Mush of the Penguins

Penguins are mega stars in some of Hollywood's best offerings in the last few years. Happy Feet, Academy Award winning March of the Penguins, Ice Age and more featured the interesting bobble moonwalks and their habitats of glistening white arctic snow and frigid blue waters to ride the waves in. In one of the animated flicks made for kids and loved by adults, it shows snarky penguins in tropical gear and drinking drinks with umbrellas in them. Sadly, science is proving that picture is far too accurate as the penguins are in serious danger of losing everything, including their lives.

We don't want to have to go to the zoo to see the very popular penguin exhibits and know that is the only place they exist - in a small penguin cube park with homemade ice cubes. After just getting back from the frozen Midwest area, living with that much ice may not be all its cracked up to be for me, but the animals bred and born in those conditions need the environment to sustain their natural way of life - not a manmade ice shelter for humans to gawk at penguins and other animals of those already difficult climes. Global warming is wreaking havoc at a rate which puts the animals, fish and habitat in immediate peril.

"The Antarctic penguins already have a long march behind them," said Anna Reynolds, deputy director of WWF's Global Climate Change Program. "Now it seems these icons of the Antarctic will have to face an extremely tough battle to adapt to the unprecedented rate of climate change."

This caused a decrease of the number of krill, which is the main source of food for Chinstrap penguins, as this species population declined by 30 to 66 percent in some colonies, while the Gentoo penguins suffered similar losses.

The WWF showed that several Emperor penguin colonies almost halved in size over the last 50 years, since they had to raise their chicks on thinner and thinner ice, due to higher temperatures and stronger winds.

"For many years, sea ice has broken off early and many eggs and chicks have been blown away before they were ready to survive on their own," WWF said.

The plight of the penguins came up in Bali at the UN's conference on Global Warming. Urgency is the key word now and immediate action is necessary! Watch penguins in their natural habitat and from a perspective of humor amidst life's travesties in some of the excellent animated renderings from artists and those so maligned Hollywood writers.

Happy Feet is just pure magic too watch with family and friends.

A fantastic peek into the everyday life of penguins is a mirror to human life in this empowering and emotional film, March of the Penguins.

Rhonda, Happy Birthday to Ya!!!