Climatic crisis threatens emperor penguins of Antarctica

The emperor penguins of Antarctica are set to receive new protections under the Endangered Species Act, or ESA. This is because the climate crisis is a threat to these flightless seabirds. Global warming results in melting of sea ice and the penguins depend on the sea ice for their survival. As a result, the US Fish and Wildlife Service has categorized the species as threatened. The federal agency lists “imperiled species as endangered or threatened regardless of their country of origin.” The latest announcement came more than a year after an initial proposal by the service to protect emperor penguins under the ESA. Emperor penguins depend on sea ice to form their breeding colonies, avoid predators in the ocean and forage for food. However, the temperature of the Earth is rising because of increase in emission of greenhouse gas and carbon dioxide. The sea ice is at risk of disappearing. When this happens, entire penguin colonies can decline or disappear. The presence of emperor penguins is important to maintain the ecological balance because they forage for krill, fish and squid in the sea and serve as prey for leopard seals and killer whales. Antarctica’s emperor penguins at risk of extinction due to the climate crisis. As an expert says - climate change is having a profound impact on species around the world and addressing it is a priority for the (Biden) Administration. The listing of the emperor penguin serves as an alarm bell but also a call to action.

Emperor penguins are the tallest and heaviest of the 18 penguin species. They can weigh up to 40 kilograms and stand 1.1 meters tall. A female emperor lays one egg per breeding season, then passes it over to her male partner to incubate while she forages for food for about a two-month period. Listing the species as threatened now could help save them from becoming endangered or extinct in the future. The polar bear was the first species listed as threatened due to climate change under the Endangered Species Act in 2008. Since then, many of the world’s polar bear populations have stabilized, but they remain vulnerable as the climate crisis continues.

Some popular stories of this blogger –

Britain selects a remote peat bog in Scotland to be the first rocket launch pad on the British mainland

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak could attend the COP27 climate summit

India eyes its own space station by 2035, ISRO wants industry to collaborate

Collapse of the 19th century pedestrian suspension bridge over the Machchu River in Gujarat kills 141, toll could rise

The West Bengal government to launch electric buses in Calcutta to bring down air pollution

Two explosions rocked the capital of Somalia and left at least 100 dead and 300 injured

Horror at Halloween in Seoul – stampede takes more than 150 lives

Chhath puja is a four-day festival for women of Bihar, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, and parts of Odisha and Nepal

Health of Tuan Tuan, a male panda gifted by China to Taiwan, deteriorating

Alaska cancels its snow crab harvest this year because of their disappearance from the Bering Sea in recent years

The Alaska Board of Fisheries and North Pacific Fishery Management Council have taken this decision. The reason is the drop in the population of snow crab in the Bering Sea. It went below the regulatory threshold to open up the fishery. It seems their numbers dropped from around 8 billion in 2018 to 1 billion in 2021. This is according to Benjamin Daly. He is a researcher with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. He revealed to a section of the media - “Snow crab is by far the most abundant of all the Bering Sea crab species that is caught commercially. So the shock and awe of many billions missing from the population is worth noting – and that includes all the females and babies.” Agencies have taken a similar decision for the Bristol Bay red king crab harvest. That also stands cancelled for the second year in a row. Officials cited overfishing as their rationale for canceling the seasons. It seems more crab were being caught than could be naturally replaced. Billions of snow crabs have disappeared from the waters around Alaska. Scientists say overfishing is not the cause. As an expert revealed, surveys conducted in 2021 and 2022 indicated that population of mature male snow crabs declined about 40 percent. As a result, there are an estimated 45 million pounds left in the entire Bering Sea.

The director for NOAA Fisheries in Kodiak lab differs. In his opinion, calling the Bering Sea crab population “overfished” does not make any mention about the cause of its collapse. He is Michael Litzow and he believes overfishing could not be responsible for the collapse. He says human-caused climate change is a significant factor in the alarming disappearance of crabs. He explains that these are cold-water species and found overwhelmingly in areas where water temperatures are below 2 degrees Celsius. The sea ice is disappearing due to the warm climate and the ocean around Alaska is becoming inhospitable for such species. Temperatures around the Arctic have warmed much faster than the rest of the planet. Climate change is responsible for triggering a rapid loss in sea ice in the Arctic region, particularly in Alaska’s Bering Sea.

Some popular stories of this blogger –

This year’s London Film Festival closed with ‘Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery’

SpaceX Crew-4 astronauts of NASA and ESA returned to Earth in a parachute-assisted splashdown

The mighty Mississippi River south of St. Louis is drying up because of drought

Greece depended entirely on renewable energy for five hours on a single day and used solar, wind and hydroelectric power

Prince Harry announced the return of Invictus Games to Canada in 2025 for the first-ever winter sports edition

Another incident of gun violence in North Carolina kills five, police arrests a 15-year-old boy

Unique flower market of Kolkata at Mullick Ghat on the banks of the Hooghly

Singapore redefines a city with an abundance of green spaces

Australia in the fury of floods with homes in Melbourne flooded, forecast says rivers will remain dangerously high for days

Catastrophic floods devastate Pakistan with death toll nearly 1300, hundreds of thousands of people are living in relief camps

The flood situation in Pakistan is grim. Death toll is nearly 1,300 even as relief operations continue. Humanitarian aid in the form of basic necessities like food, shelter, medicines are the need of the hour. Aid has started to flow in from a number of countries. The first such assistance flight from France has landed in Islamabad. Innumerable number of people are forced to live in relief camps across Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh, and Punjab. Agencies of the government as well as private NGOs are continuing with their relief operations. These are described as a "humanitarian disaster of epic proportions." Large portions of the country continue to be submerged under water. This is especially in the provinces of Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh in the south. On a rough estimate, nearly 1.5 million houses have suffered damages. Moreover, a large number of livestock has perished in the floods. 1,300 Dead In Pakistan's Devastating Floods, Over 5 Lakh Displaced.

Initial estimate of the damages have been put at USD 10 billion. However, international organizations are carrying out surveys. More than 700,000 families have received a lump some cash relief (per family). An amount of ₹ 18.25 billion has been already been disbursed on this account. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif went to a social media platform and wrote - "Despite challenges, Benazir Income Support Programme rolled out its operations within no time.” The authorities have called on the international community to support Pakistan. They have also assured the nation that the government would try to bring back normalcy at the earliest. The floods have drowned nearly a third of the country and affected more than 33 million people. The natural calamity came after four heatwaves and multiple raging forest fires. These highlight the effects of climate change in this part of Asia.

Some popular stories of this blogger –

Bengal appears to be a state where a fish trader turns out to be a another crorepati

China warns America of "counter-measures" following huge arms sale to Taiwan

Former President Donald Trump might make another bid to become the next POTUS in 2024

More embarrassment for Trinamool Congress as CBI arrests another of its leaders in a chit fund case

Durga Puja for Bengalis usually means a trip to the hill station of Darjeeling

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle arrive in Britain minus their children

Bristol Zoo, the fifth oldest zoo in the world, to close after 186 years

Tala Bridge, the lifeline of North Kolkata, to reopen before the Pujas

China and Russia launch war games to confront tensions with the United States

Leonardo DiCaprio succeeded in making world leaders worry about global warming

Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio has succeeded in his mission of making world leaders worry about global warming and take suitable steps to overcome the problem and make the world a better place to live in. Leonardo DiCaprio feels that the debate over climate change is gradually on the way out because world leaders are finally starting to take it more seriously.
This has been reported in nzherald.co.nz dated 7 January 2016.

Leonardo made these remarks on the red carpet for his new film, "The Revenant". In his opinion, the scientific community has been crying itself hoarse over global warming and majority of them agree that man is contributing to climate changes. The argument is over at last and, anyone who does not believe this does not believe in science.
Incidentally, DiCaprio has, for long, remained an active player for the issue. He had previously addressed the United Nations on climate control. Moreover, he has donated millions of dollars to environmental causes, and has narrated the 2014 short film, "Carbon," which presents ideas for climate change solutions.
He feels that following the U.N. Climate Conference in Paris, which ended last month, world leaders are finally seeing reason and are willing to address the issue more seriously.

