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morgram |
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Post subject: Polar Bear Population Seen Declining
 Posted: Sep 08, 2007 - 02:47 AM
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Joined: Sep 19, 2005
Posts: 3322
Status: Online!
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WASHINGTON - Two-thirds of the world's polar bears will be killed off by 2050 _ and the entire population gone from Alaska _ because of thinning sea ice from global warming in the Arctic, government scientists forecast Friday.
Only in the northern Canadian Arctic islands and the west coast of Greenland are any of the world's 16,000 polar bears expected to survive through the end of the century, said the U.S. Geological Survey, which is the scientific arm of the Interior Department.
USGS projects that polar bears during the next half-century will disappear along the north coasts of Alaska and Russia and lose 42 percent of the Arctic range they need to live in during summer in the Polar Basin when they hunt and breed. A polar bear's life usually lasts about 30 years.
"Projected changes in future sea ice conditions, if realized, will result in loss of approximately two-thirds of the world's current polar bear population by the mid 21st century," the report says.
Polar bears depend on sea ice as a platform for hunting seals, which is their primary food. They rarely catch seals on land or in open water. Because the general decline of Arctic sea ice appears to be underestimated, scientists said their forecast of how much polar bear populations will shrink also may be on the low side.
"There is a definite link between changes in the sea ice and the welfare of polar bears," said USGS scientist Steven Amstrup, the lead author of the new studies. "As the sea ice goes, so goes the polar bear."
Amstrup said 84 percent of the scientific variables affecting the polar bear's fate was tied to changes in sea ice.
As of this week, the extent of Arctic sea ice had fallen to 4.75 million square miles _ or 250,000 square miles below the previous record low of 5.05 million square miles in September 2005, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center.
Scientists do not hold out much hope that the buildup of carbon dioxide and other industrial gases blamed for heating the atmosphere like a greenhouse can be turned around in time to help the polar bears anytime soon.
Polar bears have walked the planet for at least 40,000 years.
"In spite of any mitigation of greenhouse gases, we are going to see the same amount of energy in the system for at least 20, 30, 40 years," Mark Myers, the USGS director, said.
Greenland and Norway have the most polar bears, while a quarter of them live mainly in Alaska and travel to Canada and Russia. The agency says their range will shrink to no longer include Alaska and other southern regions.
The findings of U.S. and Canadian scientists are based on six months of new studies, during which the health of three polar bear groups and their dependency on Arctic sea ice were examined using "new and traditional models," Myers said.
USGS issued nine separate reports on polar bears Friday. Those included projections for one group of polar bears in the Southern Beaufort Sea and two in Canada that are among 19 distinct subpopulations.
They were made public to help guide Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne's decision expected in January on his agency's proposal to add the polar bear to the government's endangered species list.
USGS declined to provide precise estimates of polar bear populations 50 years from now.
A separate organization, the World Conservation Union, based in Gland, Switzerland, has estimated the polar bear population in the Arctic now is about 20,000 to 25,000, put at risk by melting sea ice, pollution, hunting, development and tourism.
Last December, Kempthorne proposed designating polar bears as a "threatened" species deserving of federal protection under the Endangered Species Act, because of melting Arctic sea ice from global warming. That category is second to "endangered" on the government's list of species believed most likely to become extinct.
That action is in response to a lawsuit in 2005 by three environmental groups _ the Center for Biological Diversity, Natural Resources Defense Council and Greenpeace _ to force such a proposal from Interior's Fish and Wildlife Service, which oversees endangered species.
"This grim news about polar bears and sea ice decline is horrifying, but it is a call to action, not despair," said Kassie Siegel of the Arizona-based Center for Biological Diversity. "The good news is that there is still time to save polar bears. Our hope lies in a rapid response, including both deep and immediate carbon dioxide reductions and a full-court press on other greenhouse pollutants such as methane."
The fate of polar bears has struck a public nerve. Fish and Wildlife officials have received 600,000 public comments so far on the proposed listing, spokesman Chris Tollefson said.
On Friday, Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., urged the Bush administration to grant polar bears federal protection.
"This is becoming a tragic metaphor for the administration's voluntary approach to global warming," said Markey, chairman of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming. "Instead of meeting the challenge, the Bush administration is happy to float along, waiting to see if the planet, and polar bears, will sink or swim."
Another member of the committee, Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Wash., said the loss of some of the magnificent creatures on earth may be the proverbial "canary in the coal mine" needed to prod both Congress and the Bush administration into action on climate change. |
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"Leave the starship commanding to Bill because he already knows how to do it better than anybody else!" -morgram
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Post subject:
Posted: Sep 08, 2007 - 02:48 AM
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Joined: Sep 19, 2005
Posts: 3322
Status: Online!
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| Good Gosh! Break out the hankys for our white furry friends. |
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"Leave the starship commanding to Bill because he already knows how to do it better than anybody else!" -morgram
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Post subject:
Posted: Sep 08, 2007 - 05:29 PM
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Member
Joined: Dec 12, 2005
Posts: 10561
Location: Never you mind where I'm at! You don't need to be knowing! Snoops!
