Newsbusters reports: Teasing an upcoming story on Wednesday’s NBC Nightly News, anchor Brian Williams warned of “the habitat of the polar bears melting earlier and faster than ever” and promised “a jaw-dropping look at a way of life quickly disappearing.” [Listen to the audio ]
In the report that followed minutes later, chief environmental correspondent Anne Thompson kept up the global warming alarmism: “This 10-month-old polar bear cub practices his ice-breaking skills on the tundra….But Dr. Steve Amstrup, chief scientist of Polar Bears International, says the greenhouse gases we are putting into the atmosphere threaten the cub’s future.”
While Thompson noted that the arctic polar bear population “runs as high as 25,000,” a sound bite ran of Amstrup proclaiming:
“Liken it to the passengers on the Titanic. It didn’t matter how many people were on the Titanic or how well they were doing, when the Titanic slipped beneath the waves and they lost their habitat, that was it. Polar bears will also go away because of their dependence on the sea ice.”
Read more and see video of the NBC news story : http://newsbusters.org/blogs/kyle-drennen/2013/11/15/nbc-polar-bears-passengers-titanic-because-global-warming#ixzz2kjsnDNjS
Meanwhile, back in the real world, polar bear expert Dr. Susan Crockford takes on this nonsense. She writes:
Amstrup really wants people to believe that all the polar bears in the world will die some day, all at once, in some mega ice-loss catastrophe!
This is absolutely ridiculous, fear-mongering hyperbole — no models predict all bears will die, even given their worst-case scenerio, see yesterday’s post.
On top of that, we now know that many of the critical assumptions those models are based on are wrong, in part due to data collected by polar bear biologists themselves (see summary here and Monday’s post, “Eemian excuses: the warm was different then, polar bears were fine”).
More here: http://polarbearscience.com/2013/11/14/amstrup-compares-climate-change-to-a-titanic-for-polar-bears/
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Besides Dr. Crockford’s scientific blog on polar bears, I find it interesting to check out “Polar Bear Alley” written by a fellow in Churchill, Manitoba (polar bear capital of Canada). This is anecdotal and an easy, but informative read.
http://www.polarbearalley.com/blog/
The book “Never Look a Polar Bear in the Eye” is available here on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Never-Look-Polar-Bear-Mini-Marshmallows-ebook/dp/B00AXS6B4S/ref=sr_1_10?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1384551017&sr=1-10&keywords=polar+bears+and+the+arctic
One review says of it:
“Mr. Unger started out as an environmentalist ‘believer’ until he actually went to Churchill, Manitoba (lots of bears congregate there – along with tourists and scientists) and found that we are being duped by some scientists (’cause that’s how you get funding!) and the media is in on it (’cause it’s the politically correct agenda).”
“the habitat of the polar bears melting earlier and faster than ever”
simply untrue, but don’t let that stop you “saving the planet”.
http://climategrog.wordpress.com/2013/09/16/on-identifying-inter-decadal-variation-in-nh-sea-ice/
So we have a bear that can swim and in water that is really really. To be adapted for that skill requires open water and for many centuries?
Equally the Eskimos are skilled Kayakers and have been for centuries which again requires open water. It seems Kayaks go back 4,000 years which would fir more with the time that Eskimos arrived rather than the presence of open water.
This from Wikipedia:
“The umiak, umialak, umiaq, umiac, oomiac or oomiak is a type of boat used by Eskimo people, both Yupik and Inuit, and was originally found in all coastal areas from Siberia to Greenland. First arising in Thule times, it has traditionally been used in summer to move people and possessions to seasonal hunting grounds and for hunting whales and walrus. Although the umiak was usually propelled by oars (women) or paddles (men), sails, sometimes made from seal intestines, were also used, and in the 20th century, outboard motors….
…The open umiak is significantly larger than the enclosed kayak which was built to carry one or two men while hunting. Normally 9 or 10 m (30 or 33 ft) the umiak would be anywhere from 6 to 10 m (20 to 33 ft) and 1.5–2 m (4 ft 10 in–6 ft 7 in) wide. Hans Egede, a Norwegian-Danish Lutheran missionary to Greenland in 1721, stated that he had seen umiaks 60 ft (18 m) long.
Although an umiak could carry up to 30 passengers it was still light enough to be carried over the drift or shore ice to the open water by a few people. A modern company which trains people to hand make umiaks says that a 24 ft (7.3 m) boat weighs about 150 lb (68 kg) compared to 750 lb (340 kg) for a modern vessel”.
Since the rate of decline in Arctic ice area is now about ‘as slow as’ at the beginning of the record I suppose we are entitled to say it’s the slowest rate of melting in “recorded human history” TM.
NBC, the network whose “news” enterprise includes blowing up trucks with pyrotechnics and blaming the gas tank, splicing tapes of conversations to deceive people, and relentlessly echoing the talking points of one political party.
Now they are using deceptive claims to push false ideas about polar bears.
NBC- What to watch when you want to be manipulated instead of informed.
