The ice shelf from Antarctica to the South Pole is currently experiencing record melting.
• Also read: An extinct species could be brought back to life thanks to a scientific breakthrough
• Also read: Six Portuguese bring global warming to the ECtHR
• Also read: Climate Change: Towards a Comprehensive Freight Transport Plan in Quebec?
At this time of year, which marks the end of the southern winter – that is, the cold season for countries in the Earth’s southern hemisphere – a glaciologist from the University of Melbourne in Australia, Ariaan Purich, notes “the extent of the damage”.
Portal
“More than 2.5 million square kilometers of frozen water had disappeared,” says the expert.
Portal
“We see that 2023 has been catastrophic,” she adds.
Global warming is having consequences for species living in Antarctica.
One of them: the emperor penguin.
Portal
The melting of the ice, which is now starting much earlier, means that the young of this bird species, who cannot yet swim, drown in large numbers when they have to leave their place of birth.
Portal
For these reasons, entire colonies have already disappeared.
If nothing is done, the emperor penguin population could disappear by the year 2100.