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Old news....Trying to encite a riot?   |
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morgram |
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Post subject:
Posted: Sep 09, 2007 - 05:15 AM
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Joined: Sep 19, 2005
Posts: 3322
Status: Online!
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| angel wrote: |
Old news....Trying to encite a riot? |
The lefties bemoaning the future extinction of Breezly Bruin`s relatives have their priorities a bit skewered I think. What about Darfur? Right now a horrendous tragedy is happening in Darfur and yet the left wants to gripe about the possible extinction of the polar bear 50 YEARS FROM NOW. |
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"Leave the starship commanding to Bill because he already knows how to do it better than anybody else!" -morgram
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Post subject:
Posted: Sep 09, 2007 - 05:47 AM
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Joined: Oct 25, 2002
Posts: 1570
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| Can't those lefties tell by now that when we try a fix a problem we just screw it up. Lets go back to a do nothing government, we can't fix even the smallest of things, how can we possibly fix the rest. Besides don't those bears get a big check from Coca-Cola ? |
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Post subject:
Posted: Sep 09, 2007 - 02:08 PM
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Member
Joined: Dec 12, 2005
Posts: 10561
Location: Never you mind where I'm at! You don't need to be knowing! Snoops!
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The lefties bemoaning the future extinction of Breezly Bruin`s relatives have their priorities a bit skewered I think. What about Darfur? Right now a horrendous tragedy is happening in Darfur and yet the left wants to gripe about the possible extinction of the polar bear 50 YEARS FROM NOW.
Darfur is something to definitely be worried about. No question of that. I was teasing your post because of the people here who love the pretty bears  I don't know who or what's to blame on global warming and I don't pretend to be knowledgable. I feel bad for any species that's decimated for any reason, natural or man-made. But in the long run human priorities do come first. It may be too bad that human priorities came first and may be the reason for the ice flows melting away. But who am I to say what's the reason why? The ice flows have come and gone for thousands of years. And I'm pretty sure that the multitude of "cows and cars" weren't as prevelent then as they are now, but ice flows still receded and came back. Nature no matter what happens regardless of what we do. |
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Post subject:
Posted: Sep 09, 2007 - 03:49 PM
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Member
Joined: Sep 18, 2004
Posts: 5199
Location: standing here shaking my head in disbelief....
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I really would hate to see the polar bears become extinct. I think it is a great tragedy when any animal goes the way of the dodo.  Personally, I'd love to see everyone do everything they can to conserve the environment. But, I don't think it will be enough to stop the warming of the planet. I still think that the Earth goes through warming and cooling periods that have nothing to do with man, or his obsessive destruction of the planet.
Another problem is the overpopulation of the Earth by people. But, perhaps there is a remedy for both that problem, and the declining food sources for the bears. We just need to feed some of the people to the bears. Oh come on now, we all have those unwanted relatives, demanding bosses, and noisy neighbors we would like to "get rid of". Well, why not? Just pay a small fee, and no more problem. The bears are fed, the annoying people are gone. Sounds like a plan to me. |
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Post subject:
Posted: Sep 09, 2007 - 04:04 PM
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Joined: Oct 24, 2002
Posts: 8167
Location: CA
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THAT is the best plan I've heard in YEARS !!!!!!
Volunteers?  |
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Post subject:
Posted: Sep 13, 2007 - 02:02 AM
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Joined: Oct 24, 2002
Posts: 8167
Location: CA
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...and How about all of THESE Species nearly gone from this Planet
50 years is NOT a very long time....once you've actually lived that long |
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Post subject:
Posted: Sep 13, 2007 - 10:29 PM
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Joined: Feb 04, 2003
Posts: 3281
Location: 45°28' N 73°45' W
Status: Offline
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All humanitarian and environmental catastrophes are of vital importance. Drawing attention to one does not diminish the plight of the other.
Certainly, given the restrictions on political topics on this board, discussing Darfur probably may be outside of this board's parameters.
It shouldn't be a matter of left or right. It's a matter of extinction.
| morgram wrote: | | angel wrote: |
Old news....Trying to encite a riot? |
The lefties bemoaning the future extinction of Breezly Bruin`s relatives have their priorities a bit skewered I think. What about Darfur? Right now a horrendous tragedy is happening in Darfur and yet the left wants to gripe about the possible extinction of the polar bear 50 YEARS FROM NOW. |
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Post subject:
Posted: Sep 14, 2007 - 12:52 AM
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Member
Joined: Sep 18, 2004
Posts: 5199
Location: standing here shaking my head in disbelief....
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| littlestar wrote: | ...and How about all of THESE Species nearly gone from this Planet
50 years is NOT a very long time....once you've actually lived that long |
Makes me angry and sad. Their loss is also ours, and our childrens. |
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When you try to make others look small, you only show how truly tiny your own spirit is.
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