Can’t bear the insanity!
They are big, they are white, they are endangered. The US Government affirms that climate change is putting polar bears in peril. Yesterday, it listed the polar bear as threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), wildly applauded by WWF.
“A tremendous victory for one of the world’s most iconic and charismatic species”, says Carter Roberts, president and CEO of WWF-US. “The other big winner today is sound science, which has clearly trumped politics, providing polar bears a new lease on life.”
“Based on the best available science, if current sea ice trends continue, two-thirds of the world’s polar bears will be lost by 2050,” said Geoffrey York, coordinator of WWF’s Polar Bear Conservation Program. “The threatened species designation will now provide additional legal protections for the bears, including the conservation of critical habitat and the development of a government-supported recovery plan.”
At the same time, the US Fish & Wildlife Service estimates that the polar bear population is currently at 20,000 to 25,000 bears, up from as low as 5,000 to 10,000 bears in the 1950s and 1960s. The Inuit people themselves are telling us that the bear population has increased. Of course they are immediately accused of pursuing their own interest - hunting.
But the entire alarm about polar bears disappearing is based on speculative computer model predictions. The polar bears are thus being put on the list NOT because they are in decline but because the ice is melting. In the Medieval Warm Period, when temperatures were warmer than they currently are now, the polar bears managed to survive. Why shouldn’t they now?
Besides, the Earth’s climate is expected to cool for the next decade, not warm.
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Why Do We Care If Polar Bears Become Extinct?
This is not any sort of revelation: Polar bears declared a threatened species , but it does raise the question: Why do we care? By some estimates, 90% of all species that once existed are now extinct and new species are always taking their place. For the species that’s going to become extinct, for whatever reason, extinction is the end of it. However, for the species that remain, is the extinction of another species good or bad. When Europeans first colonized North America, there was an estimated five (5) billion Passenger Pigeons alive and well in North America. In 1914, they were extinct. Passenger Pigeons didn’t live in little groups, but huge flocks that required extraordinary quantities of hardwood forests for them to feed, breed and survive. Deforestation to build homes, create farmland and over hunting for cheap food decimated their population. The westward drive to grow the United States in the 1800s and early 1900s was incompatible with the needs of the Passenger Pigeon and they literally could not survive in the new North America being carved out by the U.S. economy. The interesting thing about the Passenger Pigeon was the impact its extinction had on another species—man. That impact was essentially none. Man continued to find ways to feed himself through agriculture and other technologies and the United States and its citizens continued to prosper from the early 20th century till today. Whether or not Polar Bears become extinct because of Global Climate Change or other reasons, we need to address the larger question of: Do we care and why? One of the ways a nation, its citizens and the global community can answer that question is addressed by John A. Warden III in Thinking Strategically About Global Climate Change. He asks some interesting biodiversity questions in his post to include How Many Species Is the Right Number and Which Ones?
[...] rdnekaristocrat’s journal wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerpt“The other big winner today is sound science, which has clearly trumped politics, providing polar bears a new lease on life…. [...]
… sorry just speechless at the insanity….
The lunatics have truly taken over the asylum.
How Many Species Is the Right Number and Which Ones?
The right ones are the cute ones. Of course!
General rule of thumb: If it’s cute enough to be used for a Coca-Cola commercial, then it’s cute enough to save.
The ugly animals have to fend for themselves. After all, when was the last time you hear the urgent call from “environmentalists” to save the aye aye, a truly ugly creature?
If opossums were in danger of extinction (say, due to excessive road kills), how many of you think that the “environmentalists” would be raising the alarm? What about the stinky skunk?
No, I doubt that you would hear about any of them, unless there was an ulterior motive at work and these animals could be exploited for this purpose.
Brian M: The thing is that the polar bear is hardly cuddly. And it kills a lot of cute little seal pups. Shouldn’t we be protecting the seals now that the bear population has grown much bigger?
Maggie: Where have you been?
Everybody knows that “skeptics” and “deniers” regularly club baby seals to death all of the time.
That’s why they don’t care about the fate of the polar bear. Polar bears are competition.
Now let’s see…… Hmmmmm….. Polar bears were hunted down to between 5 and 10 thousand. Then Inuits stopped hunting and started drinking…….. Now we have an estimated 20 - 25 thousand killer bears who are now being protected and will increase in number [thereby killing more seals] and because a panel of total idiots has voted that P Bears are in danger of extinction [with no credible science as backup] we will have to encourage the Inuit to drink more [after all they started drinking and the polar bear population increased!] and we will have to provide Canadians with fortresses to avoid being eaten by hungry polar bears! Who will have reduced the seal population to near extinction!
And all because Al Gore says CO2 is a poison. Doh!
Maybe we can encourage the polar bears to feed on ecotourists instead, thereby saving the seals and increasing the intelligence level in contemporary environmental debate in one fell swoop.
There aren’t any polar bears, the ones that didn’t die during the Roman climate optimum were finished off by the Medeval Warm Period.
“The polar bears are thus being put on the list NOT because they are in decline but because the ice is melting. ”
Well stated.
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