Guest essay by Eric Worrall
NYT brings us this heartrending story about polar bears on the verge of extinction fooling people into thinking they are fine, by looking overweight, and scavenging Alaskan rubbish dumps.
Polar Bears’ Path to Decline Runs Through Alaskan Village
The bears that come here are climate refugees, on land because the sea ice they rely on for hunting seals is receding.
By ERICA GOODE
KAKTOVIK, Alaska — Come fall, polar bears are everywhere around this Arctic village, dozing on sand spits, roughhousing in the shallows, padding down the beach with cubs in tow and attracting hundreds of tourists who travel long distances to see them.
At night, the bears steal into town, making it dangerous to walk outside without a firearm or bear spray. They leave only reluctantly, chased off by the polar bear patrol with firecracker shells and spotlights.
On the surface, these bears might not seem like members of a species facing possible extinction.
Scientists have counted up to 80 at a time in or near Kaktovik; many look healthy and plump, especially in the early fall, when their presence overlaps with the Inupiat village’s whaling season.
But the bears that come here are climate refugees, on land because the sea ice they rely on for hunting seals is receding.
…
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/18/science/polar-bears-global-warming.html
Back in the real world, as WUWT reported in 2015 Polar Bears are doing just fine. Predictions of imminent starvation are based on models.
Regarding the large numbers of bears around Kaktovik, does anyone think it possible locals whose income depends on “hundreds of tourists” visiting to see the bears might be deliberately leaving some food out?
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Whale entrails. This has been covered here and elsewhere before:
https://polarbearscience.com/2013/12/13/kaktovik-polar-bear-photos-again-no-starving-bears/
Yep, that was the first thing that occurred to me reading about Inuit whale hunting season.
It’s like saying that seagulls which scavenge on municipal waste dumps are only coming there as climate refugees and because we’ve eaten all the fish in the oceans where they would normally hunt.
Foxes scavenge is towns too, better mark them down as climate refugees too.
The reason there are more polar bears in town is also because there are more polar bears. 20,000-25,000 compared to a nadir of only 5000 when hunting was allowed.
Maybe a few more hunting permits are in order in these areas.
Mind you, the greens would probably rather see human babies taken by polar bears than accept the sight of some viscous hunter killing a poor, fluffy white polar bear.
No doubt the polar bears would agree, a nice fresh & tasty morsel instead of raiding the bins for junk food.
I’m also a climate refugee !! now winter is closing in we will head south to the Canary Islands
“some viscous hunter”
Hey, who are you callin’ thick?!
And all the cod heading north to arctic and squid in North Sea, climate refugees, all of them I tell you
Manbearpig,
There have been squid in the North Sea for quite a while. At Hound Point tanker terminal in the Firth of Forth squid are regularly seen and have been since the thing opened in the 1970s, and occasionally octopus are caught at the entrance to Grangemout Docks.
Or Grangemouth, even.
and in Aus we have the white Ibis renamed as Tip Turkeys
rather fat and pooping all over council shedding at our tip;-)
the native wildlife birdwise spends a lot of the yr at the sewage ponds too
not so romantic for piccys:-)
but the easiest spot to snap Brolgas at
amuses me no end.
I was thinking that if global warming is causing this polar vortex, couldn’t we all apply as climate refugees? During this time of year, I think the UN should take responsibility and relocate me to Hawaii or the Caribbean. Think of all the co2 that wouldn’t be released from trying to keep warm from global warming. … the cold, freezing huddled masses… the horror !
Foxes scavenge is towns too, better mark them down as climate refugees too.
And good ones, at that.
Ditto my raccoons and possums!
Just repackage this as the bears are recycling..
..and they will get an award
What I noticed was the childish (and cowardly) manner in which the biologists got the author of this piece to deal with my exposure of their failed hypothesis from 2005 (the one that got polar bears listed as threatened/vulnerable).
Referring vaguely to “climate change den##ists” regarding the criticism that polar bear numbers had not fallen as expected – as if it was a group of people but linking directly to this post of mine: https://polarbearscience.com/2016/11/01/if-experts-had-been-right-about-sea-ice-there-would-be-no-polar-bears-in-churchill/
So, it was not just some random blogger but a legitimate and qualified peer of theirs who has exposed this failure. They won’t even provide me the courtesy of calling me by my name – sound familiar? I believe Steve McIntyre was treated similarly by the climate change establishment.
