The bears that come here are climate refugees, on land because the sea ice they rely on for hunting seals is receding. By ERICA GOODE KAKTOVIK, Alaska — Come fall, polar bears are everywhere around this Arctic village, dozing on sand spits, roughhousing in the shallows, padding down the beach with cubs in tow and attracting hundreds of tourists who travel long distances to see them. At night, the bears steal into town, making it dangerous to walk outside without a firearm or bear spray. They leave only reluctantly, chased off by the polar bear patrol with firecracker shells and spotlights. On the surface, these bears might not seem like members of a species facing possible extinction. Scientists have counted up to 80 at a time in or near Kaktovik; many look healthy and plump, especially in the early fall, when their presence overlaps with the Inupiat village’s whaling season. But the bears that come here are climate refugees, on land because the sea ice they rely on for hunting seals is receding. The Arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of the planet, and the ice cover is retreating at a pace that even the climate scientists who predicted the decline find startling. Much of 2016 was warmer than normal, and the freeze-up came late. In November, the extent of Arctic sea ice was lower than ever recorded for that month. Though the average rate of ice growth was faster than normal for the month, over five days in mid-November the ice cover lost more than 19,000 square miles, a decline that the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Colorado called “almost unprecedented” for that time of year. In the southern Beaufort Sea, where Kaktovik’s 260 residents occupy one square mile on the northeast corner of Barter Island, sea ice loss has been especially precipitous. The continuing loss of sea ice does not bode well for polar bears, whose existence depends on an ice cover that is rapidly thinning and melting as the climate warms. As Steve Amstrup, chief scientist for Polar Bears International, a conservation organization, put it, “As the sea ice goes, so goes the polar bear.” snip http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/18/s...column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news
As The Arctic Shrinks, Norway’s Polar Bear Population Booms — Grows 42% In 11 Years http://dailycaller.com/2015/12/23/a...r-bear-population-booms-grows-30-in-11-years/
What a fucking cheap piece of propaganda. You have to really read the article to catch these gems that go directly against the premise in the title. But the effect of climate change in the shorter term is less clear cut, and a population wide decline is not yet apparent. Climate-change denialists have seized on the uncertainties in the science to argue that polar bears are doing fine and that sea ice loss does not pose a threat to their survival. Some scientists have suggested that the bears might learn to survive on other types of food — snow geese, for example — or that they might learn to catch seals in the water, without relying on the ice as a platform. Much depends on how much of the ice disappears. Under some climate models, if steps are taken to control greenhouse gas emissions, the species could recover. And some evidence suggests that during an earlier warming period polar bears took refuge in an archipelago in the Canadian Arctic. You want some laughs, read the comments. Pathetic. I can't believe I share a planet with these kooks.
Two questions: 1. Did the Medieval Warm Period & the Holocene Maximum happen? Yes or No. (being a climate guy you should find this one easy.) 2. Did the Polar Bears survive these two warm periods? Yes or No. (I know number 2 is a hard one, feel free to take a week to ten days, research on the internet if needed.)
What is happening now has never happened before. Only an ignorant Trumper would say otherwise. Polar bears need the ice. And it's melting fast. Due to the increase in greenhouse gasses due to man.
What is happening now has happened many times in the past. It is merely the natural cycle. Keep pushing the climate alarmism... oh senseless deluded one.
Yes, that's what I worry about. The animals are very adaptive, but may not be able to adapt fast enough this time.