Greg's trip to Antarctica
WWF-Australia's CEO Greg Bourne travelled to Antarctica to see for himself how one of the Earth's most beautiful environments is adapting to the changing climate.
Post two - Christmas with the Penguins
The west Antarctic peninsular has a beautiful spot called Waterboat Point, where a Chilean research centre is sited close to a very busy, noisy penguin metropolis.
Hundreds of Gentoo penguins make their nests out of little pebbles; many of them try to nest on rocky outcrops because the rocks attract more heat than the bare ice.
Their neighbours, the Adelie penguins, are climate change victims – they need the ice-edge to survive thrive because they mostly eat krill. Gentoos love fish or squid and now outnumber the Adelies on the rookery by 10 to one.
We enjoy the Antarctic Christmas dinner with our crew. The skipper and first mate Charlie and Amanda are hardy New Zealanders. Sailing to Antarctica and spend most of their lives on the boat, they don't have access to a lot of news about climate change as we do but they say they can see its increasing effects.
During the past 40 years, ten ice shelves in the Antarctic Peninsula have been retreating, losing around 26,000 km2 (slightly smaller than Belgium) of ice.
Ice shelves are extensions of the ice sheets on the Antarctic continent and they float on the surrounding seas.
The Wilkins ice shelf, more than 16,000 square kilometers, is said to be hanging on by a thread.
Since ice shelves are already floating on the sea, like ice cubes in a glass of water, their melting will not result in a rise in sea level.
However, as the ice shelves disappear the continental ice sheet behind the ice shelves is accelerating its flow and loss into the sea, contributing to a global rise in sea level.
Scientists say the West Antarctic Ice Sheet in the Amundsen sector is currently the most rapidly changing region of the entire Antarctic ice sheet. It holds enough ice to increase global sea levels by 1.5 m.
