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PENGUINS GASPING

Broadcast last night on SBS:

Aaron Lewis joins two Antarctic veterans as they return to assess the dramatic changes that global warming has wrought. They find receding glaciers and penguins literally gasping for air as the temperature heats up. An international current affairs program, presented by George Negus.

Via Chris S., who writes: “How on earth do penguins survive in places like Taronga Zoo if they are ‘literally gasping for air as the temperature heats up’ in Antarctica?” Beats me, but surely it’s only a matter of time now before penguins begin stalking humans, just like their friends over in the Arctic.

Posted by Tim B. on 05/03/2007 at 01:33 AM
  1. I’m shocked by this negustivity!

    Posted by blogstrop on 2007 05 03 at 04:14 AM • permalink

  2. Penguins survive on Philip Island, sure it’s cold there, but not as cold as the antarctic…

    Although, come to think of it, watching the penguin parade on Philip Island you could freeze off any exposed bits.

    And they have found penguins living in Brisbane…

    Posted by kae on 2007 05 03 at 04:18 AM • permalink

  3. I have personally seen with my very own eyes penguins swimming free in Broken Bay, north of Sydney.
    They spent most of the time underwater, and did not seem to be gasping in any way even when they surfaced to breath.
    The water temperature would be around 20C (68F).
    I have long found Negus un-watchable and quickly switch off if I accidentally stray onto his channel.

    Posted by Skeeter on 2007 05 03 at 04:32 AM • permalink

  4. They find receding glaciers and penguins literally gasping for air as the temperature heats up.

    You know, I thought the same thing.
    When I saw Happy Feet, with all those little penguins dancin’ their little flippers off, I thought, “Hey, slow down little fellas, you’ll get hot and start gasping for air”.

    And all that trampling the glaciers and jumping around in the snow. No wonder the ice is receeding.”

    “Hey penguins, cut it out, you lille gaia destroying ice monkeys”.

    Posted by Bonmot on 2007 05 03 at 04:33 AM • permalink

  5. These penguins are bigger sissies than soccer players. Study Confirms Antarctica Warming:

    The reconstructed temperature record that shows average Antarctic temperatures have risen about two-tenths of a degree Celsius, or about one-third of a degree Fahrenheit, in 150 years.

    0.2C in 150 years? Even islam can adapt to change faster than these penguins.

    Posted by flying pigs over mecca on 2007 05 03 at 04:52 AM • permalink

  6. And Tim, that Taronga Zoo link is stuffed.

    Posted by flying pigs over mecca on 2007 05 03 at 04:54 AM • permalink

  7. Literally gasping for credibility, George Negus struggles to stay afloat long enough to deride, slander and generally obfuscate around a situation enough to mask any and all element of fact or truth.

    Be free little Negus, be free!!

    Posted by CB on 2007 05 03 at 05:15 AM • permalink

  8. They have Happy Feet?

    Posted by 1.618 on 2007 05 03 at 05:33 AM • permalink

  9. Exquisite.

    Posted by chrisgo on 2007 05 03 at 05:34 AM • permalink

  10. I fixed the Taronga Zoo Wikipedia page link, Tim (And Muzzie). They also have their own website.

    Posted by Andrea Harris, Administrator on 2007 05 03 at 05:43 AM • permalink

  11. Gasping for air? How can they ^%$## tell for crissakes? Their beaks were open? They made loud noises? Sounds like your average %$%### Antarctic fish gobbler to me.

    Posted by Nic on 2007 05 03 at 05:55 AM • permalink

  12. Global warming is bullshit.

    How do I know?

    It was freezing this morning on
    the Sunshine Coast of Queensland
    (which used to be sub-tropical).

    I was gasping for air in the frozen
    wasteland of a really cold morning.

    Posted by dver on 2007 05 03 at 06:01 AM • permalink

  13. ‘... penguins literally gasping for air as the temperature heats up.’

    Finnish women give birth in saunas.  These can’t be the birds I saw in ‘March of the Penguins’.

    Posted by Inurbanus on 2007 05 03 at 06:14 AM • permalink

  14. I bet that gasping penguins comes from the requirements of poetry.  Consider the example Earth from afar has heard Thy fame, / And worms have learnt to lisp Thy name.

    Same thing with gasping penguins.

    Posted by rhhardin on 2007 05 03 at 06:41 AM • permalink

  15. I posted this in the HYPE NECESSARY thread, which is so far down the page that I decided to repost it here.

    Was looking at these postcards of the world in 2000 from the perspective of 1900 (found via Zoe Brain). This one, on tourism in the Arctic, stood out - in 1900 they correctly predicted polar bears stranded on patches of ice because of global warming!

    Posted by flying pigs over mecca on 2007 05 03 at 06:51 AM • permalink

  16. My Readership preceeds me.

    Actually, I’m quite chuffed about that. Thanks, MZ.

    Posted by Zoe Brain on 2007 05 03 at 07:09 AM • permalink

  17. The penguins were probably gasping from being panicked after the camera crew blundered through their colony.

    Posted by anthony_r on 2007 05 03 at 07:15 AM • permalink

  18. I once caught a penguin, and was cradling the little fucker in my arms, obviously I was very drunk and it wasn’t one of the big ones, Emperors or whatever who get in all those movies…. no, it was all of up to my knee caps and it was certainly not at the South Pole, it was in much warmer climes (NZ) where it should have been ‘gasping for air’... I quickly discovered how oily, won’t sit still and smelly those flightless yappers are… it was dark, but that ARRRKURRRGH THUD sound it made upon being launched back into the ditch from whence it had emerged into my drinking space is one I shall never forget… it still plagues me 20 years later… The throw was too easy….should I have used the boot?

    Posted by Isumbras on 2007 05 03 at 07:23 AM • permalink

  19. My god Tim, it’s begun already. During our trip to Scotland last summer we went to the zoo in Edinburgh and saw this sign.
    How long have zookeepers in the UK been covering up this information? And on whose orders?

    And where has Tennessee Tuxedo been for all these years?

    Posted by Mr. Bingley on 2007 05 03 at 07:59 AM • permalink

  20. Could be there’a a reason other than climate change for all that gasping.

    Posted by paco on 2007 05 03 at 08:17 AM • permalink

  21. Whenever I see a penguin movie, I imagine that they would appreciate a little warmth from time to time. Like when they’re all huddled together at minus 70 degrees one of them saying to another, “God DAMN it’s cold! Whose idea was this, anyway?”

    Posted by ErnieG on 2007 05 03 at 08:21 AM • permalink

  22. So, penguins are moving up on the food chain, eh?  Them killer whales had better watch out!

    Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2007 05 03 at 09:46 AM • permalink

  23. For more than 20 years, a herd of penguins has lived in the lobby of the Hyatt Regency Hotel on Maui in Hawaii, where the temperature never goes below 55 F.

    Posted by Harry Eagar on 2007 05 03 at 12:57 PM • permalink

  24. And yet there are types of penguins who live on the southwest coast of Africa, and in the Galapagos Islands near the equater, and in South America.  They sweat around their eyes, they don’t “gasp”.  And all they have to do to cool off is get in the water.  If these envirodoofuses were as smart as they think they are, they’d do some basic research.

    Posted by RebeccaH on 2007 05 03 at 01:50 PM • permalink

  25. #24: envirodoofuses

    What gorgeous coinage! I defy anyone to pronounce it out loud without smiling. And it has such far-reaching applicability; so many people qualify for the title. I mean, just think of the biggest one of all, Al Gore, who’s absolutely envirodoofongous (adjectival form), the Maxim Envirodoofus, the Envirodoofissimo.

    Posted by paco on 2007 05 03 at 02:13 PM • permalink

  26. That should be “the Maximum Envirodoofus”, of course.

    Posted by paco on 2007 05 03 at 02:13 PM • permalink

  27. I used to work as a penguin keeper at a large aquarium. I’ve worked with seven species of penguins. No jokes please. I’ve heard them all.

    To be fair, there are 17 species of penguins, and the different species range all over the southern hemisphere from Antarctica all the way up to the equator. The Antarctic species such as Adelies and Emperors are uncomfortable at temps much above freezing, while temperate species such as Galapagos penguins are fine at 80 degrees F.

    Penguins do pant a little when they’re overheated. They gasp for air when they’ve overstuffed themselves on food. While on a PR trip one time, I thought one of my birds was getting sick when she was lying under the hotel bed gasping. Turned out she just needed to internally rearrange all the fish I’d just stuffed her with. She was fine. She soon went back to unrolling the toilet paper and playing with the curtains, keeping me up all night. Good times.

    Posted by Stace on 2007 05 03 at 02:45 PM • permalink

  28. #23 Harry

    For more than 20 years, a herd of penguins has lived in the lobby of the Hyatt Regency Hotel on Maui in Hawaii, where the temperature never goes below 55 F.

    Since the same numbskulls who believe that polar bears will somehow starve if their environment is not frozen fooking solid are now trying to convince us that penguins cannot tolerate anything less than frigid, we must assume, then, that those were not real penguins. Diabolical, those Gaia-raping, hotel-building industrialists.

    Posted by Spiny Norman on 2007 05 03 at 03:28 PM • permalink

  29. #26 paco

    That should be “the Maximum Envirodoofus”, of course.

    Or better yet, Envirodoofus Maximus.

    Posted by Spiny Norman on 2007 05 03 at 03:31 PM • permalink

  30. FWIW, Envirodoofus Maximus seems like something from the beginning of a Chuck Jones Roadrunner cartoon.

    ;^)

    Posted by Spiny Norman on 2007 05 03 at 03:34 PM • permalink

  31. #30: Well, I believe Al’s Instant Blizzard Machine is manufactured by ACME.

    Posted by paco on 2007 05 03 at 03:42 PM • permalink

  32. #31 paco,

    Well… that explains everything.

    Wile E. Coyote Albert A. Gore, Sooooper Genius.

    Posted by Spiny Norman on 2007 05 03 at 03:48 PM • permalink

  33. Hmmm.

    @ bonmot

    gaia destroying ice monkeys

    ROFLMAO!

    Thanks for that one.

    Posted by memomachine on 2007 05 03 at 04:47 PM • permalink

  34. Hmmm.

    Whenever I see a penguin movie, I imagine that they would appreciate a little warmth from time to time. Like when they’re all huddled together at minus 70 degrees one of them saying to another, “God DAMN it’s cold! Whose idea was this, anyway?”

    Actually I always imagined one of them saying “Who the hell just farted?!”

    Posted by memomachine on 2007 05 03 at 04:51 PM • permalink

  35. Stace.

    Funny lookin’ dog you got there.

    Posted by kae on 2007 05 03 at 05:06 PM • permalink

  36. #28 Spiny,

    we must assume, then, that those were not real penguins. Diabolical, those Gaia-raping, hotel-building industrialists.

    I know! I know!
    They were decoy penguins set up by polar bears!

    Posted by kae on 2007 05 03 at 05:09 PM • permalink

  37. Thank you, Professor Negus.

    Posted by dean martin on 2007 05 03 at 06:37 PM • permalink

  38. Stace

    So take us through a typical room service order from one of those PR trips.

    Posted by mr creosote on 2007 05 03 at 07:23 PM • permalink

  39. I pointed out a couple of weeks ago, The Penguins are extinct.

    GO SENS GO.

    Posted by Wimpy Canadian on 2007 05 03 at 08:25 PM • permalink

  40. Negus is an unusual name. There used to be (30 years ago) a TV and radio gardening program host called Arthur Negus. Coincidence?

    Posted by Wimpy Canadian on 2007 05 03 at 08:26 PM • permalink

  41. Envirodoofus Maximus Profitum

    Posted by Wimpy Canadian on 2007 05 03 at 08:48 PM • permalink

  42. Here’s a link to the program transcript, and here’s the ‘gasping’ section:

    [Antarctic historian]  DAVE BURKITT: I can remember looking at some of these penguins, the gentoos here - on really hot days, they’re gasping for air. Their beaks are wide open. They don’t find it comfortable on those days - there’s no doubt about it - and those days seem to be getting more and more frequent when you’ve got bright, really high temperatures, blue skies and sunshine.

    Here’s a map of the Gentoo penguin’s distribution - these aren’t Maui hotel lobby penguins, they’re sub-antarctic birds.

    Still, there’s a five-degree difference between the ten degree maximum in which the birds are ‘struggling’, and the fifteen degree average summer temperature in the Falkland Islands, where gentoos are also found. (Is that what you call a ‘credibility gap’?)

    Posted by Flashman on 2007 05 03 at 09:05 PM • permalink

  43. I bet that this will lead to penguin extinction far more quickly than globular warmening…..

    Posted by Kaboom on 2007 05 03 at 10:50 PM • permalink

  44. They weren’t gasping for air.  If you could understand penguinese, they were shouting: “Look out! Here comes a great big fucking polar bear!!!”

    Posted by Big Jim on 2007 05 03 at 10:51 PM • permalink

  45. #43: Priceless, Kaboom, absolutely priceless.

    Posted by paco on 2007 05 03 at 11:25 PM • permalink

  46. #41

    GOD DAMN you Wimpy Canadian.

    I had just had lunch!#@%&*#!

    Posted by Pogria on 2007 05 03 at 11:51 PM • permalink

  47. “And also, we saw no polar bears at all anywhere in the Antarctic. They have obviously been driven extinct here due to global warming…”

    Posted by Capn Curt on 2007 05 03 at 11:53 PM • permalink

  48. Well I don’t remember seeing any penguins at the top of Thredbo, and it gets pretty cold up there in winter, so global warming must have done them in too.

    Posted by mr creosote on 2007 05 04 at 04:17 AM • permalink

  49. two Antarctic veterans

    From the Great Penguin Rebellion of 1963, no doubt.

    Posted by PW on 2007 05 04 at 09:43 AM • permalink

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