It seems obvious that penguins will be in trouble if global warming continues. If you like it cold and icy then a hotter planet is not going to work in your favour.

A new report from environmental group WWF highlights the problems the dinner-jacketed birds face. “As the ice melts, these icons of the Antarctic will have to face an extremely tough battle to survive,” says Emily Lewis-Brown, Marine and Climate Change Officer at WWF-UK (press release).

WWF says overfishing and a reduction in sea ice is putting the Emperor, Gentoo, Chinstrap, and Adélie penguins under pressure. The report is actually just a two page document timed to coincide with Bali and it has long been known that penguins have, in the words of 2001 paper published in Nature (subscription required), “potential high susceptibility to climate change”.

No new science then, still it’s a good time and a good peg, and it is getting coverage, along with two men dressed as penguins in Bali who danced around to the song “Hot, Hot, Hot”.

Penguins now threatened by global warming

Penguin colonies in decline because of global warming

The last emperor? Penguin numbers plunge

Penguins face global warming threat

WWF: Climate warming threatens Antarctica Penguins

Image: Adelie penguin from a photo by Michael Van Woert, NOAA NESDIS, ORA

Cross-posted from Daniel Cressey on The Great Beyond