World’s Largest Iceberg Could Collide With Island Home to Penguins and Seals
04 November 2020
Animals
King penguins are seen at Salisbury Plain on South Georgia Island. David Stanley / Wikimedia Commons / CC by 2.0
The world's largest iceberg could collide with South Georgia Island, posing a major risk to the wildlife that call it home.
<p>The iceberg, dubbed A68a, broke off from <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/antarctica" target="_self">Antarctica</a>'s Larsen C ice shelf in 2017. After three years at sea, it is now approaching South Georgia Island, where it could run aground. This would block seals and penguins from foraging in open water, British Antarctic Survey (BAS) ecologist Professor Geraint Tarling explained in a <a href="https://www.bas.ac.uk/media-post/a68-iceberg-heads-towards-south-georgia/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">press release</a>.</p><p>"When you're talking about penguins and seals during the period that's really crucial to them – during pup- and chick-rearing – the actual distance they have to travel to find food (fish and krill) really matters," Tarling said. "If they have to do a big detour, it means they're not going to get back to their young in time to prevent them starving to death in the interim."</p>
<div id="0158a" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="16e3157bc104f379a3d50e175a83f340"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1324008455368331264" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">A68a iceberg heads towards #SouthGeorgia – The iceberg is the size of the UK county of Somerset and if it becomes g… https://t.co/ebEJhX83PM</div> — Antarctic Survey (@Antarctic Survey)<a href="https://twitter.com/BAS_News/statuses/1324008455368331264">1604503189.0</a></blockquote></div><p>The iceberg is now approximately 311 miles away from the island and roughly the same size, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/nov/04/giant-antarctic-iceberg-on-collision-course-with-british-territory-of-south-georgia" target="_blank">The Guardian reported</a>. It is currently headed directly toward the island, according to the BAS.</p><p>This is a common route for icebergs that break off from Antarctica to take, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-54798031" target="_blank">BBC News explained</a>. Currents carry the icebergs north, where they catch on the continental shelf surrounding the island. Because A68a only extends around 656 feet below the waterline, it could advance quite far before getting stuck.</p><p>If that happens, Tarling told the BAS the iceberg could be stuck for up to 10 years, increasing its impact on wildlife. The last time an iceberg ran aground off South Georgia, in 2004, large numbers of dead seal pups and penguin chicks were found on local beaches, BBC News reported.</p>
<p>The iceberg could also harm ecosystems on the bottom of the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/ocean" target="_self">ocean</a>.</p><p>"It scrapes along the seafloor and affects those communities of animals there," Australian Antarctic Program Partnership glaciologist Dr. Sue Cook told The Guardian.</p><p>The grounding could also have human impacts. Cook told The Guardian it could impede shipping, while BBC News reported the iceberg could disrupt the island's fishing industry.</p><p>However, it is still unclear if the iceberg will stick.</p><p>"Whether it grounds and gets stuck or drifts past the island is in the balance," BAS remote-sensing and mapping specialist Dr. Peter Fretwell said in the press release. "The currents should take it on what looks like a strange loop around the south end of South Georgia, before then spinning it along the edge of the continental shelf and back off to the northwest. But it's very difficult to say precisely what will happen."</p>
<p><br>If it does stay in the ocean, it could actually help local wildlife, Tarling explained. The dust it carries would fertilize plankton, which supports the entire food web. Plankton also draws carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, helping to combat the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate crisis</a>.</p><p>A68a is what is left of iceberg A68, which broke off from the Larsen C ice shelf in July of 2017, according to The Guardian. At the time, it was larger than the country of Luxembourg at roughly 109 miles long and 31 miles wide. After losing a chunk, it was renamed A68a and is now about 93 miles long and 30 miles wide.</p><p>Cook told The Guardian that it was normal for Antarctica to calve icebergs and that A86a was not extraordinarily large. However, there have been concerns that the Larsen C ice shelf could disintegrate.</p><p>"This is happening in a region where there's a lot of change," Cook said.</p><p><em>Correction: An earlier version of this story said that South Georgia Island was in Antarctica. It is not. </em></p>
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Fossil remains indicate these birds had a wingspan of over 20 feet. Brian Choo, CC BY-NC-SA
By Peter A. Kloess
Picture Antarctica today and what comes to mind? Large ice floes bobbing in the Southern Ocean? Maybe a remote outpost populated with scientists from around the world? Or perhaps colonies of penguins puttering amid vast open tracts of snow?
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</p>
<p>Fossils from Seymour Island, just off the Antarctic Peninsula, are painting a very different picture of what Antarctica looked like 40 to 50 million years ago – a time when the ecosystem was lusher and more diverse. Fossils of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-61973-5" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">frogs</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/03115518.2011.565214" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">plants</a> such as ferns and conifers indicate Seymour Island was much warmer and less icy, while fossil remains from <a href="https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.8268" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">marsupials and distant relatives of armadillos and anteaters</a> hint at the previous connections between Antarctica and other continents in the Southern Hemisphere.</p><p>There were also birds. Penguins were present then, as they are now, but fossil relatives of <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.13679/j.advps.2019.0014" target="_blank">ducks, falcons and albatrosses</a> have also been found in Antarctica. My <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=5CGShQUAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao" target="_blank">colleagues</a> and <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=XlyfD9QAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao" target="_blank">I</a> have recently published an <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-75248-6" target="_blank">article</a> revealing new information about the fossil group that would have dwarfed all the other birds on Seymour Island: the pelagornithids, or "bony-toothed" birds.</p>
Giants of the Sky
<p>As their name suggests, these ancient birds had sharp, bony spikes protruding from sawlike jaws. Resembling teeth, these spikes would have helped them catch squid or fish. We also studied another remarkable feature of the pelagornithids – their imposing size.</p><p>The largest flying bird alive today is the <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/birds/group/albatrosses/" target="_blank">wandering albatross</a>, which has a wingspan that reaches 11 ½ feet. The Antarctic pelagornithids fossils we studied have a wingspan nearly double that – about 21 feet across. If you tipped a two-story building on its side, that's about 20 feet.</p><p>Across Earth's history, very few groups of vertebrates have achieved powered flight – and only two reached truly giant sizes: birds and a group of <a href="https://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/pterosaurs-flight-in-the-age-of-dinosaurs/what-is-a-pterosaur" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">reptiles called pterosaurs</a>.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDYyNTM1MC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2MzU3NzQ4MX0.YS7_KnVR9sjypuvU4e42zccxgYW-_WgV6iVafkDsOMM/img.jpg?width=980" id="78970" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="95d21d5a82c7b1826385df45bc05cc65" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="4288" data-height="2848" />
Full-size model of a Quetzalcoatlus on display at JuraPark in Baltow, Poland. Aneta Leszkiewicz / Wikimedia
<p>Pterosaurs ruled the skies during the Mesozoic Era (252 million to 66 million years ago), the same period that dinosaurs roamed the planet, and they reached hard-to-believe dimensions. <a href="https://www.wired.com/2013/11/absurd-creature-of-the-week-quetz/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Quetzalcoatlus</a> stood 16 feet tall and had a colossal 33-foot wingspan.</p>Birds Get Their Opportunity