Online readers could (and did) click through to that post but print readers had no idea to whom the writer was referring.
The response of the prognosticators, summarized by the writer: “The decline of a species, they note, is never a steady march to extinction.”
Well, but that’s not what they said back in 2008 based on their 2005/2006 data.
They predicted a decline of 2/3 of the world’s polar bears (and total extirpation of 10 vulnerable subpopulations, including the Southern Beaufort one that’s the topic of the NYT article) when sea ice reached the lows that they predicted (not even every year, but if it happened 8/10 years).
We’ve had that level of sea ice since 2007 – polar bears (especially Southern Beaufort and Chukchi Sea bears) have lived through the 2050 “worst-case” scenario envisioned by these folks for 10 years.
See my main post on this topic here: https://polarbearscience.com/2016/09/13/recent-studies-show-sept-ice-of-3-5-mkm2-did-not-kill-polar-bears-off-as-predicted/
In my opinion, this article is primarily a vehicle for the biologists to refute my challenge. Why do I think that?
Because I have been trying to get a paper published in the scientific literature – which they have so far been able to block but which has gotten strong support by a few reviewers (just not enough of them).
However, I address this issue head-on in my forthcoming book, “Polar Bears: Outstanding Survivors of Climate Change” which will be out shortly.
Dr. Susan Crockford, zoologist.
A great, great title for your book. I will check to see if the New York Times has it in their book review section. For some reason I doubt it. 🙂 If they do, how will they answer all the inconvenient questions from their brainwashed subscribers?
Your book has been added to my books to read in 2017 list.
I still say the simplest and fastest solution is…
…put ring seals on the endangered list
Dr. Crockford, thanks and please keep up your good work. I look forward to buying and reading your book.
Susan,
I saw the title here and thought of you. Thus, I searched for your name and see you are up early and working.
So, I’m going out in cold and snow to feed horses and toss a couple of apples at the local deer — mamma and twins from last spring. Looks like a lot of snow falling in the Cascades of WA. B.C.?
But I did wonder about the photo — good light and all?
Anyone know what gets shipped in — in the small wood crates? I’d like a few of those.
John FH,
I believe those are Russian bears at a Russian dump.
Susan
“I believe those are Russian bears at a Russian dump.” LOL
Should have recognized the bears were dump hacking. Just can’t escape those dastardly Russians.
Stop shootin’ ’em, the numbers pop up pretty quickly. Allergic to hot lead, someone oughta research that!
Thanks Dr Crockford for your insights, looking forward to your book, @ur momisugly John F, in Washington, yep those crates should be recycled even as firewood.
It is a basic survival instinct to live where the living is easiest. No creature in its right mind will desire to live in deprivation. If we make scavenging a more successful strategy than expending energy to hunt, then what do you think will happen? Like the homeless they will gravitate to where the pickings are the easiest.
“If you don’t want stray dogs in you yard, stop feeding them.”
exactly….they discovered how a chum bag works
So, if we don’t want homeless people in our city . . .?
I would imagine it is quite a risk for a bear to venture out onto the ice and sit over a hole/s waiting for seals. There must be times when weeks go between feedings. it would stand to reason that easy pickins is better than expending so much energy. I use to live in Banff, Alberta and way back in the seventies going out to the dump on a bright summer evening one could witness scores of bears feeding on restaraunt waste.
It got printed again in the Alaska Dispatch, and the comments are priceless…
https://www.adn.com/arctic/2016/12/19/polar-bears-path-to-decline-runs-through-an-alaska-village/
Another link:
http://www.skolaiimages.com/alaska-polar-bear-photos/polar-bears-feeding-on-whale-carcass/
You may scoff, but I’m told there are no more penguins there to be eaten. How would you like to be restricted to a diet of fatty seal meat?
“But I’m told……”
Indeed you have so please link your source.
craig, I’m pretty darn certain our friend gnome knows the Northern Hemisphere penguins are extremely rare… practically non-existent! 😉
Probably one of climate change’s first true extinctions
Realistically though, just how long have the Polars been coming their to make it a tourist event?
