I so appreciated this article in The Conversation, about Antarctic tour guides who are quitting their jobs because tourism, which used to be more about seeing the wonders of the continent, is now more about seeing it before it melts — despite these same visitors apparently doing very little to help the last continent avoid this fate (“While tour operators often argue that visiting Antarctica can heighten tourists’ awareness of environmental issues, former guides were struck by guests’ ignorance of human impacts”).

“For anyone interested in nature, few jobs sound more enviable. You spend months among penguins, orcas and glaciers, helping visitors experience one of the world’s most extraordinary and unspoiled places.

But for some guides … [w]atching climate change unfold while helping thousands more visitors reach the continent eventually led them to leave the jobs they’d once dreamed of.”

Antarctic tourism is definitely growing way too fast; when I visited in 2004, there were 20,000 visitors a season — last season, there were 120,000. Within a decade, the continent is predicted to see 450,000. Which is astonishing (not in a good way).

One former tour guide said: “Very often, for long periods of time, the penguins had maybe a few hours’ break during the night. Otherwise there were hundreds of people walking through the colonies non-stop.”

This is an important article, especially for anyone who’s considering a visit to Antarctica. As one guide said, “To this day, Antarctica … stays in the forefront of my head as the most incredibly raw environment that deserves all the care and protection. And I just think tourism and us being there was doing the opposite of that completely.”

If you’re interested in saving the planet, by all means, go to Antarctica if you can. Learn about the effects of human-induced climate change on this magnificent continent and the animals who live there. Learn why we cannot consume seafood and krill supplements while also expecting to see penguins a decade or two from now. Learn everything that’s at stake and why it is so incredibly important to turn things around before it’s too late … then come home and be the change our planet needs.

Writers: You are all well aware, I’m sure, about the many (far too many!) scams out there targeting writers, both published authors and especially aspiring writers. (If not, learn more at the wonderful Writer Beware blog.)

I received two scam emails within the past two days, one of which was frighteningly authentic, and the other one that was such a hilarious AI fail that I just have to share it.

But first, the really scary one. Lately scammers have been posing as editors, using very realistic emails to lure writers into responding with the hope of establishing a relationship with a top editor. Here’s the one I received just this week:

This is scary on many levels, the first of which is that Wendy McCurdy is a real person, and she actually is Editorial Director at Kensington. And this email, unlike the very obvious poorly written fakes, is quite polished (though definitely a bit on the overly formal side … until the “Keep being awesome” closing).

Of course, “Wendy’s” kind words about Floreana (thanks to AI) are alluring — this is usually what makes these emails so hard to resist — and the fact that “Wendy” would like to talk to either me or my agent makes her seem accessible and professional. 

Other than knowing that the real Wendy McCurdy would never send a random email like this, I noticed one red flag straight away: the British-English spelling of “programme,” which an American editor would never use. 

And, as always, writers (and everyone who gets random emails, for that matter) should check the sender’s email address — in this case, though the email appeared in my inbox to have come from “Wendy McCurdy,” a look at the email address revealed that it was, in fact, from wendymccurdy.kensington@aol.com. (If you visit the Kensington website, you’ll see that legitimate emails will come from accounts at kensingtonbooks.com — not a random AOL account.)

This scam is more realistic than many, and the ones writers should be all the more aware of … AI, unfortunately, does a very good job of making such scams feel very real. However, sometimes AI gets it hilariously wrong, as in this email I received the next day:

First of all, the email was too long to include here in its entirety — I imagine even the most hopeful and gullible writers wouldn’t be able to get through this — but most of all, it’s riddled with AI fails. For one, my first name is not Raymond; also, I haven’t written a book called MIDGES (and wouldn’t name a book after myself even if I was inexplicably tempted). And I don’t write in the horror genre at all (which is exactly where this email belongs).

The writer (a fake name from a gmail account) doesn’t ask for money straight up (they never do), and this is their pitch: “I’d like to run a Goodreads visibility audit on the book and show you where discovery may currently be getting lost. Would you like me to walk you through the Goodreads audit and the visibility gaps currently affecting the book?”

Needless to say, this ended up in my trash folder very quickly, after I enjoyed it a bit: I really did love learning how my nonexistent book has the “sheer sensory intensity” that “readers actively look for.”

Not all scams can be so blatantly unbelievable, so stay aware and be safe out there. And enjoy the funny scam emails when they come in. If nothing else, they provide us with the lovely comfort of knowing that AI is most definitely not going to take our writing jobs anytime soon.