<p>Birds originated while dinosaurs and pterosaurs were still roaming the planet. But when an <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/dinosaur-killing-asteroid-impact-chicxulub-crater-timeline-destruction-180973075/" target="_blank">asteroid struck the Yucatan Peninsula 66 million years ago</a>, dinosaurs and pterosaurs both perished. Some <a href="https://www.audubon.org/news/how-birds-survived-asteroid-impact-wiped-out-dinosaurs" target="_blank">select birds survived</a>, though. These survivors diversified into the thousands of bird species alive today. Pelagornithids evolved in the period right after dinosaur and pterosaur extinction, when competition for food was lessened.</p><p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/spp2.1284" target="_blank">The earliest pelagornithid remains</a>, recovered from 62-million-year-old sediments in New Zealand, were about the size of modern gulls. The first giant pelagornithids, the ones in our study, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-75248-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">took flight over Antarctica about 10 million years later</a>, in a period called the Eocene Epoch (56 million to 33.9 million years ago). In addition to these specimens, fossilized remains from other pelagornithids have been found on every continent.</p><p>Pelagornithids lasted for about 60 million years before going extinct just before the Pleistocene Epoch (2.5 million to 11,700 years ago). No one knows exactly why, though, because few fossil records have been recovered from the period at the end of their reign. Some paleontologists cite <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/02724634.2011.562268" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">climate change as a possible factor</a>.</p>Piecing it Together
<p>The fossils we studied are fragments of whole bones collected by paleontologists from the University of California at Riverside in the 1980s. In 2003, the specimens were transferred to Berkeley, where they now reside in the <a href="https://ucmp.berkeley.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">University of California Museum of Paleontology</a>.</p><p>There isn't enough material from Antarctica to rebuild an entire skeleton, but by comparing the fossil fragments with similar elements from more complete individuals, we were able to assess their size.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDYyNTM2MS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2NDg2NTgzMn0.nouTygP-aON3I5a1RKEG9q1vB7_yJ30rTTd_Brc0CrA/img.jpg?width=980" id="cc47d" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="8ac77d6b9034f166e00fabac14d36f98" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="600" data-height="573" />
In life, the pelagornithid would have had numerous 'teeth,' making it a formidable predator. Peter Kloess, CC BY-NC-SA
<p>We estimate the pelagornithid's skull would have been about 2 feet long. A fragment of one bird's lower jaw preserves some of the "pseudoteeth" that would have each measured up to an inch tall. The spacing of those "teeth" and other measurements of the jaw show this fragment came from an individual as big as, if not bigger than, the largest known pelagornithids.</p><p>Further evidence of the size of these Antarctic birds comes from a second pelagornithid fossil, from a different location on Seymour Island. A section of a foot bone, called a tarsometatarsus, is the largest specimen known for the entire extinct group.<br></p><p>These pelagornithid fossil findings emphasize the importance of natural history collections. Successful field expeditions result in a wealth of material brought back to a museum or repository – but the time required to prepare, study and publish on fossils means these institutions typically <a href="https://theconversation.com/digitizing-the-vast-dark-data-in-museum-fossil-collections-102833" target="_blank">hold many more specimens than they can display</a>. Important discoveries can be made by collecting specimens on expeditions in remote locations, no doubt. But equally important discoveries can be made by simply processing the backlog of specimens already on hand.</p>
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<em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/peter-a-kloess-1164526" target="_blank">Peter A. Kloess</a> is a </em><em>Doctoral Candidate, Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley.</em>
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<em>Disclosure statement: </em><em><em>Peter A. Kloess does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</em></em>
</p><p>
<em><em></em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://theconversation.com/giant-toothed-birds-flew-over-antarctica-40-million-to-50-million-years-ago-148772" target="_blank">The Conversation</a>.</em>
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Xsandra / Getty Images
Looking for ways to cut down on single-use plastic while grocery shopping? You may already have eco-friendly shopping bags, but bringing your own reusable produce bags is another easy swap.
According to the UN Environment Program, up to 5 trillion single-use plastic bags are used globally each year, and because of the material they're made from, most municipal recycling centers don't accept them (more on this below).
The most sustainable option is to skip the bag altogether. You can also make your own reusable produce bags out of old T-shirts. But if you'd rather purchase them new, here are our recommendations for the best reusable produce bags on the market today.
<p><em>Each product featured here has been independently selected by the writer. If you make a purchase using the links included, we may earn commission.</em></p>
<h2>Why make the switch to reusable produce bags?<br/></h2><p>According to the <a href="https://www.unep.org/interactive/beat-plastic-pollution/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">UN</a>, humans produce 300 million tons of plastic waste each year, and about 60% of the plastic produced since the early 1950s has ended up in a landfill or the natural environment.</p><p>Plastic grocery bags and produce bags are made from low-density polyethylene (LDPE). Technically, this type of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/plastic-recycling-myth-2647706452.html" target="_self">plastic can be recycled</a>. However, in practice, plastic bags easily clog recycling machinery, so <a href="https://millerrecycling.com/ldpe-out-of-landfills" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">most municipal recycling centers</a> do not accept this type of material.</p><p>A <a href="https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2018-07/documents/smm_2015_tables_and_figures_07252018_fnl_508_0.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">study by the EPA</a> showed that only about 6% of the LDPE generated in 2015 was recycled. Other types of plastic, by comparison, were recycled at 18% and 10% rates.</p>Although some <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/vancouvers-grocery-store-plastic-bags-2638807121.html" target="_self">grocery stores</a> offer plastic bag recycling, the easiest way to get around this is to refuse plastic bags in the first place. Many cities have instituted <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/new-york-plastic-bag-ban-begins-2645319695.html" target="_self">plastic bag bans</a>, but more often than not, it's up to individuals to choose to make the switch to reusable grocery bags in their day-to-day lives.<p><br/></p><p><em><em><strong><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/about-ecowatch-2641507575.html?rebelltitem=47#rebelltitem47" target="_self">Melissa Smith</a> </strong>is an avid writer, scuba diver, backpacker, and all-around outdoor enthusiast. She graduated from the University of Florida with degrees in journalism and sustainable studies. Before joining EcoWatch, Melissa worked as the managing editor of Scuba Diving magazine and the communications manager of The Ocean Agency, a non-profit that's featured in the Emmy award-winning documentary Chasing Coral.</em></em></p><em><em></em></em>
Best Reusable Produce Bag Set: Eco Joy Cotton Reusable Produce Bags
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTcxOTAxNS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzODE2MDIyNH0.qyiKrnX8T4CRp8Y5Kn_cW1oaSF7vDci2gmKEXxJfQmE/img.jpg?width=980" id="8db60" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="d39a705e9f90fc1369a1806bc6d4e016" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="400" data-height="400" />Eco Joy
<p>If you're making the switch to more sustainable shopping bags and want a variety of products to use, the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Reusable-Sandwich-Biodegradable-Eco-Drawstring/dp/B003PK4W3I/ref=sr_1_36?crid=3TDUCB8ZOM7WI&dchild=1&keywords=produce+bags+grocery+reusable&qid=1613484643&sprefix=produce+bags%2Caps%2C189&sr=8-36" target="_blank">Eco Joy Cotton Reusable Produce Bags</a> set is a great place to start. The set comes with three mesh drawstring bags, three muslin drawstring bags, a large mesh tote and a zippered sandwich-size pouch.</p><p>Each product is made with organic, non-GMO cotton that's ethically sourced in accordance with Worldwide Responsible Accredited Production (WRAP) standards. The cotton comes from India and Turkey, and the bags are hand-assembled in Canada by the owner of Eco Joy, so you can feel good about supporting a small business while reducing your environmental impact.</p><p><strong>Customer rating:</strong> 4.7 out of 5 stars with over 300 Amazon reviews</p><p><strong>Why buy: </strong>Zero-waste; Handmade in Canada; WRAP compliant; Machine washable</p>
$13
Best Mesh Bags: Organic Cotton Mart Reusable Cotton Mesh Produce Bags
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTcxOTE0OC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1MTQyNDQ5MX0.E6MFCOXZ-3EvKDK0MIv34EJO3oE6WMWxiFZBR5aNU_w/img.jpg?width=980" id="ba5c7" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="91a9dd3d18f7b4a41fae606ff4d1204b" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="400" data-height="400" />Organic Cotton Mart