Obviously a local extinction of penguins. When I was in in Churchill in 1969, people went out the dump to see the polar bears. Way easier than hunting seals.
Auk-ward.
I suspect he means the chocolate biscuits 😆
http://i34.tinypic.com/2qk8e38.jpg
Penguins? In the northern hemisphere?
So I have been told! But then I usually get told a few times a day, every day!
Penguins are found as far north as the Galapagos.
We have penguins in Pittsburgh! No, I mean actual penguins, at the zoo.
“Penguins? In the northern hemisphere?”
Actually yes, but they are extinct. The original penguin was the flightless Great Auk Pinguinus impennis. Penguin is the celtic name for the Great Auk.
Incidentally they were probably rarely eaten by polar bear, since they normally bred south of the range of the Polar Bear.
tty
December 19, 2016 at 7:20 am
However, the great auk wasn’t closely related to penguins, which get their name from the auk but belong to different orders of birds.
The etymology of “penguin” is controversial. It may come from the Welsh for “white head”, but there’s no real evidence for that conjecture. The great auk had a black head, but white around its eyes.
The Penguins! Someone has to think about the Penguins! Maud Flanders lives.(yes, I know penguins are Antarctic)
…penguins are Antarctic?
Not always…
http://vps.templar.co.uk/Cape%20Town/DSC_1023.JPG
Unless climate change has gone massively out of control…:-)
And as the climate “changes” they go to,,,,,,where? Happens every year, or so I am told.
One type of penguin is found on the coast of South Africa.
theyre on mainland Aus also
Victor harbour in sth Aus and parts of Victorias coast
Seen one moulting in a cave above the south coast of New Zealand (Papatowai).
Any details on that red and black penguin in the lower right?
Appears to have molted badly!
The northernmost penguins are just north of the Equator in the Galapagos. And while it is quite possible to bathe together with the temperate penguin species as shown in the image, it would usually not be very enjoyable since they are found in cool water areas like the Benguela and Humboldt Currents.
Actually MOST penguins do NOT live in Antarctica (only 2 species make Antarctica home). Most live along the coast lines of the southern oceans well above the Antarctic circle in temperate conditions. True as stated above, some actually make it across the equator as the Galapagos penguins will attest.
Obviously a hideous beakless mutant they have cast out from their flock. They’ve even put up a fence for good measure.
Quite so – I believe that the Arctic is now completely penguin-free. (A fact that may we’ll appear prominently in al-Gore’s sci-fi sequel.)
@Leopold Danze Smith
Wow that is a nice penquin Leo…I did’nt know they were red and “I must say” a beautiful copper brown. I would say from a polar bear point of view, they look absolutely delicious. Are they always loners Leo? That red color around their lower part of their bodies must be for mating…whatja think Leo?
According to accounts from the survivors from Shackleton’s expedition, penguins don’t taste that good. I suppose that’s good news for the penguins. Shame the same wasn’t true of dodos or great auks…
First off, contrary to what the liberal MSM portrays, the population of polar bears has skyrocketed, from 10,000 in 1970 to over 25,000 now. And now they’re rummaging through urban garbage in their overpopulated state. It’s about time that herd be thinned.
This video is a bothersome illustration of the bloodthirsty man-eaters:
Eeek 🙂
Seems so cute, all white like like a baby seal. Hope that cage holds up. The guy inside needs a Smith and Wesson 500 to stick in that bear’s mouth just in case.
No what he really needs is a brain
Are BBC cameramen really expected to have brains?
Brokenassbricklayer , OK, your right but let’s get him a brain after he gets away will from that bear.
If he has a brain and bear eats him what good is that?
I have the same problems opening a can of meat.
Elsewhere, Gmail customer enraged as he attempts to open more Spam..
http://www.prepperforums.net/forum/attachments/urban-rural-survival/2514d1378004800-polar-bear-hunting-polar-bears.jpg
I really appreciate this story about polar bear ‘refugees.’ WUWT has always been a source of real information now it has become a source of comic relief.
I just laughed and laughed for a good while after reading about this latest lunacy over at the NYT.
What a tragic story about the collapse of a once great newspaper.
one of my favorite cartoons by one of my favorite cartoonists
The NYT just rented out 8 floors of former staff space in its building. Says it all, eh?
