Will Penguin Guano Save the Planet?

by Ken Ham on June 2, 2025
Featured in Ken Ham Blog

Recently, I wrote about a UK scheme to cool the planet by dimming the sun, but apparently, they don’t need to do that. Instead, they need to populate their country with penguins! That’s right, penguins are apparently on the front lines of fighting climate change in Antarctica.

A recent study of an Antarctic population of 60,000 Adélie penguins found that their guano (otherwise known as excrement) releases massive amounts of ammonia that “may help form clouds that insulate the Earth and prevent sea ice from melting.”

Our climate was intelligently designed by the God who knows all things, sees the future, and formed earth to be inhabited and cared for (for man’s good and God’s glory) by mankind.

The ammonia does this by interacting with the sulfur-containing gases that microscopic marine organisms, called phytoplankton, produce (I wrote about them, and the massive impact that has on climate, recently as well). The two react and form “aerosol particles that seed clouds. These clouds reflect sunlight and help cool the surface below, a process that could slow glacial melt and sea ice retreat.”

Yes, once again, scientists are discovering that our climate is much more complicated than previously thought—everything about our planet and the environment is! (And that’s why messing with it by “dimming the sun” is such a terrible idea!) You see, our climate was intelligently designed by the God who knows all things, sees the future, and formed earth to be inhabited and cared for (for man’s good and God’s glory) by mankind. Even with the effects of the fall, the flood, and the ice age disrupting God’s original perfect design, it still functions for us to live on earth.

Of course, the article on penguin poop cooling Antarctica ends with dire warnings about the future as Antarctica warms (even though, currently, Antarctic sea ice is increasing),

The findings highlight how interconnected Antarctic ecosystems are with Earth’s climate systems. As ice melts and habitats shift due to global warming, it’s not just wildlife like penguins that are at risk, but also the natural processes they support.

The Antarctic plays a vital role in stabilising global temperatures, acting as a heat buffer, a carbon sink and the engine behind ocean currents, according to the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition. But it’s also one of the fastest-warming regions on Earth.

The media continues to create hysteria about the climate, but the truth is we really don’t know that much about the climate, and the vast majority of climate scientists have the wrong worldview (millions of years and evolution) when it comes to studying the environment. The right worldview starts with the eyewitness account of history that God has given us in his Word. We must keep in mind his promise to mankind after the global flood:

While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease. (Genesis 8:22)

Get More Answers on Answers News

This item was discussed earlier this week on Answers News with cohosts Dr. Georgia Purdom, Dr. Gabriela Haynes, and Dr. Marisa Tillery. Answers News is our weekly news program filmed live before a studio audience here at the Creation Museum, broadcast on our Answers in Genesis YouTube channel, and posted to Answers TV. We also covered the following topics:

  • 8 in 10 Gen Z say they’d marry AI.
  • Has Noah’s ark been found?
  • Is Lamarckian evolution back?
  • And more!

Watch the entire episode of Answers News for June 2, 2025.

Be sure to join us each Monday at 2 p.m. (ET) on YouTube or later that day on Answers TV for Answers News. You won’t want to miss this unique news program that gives science and culture news from a distinctly biblical and Christian perspective.

Most Recent News

Ken Ham’s Daily Email

Email me with Ken’s daily email:

Answers in Genesis is an apologetics ministry, dedicated to helping Christians defend their faith and proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ.

Learn more

  • Customer Service 800.778.3390