A Penguin Paradise, For Now

Rising Temperatures In The Antarctic Are Having A Big Affect On Its Inhabitants

(CBS)  This is the first part of a series on the effects of global warming in Antarctica.

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At 28 degrees, this blue stretch of antarctic ocean is so cold only the salt keeps it from freezing. That's just the way Adelie penguins like it. But this march of the penguins is becoming increasingly perilous.

Biologist David Ainley has been studying Antarctic penguins for 12 years.

He took CBS News correspondent John Blackstone to Cape Royds, a spectacular place few people ever see, to show the unexpected impact of global warming.

So far, climate change has been good for the penguins of Cape Royds. Clearing ice has left plenty of open ocean for feeding. But the air is still frigid, averaging just 15 degrees in the summer.

“In the short term, Cape Royds is the place to be if you're a penguin,” said Ainley.

This year, 5,000 Adelie penguins converged at Royds to breed and raise their young.

"Penguins are the favorite of a lot of people. They look like little people," said Ainley.

CBS News first visited Ainley in 1999. Penguins need sea ice but back then, there was too much of it. This forced the penguins to walk for miles to get to the ocean. Those chubby chicks are among the parents at Cape Royds today. The chubby chicks we photographed then are among the parents at cape royds today.

As cute and curious as they are, these penguins are also pretty tough. But in antarctica, there are fewer and fewer places that are just right. While the population is thriving on Cape Royds, on the peninsula colonies are collapsing. There, temperatures have risen five times faster than in the rest of the world.

“Basically, penguins are moving in large numbers from areas that are no longer suitable,” says Ainley.

Meaning, areas where temperatures are rising too fast to keep the ice they need in place.

“They must have ice to live,” said Ainley’s assistant Jean Pennycook. “So like many songbirds require trees, if you cut down the trees, the songbirds won't be there anymore. If the ice goes away, these penguins will no longer be able to survive.”

"When we see species like penguins having to make these changes, it's an indication we may have to make these changes," said Pennycook.

Increasingly severe climate changes in Antarctica are having devastating effects on some of the colonies Ainley and Pennycook study.

A colony Pennycook was studying on Cape Bird is at the base of a very large glacier. She photographed that glacier as it rapidly melted, flooding the colony and leaving penguins struggling to keep their eggs above water.

"It was very sad," she said.

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John Blackstone blogs in Couric & Co.
Watch a live feed of the penguins at David Ainley's Web Site

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Then, an unusual summer snowstorm buried the chicks.

“It's not so much about global warming, but about climate change. But when there's more warmth, that means more evaporation, and that means more storms,” says Pennycook.

For now, the complex interactions of a changing climate seem to favor this one small colony at Cape Royds. But this really is the end of the earth--as far south as penguins can go in search of the cold climate essential to their survival.

[valjean7]

When did the hockey stick shape of the warming change from the blade to the shaft and how long did that transition take?

[rickdouglas1]

Tell an editor that the word "Affect" in the sub-head of this article is a mistake. I think you meant to use the correct "Effect."

[valjean7]

But that decay has been around a long time doing its thing. It seems the current hockey stick must have another source with the same or a similar hockey stick graph. Wireless communication that keeps everything giggling at the nano-level of matter? It''s not been around that long in the amounts it is now and in the not too far distant past. Part natural swing? Probably. But with an assist from humans connecting to other humans? Stepping on the gas pedal lightly on level ground has little impact. But the same pressure on a downhill slope is considerable, especially accumulatively. Humans would likely refuse to give up their cell phones but at least they should know if their call is distressing a penguin or other lifeforms, including flooding Aunt Mary''s home down the road.

[juwboy]

The heat from the Sun alone is insufficient to support life. This has been known since about 1880 when the heat from the Sun was first measured. Subsequent calculations proved that the Sun''s heat alone was only sufficient to maintain the Earth''s temperature well below the freezing point of water. With the Sun as the only heat source, the Earth would be a frozen lifeless blob. No explanation was available in 1880 to explain the anomaly, but the experiments and calculations have stood the test of time.

So, what is the other heat source here on Earth besides the Sun?

The answer is the decay of radioactive elements within the Earth''s crust (radioactivity had not yet been discovered in 1880).

[valjean7]

Ignored may be that the hot water bottle we put under the gas comforter is included in what is retained. And one human activity that helps warm the the hot water bottle may be indicated by the hockey stick shaped graph of the warming being tracked, in time frame and shape, by one of the development and exploding increase of wireless communication whose energy frequencies activate, thus warm, just as those from the Sun with no built in regular resting periods...24/365. Radio, data transmission, TV, satellites, internet, cell phones, remotes, sensors, trackers. locaters, GPS, radar, CBs, pagers, hand helds galore and growing, etc. all create or utilize energy frequencies that permeate everywhere, non-stop, keeping the atmosphere and some surfaces in a constant state of giggle, aka warmth, even after the Sun goes down. Just think of all that are hitting your body right now even tough your body is not tuned to be aware of them. They''re there, doing what they do whether we recognize or deny it. And the denial would dwarf that of the warming itself if the graph showed a similar shape over the same time. Academics and others would have countless reasons to dismiss any connection. Katie reports on the penguins losing ice space. Call someone. Wash their egg away? Could make an interesting follow up item. Be the first. Wireless communication energy and the hot water bottle it warms. Worth investigating Katie?