Polar bears drown as ice shelf melts

The Sunday Times ^ | December 18, 2005 | Will Iredale

[ATOMIC_PUNK]

SCIENTISTS have for the first time found evidence that polar bears are drowning because climate change is melting the Arctic ice shelf.

The researchers were startled to find bears having to swim up to 60 miles across open sea to find food. They are being forced into the long voyages because the ice floes from which they feed are melting, becoming smaller and drifting farther apart.

Although polar bears are strong swimmers, they are adapted for swimming close to the shore. Their sea journeys leave them them vulnerable to exhaustion, hypothermia or being swamped by waves

*Snip*

[pepperdog]

"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.

[Mike Darancette]

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.

[Old Student]

"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.

[wildbill]

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.

[BadAndy]

"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?

[Peace Is Coming]

[redboiling]

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."

[redboiling]

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.

[JustDoItAlways]

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.

[Libloather]

...swamped by waves...

BREAKING HARD - BEARS CAN'T SWIM!

[Rebelbase]

"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.

[redboiling]

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."

[redboiling]

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.

[JustDoItAlways]

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.

[Nachoman]

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

[festus]

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.

[festus]

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. ;-)

[GreenFreeper]

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...

[texianyankee]

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

[Fester Chugabrew]