Warmer temperatures in the Antarctic could threaten penguins, whales, seals and a host of smaller creatures, a marine biologist warns in a lecture to be given at Christmas. Lloyd Peck, of the British Antarctic Survey, argues that even a small rise in sea temperatures could have dramatic consequences. \n"Antarctic animals -- in the sea especially -- are very sensitive to climate change and they are the early warning system for the loss of species on the planet. We should be watching for those because climate change is probably going to get rid of them before it gets rid of other species," he says. \n"We know things are changing; it is going to be really unpleasant; we are going to lose things -- we just don't know how much," he said. \nPeck, 47, a scuba diving expert on the strange fauna of the south polar seabed, will deliver this year's UK Royal Institution Christmas lecture, backed by film from Antarctica. The Christmas lectures for young people were founded by the physicist Michael Faraday in the mid-1820s and have been televised since 1966. \nHis message is that important species in the freezing southern seas are so sensitive to temperature shifts that they could perish in a world only a couple of degrees warmer. \n"We take clams out of the sediment and let them bury themselves again. We take limpets off the seashore, turn them over and let them turn back again. If you warm them up by about two degrees or so from their normal summer temperatures, they lose the ability to do those functions," he says. \nAntarctic krill, the tiny shrimp-like creatures that flourish in their billions, are also at risk. In winter, krill depend on thick mats of green algae that flourish on the underside of ice shelves which extend out of the polar darkness into the sub-Antarctic light. \nAs the oceans warm, the winter ice will retreat, and the algae will vanish. \n"If one of the key species in the system goes, then very quickly you'd lose a lot of the system. And that would affect penguins, seals and whales. The fishery areas around the Antarctic would be affected," he said. \n"So the animals that everybody is interested in -- the furry ones with big eyes, the penguins, the whales -- there is potential for them to be affected very quickly by the loss of a few species in the Antarctic food chain," Peck said. \nThe Antarctic continent is still cold. But the Antarctic peninsula, home to the British research bases, has warmed by up to 3?C in the last 50 years. \n"We have seen big losses of ice shelves and glaciers, recession of ice, and have seen new habitable areas for animals on the Antarctic peninsula," Peck said. \n"On this trip I saw grass growing in areas that I have not seen grass before. I am seeing mosses and animals on land that was covered in ice just five or 10 years ago," he said. \nSeals and penguins are adapted to dramatic seasonal changes in temperature and travel huge distances for food. But polar life is unforgiving, and small cyclical shifts in temperatures in the equatorial Pacific already cause huge losses to penguin colonies further south. \n"When you have low krill stocks the penguins die, and they die when the chicks get to fledgling age. The time when the chicks need food most is just when they are about to go to sea. If the food supply is not enough, you can have 95 percent or 99 percent mortalities in a couple of weeks," Peck said. "The whole place goes from a mass of penguin chicks to a big mass of dead bodies all over the place." \nPeck was born in 1957, the son of a steel foundry worker, and he still isn't quite sure how he became a marine biologist in the world's emptiest continent. \n"My mother and father were desperate that I wouldn't work in a heavy industry. My father would say to me, `If you work down the pit or in a steel foundry when you are grown up I am going to cut your hands off,'" he said. \nHe became fascinated by how animals use energy. The Antarctic proved to be the perfect laboratory, because its denizens have to cope with extremes. So, of course, do its scientists. \n"The whole world is just flat and white for as far as you can see in all directions and the air is so clear that you could see a mountaintop 50 or 60 miles away, and it is so quiet that you can have a conversation with somebody a quarter of a mile away because there is no background noise," he said. \n"On a still day, it is a really surreal world. And then the wind blows, and the snow starts to whip off the ice, and you can't see anything," he said. \n"Visibility is about two meters, so you just stay inside," he said.
An April circular by the Chinese Ministry of Education on student admission criteria at Tibetan universities has been harrowing and discriminating to say the least. The circular said that prospective students must state their “political attitude and ideological morality” to be considered for admission. It also said that students should not be involved in religious movements and students who are proficient in Marxist theory should be preferred. Since Beijing started occupying Tibet, it has meticulously introduced policies to dismantle the Tibetan education system, which is closely tied to its rich monastic tradition, and has even pulled students from Afghanistan and eastern
Opinion polls show that Taiwan’s judicial system and law enforcement “enjoy” low approval ratings among Taiwanese. In spite of data showing low crime rates, many Taiwanese drivers have faced aggressive driving, unprovoked road rage, road blocking and unmotivated police officers. Some criminals seem to consider themselves above the law, which is not completely wrong. Reports about so-called “road blocking” can be found in newspapers or on YouTube. An example of this is when “road rowdies” block a vehicle on a road, get out of their vehicle and start to attack the occupants of the blocked vehicle — often attacking in a
The Jumbo Floating Restaurant was a landmark in Hong Kong for nearly half a century. The palatial restaurant, with its pastiche Chinese architecture and neon lights perfectly encapsulated the territory’s beguiling balance of East and West, tradition and modernity. It was a feature backdrop in numerous Hong Kong films. However, forced to close amid the stringent COVID-19 lockdown policies of Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam (林鄭月娥) and denied financial support from her government, the floating temple to Cantonese gastronomy was towed from its mooring in Aberdeen Harbour this month by its owners with its planned destination not released. On June
When I was teaching in Lesotho in southern Africa during the 1980s, I taught a class on comparative foreign policy. The course included trips to the US embassy, the Soviet embassy, the British embassy and the newly established Chinese embassy. The students could ask the ambassadors and staff questions about foreign policy, and would then write a report as their final term paper. The Chinese ambassador felt that the US-style education I delivered was unique and invited me to go to China to teach. At the time, China was planning to open up to the world, and it needed professors versed
RSS