Posted on 05/16/2006 9:00:14 AM PDT by Daralundy
Polar bears are cute. Just ask the marketing executives at Coca-Cola which used animated polar bears to hawk their wares in recent years. Bears, pandas, lions and elephants are "charismatic megafauna" -- meaning basically cute animals that people care about. If you want to sell a product, or a cause, just tie it to one of these animals and you've got the attention of millions of people; kids and adults alike.
Thus, environmental alarmists have made much of research claiming the Arctic's great white bear faces extinction from human-caused global warming. Snails, snakes and spiders withering in the sun just don't pack the same emotional punch as a cuddly, furry polar bear slipping beneath the melting ice.
Fortunately, a new study by David Legates, director of the University of Delaware's Center for Climatic Research, throws cold water on the claim global warming threatens polar bears survival.
Mr. Legates critiques the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment that proclaimed Arctic air temperature trends strongly indicate global warming, causing polar ice caps and glaciers to melt. However, Mr. Legates says, the Assessment ignored data that undermine these claims. For example, coastal stations in Greenland are cooling and average summer air temperatures at the summit of the Greenland Ice Sheet have decreased by 4 degrees Fahrenheit per decade since measurements began in 1987. In addition, records from Russian coastal stations show the extent and thickness of sea ice has varied greatly over 60- to 80-year periods during the last 125 years. Moreover, the maximum air temperature they report for the 20th century was in 1938, when it was nearly four-tenths of a degree Fahrenheit warmer than the air temperature in 2000.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Well ... that's ... that's evidence of Global Warming, that's what that is!
However, Mr. Legates says, the Assessment ignored data that undermine these claims.
Ofcourse they ignored it. How can you have junk science and push a political agenda if your going to try to include factual data?
I guess drinking Coca-Cola poses a bigger threat to polar bears than global warming..
Walt Disney single-handedly killed deer hunting with 'Bambi'.
Nice to know they've pinpointed the cause with scientific fact.
Eat more Klondikes. Support the right to arm bears.
Aside from a variety of seals, they eat fish, kelp, caribou, ducks, sea birds, the occasional beluga whale....
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Beluga whale? Holy moley! I'll bet that's quite a take-down!
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Also from the article:
Interestingly, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has also written on the threats posed to polar bears from global warming. But, their own data on polar bear populations contradict claims that rising air temperatures are causing a decline in polar bear populations.
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Hey, the WWF don't need no steenkin' facts! They just need to scream stuff like, "Save the polar bears!" and the environMENTALS will send them lots of $$$.
BTW, I recently got a fundraising letter from John McCain on behalf of the WWF regarding global warming. Boy, it's not too often that junk mail gives me a double barf reaction. Well, McPain and the WWF are well-suited for one another -- phony liars.
I watched a National Geographic special on TV last year that stated, and I paraphrase: Global warming is a controversial theory. The next Ice Age is a scientific certainty.
Yeah. Polar bears are NOT going extinct... they are just mating with Grizzly bears. ;)
His presence was reported to the Canadian Mounty who maintained order in the nearby Eskimo village. The polar bear was deemed a threat since it was living off the human foodstuffs and wasn't foraging for his own food. Eskimo children were considered the most threatened class. Since he was protected a request was sent to Quebec for permission to "take" the animal and approval was received. A lottery was held to see which Eskimo family would take the animal since the animals hide, meat and bones were valuable to the Eskimo.
In Canada the Polar Bear is still protected and when the ice age arrives they'l still be frolickin' and drinking Coke!
FYI Polar bears do not drink Coca Cola and are man eaters
I hate Disney on so many levels...they also defanged amd ruined the Grimm Fairy tales for many generations, preferring cute over tragedy.
I blame Bush...
AlGore disagrees and will have a great deal more to say about it.( He's running for President -- be still my beating heart.)
My understanding is that pollution is a much bigger threat to polar bears than global warming, specifically from mercury and other heavy metals. Since polar bears are an apex predator that subsist primarily on fish and fish eating mammals they get very high exposures to these metals in their diets and it may be affecting the survival rate of their cubs. Their populations don't seem to be in any eminent danger though, so it's no crisis but rather just something that deserves further study and observation.
"charismatic megafauna" -- meaning basically cute LARGE animals that people care about
One or the other encroached on the other's territory and got raped.
The Barren Ground Grizzlies may be moving farther North and in greater numbers, I can't see the Polar Bears moving South except to den in the winter and I don't think that they are receptive at that time.
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