{"id":369453,"date":"2025-03-11T09:37:46","date_gmt":"2025-03-11T08:37:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=369453"},"modified":"2025-03-11T09:37:48","modified_gmt":"2025-03-11T08:37:48","slug":"penguins-want-climate-change-too-they-want-antarctica-to-be-warm-like-it-was-1000-years-ago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=369453","title":{"rendered":"Penguins want climate change too (they want Antarctica to be warm like it was 1,000 years ago)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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From JoNova<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

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Who knew? Penguins are not only a \u201csentinel species\u201d warning us about climate change in Antarctica but \u201cAd\u00e9lie penguin breeding is closely linked to temperature \u201c. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

More warming equals more penguins.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So just as we can use trees as thermometers, we can use penguins as thermometers. And when we do, we find that there was a veritable boom in penguins in the Ross Sea 1,000 years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s all there in the peer reviewed Zheng paper, 2023<\/a> \u2014 thanks to NoTricksZone<\/a> and KlimaNachrichten<\/a> for finding the paper.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As one of the most important \u2018sentinel species\u2019 in the Antarctic ecosystem, the Ad\u00e9lie penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae<\/em>) is widely distributed in the Ross Sea region and its population is extremely sensitive to climate change (Ainley, 2002; Ainley et al., 2010). Since the International Geophysical Year in 1957, researchers have conducted extensive field investigations on climate change (including temperature, SST, sea ice, and polynyas) and Ad\u00e9lie penguin populations in Antarctica.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Modern monitoring data also show that Ad\u00e9lie penguin breeding is closely linked to temperature\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After comparing with historical records of penguin populations at Cape Bird, Dunlop Island, and Cape Adare, all were found to have a common increase during the 750-1350 AD period in the Ross Sea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, at the same time the Vikings were getting into the spirit of Greenland, the penguins were having some parties of their own on the far side of the Earth. And even though climate experts have told us a million times that the Medieval Warm Period was just a localized phenomenon in Europe,\u00a0it was also warm in Antarctica, and most other places<\/a>, and no one seems to be able to find the part of the planet that was colder which would bring that average back to normal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As it happens, another study last year showed Elephant seals and penguins lived on the Ross Sea for thousands of years until the horrible cold of the Little Ice Age wiped out them out.\u00a0<\/a>Seriously, researchers refer to the era three or four thousand years ago as \u201cThe Penguin Optimum\u201d. So, this is yet another study using different markers but reinforcing the same finding. (That one used diatom, this one looked at a footprint of elements in penguin guano \u2014 P, Cu, Zn, Sr, Cd, Ca, and As.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The climate experts also told us a million times that global warming would wipe out the penguins, but instead it turns out, global cooling does.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In the full figure we can see a whole stack of climate variables that all rise and fall in cycles that bear no resemblance to changes of CO2:<\/p>\n\n\n

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