Polar bears, the lumbering carnivores of the arctic, continue to be the poster bear – er, child – for global warmers everywhere who are convinced the baby seal munchers are being driven to extinction by man’s irresponsible release of CO2 into the atmosphere.
Next to whales, the cuddly fur balls enjoy a special place on the “Animals to Love” list. Grown-ups adore them (provided it’s from a safe distance), and grade-school kids who can’t find Greenland or Manitoba on a map raid their penny jars to save them.
But are the denizens of the deep north facing extinction? Are they in desperate need of saving? It depends on who you ask.
According to the Polar Bear Specialist Group (PBSG), the polar bear population is on shaky ground – actually, ice – because of warmer temperatures and shrinking ice floe in the Arctic triggered by the favorite bad-guy of the green movement – anthropogenic (human-caused) global warming.
In a news release issued after its conference last July, the PBSG concluded that only one of 19 total polar bear subpopulations is currently increasing, three are stable and eight are declining. Data was insufficient to determine numbers for the remaining seven subpopulations. The group estimated that the total number of polar bears is somewhere between 20,000 and 25,000. (Estimates of the population during the 1950s and 1960s, before harvest quotas were enacted, range from 5,000 to 10,000.)
However, the PBSG quickly acknowledged that “the mixed quality of information on the different subpopulations means there is much room for error in establishing” the numbers, and “the potential for error, given the ongoing and projected changes in habitats and other potential stresses, is cause for concern.”
Despite those problems, the PBSG said it is optimistic that “humans can mitigate the effects of global warming and other threats to the polar bears.”
Not so fast. According to a U.S. Senate and Public Works Committee report, the “alarm about the future of polar bear decline is based on speculative computer model predictions many decades in the future. Those predictions are being “challenged by scientists and forecasting experts,” said the report.
Those challenges, supported by facts on the ground, including observations from Inuit hunters in the region, haven’t stopped climate fear-mongers at the U.S. Geological Survey from proclaiming that future sea ice conditions “will result in the loss of approximately two-thirds of the world’s current polar bear population by the mid 21st century.”
Such sky-is-falling rhetoric brings smiles to the Inuit population of Canada’s Nunavut Territory. They, too, know how to count, and they claim the bear population is stable or on the rise in their own backyard. Polar bears may be on the decline in some areas, but during their frequent visits to Inuit towns and outposts they rarely decline an easy meal from the local dump or a poorly secured garbage can.
Harry Flaherty, chair of the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board in the capital of Iqaluit, says the polar bear population in the region, along the Davis Strait, has doubled during the past 10 years. He questions the official figures, which are based to a large extent on helicopter surveys.
“Scientists do a quick study one to two weeks in a helicopter, and don’t see all the polar bears. We’re getting totally different stories [about the bear numbers] on a daily basis from hunters and harvesters on the ground,” he says.
Dr. Mitchell Taylor, a biologist who has been researching polar bear populations in Canada’s Nunavut Territory for 35 years, seems to agree. “The study estimates from the Iqaluit area agree with those of local hunters, although the accuracy of the counts is doubtful in some areas,” he says.
Gabriel Nirlungayuk, director of wildlife for Nunavut Tuungavik Inc., is another doubter who questions the accuracy of helicopter surveys. “Helicopters have many limitations, including fuel capacity. They can’t go far out into the open water,” he says. But hunters crisscrossing the area by dog team, snowmobile or boat “are seeing polar bears where scientists and helicopters are not traveling.”
Forty years ago, old-timers living in the area around Hudson Bay were lucky to see a polar bear, Nirlungayuk says. “Now there are bears living as far south as James Bay.”
The growing population has become “a real problem,” especially over the last 10 years, he says. During the summer and fall, families enjoying outdoor activities must be on the look-out for bears. Many locals invite along other hunters for protection.
Last year, in Pelly Bay, all the bears that were captured were caught in town, Nirlungayuk says. “You now have polar bears coming into towns, getting into cabins, breaking property and just creating havoc for people up here,” he says.
In the Western Hudson Bay area, where harvest quotas were reduced by 80 percent four years ago, communities are complaining about the number of polar bears. “Now people can look out the window and see as many as 20 polar bears at the ice-flow edge,” Flaherty says.
During a public hearing last September focusing on the polar bear population in the Baffin Bay region, hunters reported more sightings of females with three cubs. The normal litter is one or two. Flaherty, himself a serious hunter, says the abundant food supply – primarily baby ring seals – in the area is responsible for the bigger litters.
The on-the-ground reports, if accurate, seem to contradict the official story of the beleaguered polar bear. According to the standard theory, warmer temperatures (caused by human CO2 emissions) are shrinking the ice floe, the polar bear’s main hunting ground, forcing populations to compete for a diminishing food supply. Warmer temperatures also are to blame for the loss of thicker “multi-year ice.”