<p>Some shoppers prefer to use mesh bags when shopping for fruits and veggies. We recommend checking out <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Best-Reusable-Produce-Organic-Cotton/dp/B07CK2TJKL/ref=sr_1_16?crid=10A7NM0LQ0B7E&dchild=1&keywords=mesh+produce+bags&qid=1613483897&s=home-garden&sprefix=mesh+pro%2Cgarden%2C162&sr=1-16" target="_blank">Organic Cotton Mart's Reusable Cotton Mesh Produce Bags</a> if you're in this camp, as they're made with Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) certified cotton.</p> <p>Mesh reusable produce bags can make the checkout process easier than muslin bags since you can see what's inside them without having to open them up. Plus, the tare weight (i.e., the weight of the empty bag that should be subtracted from the total weight of your produce to make sure you don't pay extra for using your bag) is printed right on the label of Organic Cotton Mart's bags, making everything that much more convenient.</p> <p><strong>Customer rating:</strong> 4.6 out of 5 stars with nearly 1,000 Amazon reviews</p><strong>Why buy:</strong> GOTS certified; Machine washable; Biodegradable
$16
Best Muslin Bags: Simple Ecology Reusable Produce Bags
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTcxOTE1OS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyNjY3NDE3N30.f2sAcYTGhqq4ytlNGSyzZexPwqH2SpqpTwsX2fvph10/img.jpg?width=980" id="f90b3" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="e95c082f9b831bf11004e12b73ae8263" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="400" data-height="400" />Simple Ecology
<p>On the other hand, if you just want to purchase muslin bags, we like <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Simple-Ecology-Reusable-Organic-Shopping/dp/B004UJ0U0C" target="_blank">Simple Ecology's Reusable Produce Bags</a>, which are also made with GOTS-certified organic cotton. Simple Ecology also has a <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N6AUMBG/ref=sspa_dk_detail_2?psc=1&pd_rd_i=B01N6AUMBG&pd_rd_w=MA3ZS&pf_rd_p=cbc856ed-1371-4f23-b89d-d3fb30edf66d&pd_rd_wg=hVunQ&pf_rd_r=G6RTQ1Z5DKEY325MAJZ9&pd_rd_r=5d298b3a-1be7-4ebd-a9e1-d5d672a40497&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUExMzc4RVAxWjNLOTdCJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwNTc0NTAwMzBDMjFYOVJPTUpWSCZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwNjYyOTM4M0s4Vk81SVBPS1NFSyZ3aWRnZXROYW1lPXNwX2RldGFpbF90aGVtYXRpYyZhY3Rpb249Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU=" target="_blank">starter kit</a> that comes with several reusable grocery bags if you're looking for more variety.</p> <p>The benefit of using muslin reusable produce bags is that, unlike mesh, there are no holes for small items to slip through. This means that in addition to larger produce, you can use them to purchase bulk foods like lentils, beans and rice — or even powders like flour or spices — without worrying about anything leaking. They're also best for keeping leafy greens fresh.</p> <p><strong>Customer rating:</strong> 4.7 out of 5 stars with nearly 1,500 Amazon reviews</p><strong>Why buy:</strong> GOTS certified; Machine washable; Biodegradable; Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) certified packaging when purchased from manufacturer
$16
Best String Bags: ECOBAGS Market Collection Reusable Bag Set
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTcxOTE2Ny9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1NTkzMDc5Mn0.v_aTdf8TPuA39wgpmS2Dgb_88t2jfcbXDJkC9wf5CrE/img.png?width=980" id="c42d2" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="ada50990c5c2520886afd23fcca522a4" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="752" data-height="628" />ECOBAGS
<p>Whether you're buying bread, fresh flowers, produce or all of the above, the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/ECOBAGS-Market-Collection-Reusable-Natural/dp/B08KFGPGN5" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">ECOBAGS Market Collection Reusable Bag Set</a> is ideal for <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/farmers-markets-coronavirus-safety-2645581711.html" target="_self">farmers market</a> shopping or large grocery hauls. The netted bags are durable, flexible, and pack down small so they're easy to keep in your car or purse.</p> <p>ECOBAGS is a woman-owned certified B Corp, which means it uses sound social and environmental practices. These bags come in packs of three or five and have a few different handle lengths and color options, but they're all made with GOTS-certified organic cotton.</p> <p><strong>Customer rating: </strong>Not applicable</p><p><strong>Why buy:</strong> GOTS certified; Machine washable; Biodegradable; Certified B Corp; SA8000 certified for the protection of basic human rights of workers</p>
$36
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The ozone hole over Antarctica on Oct. 6, 2020. NASA Ozone Watch
The hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica is one of the largest and deepest in the past 15 years, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said Tuesday.
<p>The ozone hole over Antarctica usually starts to grow in August and reaches its peak in October, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/europe-antarctica-climate-change-archive-geneva-ec4eeb8da25ef7a7536c05105cf50550" target="_blank">The Associated Press explained</a>. This year, it peaked at 24 million square kilometers (approximately 9.3 million square miles) and is now at 23 million square kilometers (approximately 8.9 million square miles), the WMO said. This means the hole is larger than the average for the past decade and extends over most of Antarctica.</p><p>"With the sunlight returning to the South Pole in the last weeks, we saw continued ozone depletion over the area. <a href="https://public.wmo.int/en/media/news/antarctic-ozone-hole-smallest-record" target="_blank">After the unusually small and short-lived ozone hole in 2019,</a> which was driven by special meteorological conditions, we are registering a rather large one again this year, which confirms that we need to continue enforcing the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/montreal-protocol" target="_self">Montreal Protocol</a> banning emissions of ozone depleting chemicals," Vincent-Henri Peuch, director of the EU's Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) at ECMWF, said in the WMO press release.</p>
<div id="e533d" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="3148f785e224740722e9b973c1f73d13"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1313453354266382337" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">The #ozone hole over the #Antarctic is one of the largest and deepest in recent years, per @CopernicusECMWF,… https://t.co/k8DUe65iqV</div> — World Meteorological Organization (@World Meteorological Organization)<a href="https://twitter.com/WMO/statuses/1313453354266382337">1601986657.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>The ozone layer is important because it protects the earth from dangerous ultraviolet radiation, <a href="https://atmosphere.copernicus.eu/monitoring-ozone-layer" target="_blank">CAMS explained</a>. In the late 20th century, that layer was damaged by the human release of ozone-depleting halocarbons, which the Montreal Protocol of 1987 sought to control.</p><p>But the size of the ozone hole every year is also impacted by specific weather conditions. This year, a strong polar vortex has chilled the air above Antarctica, and consistently cold air creates the ideal conditions for ozone depletion.</p><p>"The air has been below minus 78 degrees Celsius, and this is the temperature which you need to form stratospheric clouds — and this quite (a) complex process," WMO spokesperson Clare Nullis said at a UN briefing reported by The Associated Press. "The ice in these clouds triggers a reaction which then can destroy the ozone zone. So, it's because of that that we are seeing the big ozone hole this year."</p><p>Specifically, the ice can turn nonreactive chemicals into reactive ones, the WMO explained. Light from the sun then triggers chemical reactions that deplete the ozone layer.</p>
<p>The Montreal Protocol has been <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/montreal-protocol-ozone-climate-change-2641579082.html" target="_self">hailed</a> as an example of effective international collaboration on a major environmental problem. Last year's hole over Antarctica was the smallest it has been since the hole was discovered, but this was due to unusual weather, not emissions reductions, <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/ozone-hole-antarctica-largest-deepest-years-researchers/story?id=73451987" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">ABC News reported</a>.</p><p>"There is much variability in how far ozone hole events develop each year," Peuch said in the WMO release.</p><p>The 2018 hole was also on the larger side.</p><p>Still, the WMO and the UN Environment Programme determined in 2018 that the ozone layer was on the road to recovery and could return to pre-1980 levels over Antarctica by 2060.</p>
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Greenland Ice Sheet Melting Faster Than at Any Time in Last 12,000 Years, Study Finds
01 October 2020
Climate
Icebergs float at the mouth of the Ilulissat Icefjord during a week of unseasonably warm weather on Aug. 4, 2019 near Ilulissat, Greenland. Sean Gallup /Getty Images
Rising temperatures in the air and the water surrounding Greenland are melting its massive ice sheet at a faster rate than anytime in the last 12 millennia, according to a new study published Wednesday in the journal Nature.