From Polar Bears International Website:
“Our research, education, and action programs address the issues that are endangering polar bears: Climate change, environmental impact of industry, sea ice loss, global warming sustainability options, endangered species. Our interest is in anything that can, will, or is happening to polar bears. Learn here what we’re doing to help polar bears survive all the problems they face.”
“And, please, if you like what we’re doing, consider donating to support our efforts.”
They left off “This message has been approved by P.T. Barnum.”
This is nonsense.
All the polar bears I know never stop complaining about the damn cold.
Take a look at the photos on the Polar Bear International website and then answer the following question:
How many of them look like they’re suffering from heat exhaustion?
Um, wasn’t the Titanic destroyed by too much ice?
Its all good, AGW melts the ice, polar bears get hungry and eat the humans, human CO2 is thereby reduced, causing the temp to drop and we have ice again. I am sure it will all work out!
“World’s Biggest Liar is an annual competition for telling lies, held in Cumbria, England”
“The World’s Biggest Liar competition is held every November at the Bridge Inn, Santon Bridge”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World%27s_Biggest_Liar
The NBC reporter/news crew interviewing Dr. Steve Amstrup must have been in Cumbria, covering his participation/story as a top runner in this years competition (:
(Part Sarcasm & Part True) There appears to be a correlation between increasing CO2 levels and increasing BS. This may be caused by the lack of any real warming over the last few years.
“Polar bears like ‘passengers on the Titanic'”.
Still?
“Gary Hladik says:
November 15, 2013 at 4:20 pm”
No, not at all. It was put together using shonky parts and safety features were compromised for the sake making certain features more “pleasing” to the first class passengers. A bit like climate models being initialised with shonky, made up, data and assumption and made to look “pleasing” for policy makers.
Hope this might contribute to the thread;
http://drtimball.com/2012/titanic-unusual-climate-extreme-ice-conditions-result-tragic-accident/
Pat says:
November 15, 2013 at 9:45 pm
“No, not at all. It was put together using shonky parts and safety features were compromised for the sake making certain features more “pleasing” to the first class passengers. A bit like climate models being initialised with shonky, made up, data and assumption and made to look “pleasing” for policy makers.”
Please. The number of lifeboats on the Titanic was based on previous experience of how long ships take to sink. It was assumed that the lifeboats provided could relay passengers from a slowly sinking ship. The Titanic sank in under 2 hours which was unexpected.
The Captain drove the ship at speed, at night, through seas where ice bergs were present.
The double hull and bulkhead design did not consider the situation such as this, just as the World Trade Centre had been designed to withstand a plane flying into it of 707 size, in landing configuration, and not a plane twice its size flying at max speed.
So I understand the intent of your analogy but please don’t talk of shonky parts as you will be unintentionally aligning the workers of the Belfast shipyard where the Titanic was made with those who make Climate models! Those workers and their descendants are already at fault for bringing about yet to happen catastrophe.
Stephen,
The shonky parts was the hull plating, it was made from steel with a high sulphur content (causes sever embrittlement at low temperatures). What is not known is if the builders knew they were using shonky steel or if that was the best steel available at the time. Certainly it would not be acceptable in this day and age for shipbuilding.
“Stephen Skinner says:
November 16, 2013 at 3:27 am”
Yes, one factor was the Captian, to drive for the best time across the Atlantic (To prove a point). The number of lifeboats was reduced as there was actually no law for a minimum requirement (As we now know) and was a decison made for asthetic reasons. Double hull, really? Not at all. The hull was single skin, made from poor quality steel, affected by cold temperatures, along with the rivets, of poor quality with high sulfur content and other impurities. The parts were ordered by the ship “makers”, NOT the ship builders. They worked with whatever they were supplied. When the “makers” ordered “standard rivets” which were of poor quality iron, sinking was inevitable. Maybe not on that night, but certainly at some point in time.
Re titanic ,the problem was the rivets used. They were snapping off. Rivets were shown to be
Faaulty due to inferior steel from what I saw on some show recently. They had reciepts of rivets
As proof ,but still just a theory. ………
Wwf is running radio ad saying the moose population is declining in NE due to gw.
Couldn’t possibly be the habitat destroyed across NE to make room for windmills( sorry wind turbines, windmills were actually useful
Pat says:
November 16, 2013 at 6:37 am
“When the “makers” ordered “standard rivets” which were of poor quality iron, sinking was inevitable. Maybe not on that night, but certainly at some point in time.”
What? You mean like the RMS Olympic?
john piccirilli says:
November 16, 2013 at 8:00 am
“Wwf is running radio ad saying the moose population is declining in NE due to gw.”
I have a solution, but electricity prices will necessarily have to skyrocket.
Hunting megafauna with atlatl and dogs?
“Stephen Skinner says:
November 16, 2013 at 9:14 am
What? You mean like the RMS Olympic?”
I don’t know what type of rivets were used in her construction. At the time, most ship builders were using the “best of best”. I can only assum these were used. Given the pressure the company was under to build three massive ships, costs were cut and design changes were made. It’s all well documented. Because of the volume needed many smaller foundaries popped up to capitalise on supply contracts. According actual company records, lower grade rivets were ordered.
Where did Polar Bears go during last ice age when all their territory was supposedly a mile deep in ice ?