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The rebounding of polar bear populations over the past several decades has been a huge success story. Far from being endangered, vulnerable, or threatened, polar bears are thriving; their populations have exploded in virtually all of their habitats of the circumpolar nations. That’s good news for the polar bears, but bad news for the Polar Bear Specialist Group, the highly politicized organization of wildlife “scientists” that receives massive funding and favorable media coverage for regularly claiming that hoary arctic predators are perilously close to extinction due to human-caused global warming.The Polar Bear Specialist Group (PBSG) is, perhaps, the best-known...

Researchers with the IUCN Polar Bear Specialist Group (PBSG) recently admitted to experienced zoologist and polar bear specialist Susan Crockford that the estimate given for the total number of polar bars in the Arctic was “simply a qualified guess given to satisfy public demand.” Crockford has been critical of official polar bear population estimates because they fail to include five large subpopulations of polar bears. Due to the uncertainty of the populations in these areas, PBSG did not include them in their official estimate — but the polar bear group did include other subpopulation estimates. PBSG has for years said...

This may come as a shocker to some, but scientists are not always right — especially when under intense public pressure for answers. Researchers with the IUCN Polar Bear Specialist Group (PBSG) recently admitted to experienced zoologist and polar bear specialist Susan Crockford that the estimate given for the total number of polar bars in the Arctic was “simply a qualified guess given to satisfy public demand.”

Polar bear population counts are estimates only, derived from the most “rudimentary” of scientific knowledge and made up largely to meet the expectations of the public, researchers said in an email to a science blogger. Dag Vongraven, chairman of the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Polar Bear Specialist Group, sent an email to Polar Bear Science blogger Susan Crockford to clarify that a report that’s about to go public to give updates on the animal’s worldwide population level contains estimates, not hard facts. “As part of past status reports, the PBSG has traditionally estimated a range for the total...

This may come as a shocker to some, but scientists are not always right — especially when under intense public pressure for answers. Researchers with the IUCN Polar Bear Specialist Group (PBSG) recently admitted to experienced zoologist and polar bear specialist Susan Crockford that the estimate given for the total number of polar bars in the Arctic was “simply a qualified guess given to satisfy public demand.” Crockford has been critical of official polar bear population estimates because they fail to include five large subpopulations of polar bears. Due to the uncertainty of the populations in these areas, PBSG did...

Brian Steidle's only weapons against mass killing were his pen, paper, and camera. The former Marine captain catalogs what they caught in Darfur, Sudan, with quick-fire urgency: toddlers with their faces smashed in, men castrated and left to bleed to death, charred bodies of villagers locked in huts later burned down. Charged only with monitoring ceasefire violations in the war-wracked region, he soon grew weary of playing spectator to genocide. So after six months, the 28-year-old Mr. Steidle returned to the United States a month ago and launched his own offensive to stop the killing. In mid-March he criss-crossed Washington,...

In a recent interview, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton described the UN as hopelessly out of touch and stuck in a Twilight Zone-style "time warp" where "there are practices, attitudes and approaches that were abandoned 30 years ago in much of the rest of the world." [1] Bolton's cutting analysis perfectly captures the latest controversy to hit Turtle Bay—Secretary-General Kofi Annan's appointing German activist Achim Steiner as Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) just months after Steiner helped award Annan $500,000. [2] Steiner, whose four-year term of office will begin next month, was part...

GENEVA (AP) -- Polar bears and hippos are among more than 16,000 species of animals and plants threatened with global extinction, the World Conservation Union said today. According to the Swiss-based conservation group, known by its acronym IUCN, the number of species classified as being in serious danger of extinction rose from about 15,500 in its previous "Red List" report, published in 2004. The list includes one in three amphibians, a quarter of the world's mammals and coniferous trees, and one in eight birds, according to a preview of the 2006 Red List. The full report is published later this...

WASHINGTON - International conservation groups proposed a $404 million effort Monday to preserve frogs and other amphibians whose sensitive, porous skins often make them the first indicator of when nature goes awry. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature, Conservation International and other groups said they plan a series of emergency actions and long-term research that includes describing at least 1,000 new species, preventing future habitat loss and reducing trade in amphibians for food and pets. The groups are looking to governments, private institutions and individual donors for funding. "The frogs are trying to tell us something," said Andrew...

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Space agency NASA (news - web sites), which first put man on the moon, will now help to map the Earth in the name of conservation, the agency announced on Thursday. Missed Tech Tuesday? Today, satellite radio is all the rage. But do you choose XM or Sirius? NASA and the World Conservation Union (IUCN) signed an agreement to use the space agency's satellite system to monitor global environment change in the hope of preserving the planet. "The mission of NASA is to understand and protect our home planet Earth and also to use its space-based observation...

Membership Preview Become a member? Friday, March 15, 2002 indicates audio link (M) indicates member section (To order, click on image) Review 47 in the United States... U.N. Biosphere Reserves These 411 U.N. Biosphere Reserves are located in 90 nations that agree to manage the sites according to policies set forth in the Seville Strategy and the Statutory Framework, both created by UNESCO. (Detailed maps by continent - List of Biosphere Reserves) Each of these Biosphere Reserves, and new reserves yet to be designated, are to be connected by corridors of wilderness, surrounded by "buffer zones," which are surrounded...

The United Nations now administers more than five hundred treaties, of which 175 treaties and protocols directly influence policies of the federal, state, and local government. These treaties and agreements often have noble goals and seem to address a real need within the global community. However, obscure or statist language inherent within the treaties often results in U.S. law, and subsequent regulations, that conflict with the principle of individual sovereignty interwoven into the Constitution of the United States (hereafter called the Constitution). An Example For instance, to meet the letter of the Endangered Species Act of 1973, the DOI had ...

WorldNetDaily / Commentary Henry Lamb Entangled in a web of world government Posted: March 13, 2004 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2004 WorldNetDaily.com In his1796 Farewell Address, George Washington cautioned the new nation: Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence (I conjure you to believe me, fellow citizens) the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake, since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican government. Washington's advice has been forgotten by the U.S. Senate, which continues to enter into entangling U.N. treaties that sap our national sovereignty and mold this great...

<p>A revving chainsaw kicked off a rally Monday outside the state Capitol that blamed environmentalists for Arizona's fire-prone forests.</p> <p>Although groups from the Audubon Society to the Center for Biological Diversity were the main targets, the crowd was also displeased with the U.S. Forest Service and wary of Gov. Janet Napolitano's plans for forest health.</p>