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  1. #1
    Senior Member CCUSA's Avatar
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    Global Warming Sees Polar Bears Stranded

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/a ... ge_id=1770 -


    Global warming sees polar bears stranded on melting ice
    By BILL MOULAND -








    Last updated at 22:00pm on 1st February 2007

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    They cling precariously to the top of what is left of the ice floe, their fragile grip the perfect symbol of the tragedy of global warming.

    Captured on film by Canadian environmentalists, the pair of polar bears look stranded on chunks of broken ice.

    Although the magnificent creatures are well adapted to the water, and can swim scores of miles to solid land, the distance is getting ever greater as the Arctic ice diminishes.

    "Swimming 100 miles is not a big deal for a polar bear, especially a fat one," said Dr Ian Stirling of the Canadian Wildlife Service.

    "They just kind of float along and kick. But as the ice gets farther out from shore because of warming, it’s a longer swim that costs more energy and makes them more vulnerable."


    The plight of the bears was highlighted as the prospect of a gloomy future emerged from leaks of the most comprehensive report into global warming yet undertaken, which is to be published on Friday.

    Concluding that it is "highly likely" that mankind is to blame for climate change, it talks of more droughts, torrential rains, shrinking Arctic ice and glaciers, and rising sea levels for the next century.

    And it warns that the effects of a build-up of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere will last far longer.

    Studies of polar bears have revealed that not only have their numbers declined – by nearly one quarter in just 20 years to around 25,000 – but so has their physique.

    The bears can be 10ft tall and 1700lbs in weight, using their body fat to keep them alive when the temperatures plummet in the harshest part of their winter to minus 45C.

    But the scientists have observed that in the struggle for survival, the bears - and females especially - are now much thinner.

    Scientists believe that four bears which recently drowned off the coast of Alaska had simply been unable to cope with a violent storm.

    Dr Stirling says that the phenomenon of a female giving birth to triplets is now part of history with usually only single cubs recorded. Soon, he says, the species may be extinct.

    Usually at this time of year, polar bears would be sheltering with their young in the dens they carve for themselves in mountain slopes near the shoreline or in snowdrifts on the sea ice.

    But global warming, which has raised the temperature in the Canadian Arctic by 4C in the last 50 years, means their habitat is inexorably disappearing.

    In Hudson Bay where the ice melts completely in summer, scientists have noted that it is now happening three weeks earlier than normal.

    This is having a catastrophic effect on the bears which hunt seals over the winter and spring before coming ashore where they rely on their build-up of body fat to survive – and feed their cubs.

    Reports are now being received of polar bears, perfectly equipped for Arctic survival with two coats of insulating fur and a four inch layer of blubber, scavenging for scraps in rubbish tips and camp sites.

    Scientists say the survival of polar bears may rely on special conservation areas, but even that seems a forlorn hope with a United Nations report expected to say that sea levels will carry on rising for over 1,000 years even if greenhouse gases can be curbed.

    The report from the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change draws on the work of 2,500 researchers from more than 130 nations and is the most comprehensive overview of climate change for guiding policy-makers.

    It will say that global warming was "very likely" caused by human activity, delegates to a climate change conference said.

    Dozens of scientists and bureaucrats have been editing the new report in closed-door meetings in Paris. Their report, which must be unanimously approved, is to be released today.

    Two participants, speaking on condition of anonymity because the meetings are confidential, said the group approved the term "very likely" in yesterday's sessions. That means they agree that there is a 90 percent chance that global warming is caused by humans.

    The last report, in 2001, said global warming was "likely" caused by human activity. There had been speculation that the participants might try to change the wording this time to "virtually certain," which means a 99 percent chance.

    The report is considered an authoritative document that could influence government and industrial policy worldwide.

    • Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore has been nominated for the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for his wide-reaching efforts to draw the world's attention to the dangers of global warming, it emerged when nominations closed.

    During eight years as Bill Clinton's vice president, Gore pushed for climate measures, including for the Kyoto Treaty, and after leaving office in 2001 has campaigned worldwide, especially with his Oscar-nominated documentary on climate change called "An Inconvenient Truth."

    The Nobel Prize winner will be announced in October.


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    9 people have commented on this story so far. Tell us what you think below.

    Here's a sample of the latest comments published. You can click view all to read all comments that readers have sent in.

    And what of the ice caps on Mars? Do the "scientists" take in to consideration the temperature of the Sun? How about the glaciers that are actually getting bigger in the Southern Hemisphere? This is called evolution, people. A species lives until it can no longer survive in the conditions which it is given. Okay for schools, but not okay for reality?

