First icebergs, now penguins

Emperor penguin on Pekapeka Beach.

Oh, it’s cooling all right

It’s got so cold here that penguins are arriving.

A penguin's journey

The NZ Herald has some great shots of Mr Emperor on the beach, taking in the sights and getting used to the adulation.

On the Google Earth clip at right you can see the shortest possible track he could have swum in reaching us from the nearest part of the Antarctic coast. It measures a mind-bending 3300 kilometres. Of course, it’s beyond question that he would have travelled far more than that, because of ocean currents.

Nice to see him here, but I hope he goes on his way soon, because there’s not much future for his kind in New Zealand. We’re not cooling that much.

Visits: 67

14 Thoughts on “First icebergs, now penguins

  1. Andy on 28/06/2011 at 7:41 am said:

    Penguin, nicknamed “Happy Feet”, has had a operation to remove foreign material from its stomach, and a “Penguin Advisory Committee” has been set up to determine its future.

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/5199494/Emperor-penguin-perkier-after-op

    I wonder if the said PAC (Penguin Advisory Committee) gets nice fleece tops and a logo for their organisation. After all, its not like we are short of money, is it?

    • Andy on 28/06/2011 at 7:49 am said:

      Maybe I was a little hasty. Most of the people involved at donating their time.

    • Richard C (NZ) on 01/07/2011 at 8:31 pm said:

      I wonder if there will be “unintended consequences” ?

      e.g. headline:-

      Disease ridden Happy Feet wipes out Antarctic Emperor Penguins – Gareth Morgan disconsolate.

    • Richard C (NZ) on 02/07/2011 at 9:14 am said:

      Or,

      Ship returning Happy Feet to Antarctica hits iceberg, sinks, no survivors – Gareth Morgan inconsolable.

    • Yes. In the same way, he’s very anxious about all the sea ice melting and flooding the poor little islands.

    • Richard C (NZ) on 02/07/2011 at 11:16 am said:

      I haven’t read Morgan’s book (comes down to positive feedbacks from what I can gather) but I sincerely hope he is concerned with ice-shelf melting (the last bastion of hope for embattled warmists to cling to) – not sea ice melting.

      Please, no-one tell me it is actually the latter.

  2. R2D2 on 01/07/2011 at 1:02 pm said:

    I take it this post isn’t serious? One penguin could hardly be considered evidence for cooling.

    • Richard C (NZ) on 01/07/2011 at 1:21 pm said:

      And a very misleading title – should read “First icebergs, now [a] penguin”

      Maybe it’s a colour blind scout penguin from a renegade faction that’s had enough of freezing their butts year round in Antarctica and want somewhere to go for a break?

      Will be reporting back that Kapiti coast not suitable after consuming black sand in the mistaken belief that it was snow..

    • Au contraire, M. Cumming. The title is scrupulously accurate, as mine always are. Let me explain.

      Many creatures visit New Zealand every day without being detected by us. We have computer models that show this quite clearly. For every Emperor penguin that we discover here, there are approximately 20 that we’re unaware of. The consensus among leading penguin scientists is that the penguin sensitivity is considered to be about 3.5 penguins per 1000km of coastline per annum. There’s a veritable plague of penguins trying to penetrate our coastwatch programme and establish a beachhead in what they consider, apparently, their favourite holiday destination.

      Many succumb to the currents or the weather, of course, or are taken by sharks or orca. We never see them. But mark my words, if we let the survivors stay, our country will soon be ruined. They will breed every time the snow hits the coastline. Dogs will flock to the beaches for the easy meals and we’ll never keep them on the farms, where they belong. Our toddlers will be intimidated by these smartly-dressed birds and, overawed by their black and white sophistication, be forced to share their sandwiches and ice creams. Life will become a horror.

      Stand up and be counted! Support our campaign to Keep All Penguins Out (KAPO) with a generous donation. Make our country safe once more

    • Richard C (NZ) on 01/07/2011 at 8:16 pm said:

      I’m not convinced of the threat.

      3.5 penguins per 1000km of coastline per annum = 9.6E-04 penguins per 100m per day.

      I strolled along 100m of coastline today and did not observe that incidence of said “plague”.

      I think you’re bluffing.
      —————————————————————————————————————————
      A little chastened over the title although I do recall this:-

      G.S. Williams says:
      October 4, 2010 at 10:00 am

      Just a couple of points.

      Your header should be, “Filmed free for nothing”, The word “for” MUST be followed by a noun not an adjective. In the context of your header “free”, is an adjective. Also, the word “but” is superfluous in that context.

      I hope that this is of help.

      G.S. Williams.

      https://www.climateconversation.org.nz/2010/10/filmed-for-free-but-for-nothing/#comment-25038

      (Actually just glad G.S. Williams picked on you and not me)

    • I strolled along 100m of coastline today

      Sample’s too small.

      Bluffing? I’ll give him bluffing!
      Where are those pesky penguins…

    • Well done, R2D2. The tongue was firmly in the cheek.

      But I disagree with you: one penguin is evidence of cooling; it’s just not strongly persuasive. Perhaps, as evidence, it’s a few eggs short of a colony.

    • Andy on 01/07/2011 at 2:51 pm said:

      I think it’s actually Monckton in his dinner suit.

    • Andy on 01/07/2011 at 2:52 pm said:

      R2D2 noticed that you continue to be a glutton for punishment “over the road”.

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