When I first became obsessed with penguins about 20 years ago, after an expedition to Antarctica and then volunteering for a penguin census in Argentina, there were 17 species of penguin, according to this Penguin Bible. And, because you must know this, here they are, divided by group:

Large penguins: King penguin, emperor penguin

Brush-tailed penguins: Adélie penguin, chinstrap penguin, gentoo penguin

Yellow-Eyed penguins: yellow-eyed penguin

Crested penguins: southern rockhopper penguin, northern rockhopper penguin, penguin erect-crested penguin, Fiordland penguin (Tawaki), Snares penguin, macaroni/royal penguin

Banded penguins: African penguin, Magellanic penguin, Humboldt penguin, Galápagos penguin

Little (or Blue) penguins: Little penguin

Around the time I was getting to know penguins, the rockhoppers began to be recognized as two different species — and while Penguins lists the macaroni and the royal penguins as one species, some ornithologists consider them to be two species, which brings the number to 18.

In addition, some research advocates splitting the southern rockhopper penguin into two species (eastern and western). Other evidence indicates the little penguin should be considered two species as well.

And, most recently, research suggests that the gentoo species be split into four species. (This article also has background about penguins’ 22-million-year history. Check it out.)

It’s all quite fascinating … and even with my penguin obsession I’m having a hard time keeping track. I hope one day to meet all the species of the penguin world … and this new information definitely makes my plans a bit more interesting.

But for now, the official number is 18. And counting.

And if you want to meet some penguins without getting on a plane, here’s where you can find them in my novels!

For Adélie, chinstrap, gentoo, and Magellanic penguins — and a lone emperor:

For Galápagos penguins:

And stay tuned! While I didn’t plan to be a penguin novelist, I just can’t seem to escape them. Since writing My Last Continent and Floreana, I’ve been fortunate to meet little/blue penguins, Tawaki, yellow-eyed penguins, and most recently, the shy and elusive Humboldts.

There’s a scene in Floreana in which Mallory — a penguin researcher returning to the field after a decade away — tells her intern Hannah about the effects of weather on the lives of Galápagos penguins. Though this scene is fictional, the information about the weather and the penguins is real.

“One of the reasons these penguins are endangered is climate change, right?” I say. “Two weather patterns affect them—La Niña, which we’re experiencing now, and El Niño, which has become both more frequent and more severe.” I wave my arm toward the water. “Normally, the cold currents bring the fish and crustaceans to the surface, which is great for penguins. But during El Niño, the water is warmer, which means this food isn’t available. During the last really bad El Niño, back in 1996 and ’97, food was so scarce we lost more than sixty percent of the penguins.”

“It was ’97 and ’98, actually.”

I hadn’t realized Gavin was still nearby, listening. I look at him and again get the sense that none of this will be easy. It feels as if he wants to remind me of how long it’s been, of how hard it will be to step back into my decade-old shoes …

… “So if this is a La Niña year,” Hannah says, “it’ll be good for the penguins because of the cooler water?”

“Good for penguins,” I say, “but it also means less rain and a rougher season for the tortoises and all the animals on land.”

It’s never all good news; this I remember well. In a season when one species wins, others will lose.

In addition to the 1997-98 El Niño event mentioned above, another in 1982-83 caused even more damage — more than 70 percent of Galápagos penguins didn’t survive.

And the El Niño we’re facing right now could be even worse.

NOAA is currently looking at the possibility of a “super El Niño” — a weather event in which the temperatures in the Pacific Ocean are far higher than normal and could wreak havoc on ecosystems. As this article highlights, the effect of a super El Niño could be catastrophic for Galápagos penguins — there are only 2,000 left in the world, and to lose even a small number is devastating.

There’s not much we can about the weather — other than, long term, give up our fossil fuels and halt global warming — but the good news is that we can all help penguins by avoiding seafood and especially fish oil and krill supplements (there are so many better plant-based options!).

Much of the sea surrounding the Galápagos Islands is protected — however, poachers constantly enter protected waters to take fish (and penguins, who are caught as bycatch). And penguins don’t always stay within these protected areas … they go where the food is, which means they’re usually out there fishing where all the humans are fishing. And the penguins cannot catch what they need when they’re up against commercial fishing vessels.

With the oceans and their creatures under so much stress, leaving the seafood for the animals is the best way to help heal the oceans and help the penguins and other animals thrive. 🐧

While we all have seen that AI is used in ways both good and evil, here’s an example of where it does some good: monitoring vulnerable wildlife. This Smart Island Monitoring system in use on Floreana Island in the Galápagos offers “an unprecedented ability to detect wildlife activity and inform conservation decisions instantly, even in rugged, inaccessible terrain.”

The system has already flagged 1,500 events that needed conservation follow-up, saving 110 staff hours in the meantime. The system also allows for the tracking of endemic species, which is essential to protecting the animals as well as their fragile ecosystems.

It’s great to see conservation being made more efficient … the more animals and landscapes we can protect, the better! Learn more at Island Conservation.