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Polar Bears Said to be Starving - and It's Wicked George W's Fault
The Independent/NewsBusters ^ | Mark Finkelstein

Posted on 02/12/2006 5:09:44 AM PST by governsleastgovernsbest

by Mark Finkelstein

February 12, 2006

The British newspaper calls itself "The Independent," but an article in today's edition indicates it's hardly independent of the kind of environmentalist scare-mongering common in the US press.

How's this for an over-the-top headline?: "Starving Polar Bears Shame Bush to Act"

The gist is that global warming is causing the Arctic ice cap to melt, which in turn reduces areas in which polar bears can hunt for seals, the staple of their diet.

Author Geoffrey Lean [special sympathy for the hungry?] brands Bush's stance on climate change "obdurate," which last I looked means "hardened in wrongdoing or wickedness; stubbornly impenitent." No media bias there!

The article offers only the scantest anectdotal evidence in support of its claims: one person killed by bears in the Russian arctic, evidence of bears eating their own. Have bears never killed humans before, or have jealous males not killed and perhaps eaten cubs, as is common in some species?

The article closes by expressing the possibility/hope that polar bears will be listed under the US Endangered Species Act, which would force regulatory agencies to take into account how their decisions would affect it. "This could lead to tougher measures to control the spread of pollution that causes global warming, and stricter fuel-economy standards for vehicles."

Is this good science, or a SUV-as-bear-killer critique of all things American and by extension of the free market?


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: americahate; arctic; bushhate; environmentalwackos; globalwarming; polarbears
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To: governsleastgovernsbest

No more Dodo birds, bush fault.


41 posted on 02/12/2006 5:36:52 AM PST by HuntsvilleTxVeteran (“Don't approach a Bull from the front, a Horse from the rear, or a Fool from any side.”)
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To: Fintan

Isn't that the same bear that was recently on a New Orleans roof top?


42 posted on 02/12/2006 5:37:35 AM PST by governsleastgovernsbest (Watching the Today Show Since 2002 So You Don't Have To.)
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To: governsleastgovernsbest

Y'know, now that you mention it...



43 posted on 02/12/2006 5:46:03 AM PST by Fintan (Shut up. You're rude and silly. And ugly.)
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To: governsleastgovernsbest
global warming is causing the Arctic ice cap to melt, which in turn reduces areas in which polar bears can hunt for seals

Bad logic. If their hunting area shrinks, there will be more seals per iceberg....they gotta go somewhere.

Kind of like river fishing when the water is low. The fish are all concentrated in what's left of the deep spots and they are easier to find and catch.

44 posted on 02/12/2006 5:48:20 AM PST by capt. norm (Error: Keyboard not attached. Press F1 to continue)
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To: Allegra
I was the Officer in Charge of an AF inspection team. We traveled to every DEW Line site in Alaska, Canada and Greenland. We missed the annual Eskimo whale hunt in Barrow. We goth there the first week in May and were treated to a whale blubber buffet!

The town had begun to grow due to the Prudhoe Bay oil exploration nearby. An eight bedroom motel had been constructed and the airport had experienced a surge of traffic.

While at Cape Dyer on Baffin Island I was throwing out some trash at the dining hall when I came face to face with a young polar bear who was feasting on the garbage in the garbage sled. I told my team mates and we fetched our cameras to take pictures. The site manager was present, ( it was sat night and we were watching movies in the dining hall) and he notified the Mounties since a Eskimo village was about a mile from the DEW Line site. It was determined that this bear was a danger to the eskimo community since it was now feeding off garbage and not hunting. The children would be at risk so the Mounties decided to ask for permission to kill the bear. Quebec was queried and permission was received, (Polar Bears were/are a protected animal in Canada). A lottery was held to see which Eskimo would "take" the bear. The family would then be the owner of the bear skin and meat!

45 posted on 02/12/2006 5:49:14 AM PST by Young Werther
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To: Allegra

LOL! .. you're so bad


46 posted on 02/12/2006 5:52:30 AM PST by Mo1 (Republicans protect Americans from Terrorists.. Democrats protect Terrorists from Americans)
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To: governsleastgovernsbest

" Have bears never killed humans before, or have jealous males not killed and perhaps eaten cubs, as is common in some species?"

- Polar bears are extremely dangerous and anyone who enters their hunting area without a rifle is looking to get eaten. As you can imagine, food in the Arctic is scarce and Polar bears will go after anything that moves and that includes cubs who may have lost the protection of their mother.


47 posted on 02/12/2006 6:10:57 AM PST by finnigan2
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To: finnigan2

Thanks for confirming my suspicions.

Extreme environmentalists would undermine society based on the kind of flimsy or flatly false evidence adduced in this article.