    - Tommy, Asheville, NC

    The fact that there is so little discussion about the observed global warming of Mars is extremely disturbing. Unless we are willing to think outside the box and realize the universe is much larger than our earth, we can never hope to solve the problem. This discussion of global warming only on earth harkens back to the days when the consensus was that the universe revolved around the earth!

    - Paul Edinger, Stroudsburg, USA

    Luckily, since they made it through the last global earth warming trend they'll make it through this one as well.

    - Scott, US
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    The only thing that this photo is a "perfect symbol" of is the effectiveness of the propaganda campaign being waged by the purveyors of the myth of anthropogenic global warming.

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    Senior Member CCUSA's Avatar
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    Hi GhostCrocket.

    Do you think it's a natural occurrence and not manmade tragedy? Or maybe a little bit of both?
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    Senior Member IndianaJones's Avatar
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    Environmentalists would do better to place their concerns for all the baby seals that are clubbed to death in Canada for their fur. Nature cannot be controlled the way of bunch of trappers could be if they aren't 'selective' about which animal they care for. By the way, cows and pigs have the same or more feelings (and rights) as polar bears. The environmentalists care more about their own superiority and control than they care for life on this planet. They probably ascribe to the big bang theory as well and maybe pixies in the woods. Pompous asses think they can control the forces of God's creation.
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    Senior Member CCUSA's Avatar
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    I think another good thing to come out of this panic about global warming is it will push countries and the USA to research alternative fuel sources like solar and wind and hybrid technology ect.. not to mention getting away from being dependent on oil from our enemies.
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    The only thing that this photo is a "perfect symbol" of is the effectiveness of the propaganda campaign being waged by the purveyors of the myth of anthropogenic global warming.
    Absolutely!

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    Quote Originally Posted by CCUSA
    Hi GhostCrocket.

    Do you think it's a natural occurrence and not manmade tragedy? Or maybe a little bit of both?
    I think that all available evidence points to this being nothing more than a continuing natural warming trend as we emerge from the unnatural cool of the Little Ice Age. If you look into classical history, you will find that throughout most of written history the world has been far more temperate than it even is right now. The rapid cooling that bgan about 500 years ago and perhaps as early as 700 years ago drastically changed the face of Europe. Crops that had been grown as long as civilization had existed in Northern Europe were suddenly no longer viable. Northern Europeans, suddenly faced with climates that could no longer support grapes, were forced to make the switch to grain alcohols. Many would have starved if not for the switch to tubers, which were resilient against freezing weather, as a food staple. Because the transition to these new foods took quite some time, there were in fact many famines attributable to the claimate change.

    If you look at surface mean temperature and compare it to solar activity during the time that we have been able to accurately measure solar activity, the correlation is unarguable. Solar output is such a major factor in our global temperatures that all other factors pale in comparison. We have seen the recent warming trend because we just went through the hottest solar maximum that we have recorded to date (the maximum peaked in 1999-2000, but produced colar flares of unprecedented magnitude for several years afterward). The surface temperatures have expectedly followed the curve of the solar output. That solar maximum is also what was responsible for the naturally occurring "ozone hole" at the South Pole. The magnetosphere shunts incoming radiation to the poles (which is what causes the aurorae) where the energy is largely expended separating breaking ozone down into O2.

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    Quote Originally Posted by CCUSA
    I think another good thing to come out of this panic about global warming is it will push countries and the USA to research alternative fuel sources like solar and wind and hybrid technology ect.. not to mention getting away from being dependent on oil from our enemies.
    As long as petroleum represents the cheapest source of energy, there is little reason to stop using it. I agree that we would benefit from cheaper energy sources, but there are precious few that actually are cheaper once all factors are considered. Let's hope that the continuing research yields something of value, but don't be too hasty to dump a cheap and readily available source.

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    But such predictions and the potential consequences to polar bears are highly uncertain. No one knows exactly what’s happening with Arctic sea ice, much less what the future holds. The Greenland ice melt, for example, was actually larger in 1991 than in 2005 and the Greenland ice cap is thickening. Data from the Canadian Ice Service indicate there has been no precipitous drop-off in ice cap amount or thickness since 1970.

    Let’s keep in mind that polar bears have survived much warmer times than we are now experiencing – like 1,000 years ago when the Vikings farmed Greenland during the Medieval Climate Optimum and 5,000-9,000 years ago during the period known as the Holocene Climate Optimum.
    http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,239697,00.html

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