Dr. Susan Crockford, Zoologist, of www.polarbearscience.com advises us of this:
“We are now the polar bear” says Mann today (below) [a few weeks ago it was Patricia Romero Lankao of the federally financed National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado saying “The polar bear is us” http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/24/climate-change-dangers_n_5019412.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular]
Scientists Speak Out: The New IPCC Report
The latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a U.N. group, warns that man-made climate change is already causing destruction around the globe. And it will only get worse unless we act quickly.
Leading climate and polar bear scientists share their thoughts on the report and the path forward:
Dr. Michael Mann, Distinguished Professor and Director, Earth System Science Center
What the latest report shows is that climate change is adversely impacting us now, wherever we live. It isn’t just the Arctic and the polar bear anymore. We are now the polar bear. If we are to avert increasingly dangerous and potentially irreversible changes in our climate, we need to act now. We must transition from our reliance on fossil fuels to alternative, renewable sources of energy that do not threaten the health of our planet.[bold in original]
Dr. Steven Amstrup, Chief Scientist, Polar Bears International
In 2007, I projected that global warming was likely to eliminate two-thirds of the world’s polar bears by the middle of this century. After making that point in a recent public lecture, a college student in the audience asked what would happen to the rest of the polar bears if we fail to act in time to head off that ‘mid-century polar bear crisis.’ My answer:
At that point, no one will be thinking about polar bears, because coping with and adapting to ongoing human crises will consume all of society’s resources.
The recent report by Working Group II of the IPCC adds emphasis in spades to my response. The hundreds of scientists whose independent research composes the IPCC concluded that:
- Climate change already is negatively affecting every part of the globe
- The frequency and severity of extreme weather will continue to increase as long as greenhouse gas levels rise
- Along with steep and rapid reductions in emissions, we will need to develop plans for coping with a constantly changing world with ever new and more difficult challenges
The good news, however, is that while the panel concluded the world cannot afford inaction, it emphasized we still have time to stop the worst effects of warming. If we do, we also are likely to save polar bears.
Dr. Gavin Schmidt, Deputy Chief, NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies
The IPCC report is an enormous achievement and great resource for the scientific community and the public alike. But more than that, it provides a clear summary of where we are and what can be done. How we should act in the face of this information is complex and should be discussed at all levels. I hope only that those discussions are fully informed about what the science is showing—and that these discussions lead to meaningful action.
Dr. Ian Stirling, Research Scientist Emeritus, Canadian Wildlife Service
The recent report from the IPCC is stunning and should be a major stimulus for governments around the world to develop a global plan to reduce greenhouse gases … soon. One of the most important messages is that there is still time, but not that much of it, if the world is to restrain warming within manageable bounds.
The situation in the Arctic, though, is more dire and changing rapidly. The climate is warming there more rapidly than elsewhere on the planet, with the result that the sea ice is now disappearing even more quickly than once predicted by several different models. That is bad news, not just for polar bears, but for the whole Arctic marine ecosystem.
Why climate warming is so critical for polar bears is a simple concept and easily understood, even by children. Polar bears need ice to be able to hunt their primary prey: marine mammals, primarily seals. No ice means no ice bear. That isn’t complicated to understand.
http://www.polarbearsinternational.org/news-room/pbi-blog/scientists-speak-out-new-ipcc-report
“sea ice is now disappearing even more quickly than once predicted by several different models.”
What models were those…they obviously aren’t the ones that they usually toss at us. It almost seems like they have models to back up anything they want to say. /sarc
I’ve met Ian Stirling and he really does know more about polar bears than anyone else I can think of. He’s a decent human being and would not, IMHO, indulge in deliberate deception. The accusation of speaking with a forked tongue isn’t warranted.
ON THE OTHER HAND, just because he’s an upstanding guy, that doesn’t make him right (even if he knows more about polar bears than any ten other scientists and the vast majority of Innuit (Eskimos)).
The knowledge we gain under one set of circumstances leads us to a set of assumptions. Those assumptions aren’t necessarily correct when the circumstances change. When we extrapolate beyond the circumstances that prevailed when we gained our expertise, we are extrapolating. Very often our guess is no better than anyone else’s. Sometimes it is worse because our very expertise blinds us to what is actually happening.
Clearly this is a Crock that we can’t aFord…
It’s not about reality. It’s all about perception. It’s politics, dogma, ideology, appealing for grant monies, hubris, fascination with fame, and by this stage, a blunt realization that their reputations will certainly lie in ruin eventually and the only option available is to extend the timeline of their professional and scientific irrelevancy is to keep peddling the garbage as often and as much as possible. I think these people realize the opportunities for bronze busts and portraits in the world’s educational corridors and galleries have been squandered. The strategy has now reverted to professional and personal survival. A little white lie is not such a bad thing…Is it?
Someone needs to get it across to these morons that the days of sitting around fires in our buckskins and telling each other stories are over! They however are more than welcome to set the example.
Dr Mann has it completely upside down once again! If anything we are the “Equator Bear”.
‘No ice means no ice bear.’
They are not ice bears, they’re sea bears (ursus maritimus).
