Icebergs Conquer Antarctica, One Day At A Time
March 12th, 2010 Posted in Green Living & News
Have you ever seen the movie Happy Feet? The same cute and cuddly penguins featured in that flick are under a serious threat of losing their habitat.
A HUGE, 48 miles long and 39 miles wide, iceberg is predicted to collide with an area of coast that is home to a large emperor penguin population. Why is this happening and is there global warming evidence to prove human involvement?
Want to learn more?
The Emperor Penguin
The Emperor penguin is the largest species of penguins in the world. They mainly live in Antarctica where they thrive in large colonies, much like the one threatened by the incoming iceberg. These large colonies can range in size from hundreds to thousands of penguins.
Emperor penguins don’t make nests like other birds, but warm their young by incubating them underneath their legs and lower body. One of the strangest behaviors of the emperor penguin is that it breeds during Antarctica’s extremely cold winter. Their heads are big and are held up by a thick, short neck.
They have a wedge-shaped tail and a large black and white body that is suited for traversing the rocky arctic waters. The penguin’s skin has waterproof feathers that help keep their actual skin dry while they swim and look for food.
The Incoming Iceberg
The slowly approaching iceberg could possibly alter the food supply of the emperor penguin colonies that litter the area. This is a problem because the penguins will have to travel further to get their food, which endangers the health of their colonies.
These colliding icebergs are moving very slow, but can alter the growth of algae in the normally algae rich area. The lack of algae growth can alter the entire food chain in the area and have far reaching consequences for the penguin colonies.
A vast Antarctic iceberg of this size has the potential to negatively affect the entire region. It’s important that scientists monitor this iceberg and its actions, but it is common for icebergs to move around in Antarctica. It just makes you wonder if global warming has a hand in this occurrence.
Human Involvement?
Global warming is said to be caused by mankind’s presence on earth and the pollution we create everyday. Rising global temperatures have been directly correlated to the actions of human beings, but is this why the iceberg broke off and is threatening the penguins in the area?
Well, we don’t really know. It is known that the oxygen levels in the area are changing as a result of the icebergs movement, but other than that we can’t officially link global warming and this icebergs movement. Scientists are mainly concerned about the movement of these icebergs because they could possibly affect global ocean circulation and decrease the oxygen supply for the penguins and other marine life in the area.