(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

Some more interesting links -

Moody gifts his neighbor a turban on his birthday (satire)

Lord Shiva’s solution for global warming – go under water (satire)

Didi discusses industries with Moo Cool and Omit Misra (satire)


Use online honey trappers to test the fidelity of the spouse

NASA developing hopping drones to explore Martian caves for human settlement

Cleanliness drive by Railways - collects Rs 58 lakhs in fine from Delhi Railway station


Kissing scenes in movies – why this fad has never caught on in Bollywood

All female pop-group Moranbong Band cancels China goodwill tour

“The Lion Guard: Return of the Roar” - Disney’s upcoming television movie


Christmas Day bushfire destroys 100 homes in popular tourist spot of Lorne in Victoria

Migrants ready to pay £1,200 to people smugglers for trip across Channel in UK-registered car

US airdrops 50-tons of ammunition for M-16s and AK-47 to Syrian fighters

Air temperature in Arctic hottest in 115-years: walrus habitats threatened

It is an undisputed fact that the air in the Arctic is heating up, with the temperatures being the hottest in 115 years. As a result, the melting ice is destroying walrus habitat and forcing some fish northward as indicated in a global scientific report. Air temperature anomalies over land were 2.3 degrees Fahrenheit (1.3 Celsius) above average. It was the highest since records began to be kept in 1900 as per the 2015 Arctic Report Card which is an annual peer-reviewed study issued by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
This has been reported in ibnlive.com dated 16 December 2015.

The annual sea ice maximum occurred on February 25, about two weeks earlier than average, and was "the lowest extent recorded since records began in 1979."
The NOAA chief scientist has cautioned that warming is happening more than twice as fast in the Arctic than anywhere else in the world. This is attributed to climate change, and its impacts are creating major challenges for Arctic communities. He added that what happens in the Arctic doesn't stay in the Arctic.
NOAA chief scientist Rick Spinrad made these observations at the annual American Geophysical Union fall meeting in San Francisco.
The average annual air temperature was measured over land between October 2014 and September 2015 and it showed a 5.4 degree Fahrenheit (three degrees Celsius) increase since the beginning of the 20th century. Moreover, the minimum sea ice extent, measured on September 11, 2015, was the fourth lowest in the satellite record since 1979 and the snow cover across the Arctic has also been declining, and is down 18 per cent per decade since 1979. This year, Greenland experienced its first significant melting event since 2012, and lost more than half of its surface area.

(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

Moody and the mystery of Didi in Delhi (satire)

Kartika wants to become a Bollywood hero (satire)

Momo and sushi gear up to dislodge jilebi and pedhas (satire)


Be careful of six things that can reduce your lifespan

Monkey business in Uttarakhand - Uttar Pradesh dumping its monkeys in Uttarakhand

Japan to give India her first Bullet Train from Mumbai to Ahmedabad


Quentin Tarantino wants to do 'Kill Bill 3'

Bangladeshi singer Runa Laila to perform in Kolkata to mark Vijay Diwas

Shah Rukh Khan to address alumni of Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore


Two men of Syrian origin caught in Geneva with explosives

President Obama cautions Americans on new type of terror threat

USS Zumwalt, largest destroyer ever built, sets out for sea trials

76% of butterflies vanishing in Britain - a result of climate change

There has been a huge drop in the number of UK butterflies and this could be attributed to climate change. The drop has been of the order of nearly 76% fall in the number of resident and regular migrant butterflies over the past 40 years as revealed in a joint report by charities Butterfly Conservation and the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (CEH). The drop is 44% in gatekeeper butterflies.
This has been reported in news.sky.com dated 15 December 2015.

The decline in numbers is a general observation across Europe as a whole but the UK - and southern England in particular - has been worst affected. The reason is still not clear but, in the opinion of experts, the "varied" effects of climate change, deterioration of suitable habitats and increased use of herbicides and pesticides may be major factors responsible for this trend.
Species such as the Wall, Essex Skipper and Small Heath that were once very common, are now among the scarcer types of butterfly in the UK. Some of the factors for this could be increased agricultural farming, including the decline of flower-rich meadows, removal of hedgerows and increased nitrogen being released into the environment.
Foreign species of butterflies are entering because of warmer temperatures and populations of common migrant species - the Clouded Yellow, Red Admiral and Painted Lady - are showing a dramatic increase since the 1970s.