<p>The study, <em>Rate of mass loss from the Greenland Ice Sheet will exceed Holocene values this century</em>, found that while Greenland is losing ice rapidly now, the worst is yet to come. At its current trajectory, the Greenland ice sheet will lose its ice mass roughly four times faster than at anytime in the last 11,700 years. The researchers say the massive dump of freshwater into the <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/oceans" target="_self">ocean</a> will disrupt the ocean's currents and <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/sea-level-rise" target="_self">raise sea levels</a>, as <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2020/09/30/greenland-ice-melt/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Washington Post</a> reported.</p><p>Advanced prediction models had led scientists to conclude that Greenland's melting ice, which is currently the largest contributor to sea level rise, is raising sea levels by 0.7 millimeters each year. And, by the end of the century, that number could increase anywhere from four to ten times its current contribution.</p>
<p>This new paper found that prediction to be a severe underestimation. It revised that prediction and accounted for a wide range of greenhouse gas emissions to conclude that Greenland's contribution to sea level rise will actually be much worse. By the end of the century, it will lift sea levels between 2 to 10 centimeters every year, according to a commentary in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02700-y#:~:text=Briner%20et%20al.4%20have,about%206%2C000%20gigatonnes%20per%20century." target="_blank"><em>Nature</em></a>.</p><p>The Washington Post noted that while Greenland is the largest contributor to rising sea levels, the melting ice sheets in <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/antarctica">Antarctica</a> may raise sea levels even more.</p><p>"We have altered our planet so much that the rates of ice sheet melt this century are on pace to be greater than anything we have seen under natural variability of the ice sheet over the past 12,000 years," said Jason Briner, a geologist at the University of Buffalo and lead author of the paper, as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/30/greenlands-ice-melting-faster-sea-level-rise" target="_blank">The Guardian</a> reported.</p>
<p>Briner pointed out that the current ice melt is not due to the natural variability, which is why it is so different from historical patterns. This melting is strictly man-made, which is unprecedented in the history of the world, as <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/30/weather/greenland-ice-sheet-melt-carbon-emissions-climate-change/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a> reported.</p><p>The commentary in <em>Nature</em>, written by Andy Aschwanden from the Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, noted that there is really only one way available to us to stop the acceleration of sea ice loss from Greenland.</p><p>"Thanks to the work of Briner and colleagues, we are now one step closer to the goal of accurately and confidently predicting mass loss from the Greenland ice sheet," Aschwanden concluded. "However, we are also increasingly certain that we are about to experience unprecedented rates of ice loss from Greenland, unless greenhouse-gas emissions are substantially reduced."</p><p>To conduct the research, the scientists used a combination of on-the-ground observations in southwest Greenland and advanced computer modeling. The geologists looked at the composition of Greenland's boulders to determine when ice was there and when it melted away. That analysis allowed them to put together an uninterrupted history of Greenland's ice sheet and a predictive model for the next century, as The Washington Post reported.</p>
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Antarctica's Thwaites Glacier, aka the "Doomsday Glacier," is starting to crack. NASA / Wikimedia Commons
Antarctica's Thwaites Glacier has been called the "Doomsday Glacier." Thwaites and its neighbor, the Pine Island Glacier, are among those in West Antarctica most influenced by the climate crisis. If they melted, they could destabilize the entire West Antarctic Ice Sheet, which has the potential to contribute about 10 feet to global sea level rise.
<p>Now, a new study has found that the ice shelves supporting the two crucial glaciers are beginning to fissure and crack.</p><p>"These ice shelves are in the early phase of disintegration," study leader and Delft University of Technology satellite expert Stef Lhermitte told <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/15/weather/antarctica-pine-island-thwaites-glacier-climate-intl-hnk/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a>. "They're starting to tear apart."</p><p>The research, published in the <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2020/09/08/1912890117" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</a> Monday, looked at satellite images taken between 1997 and 2019 to document the ice shelves' increasing damage. The images show crevices and fissures in the glaciers, according to a Delft <a href="https://www.tudelft.nl/en/2020/tu-delft/antarctica-cracks-in-the-ice/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">press release</a>.</p>
<div id="9e0ea" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="307392311f755bed5cb3a21f52e3dbc1"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1305597446182051841" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">We use satellite imagery to show how the shear margins of both @AntarcticPIG and @ThwaitesGlacier have weakened. He… https://t.co/nKn0nGLU9V</div> — Stef Lhermitte (@Stef Lhermitte)<a href="https://twitter.com/StefLhermitte/statuses/1305597446182051841">1600113662.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>Ice shelves are important for a glacier's stability because they provide support, similarly to how flying buttresses support a cathedral, International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration lead principle researcher Brent Goehring <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/satellite-images-show-deterioration-antarctica-glaciers-lead-rising/story?id=72985182" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">told ABC News</a>. Goehring was not involved with the paper.</p><p>The damage is occurring in the glaciers' shear zones, parts of the ice shelves where the fast-moving ice on top connects with the slower-moving ice or rock beneath, CNN explained. That damage significantly increased in 2016.</p><p>The researchers think that the damage they observed to the ice shelves will only beget more damage, Lhermitte explained in a <a href="https://twitter.com/StefLhermitte/status/1305599311091240963" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Twitter thread</a>. This is for three reasons:</p><ol><li>The damage undermines the structural integrity of the ice shelves.</li><li>The damage weakens the ice shelves and makes them more vulnerable to warming air and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/ocean" target="_self">ocean</a> temperatures.</li><li>The damage creates a feedback loop, leading to more weakening and more damage.</li></ol>
<p>Because of this, the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/scientists" target="_self">scientists</a> suggested that the damage be accounted for in climate models to better predict how Antarctic ice melt will contribute to sea level rise.</p><p>Sea levels are currently rising by around 3.5 millimeters a year, and the Thwaites Glacier accounts for four to five percent of that, Goehring told ABC News.</p><p>"If those glaciers would destabilize, a lot of neighboring areas would also fall apart, causing a widespread collapse," Indrani Das, a co-principle researcher on an International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration project, told ABC News. "It would cause a huge sea level rise."</p><p>However, Das did not think it likely that the collapse would take place this century.</p>
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Penguins gather on an ice floe near Davis Station, Southern Ocean, Antarctica on Jan. 25, 2019. copyright Jeff Miller / Moment / Getty Images
Antarctica and Greenland's ice sheets are currently melting at a pace consistent with worst-case-scenario predictions for sea level rise, with serious consequences for coastal communities and the reliability of climate models.
