Famous photoshopped polar bear image: Ursus Bogus – click the bear for the story behind this faked image
If the summer season is any indication of what we have in store for us, this October and November there will be prodigious numbers of polar bears in the Churchill region…Another uncharacteristic trend was the frequent sightings of polar bear mothers with triplets in tow. It will be interesting to see how many of these family units are spotted in the willows and snowdrifts over the coming two months out on the tundra. It surely sets up to be a banner year for the polar bear census.
So, who are you going to believe: a professional conservationist outfit that is actually in situ observing polar bear critters all over the place, or some bureaucrat bent on controlling your tailpipe and windpipe?
WASHINGTON — A federal judge ordered the Obama administration on Wednesday to review whether polar bears, at risk because of global warming, are endangered under U.S. law.
U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan wants the Interior Department to clarify a decision by the administration of former President George W. Bush that polar bears were merely threatened rather than in imminent danger of extinction.
…
“The court is not accepting the Fish and Wildlife Service argument that extinction must be imminent before the bear is listed as endangered,” said Kassie Siegel, an attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity, an Arizona-based group that challenged the polar bear listing.
Reed Hopper, an attorney for the California-based Pacific Legal Foundation, which opposes protections for the bears, called the ruling disappointing.
Full story here at Canadian Press
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Oh dear… the poley bears are under the threat of being demoted.
What next ?
Whale poop ?
The argument that melting ice threatens polar bears is just so stupid. Pardon the vulgar term, but it fits.
If the ice melts, the bears will be able to eat the seals that are on the shore, the seals will not remain where the ice floes were, they will (drum roll please) move to the shore. Seals have to rest, they will rest on a solid surface, oblivious to whether the surface is ice or land. Just like we saw with the walrus scare a couple of months ago, when there is no ice the mammals move to shore.
Fact is, the bears hunt both on land and off shore, if “land” is ice or terra firma the bears don’t care. Polar bears are successful hunters and adapters and that’s why their numbers are increasing.
aren’t most polar bears Canadian?
An exponential growth rate for this species is translated to an extinction is beyond me.
How does this happen?
Emotions, emotions, you’d almost wish we didn’t have them
http://stevengoddard.wordpress.com/2010/10/16/wwf-caught-in-another-big-lie-polar-bears-doing-just-fine/
I read the FWS documents 2 years ago (ALL of them). There was no/zero/zip/nada hard data involved in the original decision. It was entirely based on model projections.
This is science? I don’t think so.
The Center for Biological Diversity is a very dangerous Marxist organization that is in the business of using environmental law to destroy the US economy. Their primary target is property rights. Many of the suits that they have won actually impede the recovery of the endangered animals they claim to be protecting, e.g. preventing the delisting of wolves, which would have allowed their range to expand and population to increase, but would have also expanded the possible range of management tools available including limited hunting, and allowing ranchers to shoot nuisance wolves. They also invent new species when convenient, e.g. Ambystoma californium (sp?) which is actually A. tigrinum californiense, based on a invalid study from a lefty Berkeley biologist. Side note, for some reason, almost all amphibian biologists are extreme lefties. BTW, Sullivan is one of their favorite activist judges.
aren’t most polar bears Canadian?
Most but some can be found in Alaska…
OK, I couldn’t resist. Maybe this is why.
Wait a minute – isn’t the biggest problem here, why is some[snip] judge even involved in this rediculous stuff? In my mind, the gratest challenge to our society – freedom loving Americans – is reining in these judges. We, through our legislators, have that power. GET WITH IT FOLKS!
Louise has a new angle today:
20 Oct: UK Telegraph: Louise Gray: World must start putting a value on
nature
Natural goods and services, such as the pollination provided by bees or
filtration of water by wetlands, should be included in a nation’s economic
value in the same way as GDP, according to a major new United Nations
report.
Pavan Sukhdev, an economist based in London, was ordered to look at the
value of nature in the same way British economist Nicholas Stern’s famous
2006 report looked at the financial implications of climate change. ..
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/8075548/World-must-start-putting-a-value-on-nature.html
here’s Pavan flying in for a left-leaning think tank, sponsored by an airline, recently:
Centre for Policy Development: Pavan Sukhdev
What is the world worth? Putting nature on the balance sheet
3 August 2010, Sydney Opera House, Australia
You can watch the talk on the ABC’s Big Ideas
Miriam Lyons, Director Centre for Policy Development (CPD):
First to the people who made this event possible, the amazing CPD staff, the
Board, our volunteers, to, of course, our principle sponsor Qantas the major
event sponsors, KPMG and UTS Business -without whom tonight would not have
been possible…
He’s (Pavan Sukhdev )also the Head of the Green Economy Initiative, which is run out of the United Nations Environment Program…
And he is doing all of this while on sabbatical from Deutsche Bank. So, you
know, this is kind of a hobby for him and I think that we should all give
him an extremely warm welcome, a very big round of applause for all of the
work that Pavan is doing in his spare time…
Pavan Sukhdev, UNEP:
There’s been a lot of work, a lot of reading, a lot of writing and a lot of
travel, as you can see. And thanks to the CPD, the Centre for Policy
Development for organising this, because it’s not often that I get to visit
Australia – especially Sydney, a city I love, and North Queensland, where I
shall go after I finish with you guys, and where I bought a small block of
land many years ago when I started offsetting my footprint…
A calculation, a much bigger calculation like this has been done by a group
in the UK, a research group called TRUCOST…
Carbon tax emissions, guess what? You can make business out of bio carbon
offsets and the REDD+ scheme…
http://cpd.org.au/2010/08/pavan-sukhdev-sydney-lecture-transcript/
nice to know Pavan gets to fly a lot, and that he works for Deutsche “Banking on Green” Bank – http://www.banking-on-green.com/index_e.htm.