Flaherty and many others disagree with the official story. “We are aware there are changes in the weather, but it is not affecting the daily life of the animals,” he says. “Polar bears hunt in the floe-edge areas, on newly formed ice, and in the fiords in search of baby seals. They don’t hunt in the glaciers [areas of multi-year ice].
“We’re not seeing negative effects on the polar bear population from so-called climate change and receding ice,” he says. He is convinced that some scientists are deliberately “using the polar bear issue to scare people” about global warming, a view widely shared by many Nunavut locals.
It has warmed in the region and, as Taylor confirms, the summer sea-ice boundary has been slowly contracting for the last 30 years and experienced a big decline in 2007 – an event that was widely reported as evidence of anthropogenic (human-caused) global warming.
However, the shrinking sea ice does not affect polar bear numbers uniformly, he emphasizes. “Even in adjacent sub-populations, the impact may vary,” he says. “Every population is ecologically different. Some populations may actually benefit from less sea ice.”
Taylor downplays the theory that CO2 is the culprit responsible for warmer Arctic temperatures. Other factors, including wind-driven ice movement, shifting ocean currents, reduced albedo effect (less snow-cover resulting in less heat reflection) and increased water vapor (the major greenhouse gas) from a growing expanse of ice-free water, leading to warmer air temperatures, may be influencing the local climate, he says.
“Arctic warming is real, but just because it’s warmer doesn’t mean it’s caused by carbon dioxide. I don’t think CO2 is the main factor causing it.”
He notes that the current model forecasts, which show elevated CO2 levels triggering global temperature increases, don’t agree with the contemporary temperature record. “When predictions don’t match the observations, scientists should say ‘there is something wrong here.’”
The IPCC models, he claims, are “multiplying the effect of CO2 to obtain the temperature increases they predict,” a criticism shared by others in the scientific community who have openly accused modelers of data manipulation.
“The idea that these models can make predictions 50 to 100 years into the future seems, frankly, absurd to me.”
Both Nirlungayuk and Flaherty ridicule media claims that the polar bear is threatened or on the verge of extinction.
“Polar bears are very intelligent . . . they have adapted through many climate changes for thousands of years. They are not going to wait around for the ice to freeze to start hunting. They live on more than just seals,” says Nirlungayuk.
Adds Flaherty: “At the end of the day, the King of the North will always be here. When we hear that polar bears are headed towards extinction, we just kind of smile at ourselves.”
Comments
Great Job of keeping the truth Kirk. We look forward to more of your articles.
Well, I guess the AGW Alarmists will just have to switch to a new alarm where Polar Bear increases are a sign of their new threat.
See my prediction of the new horse the alarmist will switch to soon at canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/18649
Polar bear populations are decreasing? That's funny, because just a few years ago the studies showed they were just fine.
Google "polar bear populations are stable and healthy nofreewind" and in that blog post is a link to the official petition to list them as endangered, dated 2005, and that report quoted studies that found 16 populations stable, 2 increasing and 2 decreasing. Nice article, keep them coming.
Thank you for this interesting facts. We published them on our German website clima-gate.com in a shorter form.
Global warming is forcing them south as the ice melts.
Finally, a bear claw you can get your teeth into.
Soon be enough to eat!
Yum, yum:
Google this:
Eating Polar Bears Is Okay in Greenland - Freakonomics Blog
Oh dear! What will algore do for a day job now? Well, I hear that the earth is in danger of colliding with an asteroid somewhere down the line. Maybe he can resume his Chicken Little routine, and sell us falling-sky shelters. That guy really needs to get a job.
What's a little more fraud from the global warming nuts. How do you take them seriously when their E Mails read like letters of confession, detailing their criminal behavior. Who else would get this kink of pass from the media.
Finally, a bear claw you can get your teeth into.
Soon be enough to eat!
Yum, yum:
Google this:
Eating Polar Bears Is Okay in Greenland - Freakonomics Blog
Well it would make sense that you would see more of them in populated areas if they can't access their normal hunting grounds at an appropriate time. Of course the deniers are gonna say that it supports their argument. Its to bad we couldn't bring them all back in 50 to 75 years to speak to their grand children and great-grandchildren. Even a registry of deniers would be good, seeing as their so all-fired sure they are right.
AGW is a fraud, pure and simple.
To see what a fraud AGW really is, read this article....from 1922
wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/changing-artic_monthly_wx_review.png
What an excellent article!
I would like to suggest that anyone reading blogs or comments ignore the remarks of any individual who uses the term "denier." Any writer who compares a highly controversial theory based on a friable computer model with the actual murder of 6,000,000 Jews deserves to not only ignored, but condemned, just as anyone who uses the n-word.
