Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Polar bears drown as ice shelf melts
The Sunday Times ^ | December 18, 2005 | Will Iredale

Posted on 12/18/2005 9:46:23 AM PST by ATOMIC_PUNK

click here to read article


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 81-100101-120121-140141-155 next last
To: wildbill

"Remember the exhortations about the coming 'nuclear winter' about 30 years ago? Simply another fad theory."

I remember that. I also remember Carl Sagan saying that if Saddam set the oil fields on fire it would cause global cooling and other terrible things. I seem to remember the oil fields being on fire and other than wasting a bunch of oil and causing Boots and Coots to make a bunch of money nothing much happened. It sure didn't cause global cooling, at least not yet. I wish we could hear what Carl would say now, I just wonder if he'd admit he was wrong.


121 posted on 12/18/2005 2:00:00 PM PST by pepperdog
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 34 | View Replies]

To: slowhandluke
Though the graphs are a little grainy to conclusively determine cause and effect between CO2 and temperature it would seem that our CO2/Warming problems began about 18,000 ya.
122 posted on 12/18/2005 2:00:55 PM PST by Mike Darancette (Mesocons for Rice '08)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 115 | View Replies]

To: Mike Darancette
"The European style of life really went out the window though."

Same thing happened in Tahiti, too, IIRC. Those who wouldn't adapt to the climate died of heatstroke, while those who did adapt, even in only minor ways, did much better. That is the thing about humans. We're the only creatures on earth that can adapt to nearly any climate. We do it by taking advantage of the climate, and our own versatility.
123 posted on 12/18/2005 2:03:55 PM PST by Old Student (WRM, MSgt, USAF(Ret.))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 119 | View Replies]

To: pepperdog

I believe someone once figured that any major volcano eruption puts more carbon and gasses into the air than the Iraqi oilfields for example.

It's not nice to mock Mother Nature. Man can't alter the magnetic field--but she's in the throes of doing that right now. We're like the rooster that crows at the Sun every morning, sure that he's responsible for its appearance.


124 posted on 12/18/2005 2:23:33 PM PST by wildbill
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 121 | View Replies]

To: firebrand

"We're spewing out CO2 and cutting down the forests that soak it back up. CO2 is increasing. CO2 acts as a greenhouse. The temperature has gone up. Thus .

Actually we (US) are not cutting down much forest. Furthermore, more carbon is soaked up after the forest is cut down since new growth uses more carbon than old growth. There was also a recent article that suggested that forests actually contribute to warming.
IMO, there are the 3 uncertainties about global warming.
1. Is the planet getting warmer?
2. If it is warming, is man responsible?
3. If #1 is true, is it good or bad?


125 posted on 12/18/2005 2:36:29 PM PST by BadAndy (The DemocRATs are the enemy's most effective weapon.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 64 | View Replies]

To: ATOMIC_PUNK

126 posted on 12/18/2005 2:55:29 PM PST by Peace Is Coming
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: slowhandluke
That's very clever, leaving off the last 50 years of the past century. Here is a graph of CO2 levels that doesn't omit the last 50 years. Present = the year 2000.

"Graph showing a 450,000 year record of carbon dioxide (CO2) levels in the earth's atmosphere. This record was compiled from analyzing bubbles of fossilized air trapped in ice cores. The fossilized air shows the levels of carbon dioxide and other gases in the atmosphere throughout this 450,000 period. The last 100-150 years of the 20th Century show a significant rise in CO2."

127 posted on 12/18/2005 3:50:43 PM PST by redboiling
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 115 | View Replies]

To: Rebelbase

See the graph above for examples of what I'm referencing.

As for belching cows and volcanoes, are you for real? Obviously those things are not choices, whereas human beings in the year 2005 have massive choices about what fuels they use and the consequent emissions. If you have the means available to stop your destruction and you choose not to use them, that's immoral.

As for your suggestion of forcing mass transit, that's exactly the problem I'm talking about -- is that what you want it to come to? Not me.


