02-01 Arctic vs. Antarctic

If you are interested in the future, you want to follow events in the Arctic and the Antarctic.
The photo of the two poles shows the Antarctic as a monster land mass surrounded by sea ice in the winter. The Arctic, on the other hand, is sea ice surrounded by land mass. There is Alaska, Canada, Denmark, Norway and Russia.
One of the areas where our cruise ship paused, as part of a 2009 trip around the Horn, was a point on the Antarctic Peninsula. It is where the most warming is taking place.
We saw thousands of Chinstrap penguins on hills of snow, and one is shown in the photo. And lots of quirky Gentoo penguins in another location along a rocky shoreline.
The Chinstrap penguins feed on krill, which are like small shrimp. And the krill feed on algae on the bottom of the ice. So, with the ice shrinking and the krill disappearing, Chinstrap numbers are in decline.
But those Gentoo penguins eat bloody anything and will adapt their eating and breeding with weather changes. So, their numbers are growing. Quirky is good.
The Antarctic is governed by a group of nations operating under a treaty arrangement. It is a pristine area protected for research purposes only.
Listening to a group of scientists who came on board the ship was a little scary. Like ocean levels being 6-9 metres higher 120,000 years ago than they are today. Now, that is quirky. It seems there have been periods of global warming in our past.
The Arctic is a very different story. The warming weather means longer summers and thinner ice. An unprecedented level of exploration and development lies ahead. And we are talking about more than oil and gas; but diamonds, gold, nickel, iron ore and copper. Of course, that means more ice breakers, roads and ports. Not quirky, expensive.
And, if you are interested in northern excitement, our distressed polar bears are mating with grizzly bears that have moved north birthing what they call “grolar” bears. The photo shows the same process duplicated in a zoo, with a grizzly dad, a polar mum, and the big grolar on the left. It’s a new flexible hybrid specie that can eat a wider variety of foods. Seriously quirky.
But, the big global warming winners will be the shipping companies that will take advantage of the Northwest Passage around Canada, and the Northeast Passage around Russia. How about cutting off up to 7000 miles shipping stuff around the world?
It looks like the Suez Canal and the Panama Canal will have some serious competition. But good news for the climate as we reduce heavy oil and LNG consumption for fueling cargo ships. As if that was a consideration.