Actually “blood-thirsty” is a rather unfair epithet. Polar Bears are quite peaceful and unaggressive compared to grizzlies (and I speak from personal experience here). However they do consider humans as convenient prey (being about the same size as seals), so they are quite dangerous when hungry.
And wouldn’t you get frustrated if some idiot had locked your dinner into a steel cage?
So…what the end of the story. Did she eat him? The video cut out at the good part.
Nope. I don’t think so. Despite the cage looking pretty rickety. If the polar bear could have thought to throw a stone. Though I guess the Arctic isn’t really the best place to find stones (perhaps it’s the best place to get stoned, but that’s different [say NO to Sharia law in the Arctic!]).
“GET IN MAH BELLAH!”
That’s the last thing most prey will see, because it’s awfully dark when you’re sitting in a polar bear’s belly.
I live in Tucson, Arizona. Every November I notice a huge influx of Alberta, Wisconsin, and Minnesota climate refugees on the local streets and roads!! WUWT?
Are they feasting in your local dumps, lol Climate change kooks are full of endlessly entertaining antics.
Not in the dumps – but a lot of scavenging on the street corners… It’s a cycle every year. The homeless by choice crowd the desert camps around this city every year. (Like Joel, I live in Tucson – there’s a major chunk just a couple miles south of me here.)
So…Snowbirds and Snowvultures
In Palm Springs they are referred to as “snow-backs”.
Maybe we are climate gypsies by nature, Joel. You always meet lots of folks from the colder climes when vacationing in the Caribbean or Riviera Maya.
Anthropogenic and opportunistic. Just sayin…. I would too if was them! Hunt seals or get free leftovers?
C’mon Man!
What a pity that so many gullible people will read this nonsense and think it to be true. If you are in any way shape or form familiar with bears, you realise that they will eat the easiest thing around, dead or alive. Any garbage dump in bear country has frequent furry visitors, be they black, brown, Gris, or Polar.
Tell us about that. We foolishly formerly had a lidded ‘garbage can’ of corn to feed deer at our north Georgia cabin in the Chatahoochee National forest. A black bear ripped through the porch, unlidded the can, and gobbled up the corn. And did more damage on the way out. Six inch long claw marks half inch deep into Wolmanized deckimg wood. And that is only one of our several black bear encounters the past few years at our georgia cabin. Fortunately, none have ended like EATEN.
Of course, these are only docile black bears. Funniest was when Mama bear had three cubs messing with our secured garbage cans. Wifey thought the cubs were so cute she would go take some pics. Opened porch door right onto mama bear snout, as mama was coming onto the porch. Hard to tell whether moma bear or wifey was more surprised. Anyway, all ended well without me having to use my local standby artillery.
And you should hear the occasional itinerant wolf pack howl on my Wisconsin diary farm. Much more interesting than the usual coyote yaps. Last year’s deer hunting season was especially wonderful–for my gang of friends and for the wolves. 8 inches of snow, 8 point bucks, and an itinerant wolf pack. Nature is wonderful and grand. Most have no idea.
I hear Diarys are difficult to raise. And the milking!
Pretty much the same same in Oregon (Murphy outback). Shotgun always ready for defensive action…they’ll be back after ears stop singing!
Most have no idea
The epitaph of Western urban society…
I have at least one bear, here is western PA, who comes on my porch to check over our grill. I set a feeding point about 100 yards out into the woods for them. Looking out my back window I can see a group of maple saplings that a buck has been using to rub his antlers, I have watched him doing it as I sit here, less than 30 feet away, listening to Jim Quinn or Mr Limbow podcasts and working on the computer. Currently in this AM I am watching fat black squirrels chasing each other in the oak tops and waiting for the morning pass through of 2 does and their yearlings. Nature is grand.
You are supposedly a farmer, and you keep feed open on your porch? (a trashcan lid only keep out flies and rain and maybe an anemic raccoon). And that seemed like a good idea?
Where is your farm (in suburbia?), and who taught (obviously didn’t) your wife about wildlife?
@ur momisugly 2hotel9
I was raised in Clarion County. Then I-80 went through the middle and it got crowded. Western PA is grand, but the “west” is best.