(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

Moody and the mystery of Didi in Delhi (satire)

Kartika wants to become a Bollywood hero (satire)

Momo and sushi gear up to dislodge jilebi and pedhas (satire)


Be careful of six things that can reduce your lifespan

Monkey business in Uttarakhand - Uttar Pradesh dumping its monkeys in Uttarakhand

Japan to give India her first Bullet Train from Mumbai to Ahmedabad


Quentin Tarantino wants to do 'Kill Bill 3'

Bangladeshi singer Runa Laila to perform in Kolkata to mark Vijay Diwas

Shah Rukh Khan to address alumni of Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore


Two men of Syrian origin caught in Geneva with explosives

President Obama cautions Americans on new type of terror threat

USS Zumwalt, largest destroyer ever built, sets out for sea trials

Shrinking glaciers leading to increase in population of Adelie penguins

Researchers of University of Tasmania in Australia have discovered that shrinking glaciers are leading to the birth of more Adelie penguins in the East Antarctica region. As per their findings, in the last 14,000 years, the population of Adelie penguins has increased nearly 135-fold because, additional breeding sites have become exposed due to the retreating glaciers.
This has been reported in zeenews.com dated 18 November 2015.

It can be assumed that this population explosion can be attributed to current environmental conditions are more favorable for Adelie penguins than they were when compared to the last ice age.
Shrinking glaciers could be a key driver of population change over millennia for Adelie penguins in East Antarctica. While studying the response of thee bids to past climate change it would be possible to predict how well Adelie penguins will respond in the future.
Till now, research had concentrated on short-term changes in terms of years or decades, but the climate change that is happening right now is likely to have effects over thousands of years.
East Antarctica is, at present, home to 30 percent of the global population of Adelie penguins, with an estimated abundance of 1.14 million breeding pairs.

(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

Moody and the Humpty Dumpty syndrome (satire)

Winning elections is not as simple as making tea (satire)

Indian smugglers are celebs, boast of official doubles (satire)


Tea is a health drink - four cups a day can keep the doctors away

No more 'Rent-a-Womb' in India

Tourist bus ploughs into pedestrians in Union Square, San Francisco - 20 injured


Big B attends 21st Kolkata International Film Festival at Netaji Indoor Stadium

Alisha Chinai adds to the glamour quotient at Wembley Stadium

24th James Bond movie 'Spectre' earns USD 300 million in less than two weeks


Jihadi John killed by a 1000-mph missile striking his car

Edmund Fitzgerald sank in the Lake Superior 40 years back with 29 on board

Bomb in Airbus A321 responsible for Sinai Peninsula crash and 224 deaths

Scientists have cautioned – Earth is entering its sixth phase of mass extinction

A study conducted by the universities of Stanford, Princeton and Berkeley, has revealed that vertebrates were disappearing at a rate 114 times faster than normal. There are apprehensions that the Earth is entering its sixth phase of mass extinctions – and humans could be the first casualty.
The last such event occurred 65 million years ago, when dinosaurs were wiped out – probably as a result of a large meteor hitting the Earth as reported in bbc.com dated 19 June 2015.

One of the authors of the study has indicated that humans are now entering the sixth great mass extinction event and, unless it is checked life would take many millions of years to recover and the human would possibly disappear early on. The scientists arrived at the conclusion by examining historic rates of extinction for vertebrates - animals with backbones - by assessing fossil records. They found that the current extinction rate was more than 100 times higher than in periods when Earth was not going through a mass extinction event.
Since 1900, the report says, more than 400 more vertebrates had disappeared. The worry is that such a loss would normally be seen over a period of up to 10,000 years – but, it has happened within 115 years!!
This can be attributed to known causes like climate change, pollution and deforestation. The study also shows that given the knock-on effect of ecosystems being destroyed, the benefits of nature like pollination by bees could be lost within three human generations.
It can be said that we are sawing off the limb that we are sitting on. In the opinion of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), at least 50 species of animals are inching towards extinction every year. Also, nearly 41% of all amphibians and 25% of mammals are threatened with extinction.
As an example - 94% of all lemurs are under threat and more than a fifth of all lemur species are classed as "critically endangered". Their habitat in Madagascar has been wiped out by illegal logging and they are also regularly hunted for their meat.
(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