<p>A paper published in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-020-0893-y" target="_blank">Nature Climate Change</a> Monday compared the latest satellite observations of polar ice melt with the predictions outlined in the <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/assessment-report/ar5/" target="_blank">Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report</a>. It <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-020-0893-y.epdf?no_publisher_access=1&r3_referer=nature" target="_blank">found</a> that the ice sheets are currently raising sea levels at a rate 45 percent above the IPCC's central prediction and closer to its worst-case scenario. If this continues, the two ice sheets could raise sea levels a further 17 centimeters (approximately 7 inches) more than central predictions by 2100.</p><p>"If ice sheet losses continue to track our worst-case climate warming scenarios we should expect an additional 17cm of sea level rise from the ice sheets alone," study coauthor and University of Leeds researcher Anna Hogg said in a <a href="http://www.leeds.ac.uk/news/article/4658/sea_level_rise_matches_worst-case_scenario" target="_blank">university press release</a>. "That's enough to double the frequency of storm-surge <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/flooding" target="_self">flooding</a> in many of the world's largest coastal cities."</p>
<div id="2fa32" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="b464cded4f9b3404465e4b8c04f92009"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1300528364873277440" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Ice sheets losses are tracking the IPCCs worst case climate predictions. This could mean an extra 17 cm of sea leve… https://t.co/wPdqTWef1D</div> — CPOM News (@CPOM News)<a href="https://twitter.com/CPOM_news/statuses/1300528364873277440">1598905099.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>Since the 1990s, the two ice sheets have already increased global sea levels by 1.8 centimeters (approximately 0.7 inches). But it was between 2007 and 2017 that the ice sheets began to lose mass at a rate consistent with worst-case-scenario projections, adding around 1.23 centimeters (approximately 0.5 inches) to the water line during that decade, according to the study.</p><p>A worst-case-scenario sea level rise as currently predicted would expose 44 to 66 million people to yearly coastal flooding by century's end. But one of study's most alarming implications is that, if sea level rise is already tracking worst-case-scenario predictions, the actual worst-case scenario could be even more dire.</p>
<p>"We need to come up with a new worst-case scenario for the ice sheets because they are already melting at a rate in line with our current one," lead author and Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling (CPOM) at the University of Leeds researcher Thomas Slater told <a href="https://www.sciencealert.com/ice-sheet-melting-is-perfectly-in-line-with-our-worst-case-scenario-scientists-warn?fbclid=IwAR2s5aduvFPi61VIAg7yIvh813EBaKGyJPzQh836ugmUY3pPkm3wHGfaTx0" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">AFP</a>. "Sea level projections are critical in helping governments plan climate policy, mitigation and adaptation strategies. If we underestimate future sea level rise, then these measures may be inadequate and leave coastal communities vulnerable."</p><p>One of the reasons climate models might underestimate the worst-case scenario, Slater told AFP, is that they do not account for short-term weather changes such as the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/heat-wave" target="_self">heat wave</a> that <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/greenland-record-breaking-melt-heat-wave-2639610009.html" target="_self">drove</a> Greenland's <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/greenland-ice-melt-2019-2647049163.html" target="_self">record melt</a> in the summer of 2019.</p><p>The models that will be used for the IPCC's next report are better at predicting how the ice sheets, <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/oceans" target="_self">oceans</a> and atmosphere interact, Slater said.</p>
<p>The latest study follows a slew of bad news for the world's ice. One study <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/greenland-ice-sheet-melting-2647005347.html" target="_self">published in August</a> found that the Greenland ice sheet had passed the "point of no return" and would continue to melt even if the climate crisis were halted.</p><p><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/earth-sea-ice-melt-study-2647072206.html" target="_self">Another recent study</a>, also driven by Leeds' CPOM, calculated that the earth had lost 28 trillion tonnes (approximately 31 trillion U.S. tons) of ice in just 23 years.</p><p>These studies reflect a new global reality: In the last five years, melt from ice sheets and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/glaciers" target="_self">glaciers</a> has outpaced the expansion of warming ocean water as the main cause of sea level rise.</p><p>"It is not only Antarctica and Greenland that are causing the water to rise," Dr. Ruth Mottram, a coauthor on Monday's study and a climate researcher at the Danish Meteorological Institute, told the University of Leeds. "In recent years, thousands of smaller glaciers have begun to melt or disappear altogether, as we saw with the glacier Ok in Iceland, which was declared 'dead' in 2014. This means that melting of ice has now taken over as the main contributor of sea level rise."</p>
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Earth Lost Over 30 Trillion Tons of Ice in Under 30 Years, Scientists 'Stunned' by Landmark Study
24 August 2020
Climate
Sea ice breaking up in Greenland. steve_is_on_holiday / E+ / Getty Images
The Earth has lost 28 trillion tonnes (approximately 31 trillion U.S. tons) of ice in just 23 years, and the climate crisis is largely to blame.
<p>The finding comes in a <a href="https://tc.copernicus.org/preprints/tc-2020-232/" target="_blank">review paper</a> published in The Cryosphere this month that used satellite data and numerical modelling to calculate all the ice that melted worldwide between 1994 and 2017.</p><p>"In the past researchers have studied individual areas – such as the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/antarctica" target="_self">Antarctic</a> or <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/greenland" target="_self">Greenland</a> – where ice is melting. But this is the first time anyone has looked at all the ice that is disappearing from the entire planet," study coauthor and director of Leeds University's Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling Andy Shepherd told <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/aug/23/earth-lost-28-trillion-tonnes-ice-30-years-global-warming" target="_blank">The Guardian</a>. "What we have found has stunned us."</p>
<p><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/arctic" target="_self">Arctic</a> <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/sea-ice" target="_self">sea ice</a>, Antarctic ice shelves, mountain <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/glaciers" target="_self">glaciers</a>, the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, and Southern Ocean sea ice all lost mass during the study period, the researchers wrote. About 68 percent of those losses were caused by warmer air temperatures, while the remaining 32 percent were caused by warmer <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/ocean" target="_self">ocean</a> water.</p><p>"There can be little doubt that the vast majority of Earth's ice loss is a direct consequence of climate warming," the researchers wrote, as The Guardian reported.</p>
<p>In fact, the total ice loss recorded matches the worst-case scenario predicted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). And it's likely to get worse. The researchers prognosticate a meter (approximately three feet) of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/sea-level-rise" target="_self">sea level rise</a> by 2100.</p><p>"To put that in context, every centimetre of sea level rise means about a million people will be displaced from their low-lying homelands," Shepherd told The Guardian.</p><p>But sea level rise isn't the only consequence of ice melt. For one thing, the melting ice exposes darker ocean waters or soil, which absorb the sun's heat rather than reflect it, increasing global heating. The fresh water melting from ice sheets also disrupts Arctic and Antarctic ocean ecosystems, while the loss of mountain glaciers threatens the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/drinking-water" target="_self">drinking water</a> of several communities.</p><p>"What more can be said? What further evidence are we waiting for?" UK Green Party co-leader Caroline Lucas tweeted in response to the news. "Feel so overwhelmingly sad - and so angry too. We can't say we didn't know. Are we really saying we just didn't care?"</p>
<div id="820ce" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="bc5cc2d33d34204b11a78693091a1afe"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1297470664031588352" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">What more can be said? What further evidence are we waiting for?
