent extinction of Emperor penguins, unless urgent action is taking to minimize the melting of their icy habitat on Antarctica.
One possible silver lining: models predict that a slower warming, i.e. limiting our emissions to the equivalent of 1.5 ºC globally, would give penguins time to adapt, and minimize their losses. Just another reason to support renewable energy and carbon taxes!
Though we didn’t join Jénouvrier’s team at the South Pole, she did provide us with amazing footage of Emperor penguins doing what they do best: parading through blizzards, tending to their eggs and chicks, diving for fish, and being adorable in the harshest conditions on Earth. We turned that footage into a 90-second video for WHOI’s YouTube channel. How do we know it’s worth watching? Our 2 year-old son wants to watch it all the time, and vows to stop opening the refrigerator door (wasting energy) to help save the penguins!
