Animals, Environment, International, Science, Society

Report: Polar Bear Numbers Decline By 40 Percent In Canada and Alaska

800px-Polar_Bear_-_AlaskaThe polar bear has become the symbol of the plight of animals in the face of global warming. A new report appears to reaffirm the plight of these incredible animals. A study in the Ecological Applications journal reports that the number of polar bears in eastern Alaska and western Canada has declined by 40%. Perhaps the most unnerving disclosure is that just two of 80 polar bear cubs that the international team tracked between 2003 and 2007 have survived.

The numbers are staggering. The bear population in the area shrank to about 900 in 2010, down from about 1,600 in 2004.

Polar bears serve as a tragic type of canary in a cage for climatologists charting the progress of global warming. The news is obviously not good for them or for us.

The bears rely on ice flows and seal populations to survive. The distance at which they are required to swim has now gotten longer and more painful according to scientists. In one case, a mother had to swim nine days and 426 miles — resulting in her loss of 22% of her body weight. Her cub died.

There was a bear stabilization between 2008-2010 due to unusual oceanographic conditions and other conditions. However, experts now predict that more than two-thirds of the world’s polar bear subpopulations could be extinct by 2050.

Source: LA Times

157 thoughts on “Report: Polar Bear Numbers Decline By 40 Percent In Canada and Alaska”

  2. Jim:

    I did not expect them to answer my questions, which are sincere. They cannot grasp that I am neither a “denier” nor a “true believer.” I’m not a bleating sheep, and I need my questions answered before I can form an opinion.

    But in some circles, you have to be a sheep to fit in.

    But when I ask straightforward, sincere questions about proven issues, and am greeted with name calling and a failure to discuss the issues, then they are revealed as true believers incapable of debating their position. They don’t understand the science, and the facts, enough to discuss the issue calmly.

    But in science, that’s exactly what you’re supposed to do. Scientists get together and discuss the latest findings, trends, and opposing views. There is supposed to be vigorous debate.

    When anyone who asks questions is labeled as stupid, or the pawn of the Koch Brothers (sorry, still giggling about that one), then it’s clearly a political rather than scientific platform.

  3. Darren Smith – “I don’t see pollution as being beneficial.”

    Darren, Every environmental issue (Real or fake) has its roots to over population. The solution to pollution is dilution.

  4. Karen S and Gary T,
    I’m not sure why you still try to fight the good fight. We will lose this one just like we did with the ACA. The progressives just need to push the cog a little bit each time with regulations/policies that will never be removed until a true revolution resets everything. Karen, your quest for good science is just a dream, since just like good Rock N’ Roll, it is dead. I will default to what Dennis Miller tells people to do. When confronted by a global warmer you just need to tell them, “Yes, I believe global warming is the most important pressing issue that faces us today” and walk away.

  5. Squeeky Fromm, Girl Reporter, “I’ve lost my my harmonica Albert” or is it, “I’ve lost my doctor, Obama”

  6. In deep water: the first country in the world to surrender to global warming
    The Republic of Kiribati is the most remote inhabited location on earth. It will no longer exist by 2050. Climate change is slowly stealing the land into the sea and soaking the ground in saltwater. The prognosis right now is that Kiribati is dying by gradually drowning. Elaine Byrne reports from the first country in the world to surrender to global warming
    http://www.independent.ie/world-news/asia-pacific/in-deep-water-the-first-country-in-the-world-to-surrender-to-global-warming-30735212.html

    Members of parliament have travelled for several days from the outer islands by traditional canoe to give first-hand accounts of the impact of the summer high tides. Communities have been forced to relocate to other parts of the island. Many more are requesting help to move. “Quite frankly, we don’t have the resources to respond adequately,”he says, throwing his arms up in exasperation.

    Tong’s quiet desperation is rehearsed and resigned. “People who have the mountains behind them all their life will never understand.”

    The threat of being “swamped any moment” has conceived a continuous sense of vulnerability. There is nowhere to go when the high waves come.
    (continued)

  8. Lloyd,
    Did you read about the starfish die off and disease… and how it’s the warming oceans that have allowed the virus that is killing them to come out of a dormant state? Yes, and they can cure it, too… with colder waters.

