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Last updated on August 5th, 2017 at 04:05 pm
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.
- I’m shocked by this negustivity!Posted by blogstrop on 2007 05 03 at 04:14 AM • permalink
- 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…
- 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.
- 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”.
- 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
- And Tim, that Taronga Zoo link is stuffed.Posted by flying pigs over mecca on 2007 05 03 at 04:54 AM • permalink
- 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
- 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
- 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?
- 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
- Could be there’a a reason other than climate change for all that gasping.
- 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
- 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
- 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.
- #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.
- 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.
- #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
- #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
- 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 paco,
Well… that explains everything.
Wile E. CoyoteAlbert A. Gore, Sooooper Genius.Posted by Spiny Norman on 2007 05 03 at 03:48 PM • permalink
- Hmmm.
@ bonmot
gaia destroying ice monkeys
ROFLMAO!
Thanks for that one.
Posted by memomachine on 2007 05 03 at 04:47 PM • permalink
- 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
- 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
- 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
- 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
- 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’?)
- 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
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