Feel so overwhelmingly sad - and so angry too
W… https://t.co/cvYV9ore53</div> — Caroline Lucas (@Caroline Lucas)<a href="https://twitter.com/CarolineLucas/statuses/1297470664031588352">1598176086.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>This has been a bad summer for ice news. Another study <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/greenland-ice-sheet-melting-2647005347.html" target="_self">published this month</a> found that Greenland's ice sheet had reached the "point of no return" and would continue to melt even if the climate crisis were halted. A <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/greenland-ice-melt-2019-2647049163.html" target="_self">third study</a> found that Greenland lost a record amount of ice in 2019.</p>
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The Wildlife from Space project uses satellite technology to identify, count and monitor species such as emperor penguins in Antarctica. British Antarctic Survey / YouTube
New satellite images have revealed 11 new throngs of emperor penguin colonies, lifting the number of known emperor penguin colonies by 20 percent and their total population by 5 to 10 percent, according to The Guardian.
<p>"The [new colonies] are an exciting discovery," said Peter Fretwell, at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), who led the research, according to The Guardian. "Whilst this is good news, the colonies are small and so only take the overall population count up to just over half a million penguins."</p><p>While that may sound like great news for penguins, the truth is these penguins are just as threatened as the rest of their flightless feathered friends, according to <a href="https://earther.gizmodo.com/satellite-images-reveal-new-penguin-colonies-in-melting-1844609508" target="_blank">Gizmodo</a>.</p><p>The 11 new colonies bring the total number up to 61 colonies spread across the continent. Now, the newly discovered birds will act as "canaries in the coalmine" when it comes to studying the impact of global warming, experts have said, as <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/05/world/penguins-antarctica-satellite-scn-scli-intl/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a> reported.</p>
<p>The study, which used satellite mapping technology, will "provide an important benchmark for monitoring the impact of environmental change on the population of this iconic bird," researchers said, according to CNN.</p><p>The study was published in <em><a href="https://zslpublications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/20563485/0/0" target="_blank">Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation</a></em> on Wednesday. The findings help shed light on just how threatened the emperor penguins really are. While the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-crisis">climate crisis</a> is rapidly altering the surface of Earth, <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/antarctica">Antarctica</a> is running ahead of most of the world. It is warming three times faster than the most of the planet. With all that warmth comes the loss of <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/sea-ice">sea ice</a>, which is devastating to emperor penguins since they breed on the ice and need it to be stable, as Gizmodo reported.</p><p>"Emperor penguins are vulnerable to climate change, particularly the breakup of the sea ice on which they breed," said study author Peter Fretwell, a researcher with the British Antarctic Survey, in an email to Gizmodo. "Finding more penguins and studying their movements and distribution will be important if we are to understand their struggle to survive in the warming Antarctic environment."</p>
<p>As the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-53549299" target="_blank">BBC</a> noted, the emperors' whole life cycle is centered on the availability of sea ice, and if this is diminished in the decades ahead, as climate models project, then the animals' numbers will suffer. Some models predict that penguin colonies will drop by 90 percent, according to The Guardian.</p><p>The discoveries were made by spotting the distinctive red-brown guano patches the birds leave on the ice, according to The Guardian. The findings were made possible by higher-resolution images from a new satellite, as previous scans were unable to pick up smaller colonies.</p><p>The European Space Agency's Sentinel-2 satellite was launched in June 2015 and has a resolution of 10 meters. This enabled a search for the smaller penguin colonies. Emperor penguins were expected to be present at fairly regular intervals around the coast of Antarctica, so the search was targeted in areas where none were known. "In every gap where we thought there might be a colony, we found one," said Fretwell, as The Guardian reported.</p>
<p>The European Space Agency makes these images available online, so the team was able to analyze images from 2016, 2018 and 2019. By searching the images for "small areas of brown pixels," or clumps of penguin guano, and targeting their searches by looking at areas near known colonies and breeding habitat, the researchers were able to find these new communities, according to Gizmodo.</p><p>The next step is to direct satellites with very high, 30cm-resolution cameras over the colonies to enable the penguins to be counted. "It is dark at the moment in Antarctica, so we can't count them yet," said Fretwell, as The Guardian reported. "The sun will come up either later this month or next month in most of these locations, and then we will start."</p>
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Australia Wants to Build a Huge Concrete Runway in Antarctica. Here’s Why That’s a Bad Idea
19 July 2020
Insights + Opinion
The Penguin suspicious on the shore looking at the camera, on January 3 in King George Island, Antarctica. Alessandro Dahan / Getty Images
By Shaun Brooks and Julia Jabour
Australia wants to build a 2.7-kilometre concrete runway in Antarctica, the world's biggest natural reserve. The plan, if approved, would have the largest footprint of any project in the continent's history.
The runway is part of an aerodrome to be constructed near Davis Station, one of Australia's three permanent bases in Antarctica. It would be the first concrete runway on the continent.
<p>
The plan is subject to federal environmental approval. It coincides with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2506-3" target="_blank">new research</a> published this week showing Antarctica's wild places need better protection. Human activity across Antarctica has been extensive in the past 200 years – particularly in the coastal, ice-free areas where most biodiversity is found.
</p>
<p class=""><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/shaun-brooks-698938" target="_blank">Shaun Brooks</a> is a University Associate at the University of Tasmania. <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/julia-jabour-90480" target="_blank">Julia Jabour</a> is an Adjunct Senior Lecturer at the University of Tasmania.</em><br/></p><p><em>
Disclosure statement:
</em></p><p><em>
Shaun Brooks receives funding from the the Australian Antarctic Science Program (Project 4565 - Conservation Planning for Antarctic Stations).
</em></p><p><em>
Julia Jabour does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
</em></p><p>
<em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-wants-to-build-a-huge-concrete-runway-in-antarctica-heres-why-thats-a-bad-idea-139596" target="_blank">The Conversation</a></em><em>.</em>
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<p>The area around Davis Station is possibly Antarctica's <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00025586" target="_blank">most significant</a> coastal, ice-free area. It features <a href="http://epbcnotices.environment.gov.au/_entity/annotation/174a3e6b-4f42-ea11-b0a8-00505684324c/a71d58ad-4cba-48b6-8dab-f3091fc31cd5?t=1594857491287" target="_blank">unique lakes</a>, fjords, <a href="https://www.nsf.gov/geo/opp/antarct/aca/nsf01151/aca2_spa143.pdf" target="_blank">fossil sites</a> and wildlife.</p><p>Australia has successfully operated Davis Station since 1957 with existing transport arrangements. While the development may win Australia some strategic influence in Antarctica, it's at odds with our strong history of environmental leadership in the region.</p>
Year-Round Access
<p>The Australian Antarctic Division (AAD), a federal government agency, <a href="https://www.antarctica.gov.au/living-and-working/travel-and-logistics/aviation/davis-aerodrome/about-the-project/" target="_blank">argues</a> the runway would allow year-round aviation access between Hobart and Antarctica.</p><p>Presently, the only Australian flights to Antarctica take place at the beginning and end of summer. Aircraft land at an aerodrome near the Casey research station, with interconnecting flights to other stations and sites on the continent. The stations are inaccessible by both air and ship in winter.</p><p>The AAD says year-round access to Antarctica would provide significant science benefits, including:</p><ul><li>better understanding sea level rise and other climate change impacts</li><li>opportunities to study wildlife across the annual lifecycle of key species including krill, penguins, seals and seabirds</li><li>allowing scientists to research through winter.</li></ul><p><span></span>Leading international scientists <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antarctic-science/article/delivering-21st-century-antarctic-and-southern-ocean-science/A5E6D29C34AA2794140C6B4966E63048" target="_blank">had called for</a> improved, environmentally responsible access to Antarctica to support 21st-century science. However, the aerodrome project is likely to reduce access for scientists to Antarctica for years, due to the need to house construction workers.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzQ4MTAzOC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2NDEzNDgxM30.RVb1t_EnWasyVJHVeBb7jIi6hj99nSqzwh8fdTkYCFM/img.jpg?width=980" id="4d929" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="f287d23aabb057f01a298ca732f2c760" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="1200" data-height="900" />
Australia says the runway would have significant science benefits. Australian Antarctic Division
Australia: An Environmental Leader?
