Emperor penguins declared endangered as sea ice shrinks

In Antarctica, sites like this are getting harder to find, and experts say it's very possible they could disappear completely. You will see larger die-offs and that of course would be a massive tragedy and eventually it'll be all on us because it's happening on our watch. The iconic emperor penguin is now considered endangered, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature. These birds live on ice for most of the year, but there's much less of it, and when chicks fall in the water, they drown or freeze. So if you lose one set of offspring in one year, then that's probably not important, but if you consecutive years lose cohorts of offspring, then that becomes cumulatively important. He says the emperor penguin population has dropped about 10% in the last decade, even more in some places, and it's expected to be cut in half by 2080. They're effectively the Antarctic canary in the coal mine. The Antarctic fur seal is now declared endangered too. It feeds on krill, which are looking for colder water, making it trickier to hunt. This Canadian scientist has spent time in Antarctica seeing the effects of climate change firsthand. We weren't seeing a significant change in the trend until just the last few years. But he says as more sea ice disappears, something needs to be done because right now the future looks bleak. The way to deal with climate change, the way to mitigate its effects, is to look at anthropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide, and in particular we're talking about the burning of fossil fuel. He is optimistic that can happen, but for the emperor penguin and Antarctic fur seal, it's just a question of will it come soon enough? Sian Desjardins, CBC News, Toronto.