and nice to see who is connected to our nature-loving TRUCOST:
TRUCOST – Our Team
includes:
Paul Druckman – Executive Chairman
He also is Chair of the Executive Board of HRH The Prince of Wales
Accounting for Sustainability project
Simon Thomas – Chief Executive
Previously, Simon co-founded the Emerging Markets Investment Trust business
at LCF Edmond de Rothschild and he has held senior positions at Swiss Bank
Corporation, Nomura International and Reed International
http://www.trucost.com/products.asp?sectionID=1&pageID=4&biog_ID=1#1
same old same old…
Judges with the exception of the supreme court can be fired. Remember to vote no to cap and tax and other dumb stuff. Presidential elections are also being held in 2 years, so we have two more years to judge our current president.
Time for some amicus briefs…hint hint! Build the case for appeal if the comments above re the judge are accurate.
The same illogic can be applied to the wolf endangerment/reintroduction issue. There are plenty of wolves and they aren’t in any danger of being endangered. The problem is the lefties who want to put the wolves at the door of evil capitalists. The lefties file law suits to stop cattle grazing on grass on public lands, while defending the rights of non-native wolves to graze on elk, deer, chipmunks, etc. The environmental leftists are not conservationists. They are manipulators of public policy. The same concerned and enlightened people who would like to make human veganism the law of the land are also supportive of wolves, grizzly bears and mountain lions having free grazing range among people. They aren’t just wrong, they are evil.
Polar bear population has at least tripled in the past 40 years (8000 -> 25000). They may well outgrow their food supply. Which would make some of them endangered, if only by being consumed by other polar bears.
What does this have to do with AGW?
April E. Coggins
October 20, 2010 at 9:05 pm
To the CBD and their comrades, wolves are just a political tool. If I explained the realities of the politics of wildlife management, blood would shoot out your eyes. The end result is that the only way that wolves would be allowed to reach “recovery” numbers in the US (ignoring the fact for a minute the the particular ssp in question is introduced, and that technically they are already at recover), would be if they are allowed to prey on sheep and cattle, without recourse from ranchers. I could go on and on about the evil of these so called environmentalist.
” ‘aren’t most polar bears Canadian?’
Most but some can be found in Alaska…”
They emigrated…!!!
The trouble with a ruling of AGW putting Polar Bears on the road to extinction is the same tactic could be used to everything on the road to extinction, and we all know where that would take us. Nothing could be done without endangering something.
DesertYote says:
October 20, 2010 at 8:11 pm
“The Center for Biological Diversity is a very dangerous Marxist organization that is in the business of using environmental law to destroy the US economy. ”
I’m sure you’re correct. The reason for this listing is to shut down access to ANY territory where the bears may roam, under the guise of preservation of an endangered species. And the BHO administration will not flinch and immediately grant the endangered listing. This will be used to shut down oil and gas exploration.
So to answer BenD:
Ben D. says:
October 20, 2010 at 8:48 pm
“Judges with the exception of the supreme court can be fired. Remember to vote no to cap and tax and other dumb stuff. Presidential elections are also being held in 2 years, so we have two more years to judge our current president.”
I don’t need even one more minute to decide.
Irrelevant your honor, the Polar Bear treaty should adequately protect the animals under US law, and has been in force since 1974, See http://www.fws.gov/laws/lawsdigest/treaty.html#POLAR .
Updated the post to include some information about polar bear watching/excursions. Apparently they are all over the place in Port Churchill Manitoba. It’s also snowing like crazy up there !
“The court is not accepting the Fish and Wildlife Service argument that extinction must be imminent before the bear is listed as endangered,” said Kassie Siegel, an attorney
That’s the definition, [snip].
Of course this all goes back to the summer of 2007 when huge blocks of ice “the size of the State of California” were reported to be melting for the first time ever in recorded history and many people really thought that the ice-cap was going to be gone in just a few more years. Apparently, some still have not recovered from that expectation the way the ice has.
Same old story: mankind is inherently evil and salvation is the one true faith.
Lots of Polar Bears in Russia as well, not to mention Svalbard and Greenland.