128 posted on 12/18/2005 3:55:31 PM PST by redboiling
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 112 | View Replies]

To: redboiling

This is SUCH a fake story.

Polar Bears do not live on the ice for 12 months out of the year. How would they have cubs for instance. They spend most of the summer on land. The artic ice has NOT melted. It always melts in the Summer only to freeze back in October.

More grants will be coming to these researchers however.


129 posted on 12/18/2005 4:06:28 PM PST by JustDoItAlways
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 128 | View Replies]

To: ATOMIC_PUNK
...swamped by waves...

BREAKING HARD - BEARS CAN'T SWIM!

130 posted on 12/18/2005 4:19:22 PM PST by Libloather (God bless America - and the blue states, too...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: redboiling
"As for belching cows and volcanoes, are you for real? "

Yes. (cows are contributors, but disregard them for now) How do you explain prior warming/cooling cycles over the past 1 million years? They sure weren't caused by internal combustion engines or factory emissions.
131 posted on 12/18/2005 4:22:50 PM PST by Rebelbase (Green bean casserole is a culinary curse upon mankind.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 128 | View Replies]

To: JustDoItAlways
Where do you get this from (that polar bears need to get off the ice to raise cubs)? Here is from a site on polar bears:
"Polar bears depend on the presence of ice for access to seals. In summer, when the floes retreat north, polar bears will travel hundreds of miles to maintain contact with their prey.

Between summer and winter the amount of ice-covered water can change rapidly. Polar bears learn to follow the ice to stay with their food source.

Those polar bears that are stranded on land in summer must stay there until the ice forms again in fall. On land, the bears face lean times, for they seldom catch seals without a platform of ice."


132 posted on 12/18/2005 4:28:02 PM PST by redboiling
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 129 | View Replies]

To: Rebelbase

That argument has already been refuted in this thread. No one (sane) argues that there aren't ancient warming/cooling cycles, or that human activities are the *only* cause of warming. The argument is that more recent atmospheric conditions deviate from even that normally variable range. See graph above, for example.


133 posted on 12/18/2005 4:34:23 PM PST by redboiling
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 131 | View Replies]

To: redboiling

Do a little reading on polar bear behavior before you assume they spend their entire life on the ice.

Cubs are sometimes born in a den made on the permanent icepack. Most of the time, they are born in a den made on on land.


134 posted on 12/18/2005 4:48:38 PM PST by JustDoItAlways
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 132 | View Replies]

To: ATOMIC_PUNK

On the upside, orcas are thriving on drowned polar bears.


135 posted on 12/18/2005 5:05:40 PM PST by Nachoman (Fat chicks still dig me.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: BadAndy
3. If #1 is true, is it good or bad?

I say its good because most of the liberal mecca's are in low lying costal regions which will be flooded by the rising water when all the snow caps melt.
136 posted on 12/18/2005 5:23:34 PM PST by festus (The constitution may be flawed but its a whole lot better than what we have now.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 125 | View Replies]

To: commonasdirt
but I have read that technically polar bears fur is not "white"

Some zoo in the states kept having a problem wits polar bears turning green. Seems algae was growing in their fur. ;-)
137 posted on 12/18/2005 5:26:12 PM PST by festus (The constitution may be flawed but its a whole lot better than what we have now.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 28 | View Replies]

To: blam; Carry_Okie; Chanticleer; ClearCase_guy; cogitator; CollegeRepublican; ...
ECO-PING

FReepmail me to be added or removed to the ECO-PING list!

Thanks for the ping, fell a little behind with the list...

138 posted on 12/19/2005 6:32:07 AM PST by GreenFreeper (Not blind opposition to progress, but opposition to blind progress)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: digger48

"March Of The Penguins" was a great documentary - we watched it yesterday as well.


139 posted on 12/19/2005 6:45:08 AM PST by texianyankee
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Donald Rumsfeld Fan; Peace Is Coming

140 posted on 12/19/2005 7:00:06 AM PST by Fester Chugabrew
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 55 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 81-100101-120121-140141-155 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson