Antarctic Mission

A Window on a Changing Climate (1x2)

Udgivelsesdato: Dec 21, 2007

A revelatory look at the often subtle and unexpected impacts of our changing climate. Antarctica is still very much a mythical continent—a place that we have known for less than 200 years. Understanding the mechanisms that led to the slow break-up of ancient ice shelves takes both ingenuity and a huge icebreaker, but the changes underway here are not only written in the ice. Antarctica’s inhabitants are telling us that their world is changing in complex and subtle ways. The once successful colonies of diminutive Adelie penguins, on the Antarctic Peninsula just south of the Antarctic Circle, have shrunk by 80 per cent. Although it seems ridiculous, their decline is due in large part to increased snowfall—one of the unexpected consequences of a warmer climate.