Where polar bears might go if climate change doesn't slow ( More Research ....UGH!)

Christian Science Monitor ^ | December 16, 2010 | Pete Spotts, Staff writer

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

If climate change leads to ice collecting in one general area in the Arctic Ocean, it might be enough to provide a last 'refuge' for many Arctic inhabitants, including polar bears.

Polar bears are shown in this undated photograph from UCLA released to Reuters on Nov. 23.

By midcentury, the northern islands of Canada and the north coast of Greenland may represent the only remaining region in the Arctic where polar bears and the marine animals that sustain them can survive if greenhouse-gas emissions continue to climb at anywhere near their current levels.

Alan D. Wilson/Reuters

By midcentury, the northern islands of Canada and the north coast of Greenland may represent the only remaining region in the Arctic where polar bears and the marine animals that sustain them can survive if greenhouse-gas emissions continue to climb at anywhere near their current levels.

That's the scenario a team of US and Canadian scientists came up with in looking at the prospects for Arctic habitats if greenhouse-gas emissions follow a business-as-usual track through the end of the century.

The research, outlined at a briefing Thursday during the American Geophysical Union's fall meeting in San Francisco, stands as a bookend to a study published Thursday in the journal Nature, which suggests that sustainable populations of the bears could be preserved around the Arctic if greenhouse-gas emissions are aggressively curbed and if traditional wildlife-management approaches are rigorously applied.

IN PICTURES: Climate change and animals

The work in Nature "is talking about what happens if we act to reduce our greenhouse-gas emissions," said Stephanie Pfirman, a marine geologist at Barnard College in New York as well as a researcher with the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in Palisades, N.Y.

[redhead]

"Shoot ‘em. They make superlative rugs."

I was waiting at the post office today (Wasilla) and saw a guy wearing a parka with a polar bear ruff. Beyond GORGEOUS.

[MsLady]

Maybe they should all be committed to a mental institution. This is beyond stupid.

[Marine_Uncle]

All the folks Horowitz outlines must work double hard at deceit. Their world is slowly slipping away.

[diogenes ghost]

Toxic livers?

I'm looking for another rug, not a meal.

Only thing I ate from the Grizzly was his heart. I insisted on it, the guides were initially doubtful, but agreed it was pretty damned good.

Strangely, it was the first time ANY of them had tried it, and one had been guiding for 17 years.

[Oztrich Boy]

Has anyone asked the bears what their plans are?

[this_ol_patriot]

Back in the 70’s the greenies were up there drilling holes in the ice so the bears wouldn't starve due to the coming ice age.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

We need to send the greenies back up there to help the bears.

[facedown]

Any piece that begins with “By midcentury,” is not worth reading unless it was written by Isaac Asimov.

[UCANSEE2]

(source: http://dianealdred.com/2008/01/12/passionate-about-polar-bears/ )

[neverdem]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/climatechange/8210739/The-climate-bugaboo-is-the-strangest-intellectual-aberration-of-our-age.html

It's Christopher Monckton. The window bombed on me twice. Do you want to try to post it?

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

OK.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Awww, aren't they cute?!?

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

I think they are all Business.