Page 28 - aruba-today-20191005

A28 SCIENCE
Saturday 5 OctOber 2019
Soaring eagle films crumbling Alpine glaciers as Earth warms

By CLAIRE PARKER and tor’s travels. A German gla-
JOHN LEICESTER cier that had hard-packed
Associated Press snow when he first visited
PARIS (AP) — The images last year is now mushy, he
will be stunningly beautiful said. “I was stunned,” he
yet also hint of dire future said. “The difference over
consequences. Filmed with a year was incredible.”
a camera mounted be- Disintegrating permafrost,
tween his majestic wings, which now glues a glacier’s
they’ll show how a white- rocks together, can cause
tailed eagle named Victor them to crumble with po-
sees the world as he flies tentially devastating con-
over the Alps and capture sequences.
its once-magnificent gla- Victor’s flight comes as Ital-
ciers now crumbling be- ian authorities are scram-
cause of global warming. bling to respond to fears
Their wasting away is un- that part of a large Italian
likely to be a pretty sight. glacier near Mont Blanc is
And that’s the whole point. on the verge of collapsing.
Victor will embark upon In this image made from video provided by Eagle Wings Foundation/Chopard, aerial footage shot They’ve warned that falling
five flights this week over by a camera attached to an eagle of a glacier in Western Europe. ice could endanger homes
the Alps. Organizers hope Associated Press and people in the Val Fer-
his spectacular eagle’s- the first time that we’ll really A colleague will release slow Victor down. ret area, a popular hiking
view footage will help jolt ride on an eagle’s back Victor from the top of each “It’s a bit like putting a wash- area.
the world out of climate- over such distances and peak. During each flight, ing machine on the roof of At the rate the planet is
change apathy and to- such vistas, and see how the eagle will fly three to your car. You don’t go as warming, it’s too late to
ward swifter action to com- he flies.” five kilometers (1.8 to 3.1 fast and you use more en- save the Alps’ glaciers, Free-
bat its effects. “How can you convince miles) — and descend ergy,” Travers said. “It’s the dom Conservation Manag-
His handler hopes that see- people to protect the birds 1,500 to 3,000 meters (5,000 same for him. He doesn’t fly ing Director Ronald Menzel
ing the world as an eagle and their environment if to 9,800 feet) — in search of as fast with that on his back said. But it’s not too late to
sees it will also convince you never show them what Travers below. and it demands a greater fight climate change more
viewers of the importance the birds see?” he added. “I don’t have a remote effort from him.” broadly. He hopes Victor’s
of protecting birds and Weather permitting, the control. So if he doesn’t But Victor’s earlier flights popularity will spur viewers
their environments, espe- nine-year-old Victor will set see me and decides not to over Paris and Burj Khalifa into action.“We hope that
cially after a devastating off Thursday from the top of come to me, he could go garnered millions of views, once more, people are
recent report chronicled the Swiss mountain Piz Cor- anywhere,” Travers said. and organizers hope the going to see nature from
their decline. vatsch with a 360-degree That’s why the flights are bird’s heavy lifting will yield a totally different perspec-
“Humanity has two dreams: camera on his back and weather dependent. If Vic- powerful images that make tive and just reconnect to
to swim with dolphins and a GPS to track his progress. tor’s vision is obscured by disappearing glaciers im- it and realize that wow, it’s
fly with eagles,” French fal- He’ll fly through Germany, clouds, “he won’t come,” possible to ignore. actually something that is
coner and Freedom Con- Austria and Italy before Travers said. “It’s essential Travers has witnessed the amazing and that we want
servation founder Jacques- ending his mountain tour in that he sees me.” melting firsthand during to do something to pre-
Olivier Travers said. “This is France on Oct. 7. Carrying a camera does scouting trips ahead of Vic- serve,” he said.q

Dutch inventor says his ocean cleaning

boom is working

By MIKE CORDER the Great Pacific Garbage because it was moving
Associated Press Patch, an area of floating at the same speed as the
THE HAGUE, Netherlands plastic trash twice the size plastic. That problem was
(AP) — After a series of set- of Texas, Slat said. overcome by using an un-
backs, a system for catch- But he sounded a note of derwater parachute an-
ing plastic floating in the caution, saying “if the jour- chor to slow the boom so
Pacific between California ney to this point taught us it catches quicker moving
and Hawaii is now work- anything it is that it’s defi- trash. Also, late last year,
In this undated handout photo provided by The Ocean Clean ing, its Dutch inventor said nitely not going to be easy.” the barrier broke under the
Up, plastic is retained in front of an extended cork line in the Wednesday. The floating boom with constant pummeling by
Pacific Ocean.
Associated Press Boyan Slat, a university a tapered 10-foot-deep wind and waves in the Pa-
dropout who founded The (3-meter-deep) screen is in- cific, requiring four months
Ocean Cleanup nonprofit, tended to act like a coast- of repairs before being re-
announced that the float- line, trapping some of the launched from Vancouver
ing boom is skimming up 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic in June. The system also ex-
waste ranging in size from that scientists estimate are perienced a problem with
a discarded net and a car swirling in the patch while “overtopping” _ waves
wheel complete with tire to allowing marine life to safe- that pushed the plastic
chips of plastic measuring ly swim beneath it. over the line of floating
just 1 millimeter. After it was towed out to corks that hold the screen.
The results are promising sea last year, the barrier That was solved by using a
enough to begin designing did not catch any trash in line of larger corks to corral
a second system to send to its first weeks of operation the plastic. q