The Sceptic crowed has been saying that the polar bear population has been growing for the last 30 years. That is only kind of correct. The population rebounded when conservation efforts started in the 1970. However, they have not been increasing recently; they have remained “Stable”. The CAGW crew has been using data from a new counting method to try to show that the population is currently decreasing. It is really quite hard to tell what is actually happening. Around 2006 the count method changed, and some populations were not counted at all. So it truly is comparing apples and oranges. However, what we do know is that the population is not collapsing or anything else very dramatic.
Bill H-
The visible Marxist and socialist movement is falling apart at the same time it is trying to ensure its long term ascendancy via K-12 education and higher ed. Hiding under terms like systems thinking or global citizenship that actually means a required to be demonstrated daily communitarian ethos. I wish I was kidding. http://www.invisibleserfscollar.com/deep-diving-to-internal-mental-models-to-increase-leverage-for-accomplishing-the-great-transition/ is the culmination of 4 posts all based on sources that track back to what is cited in Chapter 20 of the recent IPCC report.
Every aspect of this agenda is designed to be implemented in ways that defy anyone’s ability to veto t. Only mass recognition will suffice. In fact Ban Ki-Moon himself has said that the UN’s unappreciated control over ed globally means that it can gain the implementation of its agenda.
So I research, document, and write. At least I still have a sense of humor about all these grandiose, but very real, plans for all of us.
Did somebody say picinik?
http://www.alaskachronicle.com/images/still-of-polar-bears-roasting-penguins1.jpg
Would be nice to figure out how to post the pix…
Anyway enjoy the view!
Recall this post over at Cato a few weeks back, the first time we were compared to polar bears:
If People Are Like Polar Bears, We’ll Be Fine
-Chip
The Great Transition is the UN/OECD/Club of Rome/New Economics Foundation/Tellus Institute term for what Marx called a Human Development society where a sufficient stage of technology now exists to allow redistribution “from each according to his means, to each according to his abilities.” Bureaucrats and former politicians looking to be the well-paid administrators of an always toxic vision.
Tom J says:
“After this winter we’ve had in the US I’m starting to feel like a polar bear.”
Polar bears have incredible insulation. They don’t show up on thermal imagers. I’m not that good, mostly freezing my parts off. Southern Colorado, mid-April, and <0 degrees C. With snow.
Heinlein wrote something about confusing malice and stupidity. We are now exposed to both.
The bears just don’t seem to understand the models that forecast their demise. Perhaps if some of the “researchers” spent some time up with the bears and the people who must cope with them they would have much less to worry about and the bears might get a land based food source if the ice goes away. Solves two problems at once.
That Drs. Amstrup and Stirling would make such comments in this article is unconscionable. They were both involved with the 2006 Polar Bear Survey that has now been admittedly wrong and therefore needs to be discarded. Yet here they are unashamed, unbowed and bloviating the same memes as before. Dr. Susan Crockford’s excellent blog “Polar Bear Science” has a plethora of information available. Her Mar. 24/14 post discusses this issue. See her post above at 8:10 for her blog address.
– – – – – – – – – – –
NASA GISS Deputy Chief Schmidt’s advice, prima fascia, is reasonable. However, it is not at all credible that he means there should be any open and transparent debate in academia, the MSM and in the government on the IPCC process and assessments. Namely, his apparent support of debate cannot be taken as credible based on his legendary past ‘no debate’ behavior and his countless statements contrary to open debate which occurred on the blog ‘Real Climate’ where he has often acted for many years like a host / editor / moderator.
NASA GISS Deputy Chief Schmidt must first reconcile his above statement with his long standing and well known public opposition to the very thing he advises in his above statement.
Until NASA GISS Deputy Chief Schmidt explains then the question of possible conceptual duplicity is unresolved.
John
Be fair . ‘the cause ‘has brought lots of cash into Polar Bear ‘research’ , you don’t expect them to give that up do you?
Correction: Polar Bears R Us. It’s a franchise.
I am a Polar Bear. I live in Churchill Falls, Manitoba. I wish Mann et al would come visit me and hold out their hands in solidarity. Preferably bearing bacon.
We’re all cat-meat tacos. If we want to prevent Gobble Worming, we need to [insert something that makes the cat-meat taco analogy make sense].
I hope we are not like the polar bears. If we were, the world human population would be 12 billion, instead of 7 billion. (Based upon of tripling of polar bear populations over the last 30 years.)
CommieBob says “The accusation of speaking with a forked tongue isn’t warranted.”
Just because he is a nice guy doesnt change the facts. He has published several papers showing heavy ice years caused fewer seals and more stressed bears. He has also published that less is is bad for bears. If that is not a forked tongue, then perhaps dementia? alzheimers? There is no excusing it.
@sherlock1 says:
If what we are heading for is dramatically worse than now, when, exactly, was the climate perfect..?
1972..? 1985..? 1850..? Do tell…
When were there no humans on the planet? About 4m years ago? Well, just about then…
Tom J. says:
“We are now the polar bear.”
Michael Mann may actually be right for once in his life. After this winter we’ve had in the US I’m starting to feel like a polar bear.
How right you are sir, how right you are. Several inches of snow on the ground this morning AGAIN and it is not an April fools’ joke. Politically incorrect animal fur is the only means to keep from freezing the nubbies off. Dog wouldn’t even go out for most of the winter, and she has a very heavy fur coat. She wanted to save her nubbies too.
I think George Carlin said it best.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7W33HRc1A6c&w=420&h=315%5D