Record melting of sea ice in Antarctica: emperor penguins under threat

The ice shelf from Antarctica to the South Pole is currently experiencing record melting.

• Read also: An extinct species could be resurrected thanks to a scientific breakthrough

• Read also: Six Portuguese take global warming to the ECHR

• Read also: Climate change: towards an overall plan for freight transport in Quebec?

At this time of year which marks the end of the southern winter – that is to say the cold season for countries in the southern hemisphere of the Earth – a glaciologist from the University of Melbourne in Australia , Ariaan Purich, notes “the extent of the damage”.

Reuters

“There were more than 2.5 million square kilometers of frozen water that had disappeared,” says the expert.

Reuters

“We can see that 2023 was catastrophic,” she adds.

Global warming has consequences for the species that live in Antarctica.

One of them: the emperor penguin.

Reuters

The melting of the ice, which is now occurring much earlier, is causing numerous drownings among the young of this species of bird who still cannot swim when they have to leave their birthplace.

Reuters

Complete colonies have already disappeared for these reasons.

If nothing is done, the emperor penguin population could disappear by 2100.

Source