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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Heartrending indeed. My local warmist fan club in regional Australia has a web site, that includes what they describe as a heartrending photo of a Polar Bear looking up at the people in an ice breaker. I think it needs a thought bubble over it saying ” I wish I could get at those soft centred ones!” they do seem to be a doomsday icon.
They are in the dump for the same reason that formerly migratory Canada geese now get fat and crap year-round in California industrial park lakes.
Because it’s just a lot easier.
Yep, geese are endangered, because they crap all over people’s lawns, driveways, picnic tables, playsets and swings!
Even if that was the case wouldn’t polar bears be better off in land?
Um…NO. The bright white fur doesn’t camouflage well in the boreal forests, and the navigation through the undergrowth doesn’t suit their large frames particularly well.
That being said if they continue to expand their habitats further south they will begin to acquire the abilities to survive in the more boreal south where natural pressures and selection will begin to change their offspring. The would also need to learn to prey on other creatures as well, because I don’t see seals and walruses being able to make the transitions into the forests.
But again, and I might think Ms. Crockford could confirm this, polar bears are an off-shoot from brown bears so they would be merely returning to their original habitats.
Polar bears eat what they want , carrion , garbage , seals , whale blubber , us , dogs , they are not real fussy which is why they still exist .
OT. Great news from Ireland
http://joannenova.com.au/2016/12/irish-families-win-court-case-against-wind-farm-noise/
The NH penguins are not extinct. They were relocated to Antarctica as climate refugees …. I think.
Even if the things that NYT piece says were 100% true :
Would that justify taxing old people in western countries, where it is already cold even before winter is arrived, old people who need warm homes, and can not always pay the extra cost in taxes and fines for heating , in favor of those polar bears ? Shall old white people have to be declared ” endangered species” for the “greens” to think of them ?
Imagine. When Al Gore was born, there were about 7,000 polar bears, and now there are about 26,000. Or so it is claimed. Could the fact checker at the New York Times confirm this?
This articule seems to have been written in early December. As far as I know sea off Katovik was already frozen. Yesterday the ice ranged from 0.5 to 1 meter thick.
http://ocean.dmi.dk/arctic/icethickness/images/FullSize_CICE_combine_thick_SM_EN_20161218.png
About two weeks ago they had an article about starving polar bears in Hudson Bay. Maybe the next article will discuss starving polar bears in Nome?
The thickness of those who study polar sea ice is increasing every year.
It’s very hard to bear – particularly in the polar.
Fernando Leanme ==> Yes, the Beaufort Sea off of Kaktovik, Alaska has been fully iced over for some time now. The Ny Times article is mostly a false report.
Aah, the dreaded “NYT” … save those whales, save those snails.
… save the trees, save the bees …
Come January, after that special event in the U. S. A., perhaps the NYT will need to save itself from extinction.
I read (always questionable, I admit) that the NYT was renting out whole floors of empty office space in their building – due to the layoffs. I earnestly hope this trend continues.
http://www.politico.com/media/story/2016/12/new-york-times-to-downsize-in-manhattan-headquarters-004896
There is a profitable business to made by someone, offering green hunting expeditions to concerned progressive environmentalists, to tour the Arctic and shoot large numbers of polar bears, in order to create the reality suitable for consumption by urban watermelons. “Look – polar bears really are declining, it’s humans fault!”. They could brand it as something like “Elite Hunting”.
Who could ever think that in 2016 people would be using polar bears to impose communism
The climatocracy is an offshoot of kleptocracy more than communism.
From the front page of the Ottawa Citizen, just in time to support Trudeau’s carbon tax, a front page story (AKA pack of lies) of climate refugees.
http://ottawacitizen.com/news/world/migration-with-dignity-their-island-nation-may-someday-sink-into-the-ocean-so-what-are-kiribatis-people-to-do
There is no need to worry about polar bear refugees. Angela Merkel will give them asylum in Germany.
RE “…asylum in Germany.” …Do polar bears eat “Middle Eastern / Eastern European” cuisine, I wonder?
I think they will eat whatever they like!
If I look at the polar bears in the photos in this post, it seems to me as if they were overweight. Oh wait, there will soon be the next study that overweight polar bears have a shorter life. Mantra: The (human-made) climate change is responsible for everything: for thin polars and also for thick ones. They will all die. For various reasons. It’s all so hopeless. Michelle Confucius Obama. Amen and Ching tai.
Isn’t it encouraging to see how caring for the environment Alaskan villagers are with that dump. /sarc if needed
What s sht tip of a place. Any chance they could tidy up a bit?
Here in the UK our landfill sites are swarming with seagulls, I assume that’s because of sea-level rise and not because it’s an easy source of food.
Just an additional thought, if the polar bears aren’t eating seals because of climate change are we at risk of climate related seal-level rise?
Not only sea level rise, but a whole bunch more seals.
Ever seen San Francisco’s Pier 39 marina when the seals take it over? Seal poop & warm sun – bad combination.
The polar bears are actually confronted with three conflicts.
1) They must adapt to climate change.
2) As predators, they represent a competition for humans.
3) They are dangerous to humans.
Does the current situation really already have something to do with global warming? Or does it have something to do with the global human’s spread? Would anyone have written such an article if there were no people in Alaska?
In some decades food will become scarce worldwide. People will increasingly hunt predators so that they won’t be able to kill those animals we will need as food. This also applies to the polar bears. Unless global warming will kill them, we will do that.
