"The emperor penguin has been declared an endangered species as climate change pushes the icon of Antarctica a step closer to extinction, the global authority on threatened wildlife announced Thursday.
Its change of status from "near threatened" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) underscores the existential threat to ice-dependent species as global warming profoundly reshapes the frozen continent.
Emperor penguins rely on sea ice to live, hunt and breed. The early break-up and loss of these platforms of frozen ocean water has caused their numbers to plummet.
The IUCN — a global network of scientists, governments and conservation groups — said changes in sea ice caused by climate change were expected to halve the emperor penguin population by the 2080s. "
