March of the Penguins
Our upstairs is now 88 degrees (we have air conditioning only in two rooms in the house), so it seemed like a good day to just retreat. Katie and I went to see March of the Penguins at the Edina Theater. A lot of other people had the same idea, which makes sense on the 8th straight day over 90 degrees. The theater wasn’t even set on freezing the way many multiplexes are, but watching footage of Antarctica for an hour and a half does tend to cool one off.
The film is worth seeing for the cinematography alone. The narration was occasionally rather corny – though I could listen to Morgan Freeman’s voice any time (maybe it’s just all those years of Electric Company in the 70’s). I knew that male penguins incubate the eggs. I didn’t know that they do so without any food for four months during the harshest weather of the year. (The females are busy walking back to the sea before they starve to death). As in most parts of the animal kingdom, there is some competition for mates, but when winter storms roll in, the males huddle together to keep themselves and their eggs warm. And – here’s the part that surprised me -- they take turns being at the center of the huddle.
These amazing creatures have a way (not an easy way, but a way) to survive in the harshest climate in the world. It’s likely that global climate change is going to make life a lot more difficult for most humans in the future as well. A planet with more storms, more drought, more hurricanes and so on will not be an easy place to survive. I sure hope we can learn to take turns when the going gets rough.
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