Wow...you mean there are actually journalists in this country who would dare defy the AGW crowd? And I thought it was just us ordinary citizens who could smell the lies. It's nice, knowing I'm not the only one who thinks it's ABSURD to destroy our entire way life so the temperature in Johannesburg can be 0.7 degrees cooler. Hooray for common sense.
It is interesting that Polar Bears are not identified as the largest land predator, even though they dominate Grizzlies; other bears and all the large cats; Tiger;Lions/Jaguars; in both height and weight. The reason of course is that Polar Bears are considered marine animals. The many references to Polar Bears drowning, as with most AGW claims, is unfortunately aimed at children an other susceptible population groups
Thats the program David if you can't attack the message attack the messenger. If you aren't denying AGW what exactly would you call it? To say your reasoning is specious and inciteful is a compliment. I don't compare anything to the Holocaust and to suggest otherwise only reflects on you.
No surprise really. Why do polar bears swim out to floating ice : to catch basking seals. If there is less floating ice where do the seals go : they come onshore, here they are literally easy meat for the bears!
They lie about polar bear populations to swell membership or, more importantly, raise funds. An extremely cynical ploy which may backfire if the public find out they are being scammed by those 'nice' greens.
Maybe this site should be aptly named "Right Wing Environmental News Examiner." Even for those of us who doubt the fallacy of man made global warming its disconcerting to see every link,story and view so slanted.
Arlen
I personally am left of centre politically, and that's in the UK!
I do not like being lied to and conned so I look to the web for information. I use my intelligence to decide whether it is valid or not. The most important thing is to find out what is true.
I accepted the idea of man made global warming as it was streamed on every media channel, but a rare sceptical TV program made me question this. Many hours of research on the web convinced me that CO2 is not a problem. In fact there has been no global warming for 10 years, and there has been global cooling since 2005 which may continue for the next 100 years, or certainly 20.
I would recommend 'www.wattsupwiththat.com' for a scientific background.
I am relatively new to this site but I have not yet seen anything I would call right wing. Certainly nothing in the above article. I am more shocked by the fact that what I thought were reputable organisations are willing to lie for gain.
Arlen
I personally am left of centre politically, and that's in the UK!
I do not like being lied to and conned so I look to the web for information. I use my intelligence to decide whether it is valid or not. The most important thing is to find out what is true.
I accepted the idea of man made global warming as it was streamed on every media channel, but a rare sceptical TV program made me question this. Many hours of research on the web convinced me that CO2 is not a problem. In fact there has been no global warming for 10 years, and there has been global cooling since 2005 which may continue for the next 100 years, or certainly 20.
I would recommend 'www.wattsupwiththat.com' for a scientific background.
I am relatively new to this site but I have not yet seen anything I would call right wing. Certainly nothing in the above article. I am more shocked by the fact that what I thought were reputable organisations are willing to lie for gain.
It is interesting to note that there are no polar bears in the Antarctic and it is believed that the penguins ate them. Let us hope those nasty birds don't migrate north.
You guys all know of course that the First Nations in northern Canada have a quota for the number of polar bears they can hunt each year. Commonly they sell the quotas to trophy hunters from the south for $25,000 and up per bear.
The people this article are trusting to know best, just happen to have a strong economic interest in claiming the polar bears aren't on the decline.
Be skeptical of everything, not just the side you oppose.
This site is spreading complete disinformation. You only have to look at the links within the 'CO2 Research/Articles' section to realise this. It's a fact polar bears live on land. Their land is ice. When our poles are evaporating at rapid rates due to global warming - yes CO2 is the culprit - it's a simple formula as to how it works with most scientists supporting it - they have less land to inhabit and decreasing numbers due to that. Many adult bears are now not found with their young in tow, they simply haven't survived due to habitat erosion. To suggest they're healthier than ever is contrary to BBC sponsored documentaries and articles read with many trustworthy news sites (Guardian uk etc). End of the day, it's the polar bears who will suffer for our greed since little is being done to stop dirty CO2 producing energy in the way of a switch to alternatives that are clean and green for our planet's wellbeing.
Listen to the stories of people who live there for decades - they are saying they see tons more polar bears now than ever before, coming into towns and invading peoples' homes. I believe this polar bear scarcity is another hoax that a gullible press eats up and Al Gore throws out there because the mainstream press never holds him to account for his falsehoods. He invests with Kleiner Perkins for renewable energy and carbon trading schemes so he must conjure up these hideous scenarios if they are ever going to make any money. He is the Elmer Gantry of the environmental movement.
CO2 as a pollutant is an absolute joke and it will take time but this will eventually be laughed out of the scientific community.