<p>Australia has traditionally been considered an environmental leader in Antarctica. For example, in 1989 under the Hawke government, it urged the world to abandon a mining convention in favour of a new deal to ban mining on the continent.</p><p>Australia's <a href="https://www.antarctica.gov.au/about-us/antarctic-strategy-and-action-plan/20-year-action-plan/" target="_blank">20 Year Action Plan</a> promotes "leadership in environmental stewardship in Antarctica", pledging to "minimise the environmental impact of Australia's activities".</p><p>But the aerodrome proposal appears at odds with that goal. It would cover 2.2 square kilometres, increasing the total "<a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antarctic-science/article/what-is-footprint-in-antarctica-proposing-a-set-of-definitions/7FBDB26F3AF2F5A6C157FCB2E6A2D996" target="_blank">disturbance footprint</a>" of all nations on the <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-019-0237-y" target="_blank">continent</a> by 40%. It would also mean Australia has the biggest footprint of any nation, overtaking the United States.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzQ4MTAzOS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1MTYwNDQ2Nn0.6sP4AJoMEMoSyXIbRRmW5lnDfsF0-3hZLNNyQFmt4xo/img.jpg?width=980" id="cd97c" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="76cba1112e65a1b43a38c714419b4eac" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="1200" data-height="1080" />
The contribution of disturbance footprint from countries in Antarctica measured from Brooks et al. 2019, with Australia's share increasing to 35% including the aerodrome proposal. Shaun Brooks
<p>Within this footprint, environmental effects will also be intense. <a href="http://epbcnotices.environment.gov.au/_entity/annotation/174a3e6b-4f42-ea11-b0a8-00505684324c/a71d58ad-4cba-48b6-8dab-f3091fc31cd5?t=1594857491287" target="_blank">Construction</a> will require more than three million cubic metres of earthworks - levelling 60 vertical metres of hills and valleys along the length of the runway. This will inevitably cause dust emissions – on the windiest continent on Earth - and the effect of this on plants and animals in Antarctica is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954102019000440" target="_blank">poorly understood</a>.</p><p>Wilson's storm petrels that nest at the site will be displaced. Native lichens, fungi and algae will be destroyed, and irreparable damage is expected at adjacent lakes.</p><p>Weddell seals breed within 500 metres of the proposed runway site. Federal environment officials <a href="http://epbcnotices.environment.gov.au/_entity/annotation/174a3e6b-4f42-ea11-b0a8-00505684324c/a71d58ad-4cba-48b6-8dab-f3091fc31cd5?t=1594857491287" target="_blank">recognise</a> the dust from construction and subsequent noise from low flying aircraft have the potential to disturb these breeding colonies.</p><p>The proposed area is also important breeding habitat for Adélie penguins. Eight breeding sites in the region are listed as "important bird areas". Federal environment officials state the penguins are likely to be impacted by human disturbance, dust, and noise from construction of the runway, with particular concern for oil spills and aircraft operations.</p><p>The summer population at Davis Station will need to almost double from 120 to 250 <a href="http://epbcnotices.environment.gov.au/_entity/annotation/174a3e6b-4f42-ea11-b0a8-00505684324c/a71d58ad-4cba-48b6-8dab-f3091fc31cd5?t=1594857491287" target="_blank">during construction</a>. This will require new, permanent infrastructure and increase the station's fuel and water consumption, and sewage discharged into the environment.</p><p>The AAD has proposed measures to limit environmental damage. These include gathering baseline data (against which to measure the project's impact), analysing potential effects on birds and marine mammals and limiting disturbance where practicable.</p><p>But full details won't be provided until later in the assessment process. We expect Australia will implement these measures to a high standard, but they will not offset the project's environmental damage.</p>
Playing Politics
<p>So given the environmental concern, why is Australia so determined to build the aerodrome? We believe the answer largely lies in Antarctic politics.</p><p>Australian officials <a href="https://www.antarctica.gov.au/site/assets/files/54470/future_science_opportunities_synthesis_report_final.pdf" target="_blank">have said</a> the project would "contribute to both our presence and influence" on the continent. Influence in Antarctica has traditionally corresponded to the strength of a nation's scientific program, its infrastructure presence and engagement in international decision-making.</p><p>Australia is a well-regarded member of the Antarctic Treaty. It was an original signatory and claims sovereignty over 42% of the continent. It also has a solid physical and scientific presence, maintaining three large year-round research stations.</p><p>But other nations are also vying for influence. China is constructing its fifth research station. New Zealand <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/science/113844159/scott-base-rebuild-to-cost-250-million" target="_blank">is planning</a> a NZ$250 million upgrade to Scott Base. And on King George Island, six stations have been built <a href="https://doi.org/10.3402/polar.v31i0.18206" target="_blank">within a 5km radius</a>, each run by different nations. This presence is hard to justify on the basis of scientific interest alone.</p>Getting Our Priorities Straight
<p>We believe there are greater and more urgent opportunities for Australia to assert its leadership in Antarctica.</p><p>For example both Casey and Mawson stations – Australia's two other permanent bases – discharge sewage into the pristine marine environment with little treatment. And outdated fuel technology at Australia's three stations regularly causes <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2018.02.024" target="_blank">diesel spills</a>.</p><p>At Wilkes station, which Australia abandoned in the 1960s, thousands of tonnes of contaminants have been <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/rec.12383" target="_blank">left behind</a>.</p><p>Australia should fix such problems before adding more potentially damaging infrastructure. This would meet our environmental treaty obligations and show genuine Antarctic leadership.</p>From Your Site Articles
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The Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station, where the temperature readings informing the study were taken. Christopher Michel / CC BY 2.0
This year's record-breaking heat wave in Siberia has drawn attention to the fact that the climate crisis is warming the Arctic about twice as fast as the mid latitudes. But things are also heating up on the other side of Earth.
