Dr Summerhayes - Climate change in the Antarctic

Dr. Colin Summerhayes is a marine geologist and an oceanographer who came to talk to us about how his work into human impact on the environment. He revealed how his job enables him to travel to places including Antarctica and meet new people from across the world. He went on to explain that when the Antarctic ice melts, some of it would break off, detach from the land and float away. We also learnt how many buildings around rivers were ill-prepared for the effects of global warming. The buildings are at the risk of being flooded because of when they were built against the water, the construction workers didn't take into account the water rising. One of the aspects that I found most interesting was Dr Summerhayes’ revelation that Adélie penguins have started to move further south as their food source is decreasing. In 1997, a new species of penguin was found to be moving from the north to the south due to global warming because they have more food available in the south. This is outlined in greater detail in the books he had written, which he brought along for us to look at. He informed us that one took 4 years to write, and the other was a huge group effort from people all round the world via email. Overall, I found the talk very informative and it helped my understanding of where the problems associated with global warming were coming from. It was great meeting Dr. Colin Summerhayes and we hope to see him again soon.