Google > National Snow and Ice data Centre to see the latest Arctic ice situation. The ice is growing. The NSIDC is up dated at the end of the first week of every month. Satellite pics show the ice has returned to its median extent. So much for global warming. Yes GW is a fraud but how do we penalize those responsible?
Also, if you really want to hear the truth start with history. You need the whole story not the media or Al Gore story. There is one book I know that puts all the cards on the table. You must become aware that there are other forces at work. "The Real Global Warming Disaster" by Christopher Booker. Best book out there I got it from Amazon.
A couple of decades ago a count was done of the Davis Strait polar bears resulting in a population estimate of 800+. Ten years later another count of the same area resulted in an estimate of 2000+. So the bear population must be increasing? Maybe! Seems the first count was done in the spring when most bears on the ice (white on white). The second count was done in the summer when most bears are on land (white on brown). Maybe the bears are doing well or mabe the counters arn't!
Polar Bears like climbing up on small pieces of ice. They hunt seals from these mini-ice bergs and their population is on the rise. CO2 is a natural gas, ESSENTIAL to life on this planet! I am all for less ~real~ pollution like less Oxides of Nitrogen and soot, but CO2? Give me a break! Some glaciers are melting while others are freezing. This natural warming trend is driven by solar output and the linear relation to CO2 levels is the CO2 levels rise as a result of increased vegetation growth on the planet as a result of the solar warming trend! It's the Man-Made Global Warming Acolytes who are the true Flat-Earthers. If the science was truly settled, why did they hide/destroy climate data at East Anglia? Because Global Warming Acolytes are Fanatics and they are LIARS...that's why. Science and History will prove them wrong and they will be ridiculed for all time.
My second grader was shown a video today about the poor, soon-to-be extinct polar bears. Sheesh! I'm printing this article up and sending it to her teacher!
I just got to prove my teacher wrong :) with this article.
Polar Bears are cool
HAHAHH PEEENISSSSSSS loooool suck my peeenisssss!!!!!!!!! Girls suck my Peeeenish!!!!!!!!!!!
i am using this article today in class and will be called a denier. what kind of world is this when a kid in school cant talk about the facts without getting persecuted
ps teacher still doesnt believe me
yup
can you give me a fact about polar bear population?
hi polar bears
CO2 is NOT the culprit. The SUN, 99.86% of the mass of our solar system is responsible for global warming AND global cooling.
CO2 makes up less than 0.04% of our total atmosphere, how can it overpower the SUN??
If you are interested in real learning, not propaganda with political agendas, try listening to someone who doesn't stand to gain from you believing them.
Article:
examiner. com/examiner/x-32936-Seminole-County-Environmental-News-Examiner~y2009m12d19-Manmade-CO2-has-minimal-effect-on-climate-change-claim-globalwarming-skeptics
Awesome video:
youtube. com/watch?v=FOLkze-9GcI
the reason for the increase in the number of polar bears is biological. They are trying to ensure the continuity of their species.
this article is racist! if you don't think our carbon footprint is killing everything around us, you sir are a racist and a bigot!
I LIKE THE INFO IT GIVES ME MORE INFO ABOUT MY SEATWORK
I LIKE THE INFO IT GIVES ME MORE INFO ABOUT MY SEATWORK
I LIKE THE INFO IT GIVES ME MORE INFO ABOUT MY SEATWORK
Damn it, will you guys stop telling the truth about this stuff? I make good money collecting donations off pin heads that buy into this crap!
'Hey kid, want to donate twenty bucks to save the polar bears?'
'Sure, mister!' Cha ching...
Yeah, I know I stole the idea from Penn & Teller who tricked a bunch of eco nerds into signing a petition banning dihydrogen monoxide, but what's wrong with helping myself to some of some kid's parent's hard earned cash?
Global warming is real, donate now before it's too late! Cha ching!
Or to paraphrase South Park:
'You don't know anything about environmentalism, fat ass.'
'I know enough to exploit it...'
could it be that more bears are coming into settlements to eat garbage because they are starving in the wild. I've certainly noticed an increase in the number of dumpster divers since the economy turned south. Using the logic of this article that would mean more people have moved into the area. The demographic facts are that people have moved out of the area and more people are homeless and hungry.
Undated Article ... this could have been written any time ago.
Jan 8 2010....can you not read?
No, We must all stop breathing or the bears will die!!!
All kidding aside, it is so nice to see a realist assessment of the climate situation. Too bad I had to dig to find it.
The polar bear population has exceeded the 'carrying capacity' for their living habitat (environment). They have been protected long enough to reestablish the species. The species should now be culled just as the wolf population is being culled in the northern plains. We have done that for years in Wisconsin because of too many deer.
My favourite alarmist argument here is that the reason there are more polar bears in Nunavut is precisely because of global warming. You see, due to +warmer+ temperatures, +polar+ bears are forced to migrate +south+.
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