48 posted on 02/12/2006 6:27:01 AM PST by governsleastgovernsbest (Watching the Today Show Since 2002 So You Don't Have To.)
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To: conservative physics

The problem is they are losing their ozone holes. Fewer ozone holes, fewer polar bears. Simple as that.


49 posted on 02/12/2006 6:33:00 AM PST by Mind-numbed Robot (Not all that needs to be done, needs to be done by the government.)
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To: governsleastgovernsbest

The polar ice has NEVER melted in the 4 billion years since the planet developed a crust.

Right now, the entire arctic ocean is frozen. It is Winter. It always freezes in the Winter.

Every polar bear on the planet is on the ice right now hunting seals (except for the pregnant female bears denned in and stupid polar bears hunting humans on the frozen land.)


50 posted on 02/12/2006 6:37:37 AM PST by JustDoItAlways
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To: Allegra
"Wonder what polar bears taste like - you know, if they're cured and grilled properly?"

Just DON'T eat the liver (vitamin A poisoning).

51 posted on 02/12/2006 6:39:35 AM PST by Wonder Warthog (The Hog of Steel)
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To: governsleastgovernsbest

The whole reason envirowacko's want the polar bear on the ESA is so that the courts can force protection by mandating co2 cuts. Ktoyo won't be needed. THe U.S. courts would be forced to cap CO2 emmissions as per protections mandated by the ESA. No congressional approval needed. It will make the water restriction fight at Klamath look like a church picnic. THis will be on a national level with the same government agency zeal forcing everyone to cut fuel useage. It's legislating global warming control from the bench. Now is the time to abolish the ESA!


52 posted on 02/12/2006 6:42:41 AM PST by doc30 (Democrats are to morals what and Etch-A-Sketch is to Art.)
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To: governsleastgovernsbest

Alternate Headline:

"Thanks to Bush the Life Expectancy for Polar Seals is Substantially Increased"


53 posted on 02/12/2006 6:44:08 AM PST by melstew
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To: DugwayDuke
Total fabrication. As has been reported on FR, the polar ice is not 'melting'. The claim that it has is based on very spotty measurements of artic ice made by infrequent submarine visits during the cold war. Yes, there is less ice at these specific points, but that only because the ice has been moved to other points.

You are quite right. THe pack ice flows as a loarge mass around the pole. THe problem is that the Endanger Species Act looks only at what is happening inside U.S. jurisdiction. For example, there is some critter native to Mexico, but whose range spreads slightly into the southwestern U.S. Because it is the northern limit of it's range, the population is smaller and because the range just crosses over into the U.S., it appears on paper to be an endangered species. THat's how the envirowacko's used the ESA to block a wall between Mexico and the U.S. - it would harm this apparently endangered species. THey want to do the same thing with the polar bear. If they are successful in court, it would force the courts to limit CO2 emissions in the U.S. THey may very well be successful because there already is precedent for such moves by the courts.

54 posted on 02/12/2006 6:47:40 AM PST by doc30 (Democrats are to morals what and Etch-A-Sketch is to Art.)
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To: finnigan2
"get eaten"

You must have read that story some years back about a group of nine or ten Norwegians who were hiking somewhere north of the Arctic Circle in p-bear country. Suddenly a bear emerged from wherever the heck it was and proceeded to kill and eat one of the members of the group. Since no one had bothered to bring a rifle, the surviving members were forced to watch helplessly as the bear made a meal out of one their members.

55 posted on 02/12/2006 6:48:27 AM PST by driftless ( For life-long happiness, learn how to play the accordion.)
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To: JustDoItAlways
"polar ice"

I would bet that millions of tons more ice were made this past month in the Arctic. It was the coldest winter in that territory for eighty years. Convenient facts like that get ignored by the leftist press.

56 posted on 02/12/2006 6:51:01 AM PST by driftless ( For life-long happiness, learn how to play the accordion.)
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To: Wonder Warthog; Vinnie
Just DON'T eat the liver (vitamin A poisoning).

Don't worry. I don't eat the liver of anything. Eeeewwww.....yecchh! ;-)

57 posted on 02/12/2006 7:01:14 AM PST by Allegra (Suffering from a Malady Known as "Troll Fatigue")
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To: governsleastgovernsbest

The mainstream media and enviro wackos are starting to racket up the global warming rhetoric because more and more studies, not to mention anecdotal evidence, are discrediting the theory.


58 posted on 02/12/2006 8:03:32 AM PST by Behind Liberal Lines
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To: saveliberty
Do they really think that this tripe passes for fact outside the leftist koolaid centers?

If you, correctly, include the mainstream media as one of the leftist koolaid centers, no. Otherwise, yes.

59 posted on 02/12/2006 8:04:35 AM PST by Behind Liberal Lines
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To: Vinnie

That has been my personal credo since childhood.


60 posted on 02/12/2006 11:40:57 AM PST by metalcor
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