Scientists on 'strangest continent' Antarctica investigate effect of climate change on animals

Updated

King George Island is a remote speck of ice-covered mountains at the far north of the Antarctic Peninsula. It is also the nearest thing in Antarctica to an accessible destination.

Every summer, hundreds of scientists fly down from the bottom of South America to the island's gravel runway operated by the Chilean Air Force.

There are bases from 14 countries, including Chile, China, Russia, the US and South Korea. It is also a logistical hub for expeditions to the peninsula and the West Antarctic ice shelf.

Even with the extreme cold, frequent storms and constant stench of penguin poo, it is paradise for scientists.

"It's an extremely good place for science, everyone calls it a natural laboratory," a beaming Professor Peter Convey tells me as we stand shivering at the airport.

A senior scientist with the British Antarctic Survey, he is relishing his 17th season on the ice.

Foreign Correspondent was given a rare opportunity to travel around the island, couch-surfing the crowded bases and joining expeditions by foot and on zodiac boats.

The large number of international bases has created an Antarctic community with a small town, a school, a post office and, most extraordinary of all, a traditional Russian Orthodox Church above the former Soviet base of Bellingshausen.

Before scientists came, nobody imagined the island could be settled and all food and equipment still has to be shipped or flown in.

But the residents thrive in the hostile conditions and see their work as vitally important.

King George Island is not just a "natural laboratory" - it is one of the most extreme hot spots for global warming.

According to the British Antarctic Survey, the average annual temperature on the peninsula has risen 2.8 degrees Celsius in 50 years, the biggest rise in the southern hemisphere.

Changes over 30 years are regarded as "statistically significant", showing a clear trend in the climate beyond the variability of weather.

As bases were set up on the island after World War II, there is a huge body of "statistically significant" research to draw on.

The Collins Glacier opposite the airport, for example, has retreated 1.7 kilometres in 60 years.

Sceptics will rightly point out that glaciers are always advancing or retreating, but there is no doubting the trend.

Over the past 50 years, 87 per cent of the island's glaciers have retreated.

"That is a direct consequence of the regional warming," Professor Convey said.

"The past few decades of warming are very exceptional compared to any natural variation over a multi-thousand year time scale, at least if not multi-hundred thousand year timescale."

King George Island native penguins disappearing, moving south

The effect of rising temperatures on wildlife is already apparent. We joined a group of German biologists studying why the island's native penguins, Adelies, are disappearing.

Biologist Hans Ulrich-Peter told us that Adelies were heading south in search of their main food source, krill.

Krill feed on phytoplankton under sea ice, but the ice is either forming late or not at all.

Scientists working in the field in Antarctica are united in their conclusions that anthropogenic climate change is real and a cause for international concern.

Their research is part of the basis on which the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (the IPCC) has "a high degree of certainty" that most of the temperature rise has been caused by human activity.

But that is hotly disputed by a small, vocal group of contrarians working in Western research institutes and conservative think tanks.

Willie Soon, a solar researcher at the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics, has called the IPCC "a pure bully" engaging in "blatant manipulations of fact".

It remains to be seen which side will be taken more seriously at the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris in December, where nations will be asked to set future limits on emissions to avoid a global temperature rise of two degrees above pre-industrial times.

In Antarctica, scientists insist they leave politics to the politicians.

But the frustration at being accused of fabricating evidence is palpable.

"The people doing the criticising, if they were looking into a mirror, are far more open to that criticism," Mr Convey said.

Eric Campbell's report on King George Island airs on Tuesday at 8:00pm.

Topics: climate-change, environment, antarctica

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