Lately I’ve been involved in a peripheral way with “qualitative” research concerning the Inuit and polar bears. It’s both maddening and hilarious to hear the “researchers” trying to get the Inuit to say that the polar bears are declining, while one after the other the Inuit hunters and elders keep trying to get across to them that they polar bears are increasing, but that they MOVE AROUND. “They’re not going instinct [sic],” one guy kept saying, “they’re just not where they were when the scientists counted them last.”
why is there so much wood packing left in the tip?
I would think it would be saved and burnt to save money and landfill space?
hell light it at night to deter bears even…
we have plenty of garbage for them. let’s give refuge to these refugees. problem solved. check it off.
I hope you were sarcastic, or else this is a rather ignorant statement to make, “Let them eat garbage!”
We have moved into THEIR habitat. They would rather eat large plates of meat, but as long as garbage doesn’t fight back of run away they will eat it. As soon as the garbage supply isn’t enough the bears will go after the next easiest menu item. It’s then that the piper’s bill comes due and all the environmentalists begin clamoring for the removal of these deadly predators.
The same was said in Marin county (just north across the bridge from San Francisco) about harmless deer. “OH don’t bother Bambi!” was the chant until deer started coming through the windshields of passenger cars and injuring suburban families. Soon after that the herd began to be managed by selective hunting.
Most people have NO IDEA, but is partially our fault for allowing the ignorance to proliferate.
Many here on these threads are more interested in observing and understanding nature. It is the environmentalists who think they know enough to play God.
FREDERICK, Md. – A Maryland teenager killed a deer inside his house after it knocked over the Christmas tree.
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/12/17/dashing-through-home-teen-shoots-deer-in-living-room.html
It’s the same in New Jersey. You see roadkill all the time, deer mostly . If you’re driving, be sure to have the deer whistles on your car. Black bears are another problem. They are all over the place in North Jersey. There are 2 problems in New Jersey, not enough hunters, and the deer are smart. They know when it’s hunting season and move to areas, your front lawn ( where they fight, mate, eat everything and way too many), where you can’t hunt. $4000 worth of damage to the car. The buck decided the parked car in the driveway was competition. Oh, and then there is the deer ticks that spread Lyme disease. Bambi, indeed !
I’m thinking the polar bears aren’t stupid either. Look at this, those stupid humans just throw food out ! Throw in some of those puffer fish, and you’d have zombie polar bears. And the picture with the little girl hugging the polar bear. I’d like some ketchup as a dip with this snack. As long as I have food in my hand, I have the most loyal dog on the planet.
I think some of these environmentalist should experience nature up close and personal. I saw the Amex commercial, where are you brown bear ? He didn’t have to go to Alaska. He could have taken the Holland tunnel out to Wayne,NJ.
Most of the limousine liberals only experience “nature” via Disney/Pixar. I can tell, by the idiotic way they hold their tiny tots up within bite-range of my thousand-pound, nearsighted livestock!
Really? So, were they “refugees” in the ’20s,’30s,’40s and ’50s? There are photos and stories from whaling, fishing and research stations all the way back to the ’20s about polar bears digging in the trash, hell, pretty sure some are in old National Geographics.
No! Bears are smart enough to take the easy way to a feed. This is the same behavior we see among black bears farther south, ya know the bear type that is not a threatened species,?
On a mining exploration party in northern British Columbia in 1970, we had a yearling bear that started out in our garbage pit but eventually showed up at the breakfast table (outdoors under a tarp) where he got pancakes and syrup. Babine Lake is a big lake loaded with rainbow trout and we began to catch the bear about a dozen of these in about an hour each evening. Our camp was temporary and after a week, we loaded up our boats with gear and headed up the lake for a new setup on the other side of the lake. The bear ran along the shore to come with us, but we soon left him behind.
The lake is huge:177km long and up to 10km across. Google it. The rainbows are several kg in size.
Don’t forget, people take the easy way to feed as well.
Anytime you want, one can go down to the intersection of Lawrence and Park Ave at ‘feeding time’ for the ‘homeless’ right next to the Denver Rescue Mission. Normally there are not a lot of people around but when it is time for various groups to perform their ministry of enabling people with addictions, a regular mob will show up for the free food.
Now there is building right there with a place to sleep and food, but most of these people will not take it. Why? Because you have to stay sober and work.