<p>The South Pole — the most remote place on Earth — has heated more than three times faster than the global average over the last 30 years, a study published in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-020-0815-z" target="_blank">Nature Climate Change Monday</a> found.</p><p>"[It's] the ultimate canary in the coal mine," University of Colorado researcher Sharon E. Stammerjohn, who was not involved with the study but wrote a commentary on it, told <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/29/climate/south-pole-warming-climate-change.html" target="_blank">The New York Times</a>. "One that we can no longer ignore."</p>
<div id="4759a" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="412955a354d44c72f77a0ae4f447b922"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1277727551369216006" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Research led by #VicUniWgtn’s Dr Kyle Clem with a team including @CubaRaglanGuy shows the South Pole is warming mor… https://t.co/lvho9PEMWm</div> — Victoria University of Wellington (@Victoria University of Wellington)<a href="https://twitter.com/VicUniWgtn/statuses/1277727551369216006">1593468961.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>The researchers looked at 60 years of data from the South Pole and found that its average temperature had risen by more than 1.83 Celsius degrees since 1989, <a href="https://www.thejakartapost.com/life/2020/06/30/south-pole-warming-three-times-faster-than-rest-of-earth-study.html" target="_blank">AFP reported</a>. The pole is now warming at a rate of about 0.6 degrees Celsius per decade, compared with the global average of around 0.2 degrees Celsius.</p><p>"While temperatures were known to be warming across West <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/antarctica" target="_self">Antarctica</a> and the Antarctic Peninsula during the 20th century, the South Pole was cooling," lead study author and Victoria University of Wellington researcher Kyle Clem told AFP. "It was suspected that this part of Antarctica ... might be immune to/isolated from warming. We found this is not the case any more."</p>
<p>The warming can partly be explained by natural climate cycles. The warming trend at the South Pole began as sea-surface temperatures in the western tropical Pacific also rose as part of an oscillation with decades-long intervals. This tropical warming ultimately warmed the South Pole too, as The New York Times explained:</p><blockquote>The warming ocean heated the air, which caused ripples of high and low pressure in the atmosphere that reached all the way to the Antarctic Peninsula, more than 5,000 miles away. Scientists call these kinds of long-distance links teleconnections.<br><br>Coupled with the stronger westerly winds, which are part of another long-term pattern, the ripples led to stronger storms in the Weddell Sea, east of the peninsula. These rotating, or cyclonic, storms, swept warmer air from the South Atlantic Ocean into the interior of the continent.</blockquote>
<p>However, while the rapid South Pole warming could all be explained by natural variability, Clem said it was unlikely that it would have warmed so much without the burning of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fossil-fuels" target="_self">fossil fuels</a>.</p><p>The researchers ran more than 200 climate models based on greenhouse gas concentrations recorded from 1989 to 2018 and found that these emissions likely caused one degree of the 1.8 degrees of warming recorded at the South Pole, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jun/30/south-pole-warming-three-times-faster-than-rest-of-the-world-our-research-shows" target="_blank">Clem wrote for The Guardian</a>. The researchers then ran models to see what 30-year temperature swings in the region would look like without greenhouse gas emissions and found that the warming they had detected was too much for 99.9 percent of them.</p><p>"It appears the effects from tropical variability have worked together with increasing greenhouse gases, and the end result is one of the strongest warming trends on the planet," Clem wrote.</p>
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Scientific research posts, military facilities and tourism have turned the area around King George Island (pictured) in the South Shetland Islands into "one of the most contaminated regions of Antarctica." Wolfgang Kaehler / LightRocket / Getty Images
By Rebecca Staudenmaier
For the first time, scientists have discovered microplastics inside small organisms living in the soil in Antarctica, according to a new study published on Wednesday.
<p>"Plastics are thus entering the short Antarctic terrestrial food webs and represent a new potential stressor to polar ecosystems already facing climate change and increasing human activities," said the authors of the study, which was published in the scientific journal Biology Letters.</p><p>The research team, which was headed by Italy's University of Siena, collected organisms from a piece of polystyrene foam that was covered in moss and lichens on King George Island.</p><p>Using an infrared imaging technique, researchers found pieces of polystyrene — which is used in styrofoam — in the guts of collembolan Cryptopygus antarcticus, or springtails. </p><p>The small organisms are frequently the "dominant species" in areas of Antarctica that are not covered by ice, typically feeding on lichens and micro-algae.</p><p>Researchers said the springtails likely consumed the plastic fragments while eating their usual food.</p>
Dangers of Plastic Pollution
<p>The authors of the study said the traces indicate the microplastic pollution may have already "deeply" infiltrated Antarctica's remote land-based food system.</p><p>"The implications of plastic ingestion by this species include the potential redistribution of microplastics through the soil profile and transfer to their common predators, the moss mites," Elisa Bergami of the University of Siena told news agency AFP.</p><p>Although plastic pollution in the oceans is already widely known and well-documented, Bergami said that less attention is being paid to Antarctica's land contamination.</p><p>The presence of plastics in one of the world's most remote food chains could potentially stress Antarctica's fragile ecosystem even further.</p><p>Scientific research posts, military facilities and tourism have turned the area around King George Island in the South Shetland Islands into "one of the most contaminated regions of Antarctica," researchers said.</p>From Your Site Articles
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World's Second-Largest Egg Found in Antarctica Probably Hatched Giant Ancient Reptile
18 June 2020
Science
An artist's interpretation of a baby mosasaur emerging from an egg. John Maisano / Jackson School of Geosciences
The first fossil egg discovered in Antarctica is also the largest soft-shelled egg ever found and the second-largest egg of any kind, after the extinct elephant bird.
<p><br/></p>
<p>The more than 11-by-7-inch egg was first discovered in 2011, according to a <a href="https://news.utexas.edu/2020/06/17/egg-from-antarctica-is-big-and-might-belong-to-an-extinct-sea-lizard/" target="_blank">University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin) press release</a>, but researchers only recently figured out that it was a 66 million-year-old egg. Their findings, <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2377-7" target="_blank">published in Nature Wednesday</a>, are helping transform our understanding of ancient reptiles.</p><p>"A soft-shelled fossil egg like this is a rare gem," Princeton University evolutionary biologist Mary Caswell Stoddard, who was involved with the research, told <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/06/17/877679868/scientists-find-the-biggest-soft-shelled-egg-ever-nicknamed-the-thing?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter" target="_blank">NPR</a>. "The lack of soft-shelled fossil eggs, which are extraordinarily rare, makes it challenging to flesh out a detailed picture of egg evolution in vertebrates. This discovery helps provide one critical piece of the puzzle."</p>
<div id="d646e" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="22a76c9de9f12701d977506082bcdbee"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1273279909734100993" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Very excited to introduce Antarcticoolithus bradyi, the largest soft-shelled #fossil #egg found to date! Our study… https://t.co/eMBn2ghLLn</div> — Julia Clarke (@Julia Clarke)<a href="https://twitter.com/jclarkepaleolab/statuses/1273279909734100993">1592408561.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>The egg is so unique partly because of what the researchers think it hatched: a giant marine reptile like a mosasaur that was not thought to lay eggs at all.</p><p>"It shows their reproductive mode may have been very similar to that seen in some living lizards and snakes where there is a very thin eggshell present on an egg from which the baby emerges almost immediately," study coauthor and professor at UT Austin's Jackson School's department of geological sciences Julia Clarke told <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2020/06/17/world/soft-dinosaur-eggs-scn/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a>.</p><p>To make this determination, the researchers compared the egg-to-body size ratio of 259 modern reptiles. They then calculated that the animal that came out of the egg would have needed to be more than 20 feet long, excluding the tail.</p>
<div id="f3add" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="5813bad10961c940bb4942c7df1eff0f"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1273291232916226050" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">The egg's structure is very similar to quick-hatching eggs laid by some snakes and lizards today! Imagine this, but… https://t.co/ZiE5UQj9kg</div> — UT Jackson School of Geosciences (@UT Jackson School of Geosciences)<a href="https://twitter.com/txgeosciences/statuses/1273291232916226050">1592411261.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>They also found fossil evidence of baby and adult mosasaurs and plesiosaurs in the same rock formation where the egg was discovered.</p><p>"Many authors have hypothesized that this was sort of a nursery site with shallow protected water, a cove environment where the young ones would have had a quiet setting to grow up," lead author and UT Austin postdoctoral researcher Lucas Legendre said in the press release.</p><p>But these discoveries might not have been made at all if Clarke hadn't visited Chile's National Museum of Natural History in 2018.</p>
<p>The egg, which looked like a deflated football, had been brought to the museum by Chilean scientists who found it in Antarctica in 2011, according to the press release. Unsure of what it was, they dubbed it "The Thing."</p><p>"It was weird enough that they decided to collect it, even though it wasn't clear what it was. It definitely wasn't bone, but it was strikingly unusual," Clarke told NPR.</p><p>Coauthor David Rubilar-Rogers was one of the discovering scientists, according to the press release. He showed it to every geologist who visited the museum but received no answers, until Clarke arrived.</p><p>"I showed it to her and, after a few minutes, Julia told me it could be a deflated egg!" Rubilar-Rogers said.</p>
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