WikipediaMy rocky beach or yours?
When you think about climate change you generally think of losers, right? As in, things and animals who lose. Like trees! Like polar bears! Like, well, us! But did you know there are climate-change winners? That’s right, climate change will help some animals. And one species it will help is the Adélie penguin of Beaufort Island, Antarctica.
How is this possible, you ask? Don’t penguins LIKE cold? Well, sure. But the Adélie penguin also really likes a rocky beach. It has never met a rocky beach it does not like! And now that sea levels are falling, there are lots of rocky beaches for the Adélie penguin to like and then nest on. “Nesting” here is a euphemism for crazy penguin sex — which means there’s not only more rocky beaches for the Adélie penguin to like, but there are more Adélie penguins to like them.
There used to be 35,000 breeding pairs of these penguins on Beaufort Island and now there are 65,000. We expect climate naysayers to be using that figure any day: “But now there are MORE penguins!” Be ready for them with your real science.