A few more must reads -
Airbus to showcase its E-Fan 2.0 silent plane in Paris Air Show

Music is a great healer – listen to classical music and lower your blood pressure

Taxi strike in Kolkata opens the doors for Uber and Ola cabs

Pickles and yoghurt help youngsters to tackle social anxiety


MI5 warns – extremists on the prowl in the streets of Britain

ISIS militants ambush and kill Taliban fighters in Afghanistan

British would-be jihadists are making detour to Syria via Canada to avoid detection


How retired persons keep themselves busy

Learn to embrace the mall culture

Time weighs down heavily on retired men

Fast depleting level of groundwater spells trouble for Planet Earth

Water is the elixir of life and our plans to settle on distant planets would depend on availability of water because life minus water is unthinkable. But, here on planet Earth, the warning gong has been sounded because the available groundwater is fast depleting.
Human activity is rapidly draining out about one third of the planet's largest underground water reserves and no one knows just how much water remains in them. This has been revealed by two new studies.
This has been reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 17 June 2015.

Scientists have taken help of data from NASA satellites to measure groundwater losses by comparing the 37 of Earth's biggest aquifers between 2003 and 2013. The study has labeled eight of these as "overstressed" – this means they were being sucked dry with almost no natural replenishment to offset the usage.
Five other aquifers were determined to be "extremely or highly stressed."
The Arabian Aquifer System that provides water to over 60 million people, is the world's most overstressed source. Ten comes the Indus Basin aquifer of northwestern India and Pakistan followed by the Murzuk-Djado Basin in northern Africa. The drought-striken Central Valley aquifer in California was labeled as "highly stressed."
Scientists have cautioned that the situation would only worsen due to global warming, climate change and population growth. The most overburdened aquifers are in the driest places in the world where there is hardly any natural replenishment of water.
(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

A few more must reads -
Airbus to showcase its E-Fan 2.0 silent plane in Paris Air Show

Music is a great healer – listen to classical music and lower your blood pressure

Taxi strike in Kolkata opens the doors for Uber and Ola cabs

Pickles and yoghurt help youngsters to tackle social anxiety


MI5 warns – extremists on the prowl in the streets of Britain

ISIS militants ambush and kill Taliban fighters in Afghanistan

British would-be jihadists are making detour to Syria via Canada to avoid detection


How retired persons keep themselves busy

Learn to embrace the mall culture

Time weighs down heavily on retired men

John Kerry wants better bonding between India and the United States

#VibrantGujarat2015 #NarendraModi #JohnKerry Prime Minister Narendra Modi is on cloud nine with the Vibrant Gujarat 2015 campaign and, US Secretary of State John Kerry has called for stronger US-Indian trade ties while speaking at an international investor conference.
His remarks are significant in view of the visit of President Barack Obama's visit to India this month. He would be the chief guest at India's Republic Day ceremony in the capital on 26 January.
John Kerry has indicated that better economic ties would help boost India's growth and fight climate change. The bilateral foreign direct investment now stands at nearly $30bn (£19bn). In the course of his speech in Ahmedabad John Kerry has described Indian PM Narendra Modi as a "visionary prime minister".
He has stressed on the need to do more together, and do it fast enough because, such a drive would help to create an environment where American companies can play leading roles in bringing cutting-edge technologies, equipment, capital, and know-how for India.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on his part, has assured to cut red tape, pursue predictable policies, ensure stable taxes and make India the "easiest place" to do business.
However, what remains unsaid is how to work out a balance between Russia and America because of the heavy extent of reliance at present on Russia for extending support to the armed forces that rely heavily on Russian equipment. How will the United States fit into the bigger picture?