This report reminded me of my own visit to Antarctica... Climate Activist— Climate change is hitting home everywhere—including my own back yard, which was ravaged last year by Superstorm Sandy. But I was far from home when I really began to understand how global warming is disrupting the rhythms of life for creatures big and small.
Distressing headlines out of Antarctica this month brought it all back to me. Researchers reported that warmer temperatures are melting the traditional breeding grounds of emperor penguins, forcing at least one colony to climb 100-foot walls of ice and driving them farther from the sea, their only source of food.
This report reminded me of my own visit to Antarctica, when I witnessed another penguin species straining to adapt in a warming world.
This Monday is Penguin Awareness Day—what better time to celebrate these magnificent birds and learn about all they're struggling to overcome?
More than a year after my journey to Antarctica, my mind is still filled with astonishing images of an aquamarine world of ice, snow, and water—and the incredible animals that make their home there.
I had up-close views of Adélie penguin rookeries—charming birds that swim like porpoises, paddle like ducks and wobble upright onto the beach like drunken wedding guests. Their nesting grounds were full of noise, motion, life. But science tells a more troubling story.
Adélie colonies on the Antarctic Peninsula are dwindling as the number of breeding pairs drops and the average weight of the fledglings falls. Many underweight fledglings go off to sea and never return.
Like emperor penguins, they are struggling to adapt. Adélies need to hunt from the sea ice, and that ice is disappearing from the Peninsula in summer, so the Adélie populations are shifting south, to bays that used to be too icy in summer but now have the right mix of ice, open water, and snow-free beach. But there is a limit to how far the Adélie can move: They need winter light to hunt, and below the Antarctic Circle, it is just too dark for that.
Unless humans stop pumping millions of tons of climate pollution into our thin atmosphere, climate change will unrelentingly hunt down these birds. Even more troubling: the Adélie and emperor penguins aren't alone. There are 16 species of penguins, each facing their own threats and struggling to adapt in a race for survival.
To honor Penguin Awareness Day, we've compiled a slideshow that combines stunning photography of these amazing birds with the details of their efforts to survive.
Please take a moment to view our penguin slideshow and share these stories with your friends and family.
 Thank you for your activism and support,
Eric Pooley
Senior Vice President, Strategy and Communications
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