    So, to all the living starfish reading, go North to Alaska…

  9. eg: Sao Paulo drought
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/rw/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2014/11/19/Foreign/Graphics/wbrazilDroughtc.jpg

    Clear cutting of the Amazon has created a lack of evaporation of particulates into the atmosphere thus contributing to the lack of rainfall… and the Amazon didn’t clear cut itself, people. Man made, is what it’s called.

    Amazon rainforest losing ability to regulate climate, scientist warns
    http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/oct/31/amazon-rainforest-deforestation-weather-droughts-report

    1. Max-1 – you do know the difference between weather and climate? A drought is weather.

  10. Filed under: When the evidence will hurt you politically, shut it down, Ohio

    Why don’t some state officials want you to read this report on ‘green’ energy jobs?
    Report on ‘green’ energy jobs was put on ice during debate
    http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/business/2014/11/16/report-on-green-energy-jobs-was-put-on-ice-during-debate.html

    Among its findings:

    • Ohio had 31,322 jobs in the state’s “alternative energy economy” as of 2012, a number that is larger than other commonly cited studies.

    • More than one-third of the jobs were for goods and services related to energy efficiency.

    • Solar power was tied to more jobs (5,619) than any other renewable-energy source.

    Each one of those points could have been relevant in the recent debate over Senate Bill 310, signed by Gov. John Kasich in June. The measure puts a two-year freeze on state standards for renewable energy and energy efficiency, and it makes a variety of other changes that critics say will damage the state’s green economy.
    (continued)

  14. Karen S
    To your earth climate change has always happened comment…
    Why, oh why insist that no one recognizes this fact? Oh, I know, to buttress your need to argue for the status quo…

    Say Karen, can you cite one instance where global temps rose dramatically during humanity’s existence where it happened in a single Century. And no Krakatoa interruption in the Northern Europe for a decade doesn’t count. That’s called an anomaly.

    Climate scientists pretty much agree that similar shifts we’re experiencing NOW happened over a course of several Centuries, if not tens of Centuries.

  15. Karen S
    I don’t debate stonewalling… And it’s not a debate you’re after… Your agenda is to legitimize the naysayers.

    Can you give me a link to read tonight about this persons struggles to be recognized by his peers AFTER they reviewed his work, and dismissed it?

    You demand an answer in something from me when all I read is hearsay.

    1. Max-1 – the academic community circled the wagons around Michael Mann and his academic frauds. It is a sad day for academia.

  16. Blah, blah, it’s snowing, it’s cooling, blah, blah, pause, blah, blah, the earth has always cooled and gotten warmer, blah, blah, wobble, wobble, blah, blah.

    Now, Mr. Koch may I have my paycheck?
    http://youtu.be/OWXoRSIxyIU

    1. Max-1 – you are usually an honest debater. Ad hominem attacks are beneath you.

  17. You know, I recall reading a few years ago where scientists were sincerely discussing launching particulates into the atmosphere to dim solar rays, thereby cooling the planet. That was when the computer models were predicting we’d all be underwater by now.

    Whew. In light of the fact that there has been a pause in warming in excess of 15 years, I sure am glad my intellectual superiors didn’t enact that crazy plan!

    But wait! They agreed with the consensus!

  18. Max – you do realize that the Earth’s climate has always warmed and cooled, often to extremes, including before the evolution of mankind?

    Do you want man to try to freeze the climate to today’s averages? And if so, why? Why is today’s climate better than any other? Do you understand that the engine that drives evolution is survival pressure and time? If you remove all change . . . no new species.

  19. Lloyd and Max:

    My specific question above was in regards to the flagrant conflict of interest in the author of the IPCC’s Chapter 7. He’s not just “some guy”. He wrote the darn report that we’re all supposed to base our policies on.

    Any questions, comments?

    It sure has taken me a long time to get anyone to address a single one of my concerns. And I have a list. At this rate, it will take 2 years to get them addressed, having my intelligence ridiculed all the wild.

  20. Lloyd,
    The polar bears are the canary in the coal mine…
    The orcas are a canary in the coal mine…
    Starfish are another canary in the coal mine…
    The North Pacific water temps are a canary in a coal mine…

    … Except now, that coal mine has collapsed.

    Ah, Massie energy… What could go wrong?

Comments are closed.