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

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*

(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Extended News; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: arctic; ecoping; polarbears
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 61-8081-100101-120 ... 141-155 next last
To: mugs99
Like humans, they can. But try swimming 10 miles sometime.

Sixty miles is nothing for a polar bear.

You may be right, but I was referring to and speak with a human.

81 posted on 12/18/2005 11:30:20 AM PST by Jigsaw John
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 76 | View Replies]

To: Delta 21

See 81.


82 posted on 12/18/2005 11:31:19 AM PST by Jigsaw John
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 36 | View Replies]

To: CROSSHIGHWAYMAN

"But since penguins look like nuns, the UN disregarded the vote."

LO really L.


83 posted on 12/18/2005 11:32:30 AM PST by righttackle44 (The most dangerous weapon in the world is a Marine with his rifle and the American people behind him)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 74 | View Replies]

To: digger48
That's no biggie. Before I got my first car I had to walk about seventy miles to reproduce. Numerous times.
84 posted on 12/18/2005 11:34:01 AM PST by Brucifer (JF'n Kerry- "That's not just a paper cut, it's a Purple Heart!")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Jigsaw John

When I was 'younger' I had to swim 5 miles to school, every day...in the snow!...UP HILL!!!

Hysterical scientists with bad dater...they are the REAL DANGER !!!

!!!


85 posted on 12/18/2005 11:35:27 AM PST by GRRRRR (America is a better place because of people like us...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies]

To: GRRRRR
When I was 'younger' I had to swim 5 miles to school, every day

That is very commendable.

86 posted on 12/18/2005 11:36:49 AM PST by Jigsaw John
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 85 | View Replies]

To: ATOMIC_PUNK

And why is that news?
The F&WS banned hunting of polar bears years ago . Now there are so many of them you would expect to find one dead once in a while! Is this cause for panic?


87 posted on 12/18/2005 11:36:53 AM PST by Ruy Dias de Bivar (When someone burns a cross on your lawn, the best firehose is an AK-47.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: CROSSHIGHWAYMAN
Global warming will reverse itself in time as it has always.

During the Medieval Maximum period of Global Warming Europeans and Eskimos simultaneously reached Greenland via separate routes. When the Earth got colder the Europe and died out the Eskimos did not. Adapt or die.

88 posted on 12/18/2005 11:36:54 AM PST by Mike Darancette (Mesocons for Rice '08)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 77 | View Replies]

To: Brucifer

It's always easier with that third leg setting the pace.


89 posted on 12/18/2005 11:39:46 AM PST by digger48
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 84 | View Replies]

To: conserv13

I believe that it's real too, just not necessarily man-made.

Tell us--how do we deal with it?


90 posted on 12/18/2005 11:40:55 AM PST by Seamoth
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 65 | View Replies]

To: conserv13
Climate change happens. What happened to the previous ice age? What caused the warming then? There weren't combustible engines then. So what caused it?

http://www.junkscience.com/
91 posted on 12/18/2005 11:41:44 AM PST by Sweetjustusnow (Oust the IslamoCommies here and abroad.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: ATOMIC_PUNK

Without the polar bears? How will we get honey, aluminium, and gum arabic--- all of which, I understand, come from polar bears?

Why won't somebody think of the children!!!
(Sobbing)


92 posted on 12/18/2005 11:54:25 AM PST by emiller
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: conserv13
Regardless of whether or not you belive that man caused global warming, this is a real problem. Climate change is real and we need to deal with it.

So assuming one does not think man caused it what exactly do you propose we do to deal with it ?

Sacrifice virgins to the sun god to stop warming the planet to much ?

Sacrifice virgins to the volcano gods' to not belch any pollutatnts into the air ?

Sacrifice virgins to the fire gods to quench the mine fires that put more pollutants into the air than the entire US combined ?

(Incidentally any virgins who wish to ensure that they are no longer eligible for virgin sacrifices please freepmail me. ;-)
93 posted on 12/18/2005 11:55:27 AM PST by festus (The constitution may be flawed but its a whole lot better than what we have now.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: redboiling

Yes, your comment was relevant to the thread. I meant that my comment was more relevant to the future of the planet.


94 posted on 12/18/2005 11:55:48 AM PST by firebrand
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 78 | View Replies]

To: ATOMIC_PUNK

Investigators suspect that the polar bears were lured out onto the ice floes by the cute penguins in the Coca-Cola ad. And then left to die.


95 posted on 12/18/2005 11:59:42 AM PST by Ghengis (Alexander was a wuss!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ATOMIC_PUNK
There is a great book about a guy who winters-over in the ice up in Baffin Bay between Greenland and Canada. After the ice broke up he was sailing at 5 knots when he was passed by a polar bear - the bear was heading for an island 30 miles off shore.

I doubt that the polar bears would head for an "ice flow" 60 miles off shore - it is highly improbable for them to be able to see a low lying object such as an ice flow at that distance. Curvature of the earth and all that. Environmntalist scare tactics?? It's been done before.

The book if anyone is interested is "North to the Night" - forget author name.

96 posted on 12/18/2005 11:59:59 AM PST by HardStarboard
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: festus; conserv13
what exactly do you propose we do to deal with it ?

You addressed this to conserv13, but I'd like to suggest that there are many things we could be doing. Many. The problem is not finding solutions. The problem is breaking through the short-term, abundance-in-my-lifetime, abundance-in-my-country thinking that has put all of us in a fog of denial.

97 posted on 12/18/2005 12:00:02 PM PST by firebrand
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 93 | View Replies]

To: Williams
"I do not believe that a polar bear cannot find food for 60 miles of open ocean."

You are more than likely 100% correct. Polar bears also live on land. And a long swim for them is nothing. Survival of the fittest...

98 posted on 12/18/2005 12:02:42 PM PST by redhead (Alaska: Step out of the bus and into the food chain...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: firebrand
The problem is breaking through the short-term, abundance-in-my-lifetime, abundance-in-my-country thinking that has put all of us in a fog of denial.

The only thing I'm in denial about is that logic like the above belongs on the free republic. Such communist tendendacies belong on the DU.

No don't bother me now I'm off to save the virgins!
99 posted on 12/18/2005 12:04:20 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 97 | View Replies]

To: Sweetjustusnow

No one, but no one, claims that the only way warming can be caused is by human activities and waste and combustible engines. Everyone on all sides agrees there is long term climatic variation. The disagreement is whether recent human activities *add* onto that.


100 posted on 12/18/2005 12:04:42 PM PST by redboiling
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 91 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 61-8081-100101-120 ... 141-155 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