How mass drowning of chicks is putting emperor penguins at risk of extinction

Record low levels of Antarctic sea ice are having grim consequences for penguins chicks yet to grow waterproof feathers. Subscribe to The Guardian on YouTube ► https://www.youtube.com/user/theguardian?sub_confirmation=1 The mass drowning of emperor penguin chicks as sea ice is melted by climate crisis-caused global heating has led the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to declare the species officially in danger of extinction. Emperors are the largest penguin species and have jumped from “near threatened” to “endangered” in the new IUCN analysis, which projects that the emperor penguin population will halve by the 2080s owing to the loss of sea ice. “The emperor penguin’s move to extinction is a stark warning: climate change is accelerating the extinction crisis before our eyes,” said Martin Harper, the chief executive of BirdLife International, which coordinated the IUCN assessment. “Governments must act now to urgently decarbonise our economies.” The assessment also found the climate crisis had driven a halving of the Antarctic fur seal population since 2000, owing to a reduction in the krill that the animals rely on for food. Mass drowning of chicks puts emperor penguins at risk of extinction ► https://ift.tt/fI5UCjl The Guardian publishes independent journalism, made possible by supporters. Contribute to The Guardian today ► https://ift.tt/Iz9lMcZ Sign up to the Guardian's free new daily newsletter, First Edition ► https://ift.tt/YIGlNCj #emperorpenguins #antarctica #endangeredspecies #climatecrisis