It is a shame how we harm this world. According to the global ecological humanity’s footprint, we already need more than 1 Earth. The human overpopulation is mainly responsible for this situation. Due to the damage already done, geologists have already proclaimed a new earth age: the Anthropocene.
I think we should try to reduce the human world population to 3 or 4 billions. Then Earth could certainly reestablish a natural balance. A lot of problems would be solved that are caused by overpopulation. I am ready to help.
Start by not having a family.
“According to the global ecological humanity’s footprint, we already need more than 1 Earth.”
Fund raising might go better if they cut their phoney-baloney numbers in half and tell everyone we need more than 2 Earths. Alarmism works better when it’s more alarming, you know.
Well entrance, if you’re really ready to help, you might consider an exit. I know, one-three-hundred-billionth of the solution seems woefully small but it is a start and it might become a trend among others with similar convictions.
Further reflection on this concept revealed an additional incentive and a suggestion for methodology. You are obviously a person with a highly developed ethical sense so consider the following points:
You are a member of a developed, industrialized civilization so you impose a much greater burden on the earth’s resources than a Kalahari bushman for example. Therefore your exit would remove a much larger portion of humanity’s muddy footprint than the demise of some poor Third World goatherd.
Perhaps the most ethical exit would be to swim out into the ocean or other large body of water on a course perpendicular to the shoreline. You would of course undress before doing that in order to keep from introducing synthetic materials into the food chain. This one-last-skinny-dip would make the least demand on resources because you would be using earth’s most abundant compound, water, instead of refined, manufactured material such as rope, metal or drugs. It would prevent any expenditure of precious resources such as the transportation of your remains to a place where inquiry into your demise could be conducted. In fact you would be contributing to the ecosystem by providing nutrients to a variety of organisms. Give it some thought.
“It is a shame how we harm this world.”
“we” means you and who else? Do you have names?
Otherwise, how is Gaia going to produce plastic without us?
plastic? Give George Carlin a hat-tip.
Not a problem! Razor blades are plentiful and cheap, so go ahead and do your part for Mother Gaia.
entrance, thanks for the thought-free echoing of the biggest fool posing as a scientist of our age, Paul Ehrlich. Do you have any idea as to just how ignorant it is, as world food supply increases (in significant part due to increased CO2), to assert that we already need more than one Earth? And do note that the claim we are in an extinction crisis is what is now called “fake news”.
I’m a geologist and i don’t recognize the Anthropocene as a new earth age. Maybe SOME geologists have, and I may be a survey of one, but it refutes your assertion about geologists.
Nor do I but it is talked about. There is need for a “golden spike” – a global marker in the environment that should be visible years – even millions of years – into the future for scientists to see. This would allow them to identify the start of the Anthropocene.
There isn’t anything like that so there isn’t an Anthropocene.
Waiting for a big big asteroid.
“I think we should try to reduce the human world population to 3 or 4 billions”
Go on then, you first.
Show us how to go about it.
“According to the global ecological humanity’s footprint, we already need more than 1 Earth. ”
Well there’s your first indication of the innumeracy of these morosophs (well educated fools). The earth cannot support the load that it is currently supporting…all evidence to the contrary.
I suppose then we and every other creature on the planet must be imaginary. Or….maybe that is just an incredibly stupid statement.
entrance
Just to keep your blubbering in-scope:
1) People have been in Alaska for 11,000 years; NYT has existed for 165 years. Proof is left to the reader, but probably fewer polar bear articles before 165 years ago.
2) Don’t even know what to say about “we already need more than 1 earth” – maybe you should go find it. Send us a postcard when you do. Please leave now.
3) If you think it’s a shame how [humans] harm the world, you’d be real upset at ice ages.
4) Speaking of ice ages, polar bears have survived thru a number of them (including the global warming part) – been there & done that. Probably could have done better if guys like you were there to help them.
4) “…we should try to reduce the human world population to 3 or 4 billions… I am ready to help…” go ahead, jump!
Good lord. In all seriousness, get a grip you tender snowflake.
Perhaps they don’t know it’s a garbage dump? Has anyone from the EPA explained to the bears that you are not supposed to eat the food here?
If the EPA put up a sign to that effect, then the bears would know better.
That is an excellent idea! Are you by any chance a planner of some sort?
Next, they’ll ban dumping garbage in the garbage dumps because it’s a wildlife preserve. Then the bears will starve.
No they won’t starve. They will do just like the bears of Yellowstone did when the tourist were told to stop feeding them. They ate the tourist.
Oh, that triggered a memory for me.
I don’t know if this is for real or not, but it’s hilarious;
The more people catch on to the fraud of AGW, the more ludicrous the claims for it become.
The article also quoted tourists bemoaning how dirty the poor bears got scavenging in whale carcasses, with the comment that there is always Photoshop to clean them up.
Even with PhotoShop, how do you clean up a whale carcass?
Trackhoe. Bulldozer. Dirt. Whale all cleaned up!
The New York Times science articles about global warming have been unbelievably shallow.
This article provides zero proof and a misleading claim about “receding ice.” This what total speculation in the absence of knowledge looks like.
Despite this AGW article being completely devoid of facts and reality (which is normal for such an article), it’s clear that the article was written as clickbait so WUWT would carry it and get enough clicks to stay in business for another week.
Also be advised and alarmed that reindeer are shrinking.
https://rclutz.wordpress.com/2016/12/19/save-the-reindeer/