The icy ocean around Antarctica may seem like a cold and foreboding place. But it’s actually brimming with life.

Penguins and seals build their colonies on its rocky shores. Orcas, whales and a variety of fish zip through its gray waters. Seabirds glide overhead.

The Antarctic Peninsula, the continent’s northernmost spit of land, is one of the most biologically diverse regions of all. And at the cornerstone of its delicate ecosystem is a small, shrimp-like creature known as the Antarctic krill.

Reducing meat and dairy consumption will cut methane and allow forests to thrive

Damian Carrington Environment editor, The Guardian

Livestock production needs to reach its peak within the next decade in order to tackle the climate emergency, scientists have warned. They are calling for governments in all but the poorest countries to set a date for “peak meat” because animal agriculture is a significant and fast-growing source of global greenhouse gas emissions.

Climate change and industrial-scale fishing is impacting the krill population with a potentially disastrous impact on larger predators, say scientists.

The Antarctic, one of the world’s last great wildernesses and home to animals such as whales, penguins and leopard seals, is being threatened by the plight of an animal just a few centimetres long, according to scientists.