The Earth’s two poles wobble

Some icebergs are more than 90 meters high. An elephant seal perched on a patch of ice far from the continent where it should not have been. “The melting happened more than I thought,” Professor Patricia Yager from the Department of Marine Science – University of Georgia (USA), told radio station. CNN.

The Thwaites Glacier – sometimes called the Doomsday Glacier – is roughly the size of the US state of Florida, and most of the ice in West Antarctica is melting rapidly.

The elephant seal chases a meal of molluscs, and the mollusks follow phytoplankton, which bloom in the iron-rich waters of melting ice, showing how severe the loss of ice is. .

An elephant seal is perched where it should not be, on a piece of ice far from the continent Photo: KTH ROYAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY – SWEDEN

Some populations have adapted extremely well, even developing such as algae, ice fish, seals, jellyfish… But when the ice runs out to melt, the iron-rich waters drift away, phytoplankton will die and temporary blooming ecosystems will be destroyed.

On the shrinking continent, the Adélie penguins, which depend on sea ice, have been severely reduced in numbers. The survivors are trying to migrate towards more sea ice, but no one can predict the outcome.

Recently, research by biologist Marcela Libertelli from the Argentine Antarctic Institute (IAA) confirmed that emperor penguins may become extinct in 30-40 years.

At the other end of the world, on the icy island of Greenland near the North Pole, Narsaq’s Ujarneq Egede is trying to maintain his farm in a state of increasingly dry summers, too much rain in other seasons, and late winters. ..

The hot climate threatens the ecosystem but facilitates the extraction of resources such as rare earths and uranium, and tourists are also more abundant. However, keeping that from further destroying the ice island is a challenge.

According to The Guardian, the head of Greenland Múte B Egede recently laid out a strategy for a “recovery economy”: Eliminate fossil fuels, use three spearheads of fisheries, rare earth mining and tourism. Greenland’s topography is also conducive to safe hydroelectricity, in addition to investment in a CO2 collection system to convert into green fuel.