{"id":318919,"date":"2024-04-19T09:36:29","date_gmt":"2024-04-19T07:36:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=318919"},"modified":"2024-04-19T09:36:32","modified_gmt":"2024-04-19T07:36:32","slug":"global-cooling-wipes-out-elephant-seals-and-penguin-colonies-from-warmer-antarctica-1000-years-ago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=318919","title":{"rendered":"Global Cooling wipes out Elephant Seals and Penguin colonies from warmer Antarctica, 1,000 years ago"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From JoNova <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Jo Nova<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where are the tears? Elephant Seals and Penguins were forced off the Ross sea 1,000 years ago because it got too cold<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

One thousand years ago Southern Elephant Seals were happily living in the Ross Sea of Antarctica. Likewise Adelie Penguins frolicked in the sun there during the \u201cPenguin Optimum\u201d of three to four thousand years ago. They had lived there on and off for thousands of years in the Holocene, but the glaciers came back and the cold times returned, and all the colonies were wiped out. All that\u2019s left there now is just their rotting bones and fur as testament to the devastation of Global Cooling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks to\u00a0Kenneth Richard at\u00a0NoTricksZone<\/em><\/a>\u00a0for his dedication in digging up these papers.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The Ross Sea is a part of Antarctica that is south of New Zealand, and in the pictures below the remains of the seals and penguins show that they had well established colonies in places where they are unable to live now. The red circles mark the seal colonies, and the blue stars show the penguins. The colonies ebbed and flowed but then were lost as the Little Ice Age began and have not recovered.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Today the beaches are an empty wasteland:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, the beaches are largely free of marine mammals and birds; skuas (Stercorarius maccormicki) are the most widespread species. Along the southern coast, penguins are absent, although small Ad\u00e9lie (Pygoscelis adeliae) rookeries existed in the past (i.e., Baroni and Orombelli, 1991, 1994a; Emslie et al., 2007). Ad\u00e9lies also occur adjacent to Terra Nova Bay at Ad\u00e9lie Cove and Inexpressible Island. Solitary or small groups of Weddell seals (Leptonychotes weddellii) occasionally haul out on the VLC. No other seals use these beaches at present.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The seals and penguins of Antarctica must be desperately hoping for some global warming so they can return to their ancestral homes and flourish where only desolate ice grips the sea and shore now. If only humans could do something about that!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indeed, it\u2019s time to launch a new campaign: \u201cFossil fuels can save the seals\u201d. (It has just as much scientific validity as any eco-campaign running today, ask the IPCC!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t believe human emissions can warm the planet enough for the penguins to notice, but what if I\u2019m wrong?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There really was a \u201cPenguin Optimum\u201d at about the same time as the Minoans and the Myceneans thrived. Bring back the warmth!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The red and yellow bars mark warmer eras where the marine mammals flourished. The diatom results marked in blue at the bottom (F. curta) of the graph below, show how sea ice expanded in the last thousand years as the cold made life impossible for the seals and penguins. The diatom results marked in red (T. antarctica) rise in the eras of longer warmer summers. The graph above runs \u201cbackwards\u201d in time from right (the past) to left (present).<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Tell the children, the world was warmer a thousand years ag<\/a>o, and the cooling has been a killer. If they like life on Earth, they want more warming, not more cooling. The world has been cooling for 5,000 years, and if we could warm the Earth that would be a good thing.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

See these posts for references:<\/p>\n\n\n\n