Emperors of the Arctic in Trouble



Figure 1- Emperor Penguins

Standing anywhere from 3-4 feet tall the emperor penguin is the largest species of penguins on the planet! They are the rulers of the south pole but may become extinct before the end of the century. Global warming is what has put these amazing animals endanger.

What is global warming?
Global warming causes the earths temperature to raise. Gases that humans put in the air suck in heat which stays in the air to raise the temperatures. Its like turning on a heater in you're house and leaving it on, the room will get hotter and hotter throughout the day. Global is almost the same thing just at a much slower pace as the earths temperature will slowly raise year by year. And because global warming is heating the earth places that are used to colder weather are being harmed. 

Figure 2- Melting ice cream cone

What are the effects of global warming?
Global warming has many effects on the environment especially in the colder parts of the world that are made completely up of snow and ice. It's like when you're eating and ice cream cone on a hot summer day and you are forced to eat the ice cream quickly before all of it melts, global warming does the same thing but with snow. Due to the earth heating up the snow like the ice cream begins to melt and turns into water which then runs into the oceans. This then cause places like the South Pole which is made up of all snow to melt and destroy the emperor penguins home. 


What will happen to the penguins? 
Unlike almost everywhere else in the world the South Pole is made completely up of ice and snow and has no actual ground under it. So since global warming is melting all the snow the penguins home is only going to get smaller and smaller until there is nothing left but an open ocean. And though the penguins are great swimmers they are like humans and can't live in just the ocean forever. So after the South Pole becomes fully melted the penguins will soon after become extinct meaning that they will no longer exist on earth. 

Figure 3- Emperor Penguins jumping out of the water

What are we doing to stop this? 
People are now just realizing that what we are doing is the cause of global warming around the world. Before we figured this out people just assumed that the heating of the earth was natural. Now that we know the causes people are changing their lifestyles to help better our planet and stop global warming for good! These amazing animals like the emperor penguins should be kept safe and unharmed by humans. Since the world now realizes this hopefully things will turn around and these great animals will live for many years to come.

References

Fraser, B. (2012). Melting in the Andes: Goodbye glaciers. Nature, 491, 180-182. doi:10.1038/491180a