Where are the whales? Scientists find clues thousands of miles away

Short Wave

NPR

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🗓️ 17 April 2023

⏱️ 13 minutes

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Summary

Endangered North Atlantic right whales are disappearing from their native waters, a serious danger for a species with only 340 animals left. The mystery behind this change took NPR's climate reporter Lauren Sommer 2,000 miles away to the world's second-largest ice sheet, sitting on top of Greenland.

On today's episode, Lauren takes Short Wave co-host Emily Kwong on an expedition to Greenland's ice sheet and then to the Gulf of Maine to break down the ripple effects of climate change.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to shortwave from NPR.
0:05.0	Hey shortwaveers, Emily Quang here.
0:08.0	Today, we've got a mystery on the cutting edge of science,
0:12.0	a mystery that links the entire planet together.
0:15.0	And here's where it starts.
0:19.0	With the footsteps of our very own Lauren Summer
0:23.0	from NPR's Climate Desk.
0:25.0	Yeah, those are my feet wearing crampons.
0:29.0	And I'm walking on top of Greenland's massive ice sheet.
0:33.0	It's just an unbelievably huge piece of ice that covers basically the whole country.
0:37.0	And here's where this slice of the mystery ends 2,000 miles away.
0:44.0	Is that a whale?
0:48.0	It's a North Atlantic right whale.
0:51.0	They're highly endangered.
0:53.0	And in recent years, dead whales have been showing up in places
0:56.0	that no one expected them to be.
0:58.0	Oh, wait, wait, wait.
0:59.0	Okay, so we started with ice on Greenland
1:01.0	and are ending with endangered whales.
1:03.0	Are these two connected?
1:05.0	That's what scientists are starting to believe.
1:07.0	Oh, there's a lot of news these days about melting ice, right?
	...

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