Now why do that when there is free food for the taking every day?
http://www.denverpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/20160308_032705_homeless-eviction-march-8.jpg
Not only will the bears go for the free grub, so will the liberals who wanted Hillary to be POTUS.
Feed the liberals to the bears, problem solved! 😉
Whoa! I’ve seen a lot of “rubbish dump” raccoons here in Florida too.
I had no idea they only did this when the climate was changing.
Down here, the ibis seem to be the rubbish tip dwellers, + feral cats.
But we don’t have many big scavengers… except the Greens party, and Malcolm Turnbull.
Polar bears float.
FFS. Churchill Manitoba, also known at the polar bear capital of the world, has had polar bears rooting around in the garbage of that town for decades. My father served in the Canadian air force and was stationed there in WW2. He knew and told me.
Living is easy with eyes closed
Misunderstanding all you see…
Models are problematic. http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff2900/fc02898.htm
When the title mentioned Rubbish, I was not surprised the the NYT was involved.
NYT – rubbish is correct. Gray lady down.
How can a ‘green’ publication justify cutting down trees pulping them making paper, printing on it then distributing the tons of paper? Electronic publishing is far ‘greener’.
NY Times—the piper of record.
If polar bears foraging at the dump is a sign of ‘climate refugees’ then the rats at the dump are also ‘climate refugees’. Poor rats – climate disruption forces them to forage at the dumps… and the bears eat them!!!
Oh, the ursus maritimus injustice!!!
Yes, rats originated in South-East Asia so presumably they emigrated from there to get away from the heat during Roman or Medieval Warm Periods or something. And House Sparrows did the same at the end of the Ice-age when they left the Middle East and spread into Europe.
A bit harder to explain why rabbits colonized Australia that way, but quite likely BOM can prove that Australia was actually colder than England in the nineteenth century once they have finished adjusting their data.
POLAR BEARS! Griff will be here any minute.
Anybody who has ever watched bears (brown, black, polar…) scavenge a dump understands bears will take the easy meal if offered.
NYT dudes have probably only seen NYC homeless doe this.
Yeah where’s Griff the world authority on polar bears , still hiding from that Susan lady probably .
HeHeHe……Griff’s still trying to extract his size 11 from his mouth.
They don’t like polar bears getting an easy,free meal?? Well then. Why don’t they head out and give them some fresh meat,plus some exercise as the Polies chase them down? Thieving hypocrites.
Declining intelligence is one of the tragic complications that those who suffer from climate change obsession frequently exhibit. As the author of this NYT piece demonstrates.
unter, it is not only declining intelligence, but, also declining or entirely lacking in real world experiences.
Bears are opportunistic feeders[1]
Regards
Climate Heretic
[1] https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=opportunistic+feeder+polar+bear
Beat me to it, lol…🙂
As a kid in the mid ’50s at Camp Minocqua , WI , we would have evening station wagon field trips to local dumps to watch the bears .
Doesn’t anybody at the NYTimes know that if seals can’t den on the ice, they will have to den on land. Seals are mammals and air breathers. Oh, and if the seals den on land, the bears will catch them on land. Oh, yes, BTW, the Latin name for Polar Bear is Ursus Maritimus (sea-going bears). They can travel considerable distances across open waters.
I have repeated the same on many sites, but it doesn’t seem to sink in. 😊
Liberals don’t let inconvenient facts spoil a good hand-wringing, emotionally wrenching narrative (which makes old ladies in trailer parks write checks to their NGO’s).
Since when do any bears (hungry or not) avoid open garbage dumps? Seriously – so an animal that is a scavenger (and a predator as well, like most carnivores) is supposed to just walk on by and ignore free food? Even well fed animals will often scavenge if they have the opportunity, because they never know where their next meal will come from. So I guess it must also be an effect of “climate change” when people chum ocean waters and sharks come in to feed….or maybe the sharks, like all predators/scavengers, are opportunistic when it comes to finding food.
Good point Shrecken , if bears were fussy eaters not sure how many would be left .
Our fat well fed pets love rooting through the garbage, too!
Exactly. There is no animal that I know of that isn’t strictly an herbivore (and maybe not even then) that isn’t opportunistic. An easy meal that doesn’t defend itself is preferred to one that will, given a choice.